Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Girl Goes Wild Planning Honeymoon!

I did a funny and I HAVE to share!

With all this business with Craigslist and all, I have started to project to the day after the wedding and concentrate on one of the MOST fun aspects of planning a wedding…the HONEYMOON trip! I dream of tropical beaches, sunny days, fruity frozen drinks and some great alone time with my new HUSBAND. These thoughts occupy the corners of my mind that aren’t already occupied – hey it’s getting crowded in here!

Anyway, so I started thinking about what did I really want in a honeymoon trip? I have this idea in my head, but it changes quite frequently. The thing that doesn’t change is the tropical isle type of setting. So I started using my new friend, Craigslist, to see what I could find in terms of private rentals. I found some interesting stuff, but started to realize what I might miss out on with going private rental versus a larger, chain of resorts that specializes for honeymooners.

Decisions, decisions. They can make a girl crazy if you’re not careful!

Anyway, in going back and forth about things, I decided to keep going out of the box in my thinking. I mean, I was already considering not using a standard big name for the trip, why not go somewhere else instead of the Caribbean? There are LOTS of places out there with fabulous beaches and cool, fruity drinks…so I started searching further away. Hawaii, Tahiti and Fiji, to be precise. And I fell in LOVE with this place!

Turtle Island - source of all images

Isn’t it fabulous?!?!
Each Bure (small cottage by the beach) is equipped with a master suite and all, and also includes the outdoor queen-sized bed for afternoon naps.
The island is privately owned, and they only allow 14 couples at a time to be there, so it’s all-inclusive, including all activities that they offer.
Really nice…

At this point, I’m sold. Sign me up. But in checking out some other places in Tahiti, I knew that this place was probably out of our price range. Just to follow through thoroughly, I clicked on the Rates/Specials portion of their website and was surprised at what I found. It quoted that prices per couple were between $2,000-$2,800 for a 7 day stay because of a promotion that they were running where you stay for 7 nights, but only pay for 5 nights. Also, they had a honeymoon special that included the short flight from the mainland over to their island for free. So I would just need to pay for the airfare between LAX and Nadi (and of course the trip from Austin to LAX) and that would be it. Since it was all-inclusive, all drinks, food and activities were totally included. I got even more excited.

I sent the website address to Mr. CC and had him check it out. He fell in love with it too, so I clicked on the Contact Us tab for more information.

This is where I SHOULD have gotten suspicious. On the form where you fill out your personal information and contact stuff, there was a field for Budget. And the smallest amount that you could select was “Under $10,000.” Yeah, I checked that box and went about my business. Never suspecting a thing. A travel agent, Barb, contacted me right away and gathered a little more specific information so that she would be able to work up a quote. Did I want her to check into airfare from LAX to Nadi for me? Of course. Thank you so very much!

I waited anxiously for the final number to come in, getting more excited by the minute that this could be the trip of a lifetime.

Yeah, the reason that it would be the trip of a lifetime is because it would take the REST of my lifetime to pay for it. Turns out the $2,000-$2,800 price quoted on the website is a PER NIGHT price. It must be, because the accommodations total that Barb provided for me was $10,350…with an additional $1,240/person for the airfare between LAX and Nadi. Yeah, I quickly replied to Barb and told her that Turtle Island was WAY out of my price range, but thank you for the time.

I mean, Mama CC always told me that if you’re gonna dream you might as well dream big…but I don’t think that I should dream QUITE this big in this one instance! LOL! I had a good laugh at myself over this one, so I thought that you all would also enjoy laughing at me, too.

Have you looked into vacation packages that were just WAY out of your league just “for fun?” Is it disappointing to come back to reality? I haven’t had the desire to check around again after that last email from Barb….

No comments:

Post a Comment