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Don't give up! Just downgrade a bit. There are lots of great cruises right here in the US!
You can get a deluxe suite on a Royal Caribbean 7-day cruise departing Galveston Texas, calls in Mexico, Grand Cayman, and Jaimaica, for $1,169.
Hopefully the Caribbean gulf will be less oily by then. 
I know the Caribbean cruises are much cheaper, but this cruise just looked so amazing! Especially since I've wanted to go to Egypt for FOREVER!
We can't afford one, either. It really made us see that there's nothing wrong with staying in a Hotel for a few days and then going on a bigger, better adventure when you can afford it.
And you know what? I don't think it would be bratty or selfish at all to set up a Honeymoon registry! But consider the other options, even if you are facing work and grad school! = ) Think positive!
What about ditching the cruise and just doing a trip to Europe. You may not be able to go to all those places but you could get a better deal on Egypt or Turkey ore even 2 of the mentioned destinations. What is a budget you can afford? I would suggest you first determine a budget that is reasonable (maybe $4000) and hten talk to a travel agent to see what they can offer. Last year FI and I looked into Greece for a summer vacation. We talked to a random travel agent who was able to offer us 2 weeks (flight, hotel and breakfast daily) for about $3,300 for the two of us. Also, consider staying somewhere a bit less touristy and things like meals will be much cheaper (and most likely more delicious). Also, check out travelzoo if you are looking for European offers.
I understand how you're feeling. FI and I are trying to figure out how to have an affordable honeymoon that we both agree on, and while I offered economical alternatives, I've held the ideal -- Maui -- still in my heart. Crossing fingers and toes that airfare pricees drop because we probably won't go otherwise.
Don't push the grand honeymoon if you can't afford it, especially since you'll both be students post-wedding. It might be hard letting go of your ideal honeymoon, but like weddings, prioritize. You can do two weeks in Egypt alone: fly into Cairo, spend three or four days there, fly down to Aswan or Abu Simbel, cruise up the Nile and you'll hit Kom Ombo, Edfu, Luxor, etc. And there is still Alexandria, Mt.Sinai and the Red Sea (resort-y and with dolphins!).
You can also do a cruise of Greek islands and some coastal Turkish cities. I know a week-long one that leaves Athens and hits Istanbul, Ephesus, Santorini, Patmos, Crete and Mykonos. Stay in Athens before or after the cruise for two-three days, and spend some more days visiting a couple of the Cyclades from there.
Both those trips would cost less than $7000 for the two of you (not counting trans-Atlantic airfare) and are fabulous.
Don't give up!!! We just booked our honeymoon - Mediterranean cruise for 10 nights/11 days! - we really shopped around and ended up getting a room with a verranda for less than 4K on Celebrity Equinox. Our downside is that we are not leaving the day after the wedding but the next friday so we used flexible dates for getting our flights and are coming in a little early and we are just going to hang out in rome. We used a combination of airline miles of our own and gifted airline miles to get free flights!!!
Don't give up your perfect honeymoon is out there!
I think a cruise is not the best way to see Europe at all! You barely get any time to explore since you're on the ship so much. And 5 countries in 12 days is too much no matter how you're traveling.
If your priority is relaxing on a cruise, do something closer to home. If you want to sightsee/explore, pick two countries and plan on a week in each. If you're okay with traveling cheap (i.e. staying in hostels and eating lots of sandwiches), you can definitely do it. Greece and Turkey in particular are relatively cheap - a friend is vacationing there and she said the prices are amazing right now.
We totally downgraded on our honeymoon because of the high price tag. It ended up being absolutely perfect, but a far cry from our original dream. I promise it will still be the most special time of your life because you will have just gotten married and everything is about celebrating you! And look at who won't be in debt because of it!
Just wondering and I know its forward - but what is your comfortable budget and what is your top budget? If we knew these prices we could help you find something equally as awesome!!
That sounds like an amazing trip! A tour of the Meditterean or South America were high on our list of dream honeymoons as well. Time and budget will always be constraints. Luckily you'll have a flexible schedule as a grad student (with built in breaks) and it's definitely possible to save up two weeks of vacation from work for your husband (I did it). We're planning a 5 year anniversary trip to one of our dream locations!
If you're dying to go to Egypt, go there for a week and really get to see the country. Mrs. Lightening did a few recaps of her honeymoon to Egypt. Just make sure you get the right visas and what not (cruises take care of those for you, but you'd hvae to arrange it prior to your trip if you were just going on a land vacation there). I promise that even if your honeymoon is not your number one choice, that it will still be fabulous because you'll be experiencing it all with the love of your life. :)
Lamb has some excellent advice.
I don't think you should book it until you're sure you can cover it. Honeymoon registries in some groups are popular and in others you might not get a whole lot. I'm not sure what your budget is but I agree that a honeymoon is an excellent time to take a super vacation. But there are so many more affordable ways you can still have a super vacation without spending 10 grand (I'm including plane tickets and other expenses you'd accrue over 2 weeks). Even in Europe there are lots more affordable options. I think this is just a bump, you probably shouldn't do the cruise (but I don't think that's really that great of a way to travel in Europe anyways) but there's lots of other stuff you can do.
And as for grad school I think a lot of it is about attitude. I've seen plenty of grad students who have made time for vacation and it works out just great. I certainly did and I was more productive than a lot of the students who would never take a break.
What about a 5-7 day cruise, and then just stay in a less-expensive hotel in the porting city for a few days after that? I think most of the Mediterranean cruises depart around Venice, Italy. Would that be doable for you guys? What's your budget looking like?
Also, just FYI, we couldn't afford a nice honeymoon. We spend a week at a B&B in Vermont, and honestly, looking back, it was awesome. We ate and slept and went exploring when we felt like it. We were literally exhausted after the wedding that we had the hardest time getting out of bed! We're planning a more expensive trip to Mexico this winter as our "second honeymoon" to make up for it, and we won't be nearly as tired would will probably enjoy it more.
But I can also understand why some couples want that dream honeymoon right after the wedding.
I had dreams of an exotic international honeymoon as well, but FI's parents were paying for our honeymoon, and if we went somewhere that cost a few thousand just to get there, they wouldn't have given us as much "spending money". We decided to drive to Charleston, SC and stay in an amazing hotel and eat at incredible, expensive restaurants every night. No, we weren't in Italy or Greece but it is an absolutely beautiful city in the heart of our country and we lived like celebrities for a whole week on about $2,000. I don't like calling our honeymoon a "minimoon" but I will say that taking a less extravagant honeymoon can turn out to be just as wonderful, if not more!
Who says you have to take your "honeymoon" right after the wedding anyway? DH and I were married last August, and we are just now taking our honeymoon in 3 weeks! We simply didn't have the funds or the vacation time to take a trip right after the wedding. Heck, we got married on Saturday, and both of us had to be back at work on Monday! But I don't feel like just because we are taking our trip a year later makes it any less of a honeymoon. :)
yeah, I feel you - although, we really can't afford any honeymoon at all. I agree with all, just go on a less expensive trip, and visit one or two places at most!
Thanks for the advice everyone! While it sucks that we're going to be broke students when we get married, we've agreed that someday in the future we'll take vacations to these countries. :)
Today I actually just discovered a 7 day Carnival Cruise that goes to Mexico, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica for $1700 a person (FI really wanted the suite!). Plus, the great thing is that we won't have to worry about airfare since it leaves from Galveston, and that's where we'll be staying on our wedding night!
Your FI is right that there is time to do that. My Fi said the same thing to me when I lost my job and we had to cancel the 10-day dream trip to Rome. It was devastating at the time, but in the end it really is ok. Any trip you take will be special because it's your HM. We're hoping to do Europe for an anniversary.
Have you looked at travel agents at all? Sometimes you can get really good deals. And in the summer months you can go almost anywhere. What about a cruise to the Carribbean?
@mogget: That looks nice. One quick suggestion, though, is to not get too hung up on the room. I took a river cruise last summer down the Yangtze, and I probably spent an hour a day in the room doing something other than sleeping. While you'll spend more time than that in your room, really all you need is a good bed. 
The attractions of a cruise are outside of your room.
@monitajb: I'm not really worried about the room, but FI was the one who requested the suite and since he's the one paying for it I'll just let him have this! I'm trying to convince him and my parents that the balcony would still give us the Queen sized bed, but it would save $1000 overall. :)
@mogget: Ooh that sounds like a lovely cruise! You're so lucky that you don't have to take a plane to get to the cruise ship! LOL The balcony sounds really romantic... is it missing the whirlpool or something?
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So, FI and I have been discussing potential honeymoon plans. We thought a cruise might be fun and doable. But no, not really. Unless you want to go to Vancouver or somewhere in the states, the prices are pretty high. The one we looked at (and the one I fell in love with...of course) went to Italy, Greece, Israel, Egypt, and Turkey. 12 days long. Unfortunately, it'd be about $7000 (not even including airfare to Venice) for the both of us.
It's not going to work, we can't afford it. Part of me wants to just set up a honeymoon registry for people to contribute to and go ahead and book the thing. But the sensible part of me is telling me to just forget about it and accept that we won't have the funds and probably the time to go on one.
FI says we'll have plenty of time to take trips, but I feel like this would be our only opportunity to take one that's 1. on the costly side and 2. two weeks long. In the fall I'll be starting graduate school and he'll be finishing up his Ph.D, and then shortly after that he'll start working full time. We know we want kids and plan on having them a good ways down the road, but I've observed that just because you plan something doesn't mean it'll happen that way. Yes, there will be vacations, but from what I've seen once you start working and going to grad school you don't have a whole lot of time other than a weekend trip somewhere every once in awhile.
I feel like I'm being really bratty and selfish trying to justify and convince him to do this. Ughh.