Getting married is such a wonderful time in your life but it can also be a busy, stressful time. One of the best things that my husband and I did was plan our honeymoon at WDW. Of course, the wedding day was the most magical day ever. Our honeymoon, was just as valuable and was one of the best, most meaningful weeks of our lives.
Preparation
We made sure we were ready for this vacation in a number of ways. I planned most of our wedding, so I left the honeymoon up to Gilbert. He budgeted about $5,000 (including flights & hotels) for our trip and in addition, we received gifts and money to go towards our honeymoon for our wedding. We over budgeted so that we would be able to splurge on whatever we wanted. I think its important to make sure you have plenty of money to do all the things you want to on your honeymoon because you only get one! Planning was really easy for him because he was able to bundle our flight, transportation, hotel, and ticket accommodations. If you choose to purchase a dining plan you can do that, as well. We did not opt to do the dining plan because we don't tend to eat all three meals a day and we wanted to make sure that our plans were pretty flexible.
As far as packing goes, I started about 5 months in advance. I would start finding outfits and justify them as for the honeymoon. This was fun because it gave me something to look forward to! I packed one outfit per day (for 7 days), plus 4 extra. This is mainly because I am an over packer. However, this came in handy because we did end up changing pretty often. Our honeymoon was in the summer time so it was insanely HOT. We would spend about half the day at the parks, visit the pool, and get ready to go back. Therefore, all my extra outfits came in handy!
Accommodations
We ended up booking 2 nights at the All Stars Sports Hotel and about 5 nights at the Art of Animation Hotel. Our stay at the All Stars Sports was not the best, but also not the worst. It was more of a higher end motel. We had two full size beds, which was a little odd for a couple on their honeymoon. But hey, we got to cuddle! The atmosphere was decent but nothing compared to our next hotel. However, the price was right. We paid about $99 a night to stay there, so I can't really complain much.
Moving on to the Art of Animation....it was the best experience EVER. The atmosphere was absolutely perfect. There are so many things to see just walking around. We stayed in a Little Mermaid bedroom and it felt like we were literally inside the movie. The pools were super fun too! The Finding Nemo pool was our favorite because when you go underwater you can hear Nemo and his friends TALKING! Not to mention that the food at the hotel was super delicious. As someone with food allergies, I was able to find food to eat super easily. Of course, waffles in the morning was my favorite thing.
Transportation to the parks was way different than we are used to. In California, a tram takes you from the parking lot to the parks. DCA & Disneyland are just a few steps away from each other. However, Disney World is so big, that is not the case. A bus will take you from the airport to the hotel. From there, a bus can take you to any of the parks you'd like to visit. It was really convenient and cool because we got to drive by all the resorts.
What would we do better?
Make sure you choose your fast passes and reservations wisely. We weren't quite sure which parks we'd be in which day, so sometimes we ended up missing fast passes or reservations that we'd reserved in a different park. Another thing I would have liked to do was visit Typhoon Lagoon. We did however, get to visit Blizzard Beach which I've been excited about since I was a kid. One last thing I would do is allow ourselves one day of rest after the wedding to recuperate, before traveling. Our wedding was the best day of my life however, I was EXHAUSTED. I would have probably let myself sleep in if I was given the chance so that I would have a little more energy.
Overall, our honeymoon was absolutely flawless. I feel like we had just the perfect amount of time to let ourselves relax and have quality time together. When it comes down to it, I'm just thankful for who I got to spend it with. If I had to do it over, I would choose this as our honeymoon time and time again!
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