Sounds pretty good to me....

Married at last ~ Brandon & Lyndsey Harker

Iberostar Varadero - April 21, 2008 at 11:30 a.m.!!!

One life, One love

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Married February 12th, 2008 at Riu Ocho Rios, Jamaica! Best time of our lives!

Link to my wedding review and pics:

http://forums.canadianbride.com/Topic562265-11-1.aspx

Marrying The Love Of My Life - September 12, 2008!!!

We stayed at the OCean Sands, last May and we paid 1280 taxes included! We got an amazing deal. I think what you were quoted was high, but I think it is the taxes in the DR that are insane...I can't believe how much they've gone up! All in all your guests will pay to come if they really want to be there.

This year we are getting married in 2 weeks at the Iberostar Varadero and we are paying 1400$ taxes included for a week.

Was that the best quoted rate you received? I would look into other TA's. You still have lots of time, we booked our trip in September 2007 for MAy 2008. If you tell them that another agency can get it cheaper for you they will find a way to keep your business. With ours this year she told me that 1290+ tax was teh best she could do but I told her I needed a better rate and that others could give it to me and all of the sudden......she got us a great rate of 1190+ taxes. Best of luck!

I went onto sell off vacations just now and that resort is $1000 with tax for end of this month.  I know its last minute but that's a huge difference.  Why don't you send selloffvcations an email for a quote and see what they give you?

We've been getting quotes for our resort next May and they're not far off from what the last minute quotes are now.

Hope this helps.

So unfortunetly I don't know if comparing with other people is helpful unless you can compare with somebody who went to the same location and resort star rating (better yet if it's the exact same resort) around the same time of year and the same departure location and also booked a year in advance.

I know it sucks that you have almost no way of knowing if that's a good price or not, I just wanted to warn you about comparing with other people.  I see people do this all the time (comparing departure from Vancouver and Toronto for example!  Prices from Vancouver are often much higher since it's so much farther from east coast mexico, DR, cuba)

Charette: how far in advance did you book and where were you departing from (and where is the poster departing from?)  Since Charette went to the same resort at around the same time of year you might be able to compare a little with that, although likely she did not book a year in advance so that will cause a big price difference.   It's normal for last minute prices to be several hundred dollars less than booking a year in advance!

Overall, from my research and what I hear other people paying, your price seems to be about in the right range (not saying that it isn't maybe 100-200$ too high, or maybe it's even an awesome price, I'm not sure but just saying it seems pretty reasonable). 

If you could wait till late summer / early fall when the prices normally come out for next winter for everyone, you could probably save by getting early booking bonuses.  Although I know it would probably be torture to wait 3-4 months, you would still be booking 7 months in advance!

Although many agents will tell you prices are not available yet for next winter, many agents can get price quotes if it is a large group (as yours obviously has done). 

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Can't believe it's over!
April 1st 2008 - Dreams Tulum, Mayan Riviera, Mexico.

I have sure you will have a wonderful wedding and a great week there.