Honeymoon dilemma
 

I found a package that includes airfare and hotel stay at the Westin in St. John from Orlando for about $2500 for 10 nights at the beginning of July - sounds pretty good, right?! Well, we'd really like to stay at a villa for our honeymoon. However, the airfares for the beginning of July are so high right now. Should we wait it out so we can stay at a villa, or stay at the Westin, so we'll be secure knowing that we won't be paying sky-high prices if airfares don't go down? Decisions, decisions! : )

I've been watching Caribbean fares for quite awhile. I'm guessing they're not going down for a couple reasons: 1) some US carriers (AA, DL in particular) have discontinued or cut back Caribbean flights as a cost saving measure (which will increase demand per seat as supply drops); 2) many Americans who like to travel abroad during summer are not going to Europe, Asia, Mediterranean etc due to Iraq war, SARS, poor economy etc.
The other reason I'd not take a chance waiting on dropping fares is that you could get burned with higher prices or lack of available seats. Not a good thing to add extra stress to the wedding/honeymoon burden.
Villas can be great, but it's also nice to have the conveniences of a resort. The Westin's pool is good. Everything's on site (except the beach is not all that great).

CHECK OUT JET BLUE TOSAN JUAN,THEN A PUDDLE JUMP TO TORTOLLA,THEN A FERRY TO SJ.BETTER YET JUST STAY IN TORTOLLA,VILLA PRICES LOOK LOWER AND ISLAMDS ARE CLOSE ENOUGH TO GO BACK AND FORTH BY BOAT.

Saw some pretty good AA prices out of MIA to STT but not sure if it includes your time frame. You certainly don't want to travel through Tortola as air is usually more expensive than to STT. Depending on the options in your package, you can usually do well on priceline.com for the Westin especially in the summer - last summer rooms were going for around $75 a night. If you check cvoa.com (caribbean villa owners assoc) many of the villas do offer discounted air. Beginning of July is party time on St. John so you are going at a premium time.

I've stayed in a villa for a honeymoon on St. John and WOW! Loved it!