Sorry to rain on the parade but...Ireland in November? On your honeymoon? It's a wonderful country with some of the friendliest folks on the planet, but be prepared for lots of cold, gray and rain. If you head to Europe at all, the southern Europe recommendation makes sense, though certainly don't expect beach weather.

Having said that, Paris and Venice (once you get off the beaten track in the latter) are the two most romantic cities my wife and I have ever been. Not ideal weather in November, certainly, but wonderful places to explore, regardless. Barcelona is also supposed to be a great town.

And if weather is a priority on your honeymoon, within your travel parameters Los Cabos does seem to make a lot of sense.

Well the research concurs with your comment. Although it would have been an interesting trip, we are going to bank it for another time.

We've decided to attend Hilton Papagayo Costa Rica Resort & Spa. It seemed to get really good marks from a lot of different websites. I also seems to have a little bit of everything we were looking for. Although it might not be the greatest resort of all times, I really thing we are going have a good time and the resort will fit our needs well. Particularly Costa Rica, it seems to offer the sun, adventure (safety) and fishing that we are wanting to partake in...all in a weeks time.

Any suggestions on charter boats/captains out of Papagayo? The Wifey is going to do a spa day or two and I'll do some offshore fishing. Some of the going rates for 8 hours offshore trips are $600 - $800. Seems comparable to other services I have used. Does this sound about right for the area? Again, any suggestions on charters/captains to use? I want to go offshore.

Sounds like a nice honeymoon in store. Can't really answer your fishing questions, but if you don't get replies in this thread you might also try asking in the appropriate forum in the Travel and Dining section here at FT, as well as fishing around (sorry, couldn't resist) in Tripadvisor.com

Have a wonderful trip!

Nope, this is the upgrade offer sent directly from hotel reservation staff.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/18750745-post500.html

Thanks for your help! I will make sure to have all the confirmation numbers/ticket numbers with me before I leave to avoid any issues in transit. I haven't checked awardnexus.com yet (I'll have a look), but I did call AA and sure enough, two first class seats opened up for my 13 hour ORD-NRT leg! I'll see what I can do now in terms of reducing the connections and layover times, but the jump to first class is a huge relief for me. I was very happy with the trip as booked but the only thing nagging at me was having to use 55K miles for Business instead of a piddly 7.5K more for First because of the last minute nature of the booking.

And I'm sorry if I came across as harsh. But don't kick yourself for a decision to fly one airline over the other, or resent FF award rules that exclude some kinds of bookings. It's all the wisdom of hindsight and water under the bridge.

Personally, if this is a splurge and certainly because it's your honeymoon, I'd say blow the miles on a C or better yet F ticket to go to some distant destination. As opposed to Y, that means the honeymoon will start as soon as you step on the plane and the trip home will extend the bliss. But you don't seem to want to follow my advice on how you should live your life. :(:D:D

IIRC, the time from when my wife and I each applied for both cards to when we did the initial spending and then the miles finally posted was about two months, but that's just a very rough guess.

+1

And Hilton has fantastic options in both places.