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Top Rated Resorts in Jamaica |
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| Sandals Whitehouse Spa and Beach Resort |
Tracey and Darren
Canada
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| January 2009 |
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| We researched all of the Sandals Resorts, and decided because of all the great reviews the Sandals Whitehouse had received, that this would be our destination choice for our wedding. We were married at the Sandals Whitehouse resort, on Feb. 20, 2008. We both always dreamed of getting married on a beautiful tropical beach, overlooking the ocean, and we weren't dissapointed. Actually our whole wedding experience more than exceded our expectations. Everyone at the resort who helped us corordinate and plan our day was so helpful. Sandals takes care of absolutely every detail, you have no worries and can just relax, you just have to tell them what you want and just make sure you're ready to walk down the isle. Our flower arrangements were so beautiful, and all of our pictures and video of our wedding turned out beautifully. The Photographers and videographers there are incredibly talented. Our wedding day was so magical, and so beautiful it really was like a wonderful dream. We had a special wedding dinner at Eleanor's which was very delicous, and romantic. We are planning to return someday soon for one of our wedding aniversaries, I can' wait!!! Getting married at the Sandals Whitehouse resort was definately the best decision we ever made, every detail was just fantastic, we will have all of these wonderful memories of our wedding and honeymoon forever. |
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| Beaches Boscobel |
Jason
Canada
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| November 2008 |
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We had selected Beaches Boscobel as the resort for us to get married at as there were children coming and the resort was kid friendly. I did research online using a number of resources and the reviews for the resort were reasonable and there were no red flags on any of the wedding reviews.
We contacted the Beaches wedding coordinator to book our wedding and she sent me a number of emails with attachments about their various wedding packages. My fiancée contacted her about 2 months before our wedding to ask some further questions and the coordinator said she would contact us a month before the wedding to get further details, the package we wanted etc. One month before the wedding I had still not heard from her and emailed her to arrange a phone conversation and when we finally spoke she sounded a bit confused as to what we were going to talk about. When I explained to her what we had last been told, she informed me that we should have already selected and paid for our wedding and whether I received the email order form she had sent. I never did receive it and could not help but wonder why a send receipt wasn’t attached to the email to inform her if we received it or not and why when the 6 week mark came and we had not contacted her or the resort, why we were not contacted in follow up to make sure things were going okay. Thankfully the package we wanted was still available as the coordinator had to check to make sure it was.
We arrived in Jamaica on October 21 and met with the local resorts wedding coordinator on the 22nd, the day before the wedding. She seemed very nice and met with us on time and showed us the options at the resort. Because of the package we picked, the gazebo was not recommended, which left the beach and the east lawn. I had read reviews that the beach was not very large and you don’t really gain an appreciation for how small it is until you are there. It would have been impossible to have any privacy on the beach and there was a steady stream of tourists as well as local vendors who have their wares on little barges to sell you scattered along the beach. So because we wanted some privacy we opted for the last of the three options presented to us, which was the east lawn. It is definitely much quieter and with less traffic, however I do wish we didn’t have the water slides in some of our nicer photos as well as tourists enjoying the waterslides. The staff were considerate enough to remove the pieces off of the large chest board behind the arch so they weren’t in the photos.
I’m getting ahead of myself here. So we picked the lawn and then were shown the two options for our dinner, which was the balcony overlooking the ocean or the balcony near the Italian restaurant. We picked the one overlooking the ocean as it was quieter and away from the crowds and stage where the nightly entertainment was held. After picking the sites for the ceremony and reception/dinner we went to the wedding coordinators office and reviewed what we had ordered. She went through 3 pages of what we ordered, video package, pictures etc. She then gave us a piece of paper with the times we were to show up for the ceremony. We didn’t discuss the order of how the ceremony was to run and I assumed this was going to be done when we met the next day
The photographer showed up the next day more or less on time to do pictures of the bride and groom respectively. I had no issues when he came to do the photos. My bride on the other hand did have some issues. He was asking her where her flowers were as she and he wanted to have photos with the girls holding the flowers. The wedding coordinator did not bring them until 3:55 (ceremony at 4pm) and later told us when we were talking to her that the photographer should have known “her standard” and that the flowers would not be there and that she reviewed this with us the day we met to review things. Unfortunately we didn’t and we have no photos of the girls with the flowers. I arrived at the lawn and got my boutonierre and watched the coordinator pin them on the remainder of the party and try to set up the music. There were power outages so half the party walked down the lawn with music and half didn’t. She was telling my bride to walk down the isle with no music and she waited until there was music as that is what she wanted. They later went on to say they had no control over the power and it was not their fault. Apparently half the resort runs on a generator and half is powered by power off site, which happened to be what our music was being powered by.
The coordinator never gave us a breakdown of the ceremony and we were left standing at the altar wondering what was going to happen next. Our guests even commented on how disorganized it looked. The pastor was apparently to have introduced himself to me prior to the wedding to review the marriage certificate details but never did. The only contact prior to the ceremony was my daughter running past him and me asking him how he was doing that day. When I later spoke with the coordinator she went on to tell me that we could have purchased a rehearsal dinner to go through the ceremony and that she couldn’t have told me the order of the ceremony because each pastor/JP runs it differently and can change it on the fly. Definitely something that would have been nice to know before hand so that we could have told her how we wanted things to go instead of wondering what was going to happen next.
The videographer hooked up the microphone to my suit prior to the wedding and then as the ceremony started came up and started fiddling with it as the pastor was talking. I can’t help but wonder if a microphone check was done before hand although I was later told he was turning the microphone on. Again probably could have been done before and not while the ceremony was beginning. He didn’t even say anything. Just walked up, opened up the suit and started fiddling with it.
After the ceremony was completed we took pictures as we were running out of day light (4pm ceremony and photographer wanted us at the reception for 5pm to get shots of first dance and cake cutting while there was light). We ended up running a bit late with the pictures and he wanted to skip the beach pictures as he was told to be at the reception for 5pm. We told him we wanted beach photos and that he could blame us for being. Seeing as it’s our wedding and we’re paying for it, I thought we were entitled to some say and beach pictures is what we wanted. One of our guests came down with us to the beach for photos and was taking shots at the same time as the photographer. He turned around and told her that she should go to the reception as that is where she was to be and when she didn’t leave immediately he went on to tell her “she was still there” in a negative tone. My guests have paid to come to our wedding and if they want to take photos, they can and don’t need a photographer telling them off.
We got to the reception at 530pm and the coordinator told us to take 10 minutes to grab a drink and relax before the cake cutting and first dance. Twenty five minutes later she tells me they’re having power problems which were now corrected and that the CD with the wedding music on it isn’t working. Turns out (from what I was told) disks created on a PC with Windows Vista can’t be read by their computers and I now had to go to our room to get my MP3 player so that the songs we wanted could be transferred to the computer for the dances. Again why wasn’t this checked before it was time to dance. While there was no power, I’m guessing the DJ’s computer has a battery and he could have checked the disk or gone to the part of the resort with power to check things out. So that cost us a half hour of daylight and now it is pitch black and instead of having some photos with sunset shots, we have none.
We met with the coordinator a couple days later as she was busy with 7 or 8 more weddings and did not have much free time. When we spoke with her to express our concerns, she got very defensive and at the end of our time together thanked us for the feedback and that this was a good learning experience for her. She didn’t apologize for much except the power problem on the balcony which she somehow could have avoided but didn’t and cost us the last remnants of daylight. So I spoke with two other ladies from the sales department who were better versed in patient relations and customer service and said they would try to make our experience there somewhat better. In the end they gave us some more pictures (which by the way is $20 USD for each additional image that you want, so FYI) that their photographer took. I found he took 3 shots of each pose. One in color, one in black and white/sepia and then one from a slightly different angle.
It has also been three weeks since we left and we have still not heard anything about our DVD that we were to get. It was ready for us to take prior to us leaving except we wanted some edits. I provided the music we wanted and we were told we would shortly receive an email with a link to a webstream to review the DVD. No email and no webstream as of yet and I contacted the first wedding coordinator we dealt with who was going to contact the photo department and I have not heard from them. I have now sent an email to the resort manager asking for her assistance in this matter.
If someone was to ask me if I would go back to this resort again to get married, I would say no nor could I recommend it to anyone. It was disorganized and the wedding coordinator at the resort kept referring to a standard which I don’t think anyone else knew. Nor did she have this standard in writing so that you could read what she was promising you or give you a sense of what to expect. While the other managers I spoke to were trying to make things better, I would have preferred things ran smooth from the start so that none of this had to happen. We get married once and they do this all the time. A bad day for them means someone’s wedding is ruined or not to their expectations, and unfortunately for us we were the “learning experience” for the resort wedding coordinator. I do hope she learnt something from this as I wouldn’t want someone else’s wedding to go through the same disorganized process we did. |
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| Riu Tropical Bay |
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As a mother of a bride I was a little nervous giving control of my daughter Amanda's wedding to a stranger but I couldn't have arranged anything more perfect than what we received at the Riu Tropical Bay.
We arrived on Saturday March 4th, 2006 to perfect weather and a beautiful view. Our check in went VERY smoothly and quickly especially since we arrived with a group of 37 people. We already had 2 guests waiting for us and another 3 to come in the following 2 days.
Our rooms were all ready for us except 1 which was ready after a quick lunch. We were travelling with a group of frequent travellers and all commented that this was one of the nicest resorts that they had been to and that the food was outstanding. Not one person of 42 ever got ill from food or water. We had a meeting with Keneika the wedding co-ordinator at 7:00 p.m. to finalize the details of Amanda and Daryl's wedding taking place on Tuesday, March 7/06. She really thinks of every last detail. There isn't one thing that I would change even if the wedding was here in Canada.
On Sunday we had hired the Wild Thing catamaran for a private sunset cruise for our guests and we had a blast. We cruised the west coast of Jamaica and stopped at Rick's Cafe where we had the option of getting off and swimming to the stairs to go up and have a look and cliff jump. A number of our guests did just that and the rest of us cheered them on. We were provided with an open bar and pizza and the return trip was great with the music cranked and alot of dancing. Tom's pole dancing was a huge hit!
When Tuesday arrived we were so thrilled with another hot cloudless day. Everyone enjoyed their morning (especially the bride and groom) by hanging with friends and family either by the pool or on the beach. At 1:00 Amanda and her sister had a bite to eat and started with hair. At 3:45 our guests started to congregate around the gazebo where Amanda and Daryl had chosen to be married. At 3:55 Keneika arrived with the most beautiful tropical flowers and to instruct us on music cues etc. At 4:00 the wedding commenced without any problems. The gazebo had been beautifully decorated with fresh flowers and Rev. Bob performed a very nice ceremony keeping things light to prevent any nervousness. A champagne toast was made after the signing of the documents and we proceeded to the beach for photos. The hotel photographer did a great job but we also had a photographer travelling with us so we have many excellent pictures. The wedding reception was held at Sir Anthony's and the meal was terrific! We would suggest to everyone to buy the DVD or video. You will be very pleasantly surprised. After dinner we proceeded to the theatre for entertainment which happened to be a great band playing many different types of music which was excellent for dancing. It was like having a wedding dance here in Canada.
At the end of the day I could honestly say that I was extremely pleased with the way my daughter's wedding turned out and she claims that it was everything she had dreamed of and more!! We thank the great staff, especially Keneika for a job well done!
As for reviews we had read on this web site prior to leaving, I was getting a little worried since we had such a large group travelling with us. I truly don't know where some of these people stayed but it couldn't possibly be the same beautiful resort that we stayed at. We certainly had no musty smells or problems with air conditioning. A person has wonder sometimes just what people expect when they travel. Our room was kept immaculately clean and the staff were very friendly. A dollar bill from time to time goes along way and I certainly never begrudged leaving a little something.
If any couples are considering a destination wedding I would very strongly recommend the Riu Tropical Bay in Negril to make your dreams come true. If anyone has any questions regarding the wedding or just about the resort I would be happy to answer. My email address is peggybrothers@sympatico.ca |
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| Starfish Trelawny |
Pat
Ontario, Canada
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| April 2005 |
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On February 27, 2004 a group of sixteen of us travelled to this resort for what was anticipated to be my son and daughter-in law's 'tropical dream wedding'. Unfortunately this was not to be. I will skip the airport arrival and hotel check-in drama/confusion which is a whole other review and get to the subject at hand.
After months of careful planning with our Canadian travel agent, and following all of her directions with regard to meeting the legal as well social requirements for a resort wedding, we left Canada certain that we were about to embark on what was supposed to be a 'dream wedding vacation', however upon our arrival in Jamaica that Friday evening, we were disappointed to learn first of all, that the tour operator had not supplied us with a local representative which resulted in the afore mentioned arrival/check-in drama; we were also alarmed to learn that the front desk had no record of a group of sixteen coming in for a wedding that week; even though we supplied them with the written confirmation and proof of a booked wedding at their resort for later that week they were reluctant to deal with the issue that night; as a result they refused to check the bride and groom into the "up-graded room" offered to guests for such a booking; as! a matter of fact, they happy couple ended up being checked into a room situated right over the exhaust fan of the resorts Japanese restaurant, so that a greasy odour wafted in every time they opened their door.
The couple were advised to take up their issues with the wedding coordinator in the morning, needless to say they got very little sleep as the worried about their impending nuptials. At the start of what the couple felt was the beginning of the business day 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, they requested a meeting with the wedding coordinator, they were told she would be in by 12:00, they returned to the front desk at that time to be quickly greeted, then ushered away by the coordinator who informed them that it was Saturday, and that she would be taking the week-end off, but would see them first thing on Monday (24 hours before their scheduled wedding). That was when the
e-mails started back and forth between the couple and their Canadian travel agent.
That Sunday a large group of over 100 guest arrived on some sort of a radio station promotional vacation, that's when everything got out of control. This group literally took over the entire resort, and our wedding plans went quickly down-hill. On Monday a now concerned couple met with their wedding coordinator who assured them that despite the craziness around them their wedding with go off with out a hitch, and that she had attended to everything.
I, the mother of the groom, because of the all night noise and partying by the resorts latest group, and because of my own worse fears, I got very little sleep the night before the wedding, trying to calm myself, I decided to have one last meeting with the wedding coordinator that a.m. She being in the resort very early on the day of the wedding to breakfast with her 'radio station guests', agreed to see me for a few minutes; noting my concern she again assured me that she had 'everything under control, that her large group would be vacating the areas needed for the wedding and reception, and that we would have everything that was promised...... no such luck.
In a nutshell this is what occurred at wedding time.... as instructed the thirteen,of us (less bride, bridesmaid and mother of the bride). assembled in the lobby for the traditional procession to the beach gazebo, once assembled we were to be taken directly to ceremony site; in the lobby we waited for the first half hour, being told the video-ogropher was running a little late, once he showed, got my son wired/miked, we then proceeded to wait an additional half hour for the signal from the wedding coordinator for the procession to go to the beach, not getting it, we finally went down on our own; We later leaned that the reason for the extra delay was that the
coordinator 'forgot to book' a justice of the peace to perform the ceremony, so while the bridal party fell apart in the brides room, the coordinator feverishly phoned around the island to try to find a replacement minister. Two hours late, a JP showed up on the beach, and for the first and hopefully only time I witnessed a bridegroom being upstaged by a Minister; we the guests were subject to a display of the worse 'island-fit thrown by a minister', he was clearly upset at having to be 'called out at the last minute'. Once his tirade was over the bridal party joined us and the ceremony took place.... and even though the couple requested a Civil ceremony, a religious one was done; needless to say they never got to exchange the vows they wrote to each other, instead they had to settle for the minister's.
Were there other disappointments.... you bet ya.... the wedding reception had to be moved to an 'inside conference room' , as the outdoor area slated for receptions was taken over by the 'radio station group'. Looking at the wedding videos you wouldn't even know it was a Tropical Venue, and the music in the video doesn't help either as it is all Country and Western, and that type of music is not a favourite of either the bride or groom.
Caution to others booking a 'wedding away from home' and especially at this venue ...... if you dare
1.Remember regardless of what happens, once it is done, it's done, you can never re-do your wedding day, so check for reviews, ask for references also.
2. Taking a group down to the islands for a wedding is a huge financial investment. Do your research like you would any other financial investment.
3 For this particular location, do not book in the early part of the year unless you can accept windy days; because of it's proximity to the mountains, this area is very windy at that time, and staying out on the beach is next to impossible, unless you like sand storms.
4. Check with the resort to see that there are no large groups or conventions booked for the time you are there, because if there is, you and your small group will get lost in the shuffle.
5. When booking your tour, ask for some guarantees, from all parties involved... your travel agent, your tour operator, your airline/carrier, and most important the resort itself.... less chance of 'buck passing' when things go wrong.
6. The best advice of all.... if you are going south for the food, drink, music, or swimming pools, this is your resort. If you are wanting a beautiful wedding memory......remember ours; this was one week of our lives that we wish we could, but we can never get back. |
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| Tryall Club |
Louise
New York
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| August 2004 |
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We just got married at the Tryall Club and it was wonderful! In fact, it exceeded our expectations!! The Tryall Club (west of Montego Bay) was special for many reasons:
1) yours will be the ONLY wedding performed that day (which is not the case in almost every other place we looked at for the wedding) - so the entire staff is at your disposal and you won't feel rushed.
2) the place is beautiful! The views from the Great House (a former plantation home up on a hill) are spectacular and the ocean sparkles in the distance with blues and greens. it is not even remotely cheesy or tacky.
3) The resort has Herbert Baur, who works for the resort and for you, and who will coordinate every last detail of your wedding - even suggesting trusted florists, photographers, bands, djs, etc. and keeping on top of them so that everything works out, people show up and everyone is paid.
4) The villas where most of your guests can stay are incredible - they are private homes for the wealthy that are beautifully furnished and come with lovely friendly staff, including a maid, laundress, cook and gardener and sometimes a butler - that are best for guests taking 2 or more bedrooms. We reserved 8 villas along the ocean so that our guests could stay walking distance from each other (we had about 90 people total) and everyone was blown away by the villas - they especially loved the laundry service - so that no one had to bring home dirty clothes - and the chef who you pay a small daily fee plus the cost of groceries to feed you wonderful meals you request (about $40/person/day for 3 delicious meals a day) and the fantastic ocean views and private swimming pools with the villas.
5) If your guests stay at Tryall, they never have to worry about anything - they don't have to drive to the wedding, worry about getting home or driving drunk, worry about laundry, meals, etc. Everyone was completely and totally relaxed and happy.
6) Activities - for those who love golf, there's a world renowned course at Tryall (some of our guests said this was the best wedding ever because it was the only wedding where they could play 36 holes the day of and day after the wedding), there's a beauty salon with spa services incl. a great massage (great for the bride and family of the bride for makeup & hair and manicures & pedicures and the massage relieved a lot of my wedding day stress), terrific tennis courts, private swimming pools, beach & ocean, kids programs, bird sanctuary, afternoon tea service, water aerobics, dance lessons and other activities.
7) The food was quite good - we had grilled lobster, a huge roast suckling pig, grilled tilapia (fish) and curried goat as our entrees - and it met my exacting picky NYC standards.
8) Prices were reasonable - I never once felt like I was getting gouged or ripped off. The Tryall Club is essentially owned by all the owners of the villas and it's not a money making profit center type place - the restaurant and activities are there for the owners' pleasure.
Having said all that, it's only fair to point out the negatives (and there are not many), it was a bit of pain in the neck to organize 90 people and the villas - we took it upon ourselves to reserve all the villas and figure out which guests would be in which villas and collect money from each of them for their rooms and get all their flight and info. to Tryall and arrange for rides to and from the airport. This took a fair amount of work and time - but it's not absolutely necessary. You can let your guests fend for themselves a bit more than we did. But keep in mind that the one bedrooms at the Great House are not nearly as nice as the other villas because there's no pool or staff and the beach cafe and restaurant at the Great House (where they will dine without a private chef) are a little pricey and not phenomenal. Weather can be unpredictable for an outdoor wedding and we ended up at the Great House for the reception because of bugs & afternoon rain - but it ended up being a positive because the Great House was lovely.
Should anyone on your site have any questions or need any advice about a destination wedding, they may feel free to e-mail me at lmlansky@yahoo.com. I have attached a couple of pictures of Tryall and the wedding and can send more on to people who want them. |
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| Beaches Negril |
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Over the years my then boyfriend and I used Lindsay at Vacation Warehouse
for all of our trips. On our last trip my boyfriend say hey lets get
married! When we got off the plane our next day was spent with Lindsay.
Planning far ahead and her offering a payment plan to our guests and us I
knew we could make this work. The resort choice really did not give us much
choice which I was sad. Because we wanted to include some friends kids in
the wedding and still go to Jamaica all we could do was a Beaches Resort.
That next week a sale came out and everyone got Beaches Negril, except for
some family memebers who's travel agent said that price was not correct.
They took their business elsewhere to another resort and paid a day pass
rate of $80 each day to come over. These people (soon to be in-laws)
worried the other family members that they where in a cheap resort not the
nice one. Boy sorry to say did I smile at them when they saw what we got.
So our wedding was last January 2003 at Beaches Negril. All of our friends
and family just loved the resort. What an awesome experience!!! Our
friends and family are all in IL so Lindsay met us at the airport the day of
departure then made sure that all 50 of us got on the plane. Lindsay and
her husband also flew down with us. She got the pilot to say congrats to us
when we got cruising plus we had champage toasts on the plane. That Air
Jamaica is wonderful, free cham in the morning and free beer. When we got
to the island we made sure that Lindsay got ahead of us so she could go to
the desk for our transfers. We all met in the same area right out side of
customs whiles she checked us all in. Advised the bell guys of our too plus
she had given us speical baggage tags with some kind symbol. Got us load
and found she advised the driver to get us sodas and beer. We had the whole
bus to ourselves. The new highway was great and almost finish. My husbands
grandparents went along with us 70 plus years old first time to the
Caribbean. To look in their eyes and see what transpired. Awesome! When
we got close to the resort she had us fill out some forms to check in. When
we got off the bus we gave this form and credit card to the lady very fast
checkin. In the past when we stayed at Couples Negril we always took the
flight in and bus back but Lindsay said that was no more. We got towels
from the checkin while Lindsay double checked our reservation. Thankfully
she got us, both set of parents upgraded in room style. We had a bar and
very nice view towards the ocean. I was depressed that the trees are too
tall to see a clear view of ocean but we opened the doors at night an dhear
it . I think the rooms where Grande Lux. The grandparents got the ground
floor room thankfully so they did not have the stairs. That would have not
been cool! When we made the reservations with Lindsay she took all of the
special requests then, so pappy had the wheel chair at the airport too. The
rest of our group where all on the same side of the resort but rooms facing
that Couples resort next door or road. By the road rooms had a sewer order
once and awhile. The resort grounds are very nice. I like the walkway by
the beach that is cement so pappy could use a wheel chair out there and
still see the ocean. After checkin Lindsay told us to meet downstair where
we took a walk around the property to see where we want the wedding at. I
always wanted a beach and they have a very nice beach gazebo thing that is
new but I did not like it close to the kids, so we opted for an area in the
south part of the resorts beach area instead. The next day we had a meeting
with the wedding coordinator which Lindsay attended with us. I upgraded the
flowers for me, the girls, moms and guys, plus the video and more photos.
The last two where confirmed prior to us getting down there but the flowers
we waited to see what was available. Lindsay set up with the inhouse
wedding coordinator the rehershal and wedding dinner area. The late
afternoon we all met at the beach area and Lindsay had tropical greens in
the sand marking the aisle already set up for us. We did a couple of walk
throughs. We where told by Lindsay that neither Sandals or Beaches wedding
coordinators do a rehersal of your wedding. That is why I am so thankful
that Lindsay went along because she did the coordination. This past Feb a
friend of ours brother got married there and they wanted to charge them $200
extra to do a rehersal. The bride was a friend of a travel agent so they
did not use Lindsay. Anyways afterwards we all walked down to the Arizona
for the rehershal dinner and meet up with the rest of the family. I was
very surpised that they actually closed the place for us that night. The
manager was even there, welcomed us to the resort and wished us well. Very
nice touch!!!! We had picked a special "couple" drink that we had served to
everyone, except grandparents. There was toasts and everything! Thanks
Lindsay! And we did not pay an extra cent for this service at the resort.
They did not charge us a fee but then we did not expect the place to
oursleves either.
The "day" approaches!!!! We had a 4pm wedding. Lindsay had schedule us a
couples massage, manicure, pedicure, hair, facial and shave for us at the
spa at Sandals Negril prior to us leaving. She got us over there on time
and later our bridal party too. We all ate at the Sandals Negril which
might be bad or maybe we where not suppose to but I was hungray. Watch out
hungray bride coming through. Plus Lindsay said she did not want anyone
fainting! Very quiet place with funky food. I add oxtail soup before I knew
what it was. But hey you are on vacation it is your wedding try things!!!
Back to the wedding. Jack goes to the guys room to get changed while I don
my finest. Then all heck breaks loose!!! Rain! With the weather not going right and this just topped my list which I blew
up at Lindsay.
On my day, no way! I
freaked, upset, lost it! I could think of more. Lindsay came up with the
flowers just drenched. She called the wedding coordinator and asked if we
could hold up to see if the rain passes. Well, the wind started going.
Lindsay goes taking off. Here and Jack view the wedding sceen. From what I
could see from the balcony the chairs where flying the greens and lace
rolling towards to ocean. Ok, time for bridal fit to come in. Lindsay
comes back up first of all sits me down because I am sure she saw la freak
on my face. Then she tells me to stand up in front of her and put my hands
in hers. She looked into my eye and said everything will be alright not to
worry we will have to go with plan B but just think of what you can tell
your kids. Then she gave me a big hug. Which she said was from Jack and
wishes he could be here to do it. This sounds weird but that is the best
thing that could have happen to me. All of girls just picked up where we
left off taking pictures of everyone with my parents and my mom in our room
off the balcony. I look at those pictures which Lindsay took you can see
the rain dripping down in the background. While she was up talking to me
she had the guys from the resort go down to the beach area to get a gazebo
like thing they had on there. One of our friends said it took 6 guys to
carry it. We ended up having it in the activity place where things happen
at night. It has a stage there. I must say it was not my romantic beach
wedding I had hoped for but that was always something Lindsay had us keep in
mind, the weather. Then afterwards everyone met at the bar right behind
there. Before us traveling we had taken an afternoon with Lindsay at her
office going over all of the details even mapping out the poses for the
pictures that we want. Great service. She barked her orders to the
photographer making sure that we get all of the pictures that we wanted.
Then when they where not needed for pictures we had a main bar that everyone
stayed at incase we needed them again and to meet before dinner. I have to
say that the best purchase we made was the people who took our wedding
photos. They where great!! Very professional men who did not have an
attitude or anything! Well worth the cost of the extra pictures. Not only
did we do the pictures but also the seating plan for the wedding dinner
ahead of time. She could not promise but she was going to try to see if
they could setup some tables on the other side of the pool, like they did
for another wedding they did there over year ago. Lindsay had coordinated
that the matra de took the arms of the women and escorted then by couple
over the wedding dinner area. Very nice touch, until our turn. The guy
took us half way through the dining room and turned then had the music
quiet. He announced to everyone our names and that we had just gotten
married (We still had our wedding clothes on). Then had the steel band they
had there strike up a song for us to dance too! Well it is hard to reggae
to in a form fitting wedding dress. Thanksfully it was for just a minute
not the two hours it felt. Then he escorted us over to the area. Was I
surpised!!! Stunned!!! It was beautiful!! The rain had stopped shortly
after our service but they had two white tents up with white covers on the
chairs, white lights wrapped in tulle around our table and four bottles of
champange on our table and each table had a bottle in the middle with white
flowers. WOW! That was beautiful. Lindsay had taken not only my flowers
but my bridesmaids to create an arrangement on our table with all of our
wedding party. I could not thank her enough what a beautiful picture and
she got us sitting around the pool without a cost to us. Since this was a
buffet we had to get up and down by the waiters assigned to us kept our
glasses full. This is also where a very bad problem came up that I am so
sorry to say was the only black cloud. Lindsay had two ushers from our
wedding giving her and her husband a hand with the dinner layout while we
had drinks waiting for everything to be set. Another point we sat down
prior to review before traveling. She had a couple different seating "maps"
to make sure that everyone was happy. Both of us come from families
divorced and remarriages so she wanted to make sure that everything was
taken care of correctly. When we got in there I noticed my dad and his
current wife sitting on one of the outside tables. Not what we had
discussed. With the weather not going right and this just topped my list which I blew
up at Lindsay.
Why is my dad out there? She produced
the map she had with her and that was not where the place cards where to be.
I understand that my mom is very mad for dad leaving her for a women who
is younger than she is and their divorce was not the nicest. So we knew not
to place them side by side. Even at the wedding they state with my sister
in the middle. I could not forgive Lindsay and got very angry where Jack
just said lets make the best of it, but it got to me. We thanked her after
the wedding but afterwards did not go through her for any more travel. That
was until I found the truth. After my freind came to me asking about
Lindsays phone number to contact her for his brother I told him no. Then
gave him the story about the seating I later realized was at both dinners.
He was an usher at ours but he said she did a great job why? I told him the
dinner stuff. Here I yelled at Lindsay and she tried to correct me then let
me just blow off steam on her. Our friend said I was stupid and told me
that he and the other usher personally saw my mother change the name tags on
the tables. But know the feelings between the two and did not want to bring
it back up. So they just left it go. Here I bad mouthed her because of
this one problem which was very important that my dad gets treated right
too. And she let me think it was her problem. This is also why I write
this review to make up for what I did. From other weddings of friends
comparing to ours she did the best job ever! I was just too blinded by the
day to look beyond my family's faults. Now I am five months pregant so
there will be no traveling for awhile but the minute we do Lindsay is going
to be our only call again. Sorry Lindsay!
If you are looking at a wedding like this my best advise is to not find a
travel agent, instead find a company like Lindsay's that specializes in the
wedding and the vacation. That other person who went through a "friend"
travel agent ended up just taking care of the airline and resort not the
wedding. The bridal couple was given a phone number to call them directly to
do it. We where very lucky that someone went through the whole day with us
especially way before we left home. We knew what to expect a timetable. It
gets too stressful even with the rain and seating I could not imagine having
to deal with doing everything myself. I could make one call and find the
answers. If you do not find someone then my advise is to write down
everything you want, need, request, whatever ahead of time. Show the person
when you get down there what you want. Hey its your wedding!
swagnerwedding@hotmail.com |
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| Grand Lido Braco |
Andrew
New Brunswick, Canada
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| December 7, 2003 |
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| I was quite disappointed with the wedding coordinator. The brochure says, there is someone there to ensure your day goes flawlessly, more like she caused the only flaws!
The weather was beautiful the day of our wedding, we were there for 3 nights before the wedding. The day I arrived, I met with the wedding coordinator, and picked out my bouquet, cake, video/pictures are optional. While I met with *********, I told her my parents were at Breezes and asked if she could arrange transportation for them the morning of the wedding at 10am, she assures me this will be done. At the same time I asked her if we could go to Breezes to visit them at no cost, for a day, she told me this should be fine, and she will check on it and get back to me the nextday. (we wanted to go over the day before the wedding, so Sunday, and she was supposed to let me know on Saturday). Otherwise we would have to pay $60 each, and it is also owned by Superclubs. The next day comes, and we did not hear from her, so around 5 pm, we ran into her, and she said she was still waiting for an answer, and we would get a message from her before she left that day. Well, we never heard from her. So we arranged the golf shuttle bus, from our resort to Breezes for Sunday morning. When we arrived at the clubhouse, our parents were there waiting for us. My husband and his father golfed and myself and the mothers returned to their resort, across the street, and I walked in like I was staying there, and no one said a word the whole day. There are no bracelets or anything, so everyone just thinks you are staying there. I did not feel dishonest doing this, as I was not at Braco eating or drinking that day, and they are both owned by the same company, and we paid more $ for Braco. We really wanted to be alone/parent free on our honeymoon, this is why the different resorts. When I saw *********, she said she left the message, yeah right!
Monday was the wedding, at 4 pm. My mother calls us at 11am and the driver had still not arrived. I went to *********'s office, and she called someone on the phone and told them off and hung up and told me someone was on their way, so the parents did not arrive til noon, so much for having breakfast with them. ********* told me to be ready at 3:45, and she would come to my room, to make sure everything was on track, and that her assistant would be with the guys at the Gazebo, getting the music ready etc. No one showed with the music and to help the guys or at my room. At 4:10 ********* arrives at my room, obviously, I thought this was very unprofessional, she said she was on a phone call! This was the most important day of my life, and HER JOB, is to make sure it goes "flawlessly". The photographer, the videographer, and the priest, my fiancé and his parents were all ready at 3:50. So my fiancé had to wait, wondering if I was coming for 25 minutes in the afternoon heat. ********* opens the garden door and exist the room ahead of me, and as she pulls the curtain out of her way, she lets the curtain bar (the hanging down wand you use to open and close the curtains at hotels), go and it came right back and hit me square in the forehead! At this point I was not happy with her. However, it was my wedding day and I was not going to let her ruin it for me. The rest of the day, I was walking on a cloud and all was good. Except, the machine they use for the music walking down the aisle and the 1st dance is brutal, and really needs to be of better quality. It crackled and skipped etc, and they had it was too loud, which made it sound worse. ********* just sat back and smiled as we were serverd champagne and cake at a table on the beach after the ceremony. All of which was great. The priest was a really great guy, and the pictures and video are EXCELLENT, well worth the money! My bouquet was beautiful, but the made took it about 3 days after the wedding, which I did not think was very nice, she did not even ask me if I wanted it.
I found the wedding coordinator unreliable and unprofessional, I also mentioned the beeping to her, and she did nothing either. I never saw or heard from her for the rest of our vacation. |
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| Sandals Royal Caribbean |
Jason and Melissa
Canada
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| November 2003 |
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| It rained the morning of the wedding (I was in an absolute panic) but things cleared up by 11:00. I saw a lot of ceremonies at the resort throughout the week and I was surprised how diverse they were! One couple had a steel drum quartet play for their ceremony – but at $250 US, we opted for a CD! They were really great about planning everything for you. I was not picky about flowers, cakes, details, so whatever they had to offer was fine for me. If you are more detail-oriented, they have plenty of upgrades. I got my hair done at the salon and they did a great up-do and I even got them to put some flowers in. We had to spend about an hour with the wedding planner picking out details from flowers to cakes to dinners when we first got to the resort. We were originally going to get married on the beach, but we were getting our ceremony videotaped to show at our reception (and the tape was professionally done and very well- choreographed) and the wind from the sea would have muffled the sound so we got married in the garden with the sea in the background – very beautiful! Please choose your attire accordingly! I wore a short white dress, my husband wore light pants and a short-sleeved dress shirt and we were boiling!!! The ceremony was short but sweet – we had to go ahead of time for marriage counseling which terrified us since we aren’t religious, but it was more like a comedy act about the philosophy of marriage by Reverend Gordon and the time flew by! After the ceremony, the resort threw us a champagne reception with hors d’oeuvres and wedding cake (all videotaped and choreographed), speeches and the signing of the marriage certificates. The people at our reception in March were just amazed by the video – it was like they were there with us! Later on that evening, the resort set up a dinner for two at the restaurant – there were only the other two couples that got married that day in the restaurant with us – and the resort served us a five-course champagne, steak and shrimp meal. Yum! The next morning, the resort brought us breakfast in bed with champagne as well. Considering that we did not pay for any of these special features (except for the photographer and video) I think that the resort went above and beyond my expectations. I don’t think that I’d change a single thing if I had to do it all over again – it was perfect!!! |
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| Beaches Sandy Bay Resort |
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The Wedding Coordinator, Shereene (sorry if I spelled that wrong:( was WONDERFUL. She took care of everything, was very pleasant and we had "no worries mon". They have a very nice gazebo for the wedding or you can have it on the beach. We used the gazebo, they decorated an arch with flowers to match my bouquet and sprinkled some on the ground as well. They set up a tent along side on the grass along with tables, glasses, dishes, etc. for our reception. They provided some cheeses and finger sandwiches for the guests (I didn't have any because we were too busy getting pictures taken). They provided a small decorated vanilla cake (you can choose chocolate or the traditional Jamaican fruit cake as well) and set up my bridesmaids flowers decoratively on the table as well. Shereene made a reservation for the entire wedding to have dinner together at the Sundowner Restaurant and although it was extremely hot (the restaurant is outside and the breeze seemed to stop as soon as the wedding started:), the food was very good, beautifully presented and the staff was extremely good and friendly even given the fact that we were a large and loud group.
We picked a photo package of 24 pictures (you also get 2 more free) and a video. My only disappointment was that the pictures we had taken on the beach either didn't take or weren't developed as they were not part of the 36 pictures that we had to choose from. Fortunately a friend took some that turned out very well. The photographer was funny and professional and took some very good pictures.
The staff was very friendly and it appeared that they were well informed of who my husband and I were as we were approached and addressed by name by several staff members that we had never met before. They seems genuinely concerned about any issues I had and when my parents missed their flight and we had no idea where they were, the front staff made several calls to the airport to try to get what little information they could. |
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| Grand Lido Sans Souci |
Stephanie G.
Drayton Valley, Alberta
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| January 2003 |
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We got married a few years ago at the Grad Lido Sans Souci resort in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. It is knows as a resort for lovers. WOW!!! I've been to a few resorts and this is by far the best one. The SuperClubs people were very polite and helpful when planning our trip. We met the wedding coordinator our first day there and she was very helpful. I chose from a number of different bouquets and mentioned that I thought they looked small. She said, "No problem," and I ended up with a huge, gorgeous array (no extra fee). It was wonderful. The resort also includes spa treatments as part of it's package, you get to pick when you recieve them throughout your stay. The morning of our wedding, my husband and I got massages. We had previously had a manicure and pedicure (all part of the package---as was the body scrub and reflexology treatment).
The resort itself is just gorgeous. It is lush and tropical with two beautiful beaches (one is clothing optional). Their wedding gazebo was a dream come true, sitting just off of the cliff in the water. I, the bride, came down stone steps while serenaded by a guitar and flute player (again part of the package). They provided witnesses, minister, a champagne/cake after, and then reservations at their top restaurant that evening. We were pleased with the video and the pictures, which we had to pay for separately. Overall it was incredible and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone. In fact, we had friends who went after us to get married there and were also very pleased. The people here made it so easy and fun.
Grand Lido Sans Souci is all-inclusive, boasts a huge property and is luxurious (they even do your laundry for free---no coming home with dirty clothes!). I highly recommend it. |
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| Wyndham Rose Hall |
Mr. & Mrs. Jones
UK
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| January 2003 |
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The Jones's have a complete review of their vacation at: Wyndham Rose Hall Resort
Dear Debbie,
We are a couple from the UK in our early thirty's with two children aged 13 and 7. We booked our wedding/holiday in May 2002, after five months research on your web site and plenty of others before deciding to book the Wyndham Rose Hall in Montego Bay Jamaica, we were there for a week.
We arrived on Saturday 11th January 2003 after a 17 hour delay! Our flight took us via La Romana - Dominican Republic then to Montego Bay. But it was worth it!
I met with the wedding co-odinater on the Monday to finalise the details we were due to be married on the Wednesday, in my package I was to receive a wedding cake & decorated location, I paid extra for the video and 36 pictures. I took my own flowers with me, I had them made up here in the UK before we went.
On the days leading up to our wedding we saw about 7 weddings they were all beautiful, we had an option to get married on the beach or the wedding gazebo, I opted for the wedding gazebo, the beach was a bit windy and the gazebo seemed more picturesque. The Minister was lovely he explained every thing to us the night before the wedding and the day went perfect! we had pictures taken on the beach, the golf course, the bridge over the pool and at the gazebo. These were well worth $200 we were also given the negatives too. The video was nice to bring home for the family who didn't come with us to see us get married. After the ceremony the photographer took some pictures then we had champagne, followed by the wedding cake, this cake was lovely it looked like a meringue, but it was all cream.... delicious.
We were told we had too cut a little piece off each and feed each other with the cake apparently this is a Jamaican tradition, this was funny I got more cake than my hubby he got hardly any as I dropped a bit of his on the floor, then we had to kiss each other with the cake in our mouths, sound awful but the pictures of these turned out great, then we linked arms and drank the champagne, after signing the register, we then walked from the gazebo to the beach this was a lovely setting for pictures my hubby rolled up his pants picked me up and walked us in the sea for a picture. We couldn't fault the wyndham all their staff they really helped us make our day a perfect one.
I also booked my bridesmaid and myself to have our hair and make up done on the day, being a hairdresser I was a little picky to what I wanted, but they did a fantastic job! it was $80 each for hair and make up which I thought was a good price. I didn't fancy doing it myself, this gave us more time at the pool in the morning we weren't due to be married till 3.30pm and we were still sunning it at the pool until 11.30am!
When we got back to our room after the wedding and our maid had made up two swans with towels with scattered fresh flowers over them on our bed, I thought this was a lovely touch, and a nice surprise.
When we return to Jamaica we will defiantly go to the Wyndham, we seen a few hotels along the way to our hotel and they just didn't match it sorry! |
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| Couples Negril |
Christine Williams
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| November 2002 |
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Hi! I read the Jamaican wedding review and felt very bad for that woman, I on the other hand had a terrific wedding in paradise. I'd like to include my review so people can see the other side of things!
We spent 7 wonderful days at Couples Negril in Negril Jamaica. From the moment we stepped off the plane we were greeted by someone from our airline ( we went with Air Transit from Toronto). We were whisked away on the 2 hours crazy bus ride. We had been for warned that it was a long and crazy ride but since we are the adventurous type, we loved every minute of it. It was a great way to see the coast line and what life is like off the resorts.
We met with our wedding coordinator the day after we arrived. We chose our location, flowers and photos packages within an hour and we were set. The only down fall was the flowers I wanted were unavailable at that time. If I wanted to spend more money I could have gotten an elaborate bouquet but the free bouquet as part of the package was beautiful!
the morning of the wedding we were treated to massages in the spa. When we were getting ready before the wedding they gave us a bottle of champagne to take up to the room and a fruit platter. The coordinator met me right on time and the rest is history. My husband to be was waiting on the beach with the reverend - sadly I never did get his name as I first met him when I walked down the aisle. That night we had reservations in the formal dining room and we were treated to a delicious seafood dinner and the waiters even put on a show for us. We had our pictures package ready for us the next morning and we were set. The photographer took good photos but my recommendation would be to meet with the photographer first and discuss preferences as he took a lot of cake cutting pictures which wasn't really that important to me. I was also not entirely pleased with the quality of the pictures. As 4x6 or 5x7 they are great but blown up to 8x10 they are very "grainy".
It's worth the holiday |
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| Sandals Dunns River |
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My husband and I were married at Sandals Dunns River in Ocho Rios, Jamaica in April 2001. While I am a little late in writing this review, I am hopeful that it will be helpful to someone in planning a trip in the future.
We had researched several other resorts and decided on this one based on the fact that I had previously been to Jamaica (Couples, Ocho Rios in 1992) and felt comfortable with the layout of the land so to speak. We had looked at several brochures, watched a video, etc and it seemed like a wonderful place to get married and start our life together......how wrong we were!!!
We reserved and paid over $6000.00 (US) for the Concierge Honeymoon Room for a full weeks stay (7 nights). The cost included everything but most of all you are paying for the Concierge level service. In their brochures, they boast about the special "VIP" treatment that you receive from the moment you step off of the bus because you are on Concierge Level. Listed below is a somewhat detailed account of our stay.
My husband and I were married at Sandals Dunns River in Ocho Rios, Jamaica in April 2001. While I am a little late in writing this review, I am hopeful that it will be helpful to someone in planning a trip in the future.
We had researched several other resorts and decided on this one based on the fact that I had previously been to Jamaica (Couples, Ocho Rios in 1992) and felt comfortable with the layout of the land so to speak. We had looked at several brochures, watched a video, etc and it seemed like a wonderful place to get married and start our life together......how wrong we were!!!
We reserved and paid over $6000.00 (US) for the Concierge Honeymoon Room for a full weeks stay (7 nights). The cost included everything but most of all you are paying for the Concierge level service. In their brochures, they boast about the special "VIP" treatment that you receive from the moment you step off of the bus because you are on Concierge Level. Listed below is a somewhat detailed account of our stay.
After breakfast the next morning, we went over the Office again to try to talk to someone about our wedding which was now only a day away. We found the Coordinator in the office with another couple. I was bold enough to simply walk in and interrupt and inform him that we tried to contact him several times the day before, but he was no where to be found. He looked up our names and said, "Oh yes, you had an appointment yesterday at 3:00 pm. You didn't show up." I explained to him with a little authority that we had NO knowledge that a time had been scheduled for us. He indicated that an invitation was sent to our room and we should have seen it as soon as we checked in. We rescheduled our appt for later on this day at noon to meet. I checked with the front desk and prior to us arriving at the resort, the staff had switched our room, so the invitation was probably sitting in someone's room.
We met with the Coordinator promptly at 12:00 pm. He was very unorganized. I asked if we could have the tour first to pick out the location of our ceremony. He indicated that they do not give a tour. He gave me a photo album to look through to pick out our location. We did not pay all of the money to pick a location out of a book. I insisted on a tour and they had to make special arrangements for it. I reminded him that in the books that is distributed by Sandals, it states that you will be given a tour .....among other things.
Our Wedding Day - a wonderful day except that the Wedding Coordinator was late coming to get me to take me to the ceremony and that was because my flowers had not arrived yet. He finally came up to get me and took me to the lobby and in drive a car (flying) to drop off the flowers. The ceremony went off without a hitch. The JP was great - actually very funny. Our reception was nice - short though because it looked like it was going to rain at one point and the photographer had not taken the professional pictures yet.
A special romantic dinner was to be included in our wedding package. WRONG! We chose the Italian restaurant and the same rude matre'd was working again. We told him our name and that we had a special reservation for our Wedding dinner and he was very rude. He told us that the Italian restaurant does not take reservations and that we would have to wait just like everyone else.
There really is no point in continuing on. Obviously, this is just my opinion - BUT if you want to have a perfect wedding - - get married at home. Most of these places promise you one thing and give you another. |
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