Honeymoon Conundrum
Almost two months to go until the wedding and we still haven't picked a honeymoon spot. It's one of those issues that Mike and I seem to kind of have radically different ideas about.
When we first talked about it, we kind of just talked about our wildest dreams - if money was no option. For me, I have a lot of ideas about wanting to go to foreign places, places I've wanted to go all my life - England, Italy, Ireland, etc. Mike likes the idea of going to beach places.
The second time we talked about it, Mike asked me what I wanted but I kind of hesitated to talk about it because I was still thinking far away, though I knew that those were pretty much pipe dreams. Mike kind of alarmed me then when he said that he had no plans to get on a plane whatsoever.
I'm not big on planes at all. I'm a hell of a lot more afraid of getting on a plane then he is, so I was surprised that he said that. I love Mike, but I don't really love the idea of doing any type of road trip for our honeymoon, and unless we plan to stay in Florida, we'd either have to do that or get on a plane. Mike did say that he'd prefer to stay in Florida. I really don't love that idea. I eventually explained to him that for me, I feel like I want to do something really special for our honeymoon. Who knows when we'll have kids so this could be the last time for awhile that we get to travel somewhere together and just do what we want. I don't want to stay in Florida because I've lived here practically my whole life.
I did like what Mike explained about not wanting to get on a plane. Part of it is cost, but the other part is he wants to limit the amount of traveling we do. He doesn't want to waste the time we could be enjoying spending together and relaxing, traveling.
He's kind of relaxed his stance about not getting on a plane. It's not his number one ideal, but he hasn't vetoed it.
Like I said, Mike likes the idea of going somewhere with a beach. One of his favorite ideas is going somewhere where we can rent a cabin/house on a beach. he found a couple of nice places in Oregon. It even looked like the places were close to where some scenes of The Goonies was filmed - which is one of our favorite movies. I assumed that since Oregon isn't that far from us, and I figured it wasn't some ultra popular destination, that a plane ticket wouldn't cost too much. But unfortunately it cost as much as to go to Hawaii.
The other idea that Mike is really keen on - maybe even more so than the beach - is going on a cruise. This is one of the things we've sort of butted heads over. Because I immediately kind of shut that idea down. I said that I'm not a cruise person. And Mike, fairly, pointed out that I'd never been on a cruise, so how could I know if I was a cruise person. The only time I even remotely did a cruise thing was this one time my mother took me to some game night thing that was on a cruise ship. We didn't set sail so it wasn't a real cruise.
I felt bad because Mike said he really, really loves going on cruises. When he said that I started to reconsider. I have a few reasons I don't think I'd love going on a cruise. I can't swim very well and tend to avoid things like beaches and going on boats. I was, and am willing to do the beach thing, because that doesn't have to be our whole honeymoon, but a cruise, we'd spend most of our time on the water.
My lamer reason for not wanting to do the cruise thing is that my mom and her husband went on a cruise for their honeymoon and Greg and Jean did as well. I just would prefer to do something different for our honeymoon than what our parents did.
Also, a year or so ago, there were those news stories about a couple of cruise ships that had problems and people ended up floating in the middle of the river for days and popping into cups. I know that their are pitfalls with every form of trouble, but those stories did not make the idea of cruises any more palatable to me.
But besides liking going on cruises Mike has other practical reasons for loving the idea. He said that going on a cruise would be easier because you basically only have one thing to worry about paying for. I think some cruises meals are paid for so you only have to worry about paying for transportation. You don't have to worry about your meals or where you're going to stay. It's all together in one package. That makes sense and that seems like a good idea.
I'm still hesitant about the idea. I'm fine with the idea of going on a cruise since Mike really likes it, but just not for our honeymoon. I don't want to do something I'm not sure I'd really enjoy.
I also feel like if I gave in on the cruise idea that wouldn't be a compromise, but just doing what Mike wants. The beach isn't my favorite place, but I could compromise on that because Mike gets something he likes and, especially if we did the cabin, there are parts of that I'd like. So it'd be a win for both of us.
I kind of got a little annoyed at my cousin at Thanksgiving because she kind of re-opened the cruise issue, at least on my end. She started talking about cruises and how they were the greatest things ever. It made me think that maybe I was being irrational about not being fully behind the idea.
But like I said we're getting close to crunch time and have to pick somewhere. We've set up one of those honeymoon registry funds and hope that maybe some of our family and friends can contribute a little bit and maybe that'll at least bring some of the costs down for wherever we eventually decide to go.
A few months ago we went over a budget. Mike estimated how much he'd make by the time the wedding rolled around and subtracted all of the expenses. We figured that we had a lot of money left over for the honeymoon. But with some of the things we didn't factor in, Mike doesn't think the estimate will hold and said the other day he wasn't sure we could have a honeymoon. I balked at that instantly. But then he explained that he was just talking about postponing it and having it at a later date.
I was still hesitant about that. I know that there are a lot of people who don't go on their honeymoon right away, but I didn't want to wait on that. But when he talked about having more money to save for the trip and having more time, I started to come around a little. We're only going to have a limited amount of days that Mike gets off from work and it would be nice to squeeze more days in and definitely to have more money so we can go to a place we both would really like.
Mike also mentioned that he was thinking about potentially going to Disney World. He said that he'd never been. He though we could go there and either splurge on a couple days in a hotel and for food or get a cheap hotel and go on as many rides as possible. He talked about going to the Harry Potter ride (which I later found out was at Universal) though he didn't know if that was a great idea because he said the wait for that line would probably be two hours or something.
I got an e-mail last week about a special for spending three nights at Disney World, though unfortunately the main park - the Magic Kingdom Park - isn't available for the special the week of our honeymoon.
While I wasn't a fan of the idea of a road trip on the honeymoon, this wouldn't require one since Disney is only about a half hour from where we're getting married. We could save time and money not having to get on a plane.
Mike and my mom also got to talking the other day and she mentioned Niagara Falls and the Poconos. I did some research on that today. The flights to both places is kind of expensive - but not outlandishly so and there are some affordable hotels in both places.
My mom presented another option as well. Originally, my mom's husband was supposed to take care of the transportation for the wedding. I haven't thought a lot about it, but at one point I wondered if we really needed a limo, since we're going to spend the night before the wedding at the hotel and also get dressed there. My mom was thinking the same thing and told me that I had two options - that I could get dressed at my aunt's and a limo could take me to the hotel or I could go to the Bahamas. At first I was confused since I didn't know what the Bahamas had to do with anything but then I realized that she meant she would pay for a limo or a honeymoon trip to the Bahamas.
Now, I know it might sound crazy to potentially turn down a free (or mostly free) trip to the Bahamas but I'm not a beach person, and unlike with cruises, that's something I definitely know. I don't like getting sand in weird places and don't want to go in the water. So, while it can be pretty to look at for a little bit, it's not somewhere I want to spend hours at, and I can't imagine what else there is to do at the Bahamas but beach adjacent things. I want to go somewhere where the beach isn't the only option of things to do.
Ugh, I hate having to make so many decisions. But at least we've narrowed down the options and I think we're really close to deciding.
Stacey
When we first talked about it, we kind of just talked about our wildest dreams - if money was no option. For me, I have a lot of ideas about wanting to go to foreign places, places I've wanted to go all my life - England, Italy, Ireland, etc. Mike likes the idea of going to beach places.
The second time we talked about it, Mike asked me what I wanted but I kind of hesitated to talk about it because I was still thinking far away, though I knew that those were pretty much pipe dreams. Mike kind of alarmed me then when he said that he had no plans to get on a plane whatsoever.
I'm not big on planes at all. I'm a hell of a lot more afraid of getting on a plane then he is, so I was surprised that he said that. I love Mike, but I don't really love the idea of doing any type of road trip for our honeymoon, and unless we plan to stay in Florida, we'd either have to do that or get on a plane. Mike did say that he'd prefer to stay in Florida. I really don't love that idea. I eventually explained to him that for me, I feel like I want to do something really special for our honeymoon. Who knows when we'll have kids so this could be the last time for awhile that we get to travel somewhere together and just do what we want. I don't want to stay in Florida because I've lived here practically my whole life.
I did like what Mike explained about not wanting to get on a plane. Part of it is cost, but the other part is he wants to limit the amount of traveling we do. He doesn't want to waste the time we could be enjoying spending together and relaxing, traveling.
He's kind of relaxed his stance about not getting on a plane. It's not his number one ideal, but he hasn't vetoed it.
Like I said, Mike likes the idea of going somewhere with a beach. One of his favorite ideas is going somewhere where we can rent a cabin/house on a beach. he found a couple of nice places in Oregon. It even looked like the places were close to where some scenes of The Goonies was filmed - which is one of our favorite movies. I assumed that since Oregon isn't that far from us, and I figured it wasn't some ultra popular destination, that a plane ticket wouldn't cost too much. But unfortunately it cost as much as to go to Hawaii.
The other idea that Mike is really keen on - maybe even more so than the beach - is going on a cruise. This is one of the things we've sort of butted heads over. Because I immediately kind of shut that idea down. I said that I'm not a cruise person. And Mike, fairly, pointed out that I'd never been on a cruise, so how could I know if I was a cruise person. The only time I even remotely did a cruise thing was this one time my mother took me to some game night thing that was on a cruise ship. We didn't set sail so it wasn't a real cruise.
I felt bad because Mike said he really, really loves going on cruises. When he said that I started to reconsider. I have a few reasons I don't think I'd love going on a cruise. I can't swim very well and tend to avoid things like beaches and going on boats. I was, and am willing to do the beach thing, because that doesn't have to be our whole honeymoon, but a cruise, we'd spend most of our time on the water.
My lamer reason for not wanting to do the cruise thing is that my mom and her husband went on a cruise for their honeymoon and Greg and Jean did as well. I just would prefer to do something different for our honeymoon than what our parents did.
Also, a year or so ago, there were those news stories about a couple of cruise ships that had problems and people ended up floating in the middle of the river for days and popping into cups. I know that their are pitfalls with every form of trouble, but those stories did not make the idea of cruises any more palatable to me.
But besides liking going on cruises Mike has other practical reasons for loving the idea. He said that going on a cruise would be easier because you basically only have one thing to worry about paying for. I think some cruises meals are paid for so you only have to worry about paying for transportation. You don't have to worry about your meals or where you're going to stay. It's all together in one package. That makes sense and that seems like a good idea.
I'm still hesitant about the idea. I'm fine with the idea of going on a cruise since Mike really likes it, but just not for our honeymoon. I don't want to do something I'm not sure I'd really enjoy.
I also feel like if I gave in on the cruise idea that wouldn't be a compromise, but just doing what Mike wants. The beach isn't my favorite place, but I could compromise on that because Mike gets something he likes and, especially if we did the cabin, there are parts of that I'd like. So it'd be a win for both of us.
I kind of got a little annoyed at my cousin at Thanksgiving because she kind of re-opened the cruise issue, at least on my end. She started talking about cruises and how they were the greatest things ever. It made me think that maybe I was being irrational about not being fully behind the idea.
But like I said we're getting close to crunch time and have to pick somewhere. We've set up one of those honeymoon registry funds and hope that maybe some of our family and friends can contribute a little bit and maybe that'll at least bring some of the costs down for wherever we eventually decide to go.
A few months ago we went over a budget. Mike estimated how much he'd make by the time the wedding rolled around and subtracted all of the expenses. We figured that we had a lot of money left over for the honeymoon. But with some of the things we didn't factor in, Mike doesn't think the estimate will hold and said the other day he wasn't sure we could have a honeymoon. I balked at that instantly. But then he explained that he was just talking about postponing it and having it at a later date.
I was still hesitant about that. I know that there are a lot of people who don't go on their honeymoon right away, but I didn't want to wait on that. But when he talked about having more money to save for the trip and having more time, I started to come around a little. We're only going to have a limited amount of days that Mike gets off from work and it would be nice to squeeze more days in and definitely to have more money so we can go to a place we both would really like.
Mike also mentioned that he was thinking about potentially going to Disney World. He said that he'd never been. He though we could go there and either splurge on a couple days in a hotel and for food or get a cheap hotel and go on as many rides as possible. He talked about going to the Harry Potter ride (which I later found out was at Universal) though he didn't know if that was a great idea because he said the wait for that line would probably be two hours or something.
I got an e-mail last week about a special for spending three nights at Disney World, though unfortunately the main park - the Magic Kingdom Park - isn't available for the special the week of our honeymoon.
While I wasn't a fan of the idea of a road trip on the honeymoon, this wouldn't require one since Disney is only about a half hour from where we're getting married. We could save time and money not having to get on a plane.
Mike and my mom also got to talking the other day and she mentioned Niagara Falls and the Poconos. I did some research on that today. The flights to both places is kind of expensive - but not outlandishly so and there are some affordable hotels in both places.
My mom presented another option as well. Originally, my mom's husband was supposed to take care of the transportation for the wedding. I haven't thought a lot about it, but at one point I wondered if we really needed a limo, since we're going to spend the night before the wedding at the hotel and also get dressed there. My mom was thinking the same thing and told me that I had two options - that I could get dressed at my aunt's and a limo could take me to the hotel or I could go to the Bahamas. At first I was confused since I didn't know what the Bahamas had to do with anything but then I realized that she meant she would pay for a limo or a honeymoon trip to the Bahamas.
Now, I know it might sound crazy to potentially turn down a free (or mostly free) trip to the Bahamas but I'm not a beach person, and unlike with cruises, that's something I definitely know. I don't like getting sand in weird places and don't want to go in the water. So, while it can be pretty to look at for a little bit, it's not somewhere I want to spend hours at, and I can't imagine what else there is to do at the Bahamas but beach adjacent things. I want to go somewhere where the beach isn't the only option of things to do.
Ugh, I hate having to make so many decisions. But at least we've narrowed down the options and I think we're really close to deciding.
Stacey