My Vacation Lady gets a lot of requests for honeymoon planning assistance from couples who are recommended to us from past honeymoon clients or those who find us on Wedding Wire, The Knot, Yelp or other online sources. Sometimes we’ll converse and for one reason or another, we won’t hear back from these couples for months. Sometimes, it’s just too early to start planning upon the initial contact. Other times, life just gets in the way– work, buying a home, etc and they need to put off planning their honeymoon until 3 months before the date when they want to travel.
A while back, the bride called me back after initially speaking to me 4 months prior. They were ready to move forward and they had decided on either Jamaica or Punta Cana for their honeymoon. They were thinking of the early March- 6 weeks from now and peak season in the Caribbean.
Typically, My Vacation Lady would have given them a few choices of resorts to choose from- a couple in each destination that fit their budget and would have fit their dreams. This time, after doing our research, we were only able to find 1 choice in Jamaica and 1 in Punta Cana. It wasn’t that nothing fit their budget. It was that the hotels that I normally would recommend were SOLD OUT.
They were looking for an adult only, all inclusive resort and normally, some of my go-to resorts, would have fit the price point. This time, 6 weeks in advance of their dream honeymoon, there was just NO availability in any room category.
They did end up booking one of my top choices in Jamaica, with non stop flights from Newark to Montego Bay but there were no seats to assign on the return flight and the only seats that I was able to assign on the outbound flight were no where near each other. If we weren’t able to assign seats on the outbound flight, they could have risked getting bumped and missed days of their honeymoon since there was only 1 nonstop flight a day from Newark to Jamaica. While the airlines do tend to hold open some seats for airport check in, the number of these seats has been reduced since the airlines want passengers to pay for premium economy seats.
What would this honeymoon planning picture have looked like if they were planning in 6 months ahead, instead of 6 weeks ahead?
- Our resort recommendations would have been 2-3 resorts in both Jamaica and Punta Cana with a choice of room categories.
- They would have gotten seats on both flights– next to each other.
Will they still have a great honeymoon? We’re sure they will but we would rather have had the opportunity to offer a few more of the resorts that we know our honeymooners love.
My Vacation Lady is the top rated honeymoon specialist located in NJ on both Wedding Wire and the Knot.
The best advise that we can give you is to book as early as you possibly can to give yourselves the best options and availability. Contact us to schedule your honeymoon consultation.
