Planning Advice for Honeymooning at WDW, Getting up early or Sleep in?

[DisneyZombie]

Our Honeymoon to Disney will be October 22-27 2013. We're driving down and we're staying at the Port Orleans French Quarter on the Deluxe Dinning Plan.

So Yesterday I started trying to customize our own touring plan at Touringplans.com and it hit me, This is our honeymoon and I'm not sure we should try to commando (if I'm using that term correctly) the parks everyday.
I'm fine with getting up at 7am most days if it means shorter line's at the rides and having the afternoon to ourselves to do as we please but my Fiance isn't going to be a help in this area as he's on vacation and will probably not be as ready at the thought of getting up so early every day we're there.

We're spending these days at these parks and what touring plans crowd calendar says -
Tuesday 22 - MK - 1.1
Wednesday 23 - Epcot - 4.7
Thursday 24 - MK - 1.1
Friday 25 - Epcot - 7.3
Saturday 26 - Hollywood Studios - 5.9
Sunday 27 - AK - 5.8

Since we're going during a Some what slow time, I was wondering if it would be better if we at least made it to the parks by 10am maybe getting him up at 8:30-9am. We'll miss the first big wave of park opening and be able to catch a few rides before lunch.

All I'm really asking is advice from anyone who's previously honeymooned at WDW. What did you do and how did you do it? Did you get up early some days and relax on others? Should I follow a touring plan or just wing it and have fun?

 

[ghtx]

It sounds like you're asking a very personal question...

 

[DisneyZombie]

I apologize if I am asking something to personal, I just like having opinions. I can take the thread down if it's too much.

 

[Cyrano]

Going to pop this over to the Wedding board as lots of folks there will have actual experience to help the OP.

 

[mommy2jack]

My DH and I honeymoon at WDW back in 2004. We only had 3 days at the parks then we went on a 4 day Disney cruise. There was no sleeping in for us! I don't sleep in on vacation! I feel like I'm missing too much! It's a personal preference. Before kids we pretty much opened and closed the parks, even on our honeymoon. We never have and never will follow touring plans though... that's too much planning for me!

That being said let me offer this advice to you. Instead of going to the parks EVERYDAY, consider taking a 'break' day. You can sleep in, go to the pool, explore the resort, or go to DTD. This will give you a nice break from the craziness. I would maybe only go to Epcot one day and make the other epcot day a 'break' day. I also don't know if I would do MK, EP, MK, EP all in a row like that... there's a lot of walking at both of those parks. But I guess you could do MK (early), EP (sleep in, go around 10), MK (sleep in), EP (early). Just a thought. It's really all up to you and your new DH!

Congrats and have fun!!

 

[DisneyZombie]

Going to pop this over to the Wedding board as lots of folks there will have actual experience to help the OP.

Thanks, sorry still new to this site.

 

[Cyrano]

Thanks, sorry still new to this site.

No problem. We are all here to help folks old and new on the DIS

 

[DisneyZombie]

My DH and I honeymoon at WDW back in 2004. We only had 3 days at the parks then we went on a 4 day Disney cruise. There was no sleeping in for us! I don't sleep in on vacation! I feel like I'm missing too much! It's a personal preference. Before kids we pretty much opened and closed the parks, even on our honeymoon. We never have and never will follow touring plans though... that's too much planning for me!

That being said let me offer this advice to you. Instead of going to the parks EVERYDAY, consider taking a 'break' day. You can sleep in, go to the pool, explore the resort, or go to DTD. This will give you a nice break from the craziness. I would maybe only go to Epcot one day and make the other epcot day a 'break' day. I also don't know if I would do MK, EP, MK, EP all in a row like that... there's a lot of walking at both of those parks. But I guess you could do MK (early), EP (sleep in, go around 10), MK (sleep in), EP (early). Just a thought. It's really all up to you and your new DH!

Congrats and have fun!!

Thank you, what you posted is the general idea on how to go about visiting the parks the first 4 days, and that was my Fiances choice of how to visit them. Or what came to mind while posting this.

 

[disneycat321]

We honeymooned at Disney World in June 2010. We had the BEST time. We actually had a really relaxing trip. We took advantage of evening EMH hours but never made one morning one. We joked that we never adjusted to Florida time from CA time because we never got up early lol. It was fine for us. We had a general idea of what parks we'd go to based on ADRs, but we had never been to Disney World so we had no idea what we'd Iike the most. Turned out that we love EPCOT, especially WS, so we spent a lot of evenings there.

We went at a much more crowded time than you are, never once checked a crowd forecast calendar, and were totally fine. We didn't feel like we missed anything due to crowds. We are planning this next trip in a bit more detail, but still going with the flow in many ways.

It worked for us, but it's really personal preference!

 

[lurkyloo]

I second the idea of mixing it up. We had some early, commando-touring days and some sleep-in, lounge-by-the-pool or visit-the-resorts days. Once you've had a good solid commando day in each park, you may feel more free to just pop in for an afternoon or a meal.

 

[tric8783]

We go to Disney often, and are going back for our anniversary in May. We always hang around in the room in the mornings - I have a few reservations for breakfast but not every single day, so that we can relax and take our time. When we go to the parks late (I consider getting there after 9AM late), we usually only last til noon or so. The crowds are too much and ruins it, so we head back to the hotel, lay out at the pool, take a nap. Then we get showered and dressed for dinner and head out and back to another park for the night. Since you're going during the food and wine festival, I would suggest having a few nights open to stroll the festival and take it leisurely. You're on your honeymoon you don't want to be running around crazy And my DH is never happy about me waking him too early, so if he doesnt feel like getting up yet, I explore the resort or sit on the balcony and read until he's ready to 'get up and go'. I'm not one of the people who could stay in a park from open to close, that takes away all the magic to me. You're there for enough time that you can take it in leisurely and really enjoy each other's company I think. Happy Honeymooning!

 

[kkbutterfly]

I guess it depends on how much of morning people you are. We aren't morning people so we slept in almost every day. We woke up early once for breakfast (it was at 10am so i know alot of people say thats not early but when you get back from wedding festivities at 4am after consuming many adult beverages, it is). That one breakfast is the one thing I'd not do again and sleep in as late as I want. But if you are a morning person or don't mind waking up, I'd say get up and get to the parks early! I wish we could do that, but waking up early isn't what I consider a vacation!

 

[aristocatz]

For the first time in the history of our WDW trips together, we decided to "play it by ear" on our honeymoon & it ended up to be the best trip ever! We figured we have gone to WDW so many times, we have gone on all of the rides & attractions, let's just enjoy ourselves & try to discover the details that we so often miss.

I quote "play it by ear" because I am a neurotic planner, so I had a plan for everyday-I had ADR's and Ridemax itineraries, etc....it was just up to us whether we wanted to follow it each day. Some days we did, other days we canceled our ADR's & just saw where the day happened to take us.

I would recommend park hopper tickets-it allows your day to be much more flexible

 

[Dr Ken]

It's all about what YOU want it do.

Personally, I'm planning to visit the parks early most mornings and then relax in the afternoons and evenings. For the money, this won't get us much time on the rides but, for this trip, that's not the object! We want to leisurely enjoy a surrey ride or just hang out together on our honeymoon.

If you're an evening person, there's lots to see in the evening. But, the lines could be long and they might have run out of FP.

Whatever you decide, plan some down days with no parks. Give yourself time to slow down and relax together.