Budget Honeymoon - Is there such a thing?

For actual tips...I'd avoid memory maker since you can hand you camera or phone to any photopass person and they'll take your pic for you...(free) YOu could plan one TS daily if you like that, Trails End at the campground is a great deal on a buffet dinner- the Wave is a great breakfast buffet and deal at Contemperary- I love Biergarten for Lunch in Epcot (buffet) check out allears .net menus.... there are SO many good quick service places all over the place too. If you know you'll want to spend some time at your resort/pool, try looking for a deal on a mod room,the pools and common areas are much nicer for relaxing. If not, I like the relaxing vibe in WAY back areas of the AS Musc resort, it's so big,and the gardens etc are very pretty to just sit and relax and enjoy. Or Pop out back rooms with the lake side...very pretty and away from the noisier crowds.
 
The first time we rented from Davids we were very nervous also but they took great care of us. Everything is spelled out in the website. It does seem overwhelming at first but they will walk you thru it if needed. They were great with answering our emailed questions. We have probably rented from them or DVC rental at least 8-10 times without a problem. We have also stayed at all the mods and all star music once. Wherever you stay I am sure you will have a great time.
 
For actual tips...I'd avoid memory maker since you can hand you camera or phone to any photopass person and they'll take your pic for you...(free) YOu could plan one TS daily if you like that, Trails End at the campground is a great deal on a buffet dinner- the Wave is a great breakfast buffet and deal at Contemperary- I love Biergarten for Lunch in Epcot (buffet) check out allears .net menus.... there are SO many good quick service places all over the place too. If you know you'll want to spend some time at your resort/pool, try looking for a deal on a mod room,the pools and common areas are much nicer for relaxing. If not, I like the relaxing vibe in WAY back areas of the AS Musc resort, it's so big,and the gardens etc are very pretty to just sit and relax and enjoy. Or Pop out back rooms with the lake side...very pretty and away from the noisier crowds.

Thanks fo the tips! I'll be sure to check out allears.net!
 
The first time we rented from Davids we were very nervous also but they took great care of us. Everything is spelled out in the website. It does seem overwhelming at first but they will walk you thru it if needed. They were great with answering our emailed questions. We have probably rented from them or DVC rental at least 8-10 times without a problem. We have also stayed at all the mods and all star music once. Wherever you stay I am sure you will have a great time.

Okay! I may email them and ask questions. I would like to have a little more information about it and asking questions doesn't mean we have to rent DVC it just opens our options a bit more. :thanks:
 


Okay! I may email them and ask questions. I would like to have a little more information about it and asking questions doesn't mean we have to rent DVC it just opens our options a bit more. :thanks:
I'm a dvc member who rents out my points. It makes me so happy to book holidays for others, knowing I'm helping them save a bit. Most of us feel that way. Look into it with confidence.
 
CONGRATULATIONS on your upcoming wedding and your Disney honeymoon! You are getting lots of suggestions and varied advice, but that's good as it gives you lots of things to consider and choose from. I'm going to add a couple here...

Hotel- We just got back from a 2 night stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge. I rented points from a Disboards member and ended up paying $215 a night for a savanna view studio. The DVC boards here have great information and make planning easier. I know... it's hard to make the decision and do it, but it's easy. Decide when you want to travel and at what resort you want to stay. Look up the number of points you'll need for this (there are plenty of charts available online) and then start looking for a DVC member who has points for sale at a price you want to pay. You contact the member, tell they where/when you want to stay, and then THEY contact Disney and set it all up. You pay the member directly, based on the points you need and the price per point that you and the member agree upon. Technically the DVC member owns your reservation, but any reputable member will send you all the Disney information, reservation numbers, etc. Our reservations have always been in our names, although the member is the one who makes special requests (like room location), will add Magical Express or the dining plan (it you want it- I don't recommend it), etc. It's easy... read, read, read. The DVC members on the disboards are a friendly, reliable crew IME; we've done DVC rentals three times and have always been pleased!
If you don't want to do DVC, we have stayed at both POP and AllStars Music. Room and amenity-wise, they are similar. Clean, smallish, but serves the purpose for a place to sleep and shower. The pools are good, the food courts are good. We like ASMu a bit better. It's a smaller resort, so less walking from the bus stop (I am not an advocate of paying extra for a closer room) and fewer people. I often make my Disney resort reservation through Orbitz. If Disney is running a sale, Orbitz usually offers the same price, and there is also often a discount code for an addition 10%-15% off. HOWEVER>.. as with everything, read the fine print. I don't know if Orbitz reservations can be canceled for free if your plans change, or canceled wit a charge. Also with Orbitz (as with most DVC rentals) I believe you have to pay in full at the time of booking (but don't hold me to this... can't totally remember). As I said above... read, read, read!

Dining plan- I don't recommend this for anyone except families that have several kids who want to do lots of character meals. We have done the DP a few times and always spend more money than if we eat out-of-pocket (OOP). Sometimes we share meals, sometimes I'll just want an appetizer and soup, etc. We are not huge dessert people- we'd rather have special yummy park snacks- so the dessert part of the DP is lost on us. We also only drink water at meals, so ditto. We find that the DDP doesn't fit the way we like to eat. I have kept careful track and have found that it always saves us $200+ when we eat OOP, including all snacks, than when we do the dining plan. (None of this includes alcohol costs, just to keep it on an even footing).

Meals- Instead of CRT, have you considered dinner at 1900 Park Faire? We have found the food at CRT to be "meh" and the service lackluster- and the price overwhelming! At 1900 dinner, Cinderella and Prince Charming host, with the stepmother, 2 stepsisters, and 2 mice there also. The Steps are incredibly funny, and Cinderella and the Prince are... charming! The food is also good. It's a buffet, but we've always found the food to be terrific! As far as a character breakfast, I'm with you; go to Crystal Palace! You should definitely plan to eat dinner at Epcot via the Food and Wine Festival. Food is yummy, there is lots to choose from, and the cost is... well, I guess it's affordable in a Disney way, LOL! Actually, DD and I did F&W on 2 separate days, doing one side of World Showcase on day 1 and the other on day 2. We were traveling specifically to hit F&W and having 2 days there meant we got to try almost everything! We are not big fans of any of the TS restaurants at Disney Studios, so it was nice to take the boat over to Epcot to hop for supper at F&W. I STRONGLY recommend Boma for dinner! It's our favorite restaurant almost anywhere, and the food is great! I like to go there for dinner because, really: When/where else will you get African-inspired food, right? When we go to Disney, we try to stay away from places like Planet Hollywood, T-Rex, Rainforest Cafe, and most of the Italian places as we can get this type of dining experience here at home.

Dress-up dinner? For my birthday, we went to California Grill. Try to get a reservation for 90-60 minutes before the Magic Kingdom fireworks start. You can see the show from the restaurant or their outside deck, and they pipe in the audio. It's pretty special! We also really like Jiko (at Animal Kingdom Lodge) for a dress-up dinner. The food is wonderful, the restaurant beautiful, and (as with Boma), you can investigate AKL, view animals from the overlooks, sit around the fire pits for storytelling, etc.

Halloween Party- We love MNSSHP! Love the MK after dark, love staying so late. We usually make simple costumes (based on shorts and tee shirts) and go for it. We are not big into character meets, mostly as they are huge time-eaters, but MNSSHP has some very unique characters at the party. We do the trick-or-treating and pack in the ride time. If you decide to go, the party starts at 7pm, but they usually let party-goers into the MK at 4pm (historically... not sure if this'll change this year). As we had a hard-ticket for this event, we can made FP+ for 4:30, 5:30, and 6:30, before the party started. Actually, we used this event as our MK day. We had had 2 days of long-hours park touring and needed a small rest. We spent the morning at the pool and relaxing, then had a 1:30 lunch at The Wave at the Contemporary, changed into our costumes and went over to the MK, arriving about 3:30. We stayed until the party ended and they shooed us out! It worked out really well, and felt we got a full day of MK time (thanks somewhat to the lower crowds than in MK during the daytime).

Good luck with your planning!!
 
I agree with @quandrea. Most of us DVC owners who rent out reservations are more than happy to help people who are interested in renting. There are drawbacks (for instance, I won't accept Disney GCs as a form of payment like Disney will) and it's best to know what you're paying for before you commit to the process. Emailing David's is a good start, but you may want to contact a couple of other rental agencies as well because they all have different business models.

TBH, renting a DVC reservation is not going to be less expensive than staying in a Value Resort. Not at any time of the year. However, what you will get is accommodations at a Deluxe Resort for about the price of a Moderate Resort stay.
 


Congratulations! What an exciting time for you and your fiancé.

We found a good amount of savings ($15/ticket) buying our tickets through an authorized reseller (Undercover Tourist) and booked our room separately with a travel agency that offers agency exclusive discounts--we stayed at POR this past May for $165/night including tax. We also opened a Disney Chase Visa when the offer was $200 GC with another $50 GC for an authorized user--I would only suggest this if you pay your CC off in full every month.

I think you are on the right track. Park Hoppers for two adults is a great extra to spend money on. The flexibility you seem to enjoy when dining seems to make dining plan a no go for you. Since you will be getting the hoppers I would skip any extra parties (dessert, MNSSHP, whatever else they come up with) to help stay on budget. I suggest you add up everything you want to do and if the number makes you gasp out loud in horror try to find some compromises to cut back on, ex. do CRT but skip the bride and groom ears.

My DH and I bought our first house and planned the wedding and the honeymoon all in the same year (in that order.) Looking back, we both wish we would have put more money towards the down payment or on the principal early in the loan vs all those little extras I had to have for the wedding. Fresh vs fake flowers, mani/pedi for the bridal shower and wedding, paying for tuxes for the ushers and my FIL, wedding programs, the upcharge for fruit flavor filling in the cake, the upcharge for color linens at the reception vs white...all the little things added up would have been about 3 months principal payments.
 
I'd only ever stayed deluxe until I stayed at Pop last summer. It's adorable and we liked it. I didn't like our location though. We had a pool room and kids were at the pool screaming and unsupervised until 11 and we were exhausted. I'd go back in a heartbeat--just would pay for a non-pool room.
 
Dining plan- I don't recommend this for anyone except families that have several kids who want to do lots of character meals. We have done the DP a few times and always spend more money than if we eat out-of-pocket (OOP). Sometimes we share meals, sometimes I'll just want an appetizer and soup, etc. We are not huge dessert people- we'd rather have special yummy park snacks- so the dessert part of the DP is lost on us. We also only drink water at meals, so ditto. We find that the DDP doesn't fit the way we like to eat. I have kept careful track and have found that it always saves us $200+ when we eat OOP, including all snacks, than when we do the dining plan. (None of this includes alcohol costs, just to keep it on an even footing).

I think we have totally decided against the dinning plan. We are meeting with our venue of choice this week to book our wedding. The dates I've listed are what we are aiming for (Wedding, Oct. 26th - Mickeymoon to follow) so if our venue is booked for that date then our travel dates will change and if we'd fall into free dining, great! if not it's not going to make or break us.

Meals- Instead of CRT, have you considered dinner at 1900 Park Faire? We have found the food at CRT to be "meh" and the service lackluster- and the price overwhelming! At 1900 dinner, Cinderella and Prince Charming host, with the stepmother, 2 stepsisters, and 2 mice there also. The Steps are incredibly funny, and Cinderella and the Prince are... charming! The food is also good. It's a buffet, but we've always found the food to be terrific! As far as a character breakfast, I'm with you; go to Crystal Palace! You should definitely plan to eat dinner at Epcot via the Food and Wine Festival. Food is yummy, there is lots to choose from, and the cost is... well, I guess it's affordable in a Disney way, LOL! Actually, DD and I did F&W on 2 separate days, doing one side of World Showcase on day 1 and the other on day 2. We were traveling specifically to hit F&W and having 2 days there meant we got to try almost everything! We are not big fans of any of the TS restaurants at Disney Studios, so it was nice to take the boat over to Epcot to hop for supper at F&W. I STRONGLY recommend Boma for dinner! It's our favorite restaurant almost anywhere, and the food is great! I like to go there for dinner because, really: When/where else will you get African-inspired food, right? When we go to Disney, we try to stay away from places like Planet Hollywood, T-Rex, Rainforest Cafe, and most of the Italian places as we can get this type of dining experience here at home.

Dress-up dinner? For my birthday, we went to California Grill. Try to get a reservation for 90-60 minutes before the Magic Kingdom fireworks start. You can see the show from the restaurant or their outside deck, and they pipe in the audio. It's pretty special! We also really like Jiko (at Animal Kingdom Lodge) for a dress-up dinner. The food is wonderful, the restaurant beautiful, and (as with Boma), you can investigate AKL, view animals from the overlooks, sit around the fire pits for storytelling, etc.

I haven't considered 1900 Park Faire but I will add it to my growing list! Future Hubs has already told me, as much as I like to plan to not go overboard with planning our Mickeymoon. With Disney, I get you have to plan things to an extent but I'm going to plan probably 2-3 breakfast and a few dinners. Currently planning Crystal Palace for Bfast, Boma for Bfast, and possibly Yachtsman or Flying Fish for a dinner, Future Hubs loves a great steak! We also like italian so Tutto Gusto is on my radar. Cali Grill seem good but I'll have to look at the menus futher before deciding but I have time. I'm really not going to plan lunch to give us some open options! People here on the boards and fellow disney lovers in my real life have told me that often wait to plan lunch to see how the day goes and that would work well with Future Hubs "plan but don't plan" request.

Halloween Party- We love MNSSHP! Love the MK after dark, love staying so late. We usually make simple costumes (based on shorts and tee shirts) and go for it. We are not big into character meets, mostly as they are huge time-eaters, but MNSSHP has some very unique characters at the party. We do the trick-or-treating and pack in the ride time. If you decide to go, the party starts at 7pm, but they usually let party-goers into the MK at 4pm (historically... not sure if this'll change this year). As we had a hard-ticket for this event, we can made FP+ for 4:30, 5:30, and 6:30, before the party started. Actually, we used this event as our MK day. We had had 2 days of long-hours park touring and needed a small rest. We spent the morning at the pool and relaxing, then had a 1:30 lunch at The Wave at the Contemporary, changed into our costumes and went over to the MK, arriving about 3:30. We stayed until the party ended and they shooed us out! It worked out really well, and felt we got a full day of MK time (thanks somewhat to the lower crowds than in MK during the daytime).

We have gone back and forth over MNSSHP, and we initally decided against it :scared1: but my Aunt has swore we aren't aloud to visit Disney AND be ther on Halloween AND not go to MNSSHP. So, she has decided that she's going to buy our tickets for us as a Mickeymoon gift. :cheer2: Several have advised against getting tickets as a gift but I can be with her when she buys them to select our date etc so yay! I'm not sure we would dress up in full costumes, but we would for sure do some fun Disney Halloween shirts.
 
Congratulations! What an exciting time for you and your fiancé.

We found a good amount of savings ($15/ticket) buying our tickets through an authorized reseller (Undercover Tourist) and booked our room separately with a travel agency that offers agency exclusive discounts--we stayed at POR this past May for $165/night including tax. We also opened a Disney Chase Visa when the offer was $200 GC with another $50 GC for an authorized user--I would only suggest this if you pay your CC off in full every month.

I think you are on the right track. Park Hoppers for two adults is a great extra to spend money on. The flexibility you seem to enjoy when dining seems to make dining plan a no go for you. Since you will be getting the hoppers I would skip any extra parties (dessert, MNSSHP, whatever else they come up with) to help stay on budget. I suggest you add up everything you want to do and if the number makes you gasp out loud in horror try to find some compromises to cut back on, ex. do CRT but skip the bride and groom ears.

My DH and I bought our first house and planned the wedding and the honeymoon all in the same year (in that order.) Looking back, we both wish we would have put more money towards the down payment or on the principal early in the loan vs all those little extras I had to have for the wedding. Fresh vs fake flowers, mani/pedi for the bridal shower and wedding, paying for tuxes for the ushers and my FIL, wedding programs, the upcharge for fruit flavor filling in the cake, the upcharge for color linens at the reception vs white...all the little things added up would have been about 3 months principal payments.

Thanks for the advice! I think we are booking our Mickeymoon as a package with our local AAA office, Glenda our TA and resident Good Witch has alway been great with us in years past. Future Hubs is paying for our trip and gets paid weekly so we like that he can get paid and stop off making a payment on his way home and we get reciepts for everything. For our personal budget paying in weekly/monthly installments like this are easier than saving and dropping at lot once. Park Hoppers are agreed a must, and one of my personal few "must haves". I'm still unsure if we will eat at CRT but, Bride and Groom Ears are a childhood dream so those will stay :rolleyes1, I won't wear them everyday but I wan to own a pair and have a picture in front of the castle in them none the less. It's a me thing that will make this trip more magical! :wizard:

Also, Thanks for the wedding advise! Good news is I'm only having a few Bridesmaids and I don't like fresh flowers, not even for my bouquet. I'm doing a brooch bouquet (google them they are beautiful!) My parents god love them are paying for everything like showers, linens everything. So we have the ability to splurge a little bit more on our Mickeymoon!
 
I have wedding advice and it has NOTHING to do with your trip. If you stay in a hotel on your wedding night, make sure you deliver some food / drink in your room BEFORE the wedding. Have someone put it in there if you can't go yourself.

We planned every single thing for our wedding perfectly, so we thought. We arrived to the hotel about 11:30 pm and we were hungry! We had fed a buffet to our guests but we had been roaming and visiting with everyone and had really mainly had cake! Room service had closed at 11:00! So, I really just wanted a soda ( got from a vending machine) and some cheese and crackers, anything at all.

So if you have access to your hotel room in advance, stash some food and drinks!!
 
I have wedding advice and it has NOTHING to do with your trip. If you stay in a hotel on your wedding night, make sure you deliver some food / drink in your room BEFORE the wedding. Have someone put it in there if you can't go yourself.

We planned every single thing for our wedding perfectly, so we thought. We arrived to the hotel about 11:30 pm and we were hungry! We had fed a buffet to our guests but we had been roaming and visiting with everyone and had really mainly had cake! Room service had closed at 11:00! So, I really just wanted a soda ( got from a vending machine) and some cheese and crackers, anything at all.

So if you have access to your hotel room in advance, stash some food and drinks!!

Noted! Honestly, We haven't really planned that yet, but I wil note that in my wedding book! My Mom and Dad left for their honeymoon after their wedding and my mom said they didn't really eat at their wedding, so she made my dad stop at a Mcdonalds on the road to the honeymoon! We have been talking about things and we may end up leaving for our honeymoon after our reception and do a late night flight to Disney. It's really going to come down to what flight times are an option.
 
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UPDATE:

Firstly,
I would just like to think everyone for their awsome tips so far! They have been really helpful for me and I have been taking them into consideration and then deciding what is best for the Future Hubs & I. I love all the WDW tips as well as the wedding tips! It's always nice to hear from other peoples experiences, you can really learn alot. So thank you everyone, and keep them coming :thanks:.

Secondly, Future Hubs got some great new at work yesterday... He recently took the leasd on a project which has resulted in a promotion and a raise! With this we know have a more play in our budget! While we don't play to go crazy with this, we did some number crunching. Future Hubs gets paid weekly at his job, so we take our total disney package price and we with our travel we have to finish paying a month before travel. So math ensued and we've decided to shift resorts! SO we are now staying at Carribbean Beach! :beach: We decided this after discussions, number cruching, and thought we are happy with our choice :cool1: . What do you guys think of Carribbean Beach? Did we make a good move?

Thirdly, For MNSSHP, we are planning to go and several close family members have decided to get us tickets as a gift. While recieveing tickets like this as a gift could cause some complication, with family I'm not super worried about it. Mostly because I can sit down with them and we can pick a date and everything together.

Lastly, We've cut the dining plan (maybe). We thought about it and we like the idea of prepaying for most of our food and Future Hubs keeps bringing it up, but we like flexibility too. It's still hanging in the balance... more towards not getting it. So I'll keep everyone posted :thumbsup2

Again, Thank you to everyone! All your comments, advice, and words have been really helpful! Future Hubs and I really appreciate everything! :disrocks:
 

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