HELP! Possible Honeymoon on a Budget??

[Smoore]

Hello,

My future hubby and I are debating what to do for our honeymoon, and WDW has come up as an option, however, we have a budget.

Our wedding date is still tentative, but we were thinking of WDW from Monday, May 19th through Saturday, May 24th (so we can have a couple of days to recover before going back to work on Tuesday).

The only resort we want to stay in would be the WDW Dolphin or Swan hotel, due to the more luxury feel of the place, proximity to Epcot, etc, etc. We wanted a hotel that had more of a "honeymoon" feel than we felt the upscale regular Disney resorts could offer.

When I priced out everything, it seemed to be almost $4,000!! (And that's even cutting out 2 Days at Universal Studios Orlando that we wanted.)

We need to see if there is any way to budget this at $2,500 to $3,000.

SWA tickets from Dallas to Orlando will probably cost around $500 total (if we're lucky).

With my future hubby's teacher discount, the price of the hotel was roughly $1,500 to $1,600 total for six nights.

Two 6 Day Park Hoppers cost around $525 total (we'd probably want to eat more than one dinner at Epcot, being so close to the hotel).

We want to be able to have decent meals, so we thought roughly $1,000 to $1,200 for food (nice dinners, fairly cheap lunches). We even thought about bringing breakfast food with us to save there (although I know the parks do have cheap options for breakfast as well).

We also would like to have a couples massage, if possible,

Would I get better Hotel and Park Ticket discounts if we went ahead and paid the $65 for an annual AAA membership?

Any other ways to trim this budget down (we're not willing to give up our hotel)?

Does the after park magic hours (available only to Resort guests) cost anything? Back in 2001 it cost around $20 per person for this extra feature, but I don't know if they still charge anything for it.

Right now it's between WDW and a cruise, both of which I'd be happy with, but I prefer WDW --- I haven't been since 2001!!! He's NEVER been!! (Right now the cruise, even with all the excursions, is under $3,000, so right now it's the cheaper choice). I was hoping to go to WDW with just the two of us once before we start trying to have kids the year after we are married (and he finishes his Masters degree).


Thanks!!

Smoore

 

[oneyodafan]

What types of meals are you planning? I think there may be ways to cut your meal budget. Maybe do 2-3 nice meals and the rest counter service. When DH and I have traveled just the two of us, we spend nowhere near that for a week's trip. We typically try to do 1-3 nice table service and then the rest counter whenever we're hungry. We snack our way around World Showcase too.

Yes, Extra Magic Hours is available to guests staying at the Dolphin & Swan. There is no charge for it.

The AAA discount may be helpful. You'll have to contact your local AAA office most likely for ticket prices.

Have your registered for the DING with Southwest? I know some people have saved moocha $ with that. It looks like they are only open to March right now. Is there another airport near you within a couple hours that may be cheaper? We've found that driving 3 hours to Milwaukee or Minneapolis saves us significantly. We're planning a trip with the kids for Aug, and it will be $500 cheaper to fly out of MKE than our local small airport. With that savings, we can stay overnight before we fly out and still save.

Good luck planning!

 

[DisneySweetie]

Check out the Disney Honeymoon Registry:
http://honeymoonregistry.disney.go.com/

Although, you have to book your package through WDW travel and I am not sure if the Swan or Dolphin are included in the available resorts. I think they would be because all that the website says is that you have to have a magic your way package (which you can have with the Swan or Dolphin). We are doing the Disney Honeymoon Registry as our main registry. But we have also registered elsewhere for people who want more traditional gift options. The registry allows you to add meals, hotel, tickets, and even massages to your list. In the end it just all gets put on a special honeymoon gift card in one lump sum to spend however you wish. So, you don't even necessarily have to eat at the place you registered for. I think this is a great option for people who want to have a nice honeymoon but don't quite have the funds to do so. Before this came along, we were going to ask everyone for Disney Gift Cards. We have enough stuff, we want memories and Disney fun.

Good luck and congrats on your upcoming wedding!

 

[mcarthur205]

I think you have over-budgeted for food costs. We spent 5 nights/6 days at WDW last year. We are a family of four, although my DS is 12 and qualifies as an 'adult' at Disney lol, so three adults, one child. We were on the dining plan so we made sure to use all our credits! I kept the receipts and without the plan our expenditure would have been $975. We ate dinner at Le Cellier, Garden Grill, 1900 Park Fare, and we had character breakfasts at Crystal Palace and Akershus. We used all our counter service meals and snacks too! So I think with only 2 of you, you could eat for less than this, even eating a table service dinner every evening!

I know you can't get the dining plan at the Swan/Dolphin, but they are beautiful hotels. Here's a picture of the view from our room when DH and I stayed at the Dolphin in July,

towards the Boardwalk

towards Disney/MGM Studios

Enjoy your honeymoon

 

[lurkyloo]

I'm pretty sure AAA doesn't give you park ticket discounts, and their hotel discount doesn't seem to be as good as the Teacher rate at the Swan/Dolphin. If you're paying $500+ for your park admission, you might consider getting one Annual Pass, which would let you buy the Disney Dining Experience Card. This gives you 20% off at most table-service restaurants, including alcohol. It doesn't work at any counter service, though, so it depends on where you like to eat.... the card costs $65, and when I did the math for our trip, the break-even point was $325 worth of food. We'll be spending way more than that!

Have you been to www.mousesavers.com? They have great ideas for saving money, including discount codes for car rental companies and links to places that sell park admission for a little bit less...

Oh, and access to Extra Magic hours access doesn't cost extra!