Honeymoon Trip: POR or BWI

o0quirkygirl0o

just a little mischievous
Joined
Apr 22, 2013
My fiance and I are planning on taking a 9 day honeymoon at Disney World in late October. I have been to Disney World before, last time my family stayed at CBR, but he has never been before.

As for the rooms, he is more sold on the value of the POR and I am more sold on the location and charm of BWI. But, I also find POR quite pretty, both inside and out. It just seems far from the parks. Either way we want to get a package with the DDP and park hopper passes.

Here's the question, is it worth it to splurge and go for BWI? We will be going during the Food and Wine Festival, so BWI is perfectly located close to Epcot. Then again, it is quite a price jump and neither one of us is super picky about having a lavish room. Would it be worth it?

Also, would you suggest something completely different that isn't even on our radar? Any suggestions on places or dinners we shouldn't miss? Thanks!
 
I'm staying at BWI for my honeymoon at the beginning of October! Boardwalk is my favorite area, and we're getting married at Sea Breeze Point, so we thought it would be worth the extra money on our honeymoon.

I'm really looking forward to being walking distance from FW Festival when the buses are all crowded. Also, if we don't want to spend all day in the parks, we can just hang out in our room and walk over to Epcot for dinner or something.

I've also stayed at POR, and it's one of my favorites. It's very romantic. You can take a horse drawn carriage ride there! My fiancé and I really enjoyed that. However, the bus ride to parks will be longer from POR.

I think if money is tight, you should book POR, but if you have the extra money and you're just on the fence about spending you should choose BWI!

They're both great, so I don't think you could make a bad decision.
 
DH and I stayed at POR for part of our honeymoon and then my family's off property time share for the rest. We loved POR. I think it's a very romantic resort and very pretty. I didn't think it was far from the parks; it's not like it's AKL or one of the All Stars in terms of distance.

Personally, we would rather spend the money on other activities (a special tour or special meal or more souvenirs) than on the hotel room. That being said, we open and close the parks regularly and are pretty much in the room to sleep and shower. If that's your MO, then I say save the money and go with POR. If you are more of a hang out at the resort person, then I say spring for BW.
 
Have you thought about doing a split stay? If you can't financially swing the whole time at BWI, then maybe 5 nights at POR and 4 at BWI?

We've done split stays before, it's easy. (And kinda fun).


We stayed at BWI during the first week of our wedding/honeymoon trip and we loved it. We got married at SBP and really from the moment we checked in to the moment we checked out, we were so happy and relaxed.

It's still one of our favorite stays at WDW.
 


Have you thought about doing a split stay? If you can't financially swing the whole time at BWI, then maybe 5 nights at POR and 4 at BWI?

We've done split stays before, it's easy. (And kinda fun).


We stayed at BWI during the first week of our wedding/honeymoon trip and we loved it. We got married at SBP and really from the moment we checked in to the moment we checked out, we were so happy and relaxed.

It's still one of our favorite stays at WDW.

x2 for a split stay...:)
 
Thanks so much for all the GREAT advice! We have a ton to think about. I'd never considered a split stay, but it could be a great plan. How do split stays work with dining and park passes? Is it a big hassle?
 


Park passes shouldn't get affected by the split stay. If you book it as a package, simply book your 5 nights hotel stay and then add on 9 days park passes. They're valid for 9 days from the first point you use them regardless of how long your hotel stay is.

As far as the dining plan, it might be a tad more tricky, but definitely doable. Your dining plan starts on the day of your check-in, so the first 5 day segment (for example) would start on your check-in at the POR, and then your last 4 day segment starts on the check-in at the BWI. And generally, if you have credits left over, you can still use on the day of your check-out, so for example, if you have a meal credit left over from your first 5 day use, you can use it for breakfast on your check-out date since the 4 day plan with the other hotel probably wouldn't get activated until closer to lunch time. Overall, you get the same amount of credits you would have gotten if you did a 9 days straight.

That's my understanding of it, though I've personally never done it myself (I work in the travel industry though so that's how I recommend it :P) so maybe someone who's done it before knows of a simpler way. Maybe if you book directly over the phone with Disney they have a different way of doing it so that's definitely something to look into.

Also a quick mention as to POR's location. I've never stayed there, but I did stay at the POFQ so right next to it, in early November (which should be about the same crowd level as late October). Animal Kingdom was the furthest away of all the parks, and I believe it was about a 15 minutes ride. Everything else was under 10 minutes :) The only thing with the Riverside is that the resort is sooooo big, so depending on your room location, that can add on to the transportation time.
 
How about POFQ. It's small like BWI and has lots of charm and is romantic, but has the same price as the larger POR. Plus you get to take the boat to dtd which we love.
 
I also recommend a split stay. This way you can save some money by staying at POR for the majority of your trip, but can take advantage of the location of BWI. Disney will transport your luggage to the second resort if you take it to bell services in the morning. They make it pretty convenient.

I love both resorts. POR is charming - I especially love the Alligator Bayou section. Make sure you see Yee Ha Bob at the River Roost lounge
 
I would say stay at BWI. BUT we are a family of 6. We stayed at POR about 10 years ago. We were greatly disappointed with it. We've stayed the Board Walk Villa and loved them. Once we were a family of 5, the other time there were only 3 of us. Keep in mind however we are a family. So room size made a big difference.
I don't think you mentioned whether you will have a car. If not AND you truly plan to spend alot of time in Epcot, I would say splurge on the BWI.
I know you seem to already have your plans on how to get the room/dining/tickets. But, you may want to consider a couple other options.
1) rent DVC points then buy your tickets/dining seperate
2) purchase an AP and use the AP discount for room only. ( you will get some dining discounts as well). Then you can decide if it is worth it for you to pay for dining out of pocket.
Packages are great. Especially if you want to get it all done & not worry about anything. But, if you are looking to save money sometimes other options are better.

Whatever you choose.... CONGRATULATIONS!! Best wishes for a wonderful wedding, honeymoon, and marriage!
 
I will offer another choice WL priced between POR & BWI. We love WL.

Kae
 
You've chosen two of my favorites! I think you'll enjoy either, but given the time of year you're going, I think there's a great value to staying at the Boardwalk. It really is worth the splurge if you'll be spending a lot of time at Epcot (and I know that during the Festival, we spend at least half of our park time there).
 
I am doing my honeymoon in jan. we are doing a split stay at BWV and ....... we haven't decided yet;)

I vote for split stay!
 
Thanks for all your WONDERFUL advice. We are still deciding... I think it will depend on how on budget our wedding stays. If we keep it on track, we'll go for BWI. If we start getting carried away with the wedding, POR will win.

I thought about POFQ but... honestly... (I know this is shallow and silly) the jester guys and the giant creepy heads scare me. They totally weird me out. I can't imagine staying somewhere where those giant heads could be looking at me. It's like they are looking into your soul, and leering.

We're debating the split stay, but I'm a little worried the meal plan could get very confusing and somewhat difficult to handle. I don't want to feel tied to using my credits on one half or the other only. But, it still might work.

I talked to my fiance about doing a DVC room. I'm still a little sketchy on how they work. I also worry that during Food and Wine Festival (and with only a 6 month lead) we may be too late to book into BWI. But, if anyone has experience with renting DVC I would love the info and perspective. Maybe it might be the best bet.

Oh! A few additional notes: We won't have a car, but we are city folks and accustomed to daily bus rides. We like to hit the parks hard in the morning, then grab lunch, followed by heading back to the room to relax for a while. Then, we head back out to the parks for dinner and follow that with more park time. So, we would be spending a fair amount of time both in the rooms and in the park. That's one of the reasons I thought BWI would be so handy. We could go back and forth so easily.

Thanks again for all the help! I really appreciate it!!! And congrats to all the newly and soon to be married around here!!!
 
Thanks for all your WONDERFUL advice. We are still deciding... I think it will depend on how on budget our wedding stays. If we keep it on track, we'll go for BWI. If we start getting carried away with the wedding, POR will win.

I thought about POFQ but... honestly... (I know this is shallow and silly) the jester guys and the giant creepy heads scare me. They totally weird me out. I can't imagine staying somewhere where those giant heads could be looking at me. It's like they are looking into your soul, and leering.

We're debating the split stay, but I'm a little worried the meal plan could get very confusing and somewhat difficult to handle. I don't want to feel tied to using my credits on one half or the other only. But, it still might work.

I talked to my fiance about doing a DVC room. I'm still a little sketchy on how they work. I also worry that during Food and Wine Festival (and with only a 6 month lead) we may be too late to book into BWI. But, if anyone has experience with renting DVC I would love the info and perspective. Maybe it might be the best bet.

Oh! A few additional notes: We won't have a car, but we are city folks and accustomed to daily bus rides. We like to hit the parks hard in the morning, then grab lunch, followed by heading back to the room to relax for a while. Then, we head back out to the parks for dinner and follow that with more park time. So, we would be spending a fair amount of time both in the rooms and in the park. That's one of the reasons I thought BWI would be so handy. We could go back and forth so easily.

Thanks again for all the help! I really appreciate it!!! And congrats to all the newly and soon to be married around here!!!

That is too funny about being creeped out by the large heads. ... But i see your point.

As far as dvc. We own, but I have never rented out our points. I very recently found the need to rent points from another member for an upcoming trip. I was very fortunate. I found him on the disboards. It is a little complicated why I used him, but basically I needed his points actually in my own dvc account, so I couldn't use some of the renters because they don't "transfer" points into other "members" accounts. I would suggest looking into the rent/transfer dvc points on the disboards. scroll down to dvc on the main thread site & you should find the dvc renting thread. Alot of people rent from some of the rental business type rentals. Many can give you references. I read about renting a lot before I actually rented. We used paypal. You can pm me any questions if you want.
Dee
 
Thanks for all your WONDERFUL advice. We are still deciding... I think it will depend on how on budget our wedding stays. If we keep it on track, we'll go for BWI. If we start getting carried away with the wedding, POR will win.

I thought about POFQ but... honestly... (I know this is shallow and silly) the jester guys and the giant creepy heads scare me. They totally weird me out. I can't imagine staying somewhere where those giant heads could be looking at me. It's like they are looking into your soul, and leering.

Oh, my gosh...I thought I was the only one!

FWIW, I LOVE the Boardwalk, but I've never been able to get myself to go down that scary clown slide! Haven't the imagineers ever seen a Stephen King movie?
 
We stayed at the Beach Club on our Honeymoon. We love the Boardwalk area and the close proximity of those resorts to Epcot and HS. So in your case, my vote is for BWI! We've stayed there before, as well and loved it!
 
I talked to my fiance about doing a DVC room. I'm still a little sketchy on how they work. I also worry that during Food and Wine Festival (and with only a 6 month lead) we may be too late to book into BWI. But, if anyone has experience with renting DVC I would love the info and perspective. Maybe it might be the best bet.

We tried to book a DVC room at 7 months out, and the studios and 1-bedrooms at both Boardwalk and Beach Club were completely booked for all the dates we tried. It's tough to get a room in the Epcot area during a Festival unless you're a points owner (or renting from one) who has Boardwalk or Beach Club as their home resort and can book 11 months out.
 
We tried to book a DVC room at 7 months out, and the studios and 1-bedrooms at both Boardwalk and Beach Club were completely booked for all the dates we tried. It's tough to get a room in the Epcot area during a Festival unless you're a points owner (or renting from one) who has Boardwalk or Beach Club as their home resort and can book 11 months out.

Thanks for the info!!!
 

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