Disney World Honeymoon Advice

kesotkov

Planning a Disney World honeymoon, but we want to keep it classy. Both of us visit often, and we enjoy all of the fun things to do there like the parks, golf, spas, shopping, restaurants, etc. Anyone been on a Disney honeymoon? What resorts are best for honeymoons? We want to stay at a deluxe resort (really the love beach or yacht club). Would love to hear about past experiences and how you booked the trip!      

wittykitty14

I don't have much to add except for I LOVE DISNEY.  I'm hoping to take my FI there some day, as he's never been.  My parents went there for their honeymoon actually, but at the time there wasn't nearly as much there.  Only Magic Kingdom existed then.  As far as I know, they had a blast.

What I love most about Disney is that it has something to offer everyone-adults too!  There's plenty of ways to keep it classy and so many resort options it's crazy.  All of their resorts are lovely, so you really can't go wrong!  It just depends on what theme you'd like and proximity to your favorite attractions.  The dining options are ridiculous, so there are plenty of opportunities to enjoy a romantic dinner for two, if you go to the right places.  The Disney website has so much information on this stuff and can tell you everything you need to know!

Gah, now I really want to go to Disney!  It sounds like a wonderful idea for a honeymoon!  Have fun! 

091109brIANna033013

What time of year are you wanting to visit Disney World? We got married on March 30th, but we are not going on our honeymoon to Disney World until early October due to cheaper prices and less crowds. Plus it will be the food and wine festival, and while we do not drink, we do love food. After a lot of research and price comparing we decided to stay at the Contemporary Resort for 2 weeks. We looked at the Beach and Yacht clubs, but we were surprised to find out that for the time period we will be there, the cost for those resorts was higher than the Contemporary. Contemporary tends to have less kids since it is not a very themed resort. It is popular for conferences, so there are a greater number of adults that stay there versuses kids. It is closest to the Magic Kingdom and has some of the best transportation options, especially since the monorail goes right through the main part of the resort. We also looked into the Caribbean and Port Orleans resorts, which are nice and cheaper, but will definetly have more kids.

MoonlightSilver

Make sure you mention the honeymoon when booking. Plus get some of those pins from Guest Services that say you're celebrating your honeymoon. Disney knows how to take care of the rest.

grazi36

Love Disney!  My FI and I went last summer and stayed at the Boardwalk - it was incredible!  Close to everything, lots of action on the boardwalk, great restaurants and absolutley beautiful!  You could also walk to Epcot and HS and take the boat to the beach club and yacht club.  

have fun!

knan74

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_honeymoon_disney-world-honeymoon-advice?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:11Discussion:af2ca327-4ad0-42e6-ae96-1b6979063083Post:20b53eaf-9010-4572-8419-fa0254de6694">Re: Disney World Honeymoon Advice</a>:
[QUOTE]Make sure you mention the honeymoon when booking. Plus get some of those pins from Guest Services that say you're celebrating your honeymoon. Disney knows how to take care of the rest. =)
Posted by MoonlightSilver[/QUOTE]

<div>They actually discontinued the "just married" pins but they are easy to find online before you go. Most cast members held on to several as well so you can easily find them, I would imagine. </div>

knan74

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_honeymoon_disney-world-honeymoon-advice?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:11Discussion:af2ca327-4ad0-42e6-ae96-1b6979063083Post:c9788cba-d4c4-41a9-9406-8d550ecd970a">Re:Disney World Honeymoon Advice</a>:
[QUOTE]What time of year are you wanting to visit Disney World? We got married on March 30th, but we are not going on our honeymoon to Disney World until early October due to cheaper prices and less crowds. Plus it will be the food and wine festival, and while we do not drink, we do love food. After a lot of research and price comparing we decided to stay at the Contemporary Resort for 2 weeks. We looked at the Beach and Yacht clubs, but we were surprised to find out that for the time period we will be there, the cost for those resorts was higher than the Contemporary. Contemporary tends to have less kids since it is not a very themed resort. It is popular for conferences, so there are a greater number of adults that stay there versuses kids. It is closest to the Magic Kingdom and has some of the best transportation options, especially since the monorail goes right through the main part of the resort. We also looked into the Caribbean and Port Orleans resorts, which are nice and cheaper, but will definetly have more kids.
Posted by 091109brIANna033013[/QUOTE]

<div>This hasn't been my experience at all! I think the Polynesian is usually always going to be one of the most romantic as well as the Beach Clubs, etc (Beach Club is my dream honeymoon spot) but they are way too expensive. Contemporary does have less kids but I agree with you about the non-theming. Everytime I have stayed at a Port Orleans resort I can count the number of kids on my hands. It feels like you have the whole place to yourself. I have stayed at every resort at Disney at least twice except for Saratoga Springs at that was once and have been to the parks over 50 times not counting when I was a Cast Member. Guess what the post popular honeymoon hotel is? Pop Century. A lot of the random advice I throw out here will probably not be helpful but I'll include it just in case :)</div><div>
</div><div>Yes it's a huge value resort but we find that most honeymooners are either going to be resort mooners or adventure mooners..... and if they are coming to Disney for their Honeymoon, they are adventure mooners...therefore you don't see nearly as many Polynesian or Grand Floridian stays as you would think! </div><div>
</div><div>Balance what is important to you. With the addition of Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary though, there are more Disney Vacation Club goers, which means more families than ever at the Contemporary. Plus, its one of the more "bustling" resorts and has WAY more rooms in one space than even the Value resorts. Like I said, there's no perfect Disney honeymoon resort but I will touch on that in my individual reply to the poster....I am just saying that there have been vacations DURING school vacations that I have gone to Disney and not experienced kids at all---</div><div>
</div><div>they were at Port Orleans Riverside, Port Orleans French Quarter, and Old Key West. Also keep in mind that these (and Coranodo and Carribbean) are very spread out, have several pool areas, do carriage rides because there are more grounds...even if there WERE more kids than the Contemporary, you would rarely know it.'</div><div>
</div><div>As far as the March or October stuff and considering what time of year you go, I can say with complete conviction that unless you are getting married December 20-January 1, go anytime on a honeymoon to Disney. Personally, with cruise rates low in October, I would be more likely to book that because DCL is VERY rarely affected by hurricanes, they just go wherever it's NOT and the prices are low enough to be comparable to Carnival during the busy months....which makes a honeymoon a lot more doable to do the cruise and the land (if you want the cruise part...a lot of people don't even consider it and I didn't consider it either until I worked there and heard over and over again how newlyweds would have had a perfect honeymoon spending a week at Beach Club but the 3 nights at sea and a day at Serenity Cay absolutely put it over the edge as insanely fantastic, plus even the most basic dining on the Disney Dream 3 or 4 night Bahamian cruise is going to top WDW in a heartbeat. </div><div>I'm getting off topic thinking about the Disney Dream....(I'm telling ya...it's an experience unlike any other....and yes, I have gone basically the entire cruise without spending time around kids at all...you haven't honeymooned Disney until you have had a martini with Jack Sparrow in the Skyline Lounge and watched the NYC nightline go to Paris' as Peter and Tink walk in and engage you one on one about your wedding and honeymoon. You get a lot of one one one attention and a ton of pampering...free room service, more specialized desserts than at WDW, souveniers signed by all of the characters and returned to you your last night, an adult pool with no kids.....</div><div>
</div><div>One of the posters mentioned the Food and Wine in Oct for EPCOT which is great, awesome, romantic, whatever....but we hardly ever set someone up like this because during my "off hours" as a CM, October was the only time I would NOT go to Epcot (and EPCOT is huge....I would take Christmas EPCOT over October F&W EPCOT)....Keep in mind that most WDW honeymooners focus on MK and EP so it really puts a damper on things..the crowds are intolerable and the parks close as early as 6 but as late as 8 and in October, there are nights of no fireworks, Fantasmic, etc. and only a few times a week of each. That's why I argue that unless youre getting married at Christmas, honeymooning any week is going to have advantages and disadvantages: March is actually an amazing time to go because crowds are funnelled to WWoS as well for ST...hours are at some of their best and most shows are twice a day compared to four times a week. There is no such thing as low crowd levels at Disney anymore...yes, you can maneuver crowds at Animal Kingdom easier in October but you'll spend the same time in the parks because of the park hours and accesibility to "must sees"...with the FP system working as efficiently as it does (and them even experimenting with the new FP system now, 350 days a year the crowd levels really DON'T matter. Even touringplans.com shows that a crowd level of 1 has 10 minutes less in Souring than a crowd level of 10....it's NOT worth worrying about.</div><div>
</div><div>As for room rates, be careful as this is often seen as the dealbreaker and honeymooners use these dates to stay in rooms they normally wouldn't  be able to afford. I totally encourage this as, yes, the parks aren't as crowded and yes, its much cheaper.....but if it's worth the savings depends on YOUR individual itinerary. If you're a park goer who is going to spend all day in the parks and/or water parks and/or DTD, Disney isn't "giving" you a discount....they are charging less for where you put your head but more for your park hopper or admission because of refurbishments, early shutdowns, etc.... They also entice other people just as easily and these times can easily become 8 or 9s on the crowd scale especially if Disney sees that they aren't going to be full and adds a free dining incentive. There were so many times as a cast member that "low rate season" was "we need more cast members in the park season" and "high rate season" was "nobody fell for Disney's gimmicks this year, lets go walk on to Space Mountain"...</div><div>
</div><div>For the original poster, Beach Club does it for me :) BUT I do have to say that the MOST perfect honeymoon according to most that I have talked to (which is probably in the thousands by now) is a 3 or 4 night cruise with a few nights at Beach Club, Poly, or Yacht Club. This is combination we saw over and over as being raved as "the best honeymoon ever"...I'll make a new post as to why I chose it as well!</div><div>
</div><div>Okay so between the direct reply and this one, I have put a lot of random facts about why honeymooners choose what they do at Disney. I hope it's helped to show you how multidimensional honeymooning really is at WDW because there are SO many factors in play. After working with the honeymoons and wedding stuff as a CM, when I got engaged I knew I wanted WDW from way before I even applied at Disney....</div><div>
</div><div>I chose August 10th as my wedding date so I could sail on the Dream (saying it ONE MORE TIME as I would have read right past this a few years ago if I hadn't had the opportunity to talk to nearly every honeymooner to come to WDW....it is the ultimate honeymooning experience REGARDLESS of what you're looking for...  looking for leisurely magic, its there...looking for adventure, there's more than one knows what to do with it...looking for restaurants, ten times better than WDW....looking for entertainment, best Disney style broadway shows I have EVER seen....not to mention, the cabins are huge, the queen beds are perfect for Honeymooning....and did I mention that the doors are magnetic so you can decorate them in Just Married gear and get even MORE personal attention?? I have heard stories of little girls in princess outfits watching you with your newlywed Disney gear on and whispering loudly to their parents, "Is that a real prince and princess?"....I mean, come on, that doesn't happen every day at WDW where everyday there are honeymooners going through every turnstile every five minutes. If you do decide to ONLY do WDW, decide what's important to you and let little things go. It sounds like the hotel is important to you so that's likely the area you will want to have regardless of the Disney plans you make.</div><div>
</div><div>I chose the Dream first, then universal and then I am personally taking advantage of the rates as they go down August 18th and that's the day I will start the WDW leg, but as much as I would like to do Beach Club, I let it go to do the Dream cruise. The only part of the honeymooon I'm having any issues with now, three months out, is reservations to Be Our Guest (a MUST DO for a honeymooner so light up those lines right at 7 on that 180th day) and what resort at which we will stay. Since we are going in August, there are shows every night at the three parks that have them and the parks still have the longer summer hours so we didn't feel like anything above a moderate was worth our money. We are booked in CS and we will probably either stay there or go to POR just for the convenience of the carriage rides and I would say 90 percent of castmembers would say that it and Poly are the romantic resorts at WDW. Seriously...kids just disappear there.</div><div>
</div><div>Okay, so I've tried to put as much out there as I can. Overall, there are usually two disney honeymoons going on in which couple A never enters a single area that Couple B went at WDW, lol. Anytime of the year that you honeymoon there will be wonderful as there are pros and cons to any month of the year (yay food and wine festival....boo epcot crowds and early closing of MK for mickey's not so scary halloween party)....boo March for spring break yay for long hours and 2 parades a day and spring training being a 5th park...</div><div>
</div><div>Like I said.... the slowest day in the park of the year still sees Soarin times of an hour and the days we closed the front entrance at 10 due to full capacity, people report they saw more than they did on a normal day due to being open til 2 a.m.....</div><div>
</div><div>You seem to be into restaurants as well...ironically, i would tell you to actually avoid October because of Food and Wine but I feel like that would just be catty at this point....on your honeymoon, you WILL spend half of your food time in Epcot easily...the other half easily in resorts unless you make a conscious effort to get some Crystal Palace or Tony's in...</div><div>
</div><div>Oh yeah, that's another reason we are doing value or moderate.... we compromised that if we went August 18 after rate drop to one of those we would do the Deluxe Dining Plan and have up to three sit down meals a day or splurge on a 2plan meal here and there....For us, we have seen the "let's run to Splash Mountain" thing too many times before and plan on eating and enjoying the ambiance and picking up fast passes here and there and taking it slow. Beach Club would be nice to have for convenience to Epcot since it will be such a used park for dining on your honeymoon...</div><div>
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</div><div>Lastly, as I said, no pins for "Just Married" anymore...if you want to be spotted as a honeymooner, get the hats, but they fall off easy on rides so secrure them. I would just get a "Celebrating" pin and write it in...but overall, when they stopped making those, we stopped doing as much for honeymooners. (EXCEPT the ones that had come from the disney cruise...who had been pampered by not only the staff but the ship of 40000 as usually the only honeymooning couple on the boat....and it's pretty cool to be famous on the ship as the honeymooners :) a lot of extra towel animals, a lot of free spa time, a lot of free spa villa time...(most newlyweds weren't even timed and they spent several hours over the course of the cruise on the private verandah on the spa with the hot tubs, tea, and chocolates.)... It really can't be beat. yes, Disney famously spends its billions of dollars from DCL on the Oceaneer Club and Lab but if someone wants to cruise for their honeymoon, there will be dozens on any other line but Disney....I personally like Disney because of the service and the cruise is the epitome of that.</div><div>
</div><div>Okay, so I'm done plugging it now, I swear...I don't even work as a CM anymore but I praise it THAT highly that I get nothing from saying its absolutely worth every penny to be on that beautiful ship as a newlywed and step off and do 4-5 days at Beach Club... especially if you want to sit back and enjoy each other and the food. </div><div>
</div><div>But we have come full circle. As I said originally about EVERYTHING i know about disney honeymoons....i have heard of every kind under the sun, from completely relaxing like a resort in Mexico to adventurous like they climbed Mt. Everest ( haha, disney joke )...some will go on the cruise and then to beach club (sigh)...others will trek through animal kingdom with paid for sodas and stand in line for 80 mins and go offsite at night and to kennedy space center the next day.</div><div>
</div><div>THE BEST ADVICE ANY DISNEY HONEYMOONER CAN GET IS: Pick what's important to you and focus on it and let the rest fall into place. I have typed for half an hour and probably made your head spin in circles just as mine has at all of the honeymoon possibilities. The truth is, there is no way to have a full adventure, full relaxation, full- top restaurant experience, full best resort experience all in one 6-14 day honeymoon. Decide what aspect is MOST important to you and then create your own adventure from there :) thats the beauty of disney... whereas the cruise is my ultimate magical experience, someone else's could not involve characters at all and include Rafiki's Train Watch in Animal Kingdom...to each his own :)</div><div>
</div><div>*(sorry for long post... it's a complicated subject....and years and years and thousands of couples'  (of whom none had the same honeymoon) testimonies to "bests" and "worsts" behind me and like I said, this is the one subject on The Knot that I KNOW :) I can answer any questions you have and WOULD LOVE TO! ... i have dined at every restaurant and stayed at every resort, like I said...and have cruised each ship as well now and done each restaurant on them as well as about half of the Disney sponsored excusions... plus, for every restaurant, resort, etc., I worked with hundreds of honeymooners about the atmosphere, price, amount of kids, etc....so I really can help with even the tiniest detail!  There is nothing better than knowing your honeymoon is Disney and you have made it it YOUR IDEAL ONE! :)</div>

kesotkov

We are going to be leaving to go October 6, 2014. Our wedding is on Sunday, October 5. We are pretty sure we want to stay at the Beach Club resort. Any ideas in mind concerning resorts for honeymooning couples? I have been to Disney World hundreds of times (we love it... speacial place for us), but we usuallystay at the same moderate resort. We don't know too much about the others. Thanks for all of your opinions and suggestions already.