Honeymoon Budget

[justme0729]

I am wondering if anyone would be willing to share their budgets for their honeymoons? I am pricing out a 3 Night Disney Cruise with 5 nights at the Polynesian, Park Hopper and Waterpark Tickets, and the Deluxe Dining Plan. I know that is an expensive trip but I am still surprised at how much it adds up to. I wouldn't want to cut back the dining plan and feel limited to not do signature dining or room service and it would be ideal to do waterparks or the pool during the day and the parks at night. How much are you spending and what does it include?

My pricing was:
3 Night Disney Dream to Bahamas- 1800
Transport to/ from Cruise- 140
Atlantis Tour through Disney- 355
5 Nights Poly (Rent points 12 pp)- 1920
Deluxe Dining Plan (through DVC)- 1117
Park Hopper and Waterpark Tickets- 840
Flights- 902
Total: $7074

 

[Chilly]

Ours added up to A LOT more than that. But it doesn't really matter what anyone else does. Do what you can afford.

Also check the dining plan is worth it as often you end up spending more than if you'd paid OOP. (Don't forget to factor in tips)

 

[sambycat]

I would just do the math in the dining plan. Rarely is it a greet deal than dining without it? And are you sure you will use the water parks?

 

[marsh0013]

I think you may be hard pressed to find anyone renting Poly points for $12pp (unless you already have someone lined up). More like $14-15pp. What 5 nights are you going though that require an average of 32 points per night? Is it over Christmas in a Lake view? That's the only time of year I can imagine 5 nights being that many points.

I don't know our totals. Right now, we have planned a 7 night Disney cruise. We will also be staying 4-5 nights (including for the wedding) in a BCV studio using points we had transferred into our account (we own BWV but want to stay BCV) at $13pp. We are getting annual passes this October which will be good through the end of our honeymoon next October. We always stagger our trips on APs like that anyway. For food, we will be using Tables in Wonderland, which will also be purchased this October. I'm guessing you don't qualify for that, based on renting points and not having APs.

But I agree about pricing out the Dining Plan. I find that for 1-2 nights, the Deluxe can be a great deal if you spread your meals out over those days, but the longer the trip, the harder it gets to keep up with that level of eating.

I also buy Disney gift cards at a discount and try to use those to pay for everything, so we will be saving at minimum 10% doing that. Could be something to look into at least for the portions you pay directly to Disney.

 

[justme0729]

Thanks everyone, I'll do some math with the dining plan.

I think you may be hard pressed to find anyone renting Poly points for $12pp (unless you already have someone lined up). More like $14-15pp. What 5 nights are you going though that require an average of 32 points per night? Is it over Christmas in a Lake view? That's the only time of year I can imagine 5 nights being that many points.

I don't know our totals. Right now, we have planned a 7 night Disney cruise. We will also be staying 4-5 nights (including for the wedding) in a BCV studio using points we had transferred into our account (we own BWV but want to stay BCV) at $13pp. We are getting annual passes this October which will be good through the end of our honeymoon next October. We always stagger our trips on APs like that anyway. For food, we will be using Tables in Wonderland, which will also be purchased this October. I'm guessing you don't qualify for that, based on renting points and not having APs.

But I agree about pricing out the Dining Plan. I find that for 1-2 nights, the Deluxe can be a great deal if you spread your meals out over those days, but the longer the trip, the harder it gets to keep up with that level of eating.

I also buy Disney gift cards at a discount and try to use those to pay for everything, so we will be saving at minimum 10% doing that. Could be something to look into at least for the portions you pay directly to Disney.

Thank you for the tips about the dining plan and gift cards! I agree that it is a ton of food. What draws me in is the convenience over the value but I should do the math and see if it is a significant difference. I was looking on the rent/trade board and saw quite a few people selling points for 12-13 per point and I made another thread asking about availability at the Poly at 7 months out and while its too hard to tell a pattern yet, they said that a Poly standard view would probably be available at 7 months meaning I don't have to just rent Poly points (which I also saw go for 14-15). This was during spring break 3/21-3/26... We don't have much flexibility for choosing a lower point time unless we do summer which we think the weather just wouldn't make it as enjoyable

 

[kbwright]

Our rough budget is:
Air $500
Photopass $150
Park Tickets (10 day PH+WP) $914
Tables in Wonderland card $110
Food $800
Spending Money $300
Car Rental $130
TOTAL: $2904

I own DVC so the hotel cost I am not including since that is paid out of my monthly budget. We have done the dining plan in the past but found it was way too much food and since neither of us are big dessert people, it was a waste. I do better getting TiW card and paying out of pocket. The thing that we did enjoy about the Dining Plan was that it was just simple. We went, we ordered, we ate, we tipped. No more thought to it
We are trying to not go too crazy with cost but still make the honeymoon special from our usual Disney vacations. Just being there for 14 days and being able to take things at a slow pace should make that happen!!!

 

[elphie101]

We had a somewhat similar honeymoon: 8 nights at WDW (renting points at BCV) and a 7-Night cruise on the Fantasy:

DVC: $1484 (I want to say we got $13 pp, but this was also back in 2013)
Cruise: $3054.30
Flights: $848
Excursions on Cruise: $138
Misc food, souvenirs etc: $1800

Total: $7324 (we had our tickets via our APs from having a wedding at Disney)

Now our honeymoon was obviously quite longer than yours, plus we're big drinkers on vacation But everyone does things differently and prioritizes things differently. I agree with the PPs that I would seriously consider not using the dining plan, and I would budget at least $15pp for the Poly, just to be safe. I personally would not get the WP&M ticket, even though I love the water parks - the pool at the Poly is pretty decent and recently refurbished after all.

 

[JennyHall]

Our honeymoon is August 13-21 for 9 days. It will be 3400 for staying at POR with park tickets, memory maker, water park and more option. Add in 900 for Universal tickets for three days with express passes and park hopper, and 900 for roundtrip airfare. That puts us about 5200 not including food or souvenirs. We are thinking about getting the deluxe dining plan, but we will do the math to figure out if it would be worth it!

 

[justme0729]

Thanks for sharing everyone! It helps make my numbers not seem outrageously unreasonable