Honeymoon Ideas and Costs — Pink Glitter Pumpkins

It is wedding season so I thought I would do some research on potential honeymoon ideas and costs. Honeymoon costs can vary greatly. Today I research three different kinds of honeymoons. With all three my budget was $3,500. I used the honeymoon dates of 5/17/15 - 5/23/15. The prices that I am quoting below were researched mid-February 2015. There is a great chance that prices have changed slightly. But this may give you an idea of some honeymoon options at a reasonable cost.

*Disclaimer: I have only been to one of these locations. So I am basing my information solely on the internet for the other two locations. Also, $3,500 was a random number I picked out. Some people may or may not be able to afford such a honeymoon. The decisions I made below were with that budget in mind. These honeymoon destinations can still be an option for a cheaper price. I will note that with each option on how you could reduce your budget and still afford these destinations.

Alaskan Cruise

I personally have never been on an Alaskan cruise. It is something I hope to do one day. Not necessarily because I have a desire to go to Alaska, but my mom does, and I think it would be fun to go with her someday. So while I do not have Alaska experience, I do have cruise experience. I looked at three cruise lines: Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian. My criteria was below:

Dates after and as close to 5/17/15
Goal was to depart from Seattle, WA
Balcony Room
7 Day Cruise

In the end, I opted for Norwegian. There are three reasons for this. One, it was the cheapest among the three options. Carnival was $2,901.42, Royal was $2,743.54, and Norwegian was $2,655.46 with a $75 onboard credit. Two was the departure location. Norwegian was the only one to offer departure in Seattle. The other two cruise lines only had departures for the dates I wanted from Vancouver. Lastly were the dates. Royal did not have anything until later in May. Carnival only offered an 8 day cruise. Norwegian had a 7 day cruise, and it left on 5/17/15.

As I stated before, Norwegian cruise was going to cost $2,655.46 with a $75 onboard credit. The cost covered a Balcony Guarantee Room for 2 people. The cruise departs from Seattle on 5/17/15 and returns on 5/24/15. The cost covers all food expenses while on the boat just as a typical cruise would. Additional expenses include airfare, taxi, and any excursions. I estimated airfare to cost $864. This was for a Southwest flight for two people round-trip from Atlanta. I used Atlanta as a general location for all of my flights. In addition, a taxi or some other form of transportation would be needed to get from the airport to the cruise terminal. I estimated this would cost $100 round-trip. The total, including onboard credit would be $3,544.46. So just $45 over budget. Again, this does not include any excursions. Those would be additional.

If you wanted to save money on this trip, below are a few options:

1. Choose a less expensive room. Norwegian also offers inside and ocean view rooms. I only picked the balcony because this is your honeymoon after all. A balcony is not required though. I have had family go on Alaskan cruises, and while they also picked a balcony, they ended up spending most of their time on the upper decks to get a full picture view. The money saved from the room could also cover any shore excursions you may want to do. Changing to an inside room will save you over $1000.

2. Pick different dates. No one says you have to go the day after you get married on your honeymoon. You can probably research a little more and find cruises slightly cheaper, or you might can even find cheaper flights on different days.

3. Look into different transportation options from the airport to the cruise terminal. A taxi is a simple option, but a lot of times you can find a shuttle or van service that offers group discounts. That could have you approximately $60!

Again, overall cost of Alaskan cruise for 7 Days: $3,544.46.

All Inclusive Sandals Resort

There are many Sandals Resorts in the Caribbean. I did some research and below was my criteria:

Dates: 5/17/15 - 5/23/15
Flight through Sandals leaving Atlanta, GA

I found the criteria to be pretty simple. Again, I did my research in February, so not a lot of lead time. I found a lot of the resorts were sold out in a lot of room types. The best option I found was Sandals Carlyle. This is located in Jamaica. I personally have never been to Jamaica or to a Sandals resort. I have had family go to Sandals resorts, and they love it. Everything is included with your price. I picked the Ocean View Grande Luxe Room. The total price for the room and flight was $3,495. $5 under budget! If you wanted to go over budget slightly, the Ocean View Penthouse Petite Suite is available for only $3,572.88. That is only $73 over budget.

The resort is small one, but offers some great amenties. There is 24-hour room service available as well as three different restaurants to pick from. If none of those restaurants sound appealing, there is a shuttle that will take you to one of the two nearby Sandals resorts where you can also eat at their restaurants. There are plenty of activities to take part in including karaoke, the fitness center, or for an additional cost, the spa. Again, you are welcome to take the shuttle to one of the other resorts to use any of their amenities.

Want to save money? Here are a few ways:

1. Change room types. You can save over $500 by picking the Carlyle Deluxe room for the exact same dates and flight. This may not give you an ocean view, but with this small of a resort, it should not greatly impact your walking distances as it could at some of the larger resorts. The view of the pool, mountains, or gardens may be worth the extra $500 you can pocket.

2. Book sooner. If you can book far enough in advance, you might can get a less expensive room at another Sandals Resort. Unfortunately, a lot of the other resorts were already sold out. If you are facing a tight deadline, look into going on your honeymoon in the fall.

3. Look into flights other than through Sandals. The benefit of booking through Sandals is that they handle everything for you. They usually also provide you with some sort of airfare credit that you get to use. But there is the possibility that you can save money by booking the airfare separately.

Overall cost for 6 nights at Sandals Carlyle in the Ocean View Grande Luxe Room is $3,495.

Disney World

As you can probably tell from my previous posts as well as my social media accounts, I am a small fan of Disney World. Brad and I actually honeymooned at Disney World. That was the first time Brad had been in several years, and since then we have been back together three times and we are planning another trip as we speak. So it is only fitting that I price a Disney World honeymoon with a $3,500 budget. We aim for a similar budget on our big Disney trips. Sometimes I am better at getting deals than others. For instance, for our honeymoon, my mom and I were at Disney a few months before, so I was able to get a Bounce Back discount which is much better than the discounts offered to the general public. Also, the last time we went, we were able to get the Free Dining Promotion.

The criteria I used for this purpose are below:

Dates: 5/17/15 - 5/23/15
Room: King size bed, Moderate Resort or higher
Tickets: 5 Day Park Hopper, no Water Park option

After researching the resorts and the current offer during the time frame, I have opted to use Port Orleans Riverside for this scenario. Since it is a honeymoon, I picked the King Room which does cost slightly extra than the standard one which has two queen size beds in it. The total price for the King Room at POR and a 5 day park hopper is $2,076.22.

Now you must decide on how to approach food. Since I do have some background at Disney World, I have a better perspective on costs. There are basically three options when it comes to food. I am going to use the "most expensive" option for this purpose. If you ever plan to actually go to Disney World, you can use some of my previous posts regarding planning to help you decide what is better for you. Or you can even email me and I will be glad to help!

Option 1 is the Quick Service Dining Plan. This plan will cost you $503.88 extra. It comes with 1 refillable mug per person, 2 Quick Service Meals per person per day, and 1 Snack per person per day.

Option 2 is the Disney Dining Plan. This plan will cost you $727.68 extra. It comes with 1 refillable mug per person, 1 Quick Service Meal per person per day, 1 Table Service Meal per person per day, and 1 Snack per person per day.

Option 3 is strictly paying out of pocket. Based on our previous trips, Brad and I can estimate spending $1,000 on food for 6 days.

For the purpose of this blog post, I went with Option 3. I do, however, want to state that this is not usually the most expensive option. First off, the dining plans do not include tips. So if you do purchase the Disney Dining Plan, all of the table service restaurants you eat at, you will still need to pay out of pocket for the tips that you leave. For a 6 day trip for 2, I expect that to be around $120 more that is strictly out of pocket. Secondly, both dining plans are not enough food for three meals a day. This means you will either have to buy groceries, split some meals, or you will still be paying out of pocket for the extra meals needed. The one time we have used the dining plan, we split enough meals that we only paid out of pocket for one meal. And in the end that wasn't even necessary. Lastly, some restaurants at Disney require two meal plan credits per person. So there is another instance where you will have to pay out of pocket for a meal. In the next few weeks, I plan to write a post about our upcoming Disney trip planning. This will include a detailed sheet showing dining expenses and how the $727.68 Disney Dining Plan is not always cheaper than the $1,000 out of pocket dining.

Either way, we now have a room, tickets, and estimated dining which all total $3,076.22. The last thing to consider is airfare. Again, I used Atlanta as my starting location. Tickets for a round-trip from Atlanta to Orlando for the dates above for one person is $216 through Southwest. This is a total of $432. Disney provides free transportation from the airport to your hotel and back to the airport at the end of your trip. This is called Magical Express. They will even deliver your luggage to your room as well. Because of this, I have not factored in any other transportation cost. Once on property, we always use Disney transportation to get anywhere we need to go. With that said, your total cost is now $3,508.22, only $9 over budget!

Ways to save money on this trip can be found below:

1. Stay at a value resort OR stay in a standard room at a moderate resort. For example, if you stay at POR in a Garden Room (they are currently sold out of Standard Rooms with the current promotion) without changing anything else, you will save $200. If you want to save even more, you can switch to a value resort. The Pop Century Resort Standard room will save you $592. The only reason I picked the King Bed rather than a Garden Room is that with it being your honeymoon you won't need that second bed, so it is better to have the extra room and extra space with a King Bed. I opted for a Moderate resort simply because there are less kids there than at the Value. The theming is also more upscale. The other downside to Value resorts is that they come standard with Full Size Beds. You can request a King, but they will not guarantee it.

2. Don't eat at any (or as many) Table Service Restaurants. The cost at eating at a Table Service Restaurant can get pretty pricey. For example, for two adults to eat at The Garden Grill costs approximately $100 with tip. A normal meal at a Quick Service Restaurant may only cost $25. That is $75 saved with just one switch. If you had planned to have Table Service Meals 6 times, you could save around $450 for making that switch. Now not all Table Service Restaurants are quite that expensive, but it does give you a perspective to think about. My $1,000 example includes 6-7 Table Service Restaurants.

3. Consider driving rather than flying. The flight alone costs $432 total. If you are driving from Atlanta to Orlando, that is about 440 miles one way. So 880 miles total. If your car gets 25 mpg and gas is $2.50/gallon, that is approximately $88. You would be saving around $344. Now the long drive may not be worth the savings, but that is an option.