DISGRACEFUL VENUE

<p>So, let’s give you a few examples of the African Explorer Private Game Lodge- Wedding experience.</p> <p>The brides room (they call it a Villa, its nowhere near) had no curtains and was completely exposed to anyone walking past and the same applied after the couple were married.</p> <p><br />There was no mirror in the bridal room for her to prepare and the poor DJ had to hunt for one.</p> <p><br />The bride spent the evening she left the venue in hospital with a high fever and stomach virus. One of the bridesmaids and several of the grooms advised of the same symptoms.</p> <p><br />My wife and I were told by Constance when we arrived at 15H30 that she would let us know when our room was ready…we waited until 22H00 (6.5 Hours) with no response.</p> <p> </p> <p>The groom eventually sacrificed his (Presidential Suite) accommodation for us to stay in and he in turn went spend the night in a bunk-bed room with other guests. Theyreally, really need to understand what a Presidential Suite is, please Google it.</p> <p>There were missing beds in several rooms</p> <p>Rooms that were promised to be completed were not built – resulting in some guests having to leave and repeat the 2-3-hour journey home as there was no accommodation available for them.</p> <p>A back up area next to the pool was promised in case it rained – was also not built and ready for use. If ompleted- we would have had a backup plan however this area didn’t even have a roof</p> <p>A water park was promised – this was non-existent</p> <p>A reception area was promised – this was non-existent</p> <p>All guests were practically bullied into signing an “activities” indemnity form immediately on arrival. These activities never materialised, but even if they did it would have been impossible for guests to enjoy them as they were all too busy doing what the venue staff should have been doing - setting up the entire reception area the whole day. </p> <p>Some of the guests had to sleep in workers-maids quarters.</p> <p>There was no hot water in several areas</p> <p>There was no electricity at all in some rooms</p> <p>Some rooms were missing toilet doors</p> <p>Bedding in rooms were not turned over for 3 days.</p> <p>There was no water in the communal shower area arrival and when water was connected it was a brownish-red in colour and was obviously untreated and unfiltered</p> <p>Most of the toilets and showers in the rooms and common areas were blocked</p> <p>Two of the guests were injured by falling into the empty water channel at the main entrance due to the almost non-existence of lighting.</p> <p>The so called “Luxury Tents” they promised were UN style held together by string and broken poles and were set up nothing like we were lead to believe they would look like from the example photos that were sent. I would not have put one of my lowest paid labourers in that unit. The tent was also erected in their sandy car park. The layout plan showed 3 tents, but there was only one.</p> <p>Pizzas were promised to be cooked by the wedding venue staff – Constance the hostess started making the pizzas, the fire went out after only a few minutes and guests had to step in to try and make it work. It was a complete flop – an attempt was then made to continue making pizzas in the kitchen oven one pizza at a time which took about 3 hours</p> <p>Breakfast ran out on Saturday morning and cooked for 90 guests one at a time, the ****tail sausages were ice cold<br />Where a Buffet breakfast with Chefs (Plural) was promised… they had 4 actual staff members trying to cater for over 100 guests - simply insane!</p> <p>No card machine facilities were available for guests to purchase drinks or food</p> <p>Lunch promised as per contract was meant to be sandwiches & Prego’s – a cheap and nasty noodle salad was served instead, which guests also had to pay cash for and again no change was available.</p> <p>Our guests had to spend the entire day setting up the wedding reception and ceremony as there was nowhere near enough staff to assist while the 3-other staff were attempting to cook. Claus personally promised me on the day I arrived that you would have 30 people working on the reception – well he lied. I saw a maximum of 6 workers, who were really your construction guys.</p> <p>Alcohol that was catered for the whole weekend was finished by the Friday night and we had to send the staff to buy loads more</p> <p>There was no body to physically take guests to check into rooms or even show them their rooms, we allocated my a few of our own guests to assist with the check in process</p> <p>There was absolutely zero change for people that had cash to pay for drinks for the entire 3 days.</p> <p>Deposits were required for drinks should you want to start a tab and payments had to be made by EFT via an IPAD where you had to wait 15 minutes as there was no signal</p> <p>Tables were meant to be 10 seaters however they only had 3 x 10 seaters and the rest was 8 seaters and we had to change our entire seating plan which was paid and printed for prior by the wedding couple</p> <p>Starters on the wedding evening was meant to be Caprese salad – guests instead received a piece of bread the size of a cracker with a tomato and some cheese.</p> <p>There were insufficient chair covers so only every second chair had a cover on it – our guests had to clean and dress the chairs as well.</p> <p>The entire wedding was essentially held on a construction site. </p> <p>The bridge that went over the swimming pool was painted just before the wedding with a paint smell wafting through the entertainment area. These should have been painted several days before to avoid putting our guests through that.</p> <p>There were still construction vehicles driving across the wedding backdrop just minutes before the wedding ceremony started.</p> <p>We were promised 30 waiters/waitresses. We ended up with  construction workers (builders) serving food to the guests at the reception still in the same clothes they had been working in all day, un-showered. </p> <p>The food serving dishes that were brought out for main meal had nothing to keep them warm, resulting in the food getting cold very quickly which turned many people away from eating.</p> <p>We had guests that had travelled all the way from Australia, Dubai and the UK to be put through what can only be described as an immensely painful and embarrassing experience.</p> <p>You will be promised heaven, but you will be delivered hell. Please dont put yourself through this...stay well away!!!</p>