Continental’s on the gift registry wagon

While I’ve previously expressed that I’m not so in love with the idea of having people pay for your honeymoon as a wedding gift - it’s just not for me, really - that doesn’t mean that it’s not a popular option. I’ve heard a lot of discussion where people say that they’re not against it, especially when it’s a second marriage, marriage of people who are maybe a little more successful, salary-wise and don’t “need” a lot of things for their home(s), and so on.

The latest thing I’ve caught is Continental Airlines’ gift registry, which allows gifts starting at $25 towards a travel registry for Continental.com members. Saw it advertised in my regular update as a Continental OnePass member, and figured it was worth posting about. Perhaps I need to rethink my concept of what this all means, huh?

Even Ask MeFi brings value in honeymoon planning

See, all those blogs you’re reading aren’t for naught, you can now say. Check out this thread over at Ask MetaFilter about road-tripping a honeymoon through the Northeastern part of the U.S. I’m such a fan of the concept of working with communities you’re comfortable with to get answers, rather than finding one that fits some mold someone else thinks is a good idea. Everyone’s talking about how crowdsourcing is the thing in the last couple years, but it’s been going on forever, just without a moniker.

Seriously, though. If you’re the kind of person who spends time on MetaFilter and sites like it, and you’re looking for advice, aren’t you going to appreciate advice from people who have similar experiences and interests in general, as they can probably provide you with something you’re actually going to like, as opposed to something that someone else thinks you should like?

Some more honeymoon ideas

Bridal Guide has published its 22 Caribbean hotspots for honeymoons for your reviewing pleasure. It’s in alphabetical order, which I’m sure most people will appreciate. They also provide a great breakdown of what TO go to each place for, and what NOT TO go to each place for. For instance, don’t go to Barbados for the “spring break party scenes,” or Martinique if you “expect the locals to speak English.”

Sometimes, having a place to start is the hardest part, so there’s no excuses if you click through on this, gentlemen.

Honeymoon registries — the guy’s POV

We’ve already had a couple of discussions about registries here at Groomify, but something that I recently had a (brief) conversation about was the idea that having a registry where wedding invitees could “purchase” a part of your honeymoon. First off, I’ll say that I’m not really a fan. While the Wall Street Journal’s Jane Hodges reports that even the Emily Post Institute says that honeymoon registries see “no objection to [them] from an etiquette point of view,” it’s so easy to agree or dismiss the perception of having others finance a vacation.

Upon reading that entire WSJ article, I “get” the statement made in the sidebar / photo caption, discussing how a middle-aged couple might “have” everything they need in life or to have a home together, leaving this as an acceptable option, but isn’t it still asking for people to pay for a vacation? I guess if I kept following this train of thought, I could argue that asking people to finance your china cabinet or glassware or utensil drawer could be viewed the same way, but it feels different to me. There’s certainly a difference between building a life together and building a sandcastle in Tahiti, but is this a case-sensitive thing that should be considered as such?

On top of this whole thing, I think we start getting into the whole “how much of a gift should people be buying us?” situation when talking about registries in general. To that extent, I think gifts that are further along on the “we’ll always think of you when we use your fine china” tend to tug more on the motional heartstrings - even for a guy - than the “oh yeah, and these eighteen people were kind enough to pay for our flight to Bali” sentiment.

Enough from me, though - what do YOU think?

The latest on honeymoons

With all the planning that goes into the wedding ceremony and reception, it’s definitely important that someone keeps the honeymoon in mind. From making sure that the dollars going into it are factored into the overall wedding budget to paying attention to “what’s up” in the economy and the world, there are a lot of things to assess.

Gas prices taking a climb for the worse right now is surely affecting people’s interests in taking a road trip of any length, or going somewhere that they’ll be responsible for buying fuel for a car - at least in the U.S. Weather and other happenings - such as the Olympics in China, for instance - all have effects on where we’d like to go and when.

Tonight, I came across this item from FloridaTrend.com that shows some stats on honeymoons in general and what people are up to of late. From destination weddings to “going green,” there are a whole ton more factors to ponder when doing your planning (don’t you need more options?). They also report that “destination” bachelor/ette parties are something of interest right now. What I didn’t notice is anything about how economic conditions overall are hindering people’s travels. In fact the New York Daily News‘ Paul Schultz writing about how “tropical islands” are a “persistent theme” when it comes to honeymoons - and for good reason.

Also crossing my path tonight was a tool that portrays itself as fitting into the groom’s wheelhouse. Blissport calls itself “honeymoon planning for guys,” and even offers a few tips and tricks in Honeymoon School. I’ve played a little bit with the service, and I can’t say it’s super-targeted for guys, at least in user experience and content, but maybe that’ll grow on me over time. It seems like the “school” content is where the “guy” focus is at, and the rest of it seems to be pretty general travel focused.

Is Blissport the solution for chipping in and doing something? It’s one of them, for sure, but what I think most guys probably find is that if they’re into vacation and travel, it’s an easy transition to plan something cool for the two of you as a honeymoon. Just don’t focus on things that YOU want to do the whole time, and she’ll probably appreciate you for it.

Deals: May 12, 2008

Looking for a deal on your honeymoon flights? The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Clara Bosonetto Maerz shares some news that American Airlines has “slashed the prices” on a number of Caribbean destinations, with no apparent deadline on travel termination. Head on over to that article and then to aa.com to book.

Would you go on a volunteer honeymoon?

Gadling’s Abha Malpani wrote last week about the concept of “volunteer honeymoons,” an idea that is apparently gaining steam, at least according to Global Volunteers.

As someone who isn’t currently planning on going with a volunteer honeymoon at the moment, I have to say that the way Abha has put this together, it’s at least something to contemplate. In fact, this type of post is exactly the type of thing I tell people that they’re going to get when I point them at Gadling, a blog that’s been cranking out great content like this for years now. I’d most certainly be curious about whether people out there are thinking about doing this, and why, on top of that. Please take our poll and have your say.

Honeymoon registries: Yes or No?

• I think they're on the up-and-up
• Uncouth. That is all.
• Hm. Good question. Dunno.
• I'd rather have glassware.
• Un-what?

View Results

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Looking for the beach of choice?

On Saturday, the Globe & Mail’s Bert Archer featured what he described as the “10 best beaches in the world.” They stretch from Mozambique to Turkey, Venice to Vancouver, and points all around. Smartly, there’s nothing that we Americans would really consider “domestic” on the list, so perhaps it’ll open some eyes beyond Florida, California, and sunny Hawaii - not that there’s anything wrong with those places, of course.

Orbitz making beach travel smarter

For those of us who’ve used a lot of the Web services such as Orbitz or Travelocity (picked at random, btw) to book travel, we’re aware that they do some things really really well (sorting, picking certain features, distances from locations, etc.), and don’t necessarily do everything the way you would love (Kayak might have some airlines that the others don’t, for instance). All that said, any improvement using their existing engines is a welcome one, which is why it’s pretty awesome to see Orbitz’s latest and greatest, My Ideal Beach.

My Ideal Beach combines a graphically appealing UI, asking just three important questions - what “type” of vacation do you want, e.g. family friendly, honeymoon; which four activities do you want to go on, e.g. shopping, gambling, scuba/snorkeling; and last, but most certainly not least, what type of hotel you’d want, ranging from private beaches to gay friendly to all inclusive. What I thought was pretty awesome about the results (they wash up on the beach, by the way), was that for choosing only one or two options at the last two questions, it did pretty well. The “sorting” isn’t quite the same as what you were used to from the traditional side of an Orbitz, but it does let you play with locations, ratings, and price. What it doesn’t do is let you “remove” options if you’ve already stayed there, don’t like the hotel chain, and so on, but it’s not the end of the world.

All that said, the way that My Ideal Beach differentiates itself is in its simplicity. After clicking on an option, it offers three “breakdown points,” I’ll call them. This feature alone makes it worth using for a beach vacation, even vs. the traditional Orbitz site.

• Why it’s a good match for you
• What’s missing
• Extras you might enjoy

As some of our significant others might say, it’s simple enough for any of us to use it and get a heads up on planning a honeymoon or beach-based getaway.

[Found via Gadling]