Honeymoon Resort Budget Question

[SnoWhite]

My fiance and I are planning our honeymoon in WDW. We are going to be there next April 27th, for 7 nights. (I wish we could stay longer!)
We are hoping to stay at either the BWI or the YC, we just can't seem to decide between the two.
We have budgeted $3000 for our trip (not including airfare and some meals), but so far the hotel alone is more than that. We thought about buying AP's, but now that I hear there may not be as many AP discounts I'm wondering if we would be better off with a package deal? Anyone have any suggestions for us? I'm open to any ideas as far as which hotel, how to save money, AP rates, etc.

Thanks!
Lisa

 

[mitymott]

You might want to try to rent points from a dvc member. You
could then use the points to stay at BWV. A week in a studio in the end of april goes for around 134 pts. If you rented the pts for 10 each your week would cost $1340. Ck the dvc rent trade board. Good luck and congratulations,

 

[diznee25]

We thought about buying AP's, but now that I hear there may not be as many AP discounts I'm wondering if we would be better off with a package deal?

Lisa,

We are also honeymooning at WDW, in December though. You're very smart to wait and see what happens with AP discounts and Disney Packages.

One piece of advice I'd give you is book a hotel at which you can afford to pay rack rate for. If BWI & YC are already out of your budget, you may want to look at other resorts that are within your budget. Otherwise you get into a stressful problem of hanging by a piece of thread for discounts because you already booked a resort out of your price range. If discounts aren't released, then you have to cancel your ressie and find a new resort, hoping that the new hotel isn't booked! I'm sure you don't want to go thru that a month or two before your honeymoon!!

Regarding Disney's Packages: The only money saving package thus far was the FTP (Fairytale Package), and it's not being offered at the moment. It's anyone's guess if Disney's newer Packages will even give substantial discounts to make it worth staying at BWI or YC. Most of Disney regular Packages offer extras: including pins, rounds of mini golf, your photo up in Epcot on those gray things, (forgot what they're called!), etc, instead of resort discounts.

One more thing: Your trip is pretty far away that you have time to keep an eye on current discounts for the next few months and see what happens. Don't make a decission now, wait a couple months.

Diznee25

 

[nemofan]

I also went to Disney for my honeymoon. The first night we stayed at the Marriott for about $50 a night. Then we moved to the contemporary. We booked a garden room. When we checked in I told them it was our Honeymoon and asked to be upgraded to the tower..and they did it. We got the AP and came back the next year for out 1st anniversary. This time we stay 1 week at the Animal Kingdom then moved to Port Orleans to save some money. It is very easy to change hotels. The 1st time we went to Disney we stayed at the All stars. We did not have that much money at the time and the CM I booked with Told me no matter where you stay at Disney you are still going to get the same Disney Service. That has stuck with me..we have stayed at many of the Disney Hotels and we would go back to AllStars again. Best of luck

 

[MScott1851]

You are taking the right first step by finding these boards...

We spent an entire week last September for our honeymoon, and are going next month for our anniversary. The best advice I can give to you is to do your homework first, then be flexible! You can have what you want on your budget, I promise!

I had my heart set on GF concierge, until I realized that it would blow our budget. Through researching on here, Intercot, Mousesavers, etc, I was able to find the best deal for a honeymoon that still was acceptable to us both. For our honeymoon, we stayed at AKL poolview for five nights with UHP, then over to Royal Pacific at Universal for two nights, all for under $2000. This year, we are staying at the DTD Hilton for two nights, three day PHP passes from Alamo, five nights at the Hard Rock with passes to Universal all five days, rental car, and roundtrip airfare for $1700...

Good luck and happy planning...Just don't get OCD about it like I did! I was so obsessed with WDW/Universal and getting the best deal that my husband was about to kill me!