Disney honeymoon?

[aschwarz]

Hi there,

For a long time, I was absolutely certain I'd honeymoon in WDW. We wanted to get married there and faced loads of problems when trying to plan that, so we decided to have a local wedding next October. Now that we are in full-on planning mode, we've begun thinking about honeymoon destinations.

I know October for a lot of places is hurricane season, so that sort of knocks out a lot of Caribbean islands. I was dead set on a Disney honeymoon. But now, with fastpass+ and ADRs seeming like a necessity, I'm not so sure. Has anyone honeymooned there in the past few weeks who would kindly give insight? I do consider myself a planner when it comes to my Disney vacations, but planning out rides and places to eat every single day seems absolutely nuts even to me. Thanks!

 

[JandJ]

Well, it wasn't in the last few weeks, that's for sure, but we were married at Disney in October. I knew we'd be there a few days after the wedding, but I didn't want that to be our entire honeymoon, so we went on a cruise. Hurricane Rita struck and our Mexico cruise became a Bahamas cruise, but it didn't matter. The few days at Disney followed by the cruise was a wonderful honeymoon and I'd recommend it! The only thing I would suggest planning is one or two dinner reservations if there are certain restaurants you want to try. I'm an exhaustive planner, but you don't have to plan every waking moment of your honeymoon - relax, it only happens once so just go with the flow and have fun!

Don't rule out places because of hurricane season. This year they predicted an "active" season and we barely even had a severe thunderstorm (I live about 1.5 hours west of Disney) so try not to rule out a destination you're interested in because there might be a hurricane. A cruise will be diverted and Disney is a great place to be if there's a hurricane because of their own generated power and they will keep you safe and entertained. In 2004 Hurricane Charlie hit us in Orlando. The next day we went to Disney because they had power while nothing else did!

 

[elphie101]

We haven't honeymooned in Disney but we were part of the test during our engagement stay last September, and I don't think it's that bad. At least back then you could change your FP+ even the day of if you decided to say, watch Finding Nemo the Musical even though it was going to conflict with your Expedition Everest FP+. It was also really nice on our Studios day because we were able to enjoy a Boma breakfast with our parents knowing we would be able to ride Toy Story in the afternoon since we had already made the FP+ reservation - knowing you have a Toy Story FP without having to get to the park at 8:00am is probably the best example I've found to date on the positives of FP+!

DF is very anti-uber planner as well but he had no problem with letting me pick the park per day and just choosing rides we knew we would want to ride at some point. You'll be fine!

I agree with the PP - if there's a few restaurants you know you want to try, make 3 or 4 ADRs in advance, but know you can also potentially pick some up while you're down there. My dad was able to book Le Cellier 2 days before because someone dropped it at the 48-hour cancel now or pay up deadline. I've also been able to change ADR times day-of if say, we have a big lunch and don't want to eat dinner till later. (Definitely look into the new cancellation policy for restaurants though to make sure you won't get in trouble if you drop a reservation same day or two days before.)

 

[holula]

We didn't honeymoon but did WDW about a month ago. It's low crowds, low kids, Food and Wine and I liked having FP+. For us it meant we could do a park in the morning and then go to another park in the evening and have three FP waiting for us. It worked well when the system was working (when it was down it was a nightmare but it's still in testing). The weather was perfect - sun for the whole week but not too hot. We are not big table service people so I can't help you there.

 

[Narnian_Princess]

DH and I honeymooned at WDW the first week of October this year. We stayed at SOG and had military tickets so we were not eligible for FP+, which worried me a bit at first. But by hitting rope drop and getting those one or two must dos in early or grabbing paper fastpasses (or both) we had a very satisfying trip. Weather was not bad-- we got the front end of a tropical depression or something that made it quite rainy for an afternoon, but it really didn't affect us much. If you do decide on WDW, I'd advise you to take it slow. We picked parks each day that were closing early for parties or other events in hopes that they would be less crowded. Our Epcot day was the only day we were in the parks past 7 PM, and even with the early evenings, relaxed touring, and a break/resort day we were completely wiped out by the end. Weddings tend to be more emotionally and physically demanding than you expect, and jumping right into go-go-go touring most likely won't be good for anyone. That's one advantage I can see to FP+, knowing that you have three guaranteed rides that day and letting the Disney and honeymoon magic carry you along the rest of the time.

I also noticed you're worried about ADRs-- don't be! Yes, we had to pick which park we'd be in in advance, but that's the sort of thing that tends not to really matter in practice. If anything, I liked knowing which park I was going to on what day because then I could get excited and anticipate finally getting to ride new Star Tours on this day or introducing DH to Festival of the Lion King on that.

 

[aschwarz]

Thank you all SO so so much! I guess that's what I'm grappling with. We do like to go-go-go when we're at Disney (understandably so, it's too much fun not to!) and I'm worried we'll burn out and need another honeymoon after the stress of pre-wedding, then the actual wedding, and then an action-packed honeymoon. But I secretly can't imagine going anywhere else! I'm just not sure he's 100% on board yet (though he does LOVE Disney just as much as I do and frequently makes comments like "can we go back yet?!")