No Hawaiian Trip for us this Anniversary :(

[EllenFrasier]

Dh and I will celebrate 25 years of marriage this year! When we first got married, we were planning on going to Hawaii for our honeymoon, but the cruise we wanted to go on left the morning of our wedding! Since we thought we should probably attend our own wedding, we made other plans and took a Caribbean cruise instead.
So we told ourselves that we would take the trip to Hawaii on our 25th anniversary. That was before we bought a house, had children, and life in general happened.
Now our 25th anniversary is coming up in May and I would really like to celebrate it big, but we do not have a Hawaiian budget. When my husband's parents celebrated their anniversary (before we met), he and his brother and sisters got together and gave them a party. Our children are not old enough to do that and we both do not like being the center of attention.
Any creative ideas would be much appreciated!

 

[Donaldswife]

Dh and I will celebrate 25 years of marriage this year! When we first got married, we were planning on going to Hawaii for our honeymoon, but the cruise we wanted to go on left the morning of our wedding! Since we thought we should probably attend our own wedding, we made other plans and took a Caribbean cruise instead.
So we told ourselves that we would take the trip to Hawaii on our 25th anniversary. That was before we bought a house, had children, and life in general happened.
Now our 25th anniversary is coming up in May and I would really like to celebrate it big, but we do not have a Hawaiian budget. When my husband's parents celebrated their anniversary (before we met), he and his brother and sisters got together and gave them a party. Our children are not old enough to do that and we both do not like being the center of attention.
Any creative ideas would be much appreciated!

A long weekend at the Polynesian in the Hawaii (club level) longhouse?

 

[Marionnette]

Dh and I will celebrate 25 years of marriage this year! When we first got married, we were planning on going to Hawaii for our honeymoon, but the cruise we wanted to go on left the morning of our wedding! Since we thought we should probably attend our own wedding, we made other plans and took a Caribbean cruise instead.
So we told ourselves that we would take the trip to Hawaii on our 25th anniversary. That was before we bought a house, had children, and life in general happened.
Now our 25th anniversary is coming up in May and I would really like to celebrate it big, but we do not have a Hawaiian budget. When my husband's parents celebrated their anniversary (before we met), he and his brother and sisters got together and gave them a party. Our children are not old enough to do that and we both do not like being the center of attention.
Any creative ideas would be much appreciated!

How big is the budget? My sister and her husband went to Costa Rica last year for a couple thousand dollars. They loved it! In fact, my nephew is heading there for spring break. If a college kid can afford a trip there, it must be doable!

 

[EllenFrasier]

I have a pineapple budget. In other words, I can afford to buy a pineapple, No airfare of any kind will be involved in whatever way we celebrate. The Polynesian sounds very nice - if we lived in FL I might even consider it.

 

[Miss Peach]

Two summers ago marked the year we had always said we would return to Hawaii. Well, we just could not afford the money, nor could we spare the time.

So we had a Hawaii week at home. We watched Gidget Goes Hawaiian, Blue Hawaii, James Mitchner's Hawaii and a few others.

We made Hawaiian 'type' food and listened to Hawaiian cds.

Our son-in-law plays the uke, so he and the fam came over one night and we had a luau with live music and singing.

We used hawaiian fragranced shower products.

It was alot of fun--and CHEAP!!

Happy Anniversay!

Cathy

 

[sissy_ib]

I have a pineapple budget. In other words, I can afford to buy a pineapple, No airfare of any kind will be involved in whatever way we celebrate. The Polynesian sounds very nice - if we lived in FL I might even consider it.

How about a nice romantic weekend away somewhere in driving distance? Where do you life? Someone may be able to think of somewhere nice you didn't even know of. If your kids are little do you have someone you can drop them off with? Even a weekend at home alone can be romantic

 

[bumbershoot]

What if you had a small celebration, and as your gift to each other, you set up a solid "this is what we are going to do and how we are going to do it" plan for Hawaii. So you're not going to Hawaii now, but you're setting things in motion so that you CAN go at a certain time in the future.


The cruise thing is annoying isn't it, how they leave on saturdays? We married on a Sunday, took the week as a hang out at home doing the business of being newly married week, then got on our cruise the Saturday *after* our wedding. People thought we were weird, but we got to go to Alaska that way!

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

Since we thought we should probably attend our own wedding

tag fairy.....where are you?

 

[a1tinkfans]

A long weekend at the Polynesian in the Hawaii (club level) longhouse?

Thats what we did just this past summer for our 25th! That was a wonderful celebration. Our anniversary is not in the summer, but its when we travel so we chose July 4th week, it was Spectacular Week and and Club Level was great!

 

[CC12005]

Could you host a luau party at home to give some island flavor to your anniversary? This puts you in control of the costs.

 

[Bearvet]

ITA with bumbershoot - plan for Hawaii - you won't regret it.

We celebrated our 25th in 2009 and I began planning our Hawaii trip the year before. It took 2 years to plan and save up enough money to do the trip, so our trip was the year of our 26th anniversary. I was fine with that because for me planning is half the fun and I knew I /we had an amazing trip to look forward to.

I love the idea of having a Hawaii night this year and give some gifts you can use to begin planning your trip - travel books (I recommend the "Revealed" series), a Hawaiin print shirt for DH, snorkel gear, etc. Choose a realistic target date and start planning and saving.

We used credit card points for airfare (from the east coast) and each of our tickets only cost $150 roundtrip. We have timeshares and I traded for places in Hawaii - you might want to look on vrbo.com for rentals that include a kitchen to save on some meal costs. We chose to use our money for activities (helicopter ride over the volcano, snorkel boat trips, etc) rather than eat in fancy restaurants. It's not a cheap vacation, but if you take your time you can make it happen.

My Mom died unexpectedly when she was 60 and never got around to doing the things she dreamed of. Life is too short to put off special things - and celebrating 25 years of marriage is very special .

I turn 50 next week and I want to go to Europe - we've never been. It probably won't happen for 2-3 years, but I just bought my first travel book to begin the planning - and I'm fine with waiting. Good luck and congratulations!

 

[pigletto]

ITA with bumbershoot - plan for Hawaii - you won't regret it.

We celebrated our 25th in 2009 and I began planning our Hawaii trip the year before. It took 2 years to plan and save up enough money to do the trip, so our trip was the year of our 26th anniversary. I was fine with that because for me planning is half the fun and I knew I /we had an amazing trip to look forward to.

I love the idea of having a Hawaii night this year and give some gifts you can use to begin planning your trip - travel books (I recommend the "Revealed" series), a Hawaiin print shirt for DH, snorkel gear, etc. Choose a realistic target date and start planning and saving.

We used credit card points for airfare (from the east coast) and each of our tickets only cost $150 roundtrip. We have timeshares and I traded for places in Hawaii - you might want to look on vrbo.com for rentals that include a kitchen to save on some meal costs. We chose to use our money for activities (helicopter ride over the volcano, snorkel boat trips, etc) rather than eat in fancy restaurants. It's not a cheap vacation, but if you take your time you can make it happen.

My Mom died unexpectedly when she was 60 and never got around to doing the things she dreamed of. Life is too short to put off special things - and celebrating 25 years of marriage is very special .

I turn 50 next week and I want to go to Europe - we've never been. It probably won't happen for 2-3 years, but I just bought my first travel book to begin the planning - and I'm fine with waiting. Good luck and congratulations!

Totally agree with bearvet. Don't let go of the dream, just set a realistic goal and put those pennies away until it's reality. Planning can be a fun project to do together

 

[bluedoggy]

Right there with you. We were married in 1972... didn't have money for a honeymoon... Planned to do Hawaii also for our 25th Anniversary... well.. again money, time, work, family.... happened - Hawaii didn't. We will be married 38 yrs and still haven't made it to Hawaii. Now, we do make it a point to do Disney every year, so I don't feel so bad. We always have a plan to make Disney affordable, so that's why we do it. Glad that we were always able to share it with our daughter.
Hawaii still on the bucket-list. I like the idea of having a Hawaii Themed party.

 

[EllenFrasier]

Right there with you. We were married in 1972... didn't have money for a honeymoon... Planned to do Hawaii also for our 25th Anniversary... well.. again money, time, work, family.... happened - Hawaii didn't. We will be married 38 yrs and still haven't made it to Hawaii. Now, we do make it a point to do Disney every year, so I don't feel so bad. We always have a plan to make Disney affordable, so that's why we do it. Glad that we were always able to share it with our daughter.
Hawaii still on the bucket-list. I like the idea of having a Hawaii Themed party.

Can you share with me what your plan is to make it affordable? We have been to WDW as a family twice in 25 years. The first time we stayed on property, the second time we rented a house.

 

[starrzone]

First let me say for reaching 25 years of marriage. I only hope that I (currently unattached) will be so lucky some day

As for suggestions, I agree with the PPs to set up a "We ARE going to Hawaii" plan. Can you get even part-time work for an airline or hotel company? That would cut costs dramatically. You did mention creative...do you have any friends/family who work for an airline or hotel company? They might be able to get you a friend/family discount. I also know that Norwegian Cruise Lines does Hawaiian Cruises year-round; then you'd just have to get yourself there and food and accommodation would already be paid for.

I'll be honest; nothing can replace Hawaii, so I won't suggest other places to go that would be just as good. Heck, if you've survived 25 years of marriage, almost ANY place would be like Hawaii to me! Congrats again, and I KNOW you will make it there some day