First Time! Honeymooners. Where to stay?

[justme0729]

I answered what I could below...

Thank you so much to everyone who replied. Not sure it's given me an answer but definitely a lot to think about!
I have a couple more questions relating to the answers, if people don't mind? You've all been so helpful!

1. Some people suggested Wilderness Lodge. I LOVE the look of the place over the Christmas period. I hear construction is ongoing. We would be traveling either Nov 2017 (before thanksgiving), end of December over the New Year (is this madness considering this?) or mid-late January. Should it be finished by then? Or is it not worth bothering with because of this?
2. People are mentioning French Quarter. Is it so much better than Riverside? We were considering Riverside for ease of the food halls/transportation etc. as we assumed FQ was quite a walk away. Can anyone clarify?
3. Regarding split-stay between Disney and Universal - I was under the impression that you can only use Magical Express if you are at Disney, and therefore switching would mean we have to make our own way either from or to the airport (depending which side we stayed at Universal)? Is it really that bad getting from the Disney resorts to Universal for the park? In addition, would you say one day is enough for Universal if we are only interested in Harry Potter?

We took a cab from the Polynesian to Universal for one day to see Harry Potter. It wasn't a bad ride at all. If I remember right, it was definitely not more than 30 minutes. I'm sure there was maybe more we could do, but we felt we had enough time! We saw Diagon Alley breifly, rode Escape from Gringotts, rode Forbidden Journey, rode the train, ate at the Harry Potter themed restaurant, and rode a ton of other non-Harry Potter rides. I think one day was enough for us but we got there at opening and stayed until about 7:00pm. This was on January 7th so after X-mas crowds.

1. Split-stay at Disney seems intriguing. If we did two weeks across two or more different resorts, can we still get free dining as it is linked to having a 14 day park tickets? Or would we only get dining for the first seven days (for example) as we are booking a hotel for 7 days, and then have to purchase park tickets again with the second hotel reservation to quality for the free dining again on this one? Not sure if that makes sense - we'd be aiming to book to get free dining.

I'm not sure about that but if you are unable to book a deluxe through Disney, I would recommend renting points through David's DVC to stay at a Deluxe at 11 months out. AKL can be very affordable this way especially but any of the resorts would be cheaper. It might be cheaper to rent points and just pay for dining than it would to get free dining. We will be staying at AKL for our honeymoon before leaving for a cruise. My personal favorite is the Polynesian for monorail access to MK and Epcot, the tiki-lit grounds, boat transportation, castle and wishes views, etc. I just think the MK area is more magical and romantic feeling and their new studios through DVC look great.

1. In relation to the above - free dining makes moderates (with an upgrade to dining) or deluxe (with free dining in total) more reasonable. Moderates especially, don't work out much more than values when you take into account the free dining you'd get with the moderates. So with this in mind, I don't even know if split stays are worth doing to try and save money.

I personally think 10 days is long enough and would do that if I could do deluxe the whole time. We stayed 8 days and felt we had enough time to see everything as first timers as adults without repeating rides etc. I haven't done a split stay though!

1. Very last one - relating to number 1. If we stayed from 29 Dec onwards, would it be crazy busy? I really, really want to see the christmas decs but January is going to be cheaper than November generally!

We went from December 30-January 8 in 2015 and it was very busy! However, it is great to be able to see the NYE fireworks and if you don't mind going to the park at rope drop (7 or 8am usually) to do rides in the morning, taking a break during mid-day, and seeing the fireworks/ shows at night then it worked out well. Having 3 FPs reserved per day helped us but the afternoons were too busy to do much in the parks. For our honeymoon, we would have chosen to do Spring Break to see the Flower and Garden festival, have slightly lower crowds, and a chance of warmer weather but we have to do early June.
Many thanks!

 

[Payne1982]

Have you considered Saratoga Springs? It's a lovely resort (my favourite of the ones we have stayed in) and is walking distance to Disney Springs. We have kids and stay there with them when we go, but we never find it bustling with children. There are also a choice of 3 pools, one of them without slides etc so tends to be pretty quiet most of the time as the kids tend to use the pools with the slides etc. You can also get the boat over to Disney Springs if you really don't fancy the walk.

Personally I found Animal Kingdom too far away from everything. It just seemed to take forever to get anywhere and a few times we were waiting at the bus stop for over 30 minutes for a bus to arrive to take us where we wanted to go. I also felt it was a bit dark, which sounds ridiculous when I say it and I can't explain why I didn't like it, but that's just me.

Grand Floridian is beautiful. We've not stayed there but have eaten at one of the restaurants and you do feel special when you are there.

We honeymooned in Disney, we stayed at Caribbean Beach resort. It was great for us as we didn't spend a lot of time in the resort anyway, so it didn't really matter to us where we were staying. The pools are ideal because they have the main pool which is really the fun pool, with the slides and the kids area, but then each section of the resort has their own smaller pool, so you can still relax around the pool without having lots of kids about. However, the buses always seem much busier for CB.

We've not stayed in any of the value resorts as we have always managed to stretch our budget a bit so I don't know much about them really. The only comment I can make on them is that I've never heard anything particularly off putting about them, other than that the buses are a bit of a pain because they tend to be very busy and also food choices aren't great, but then if you are going to eat out at Disney Springs etc most evenings this probably won't be an issue.

 

[writersblock]

I answered what I could below...

Thank you so much, that's really helpful. Do you remember how much the cab is? We are seriously considering the rentals but are slightly wary (maybe stupidly). If we leave it until late January we have some pretty good options open to us. I get the 11 month thing, but can you put in your request before the 11 months? Do they just hold onto it and then process at 11 months?

Have you considered Saratoga Springs?.

Briefly, but it doesn't seem as exciting as some of the others. Maybe I am not giving it enough credit. It's still within the affordable range for us.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Thank you so much, that's really helpful. Do you remember how much the cab is? We are seriously considering the rentals but are slightly wary (maybe stupidly). If we leave it until late January we have some pretty good options open to us. I get the 11 month thing, but can you put in your request before the 11 months? Do they just hold onto it and then process at 11 months?




Briefly, but it doesn't seem as exciting as some of the others. Maybe I am not giving it enough credit. It's still within the affordable range for us.

There's not really a point to submitting well before 11 months for a DVC rental. If you book via private party, sometimes that can be worked out before 11 months, and is the best way to have a shot at a high-demand booking type.

If you budget a DVC rental, assume that you will not be able to rent Animal Kingdom Value Villas, a Grand Floridian Studio, or Standard Studios at Bay Lake Tower or Boardwalk Villas. Budget for more expensive options, as they are more likely to work out.

 

[jscottnc]

DVC rental in 2016 cannot be done unless you book direct with Disney and pay rack rates; 11+ months from now is doable. If you want a villa (Deluxe Studio) at any of the DVC resorts close to a park (Animal Kingdom Lodge being the exception) then expect to pay a premium for 11 month booking window. If you can afford it, a one bedroom can be easier to get where you want. Of the two periods you mention for travel, only a mad Englishman (or woman) would travel to WDW (or Universal) in late December. November before Thanksgiving is your best choice. You have a good chance of seeing at least some Xmas decorations -- we tend to switch directly from Halloween to Christmas (sometimes with overlap) skipping most (all?) decorations for Thanksgiving.

Where to stay depends on how much time you plan to spend at the resort and/or in the room. Personally I prefer the space and amenities of a DVC villa (spoken like the DVC member that I am). If you don't plan to be in the room much (honeymoon?) then by all means get a shoebox with cots, uh, I mean value room. Actually, a Little Mermaid room at Art of Animation might not be too bad. AoA has a food court I really like. Pre-Thanksgiving is likely to have the lowest number of kids.

 

[justme0729]

Thank you so much, that's really helpful. Do you remember how much the cab is? We are seriously considering the rentals but are slightly wary (maybe stupidly). If we leave it until late January we have some pretty good options open to us. I get the 11 month thing, but can you put in your request before the 11 months? Do they just hold onto it and then process at 11 months? us.

We put in our request just a week before the 11 month mark so that they could email us the day of 11 month mark or day after with our confirmation number I don't remember how much the cab was and we got a van for our group but I would look into Uber if we were to do I again. I don't remember thinking it was that unreasonable though

 

[Regan117]

We honeymooned at Disney and stayed at AKL. Loved every second of it - it was quiet and beautiful.

 

[Shellyred8]

We also did our honeymoon at Disney World. It was my first time staying on-property. We stayed at the Yacht Club. I absolutely fell in love with the Boardwalk area during this stay. So, much so, that when we bought into DVC, we bought into Boardwalk!

I agree with some of the other posters here that you might want to look into a split stay. Do the first part of your stay at a value and the last part at a Deluxe. My recommendations for Deluxe resorts would be the Contemporary/Bay Lake Tower or any of the three in the Boardwalk area. I like the Contemporary area because you can walk to the Magic Kingdom. I like the Boardwalk area because you can walk to Epcot and Hollywood Studios.

If you go mid-November, you will most likely get in on some of the Christmas decorations. They start putting those up pretty much right after they have the Halloween decorations down. If you do go during the Christmas season, you should plan some time to go to the various resorts to see their decorations. They really are amazing.

 

[writersblock]

Thanks so much for the tips, everyone.

One thing I am seeing, which worries me, is that Disney had really started cutting on things like food, staff, cleanliness etc. I am hearing a lot that staff and CM are grumpy, that far more people are being let in than should be, and that the rooms are often in a state. Surely this is just the odd issue and not standard across the board?