Booking Your Trip - Beginner Park Tips

UPDATE: 

This blog post has been updated. The new version can be found here.

Booking Your Stay:

Please note: This is a diary of suggested ideas from our own vacation experience. I have been to Walt Disney World 7 times, Disneyland 1 time, and Disneyland Paris 1 time. Things have changed over time and Disney Vacation planning is a constantly changing subject. What works for us may not work for you, so please take our suggestions and experiences with a grain of salt. We are constantly learning and growing.

When to book? Waiting For A Sale

So, you’ve got your dates in mind, you’ve saved up your airline miles (25,000 miles per person) and you’ve got your gift cards combined. You’re ready to book, but where do you start?

If you google “Walt Disney World Peak Attendance,” you’ll find charts showing the actual attendance in the parks last year and the projections for this year. We chose to go during the lowest attendance for two reasons. One - it’s less congested. Two - it’s less expensive.

That means the last week in August and the first week of September were our prime season. Sure, it’s hot in August, but we brought cooling towels for our necks and were able to wet them in ice water all over the park. We kept quite cool. We also brought a CamelBak, but we’ll go over staying cool in a future blog.

Back to the money saving. Make a DisneyWorld.com (or other park destination website) account and save your trip dates and package choices. Wait a few weeks and you’re bound to get a sale offer in your inbox that should save you $500-700. I waited until I had a deal in my inbox, then I called a Disney rep and spoke to him for ages about getting just the right deal for my family. We booked a few minutes later.

Stay in a Disney Parks hotel and you'll get Extra Magic Hours at one of the four parks EVERY day! It'll either be in the morning or at night, and the park will be open for one hour extra. There is a calendar to tell you which park it will be and when the extra hour will be. If there's a Disney After Hours event (Pixie Dust, Disney Villains After Dark, etc.) or other event happening where the parks are open until midnight (like H20 Glow Nights, Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween, and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party), these are not included in Extra Magic Hours (a different park will be open for Extra Magic Hours instead) and they cost extra, to the tune of approximately $79-$129 per person.

Purchasing Extras:

 

Save With Meal Planning

 

Go with the meal plan! Even if it says 2 snacks and 2 Quick Service meals per day, this plan will save you a lot of money. We did look at the prices of meals in the park and the minimum we found was about $16 per person per meal with drink included. Here's why the Quick Service plan worked wonders for us:

We stayed 3 nights and purchased Park Hopper with 3 days of tickets. We had a total of 2 meals per person per day, and 2 snacks per person per day. That's 18 meals and 18 snack credits between the 3 of us.

We got in at 4pm on the first day, so we used 1 snack credit and 1 meal credit each. That brought us down to 15 meals and 15 snacks.

The second day in the park was a full day, but I booked us a character dining experience outside of our meal plan ($204 total on that bill). So, we used 2 meals (breakfast and dinner) and 2 snacks that day. That left us with 9 meal credits and 9 snack credits left for the next day.

On the third day, we used 2 of the meal credits (breakfast and dinner) and had 2 snacks each instead lunch. That left us with 3 meal credits and 0 snack credits left.

We used the remaining credits on the morning of our 4th day, and ate breakfast.

We managed to make a 3 day meal plan extend to a 4 day vacation that way. On our next trip, we'll probably go for the 3 meal a day plan. The full-dining service plan can also be used to book character meals. That might be nice, too!

Park Hopper and Park Hopper Plus

 

Park Hopper 

 

Park Hopper allows you to change parks at any time during your day, and go between Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and the Magic Kingdom. I highly recommend this option as you can be locked out of the park if it becomes full and you've gone back to your hotel (outside of a Disney property).

Park Hopper Plus

 

I did not opt for Park Hopper Plus, though my husband is desperate to check out the Disney Water Parks. My child hates getting her face wet, so it's kind of a waste for us. We have indoor water parks and attractions in Michigan, and I just didn't see the point in adding a few hundred dollars for a park we might or might not visit.

Memory Maker

 

You're going to be using your phone a lot, to navigate the park, for dinner reservations, and to use your Fast Passes. You're really not going to have the battery power to take a ton of photos unless you bring a back-up battery bank, and even then, we ran out. Memory Maker is great because the Disney Parks photographers are all over the place, dressed in khaki, and they're ready to take your photo wherever you want. They also wait until people taking selfies and other photos are OUT of your background before they'll take the photo. They even shoo them away! Fantastic, right? Get the PERFECT castle shot with Memory Maker, and get extras like Magical features and ride photos. They show up automatically in your digital account, and if a photo doesn't come through (the ride photos are user-generated content moderated by actual people, so give it some time) you can call and get through to someone in minutes and they'll fetch your photo for you. Just keep track of what time you went on the rides. You can find a list of which rides have cameras on the Walt Disney Parks website. I'd definitely recommend the photo package for anyone heading to Disney. It's just worth it, especially at character meets. They take tons of photos of you and your family, and then they scan your Magic Band and off they fly, right to your My Disney Experience App!

Trip Insurance

 

Worth it! If anything happens and you need to change the date of your stay there is no penalty if you bought the insurance package. This includes plane delays, personal problems, weather issues. You name it. It's totally worth the extra cash for the peace of mind if you're traveling from far away.

Disney Magical Express

 

MCO is the airport code you want for the right Orlando airport. This one has the FREE Disney Magical Express. You call the number and tell them your travel dates and hotel reservation code and then you can get from the airport to your hotel for free. They'll even move your luggage into the bus for you. The bus trip is anywhere from 30-60 minutes, and there's TVs with Disney Cartoons and more. Of course, you'll be looking out the window most of the time, enjoying the gates of the parks and seeing glimpses of the wonderful Disney properties. It's free and it's wonderful. I highly recommend this mode of transportation.

Speaking of transportation, give yourself a day to get there and a day to get back if you're coming from out of state. You'll need it with airport security checks and time spent waiting for services and in queues. Relax. It's a vacation! Don't get your undies in a twist about waiting in line. I was so worried about my daughter being bored in line, but then I remembered being a kid in those long disney queues and loving talking to everyone I met. She did the same thing. 

Your Magical Express tickets and luggage tags will arrive in the mail a few weeks before your trip.

Airfare

 

I'm not going to be able to tell you much about airfare because I'm using airline miles to pay for ours. I've covered this in a previous blog. I do know that you want to book your airfare first if you're not booking it in your Disney vacation package through their website. I actually had a Disney rep on the phone while I booked my flight, his name was Dennis and he was AWESOME, and he really helped me to figure out a corresponding hotel stay and get a good deal.

My Disney Experience App

 

Booking Fast Passes

 

You get 3 Fast Passes per park per day. You'll want to book your fast passes as soon as you can for the most popular attractions. This includes Snow White Mine Ride, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Peter Pan's Flight, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Jungle Cruise in The Magic Kingdom. It also includes Soarin', Test Track, and Mission Space in Epcot. Book The Navi River Journey, Avatar Flight of Passage, Kilimanjaro Safari, and Expedition Everest in the Animal Kingdom. I'm guessing this would mean all of the new Star Wars rides in Hollywood Studios, but I haven't been there (ever) so I'm unsure.

We had a TON of trouble booking our Fast Pass for Snow White's Mine Ride. I never saw it open up in the app, not once in 60 days. I'll elaborate more about that in a future blog about our parks experience. Just know this: If you get a SPECIAL pass for ANY reason, you can use it on any ride at any time. These special Fast Passes are given out when you've encountered a problem in the park, as compensation, and you can use them to jump the queue, basically. This was the only way we got into that ride and even with FastPass the wait time was still 40 minutes (projected, and really only 20 minutes).

Memory Maker Photos

 

Your Memory Maker photos will show up in the app, too.

Dinner and Event Reservations

 

You can book your dinner and event reservations through the app. You'll see your Parks itinerary there, with dinners, fast passes, and more.

Magic Bands

 

Your Disney Magic Band is purchased through the My Disney Experience app (and it's free if you don't get a character band, we opted for the $10 more and got some cute ones as they were on a promotion when characters became a new feature). They'll arrive in the mail for you and you'll be able to activate them when you get to the Orlando airport (or the hotel, if you're driving). You use your Magic Band to get into the Parks, to go on rides, to enter events, to charge anything to your room or Meal Plan, to get photos sent from your Memory Maker package, and to get in and out of your hotel room. You can also use it if a member of your party is lost. Find a Cast Member and ask for help and use your band to show them your latest activity and what you're trying to do.

Saving Through Credit Card Rewards

The way I saved for Disney last time and the way I’ll be doing it this time is by purchasing Walt Disney Gift Cards. I buy them through ShopKick (to earn extra kicks back for my purchase), and I do that buy going to Online Kicks and then ShopDisney.com.

The minimum purchase is $25, so keep that in mind when cashing out your rewards via different apps. After you have purchased one gift card you can register it at http://www.disneygiftcard.com and make it your primary gift card. I named mine “Family Vacation” and then I put the card itself into our safe.

Disney Gift Cards can be used at any Disney Property, including paying for vacations and stays. They also NEVER expire, and they can each hold up to $1,000 USD. You can Manage Cards at DisneyGiftCard.com and add new card balances to your primary card (and secondary cards and so on and so forth).

Then you can use all of the cards together to pay for your trip and incidentals.

FREE Air Fare:

Now, how do you get there without paying for the plane tickets? You’re going to need a Mileage card like American Express’s Delta Card. Shameless plug here, I LOVE my SkyMiles card and have had a blue, gold, and now Platinum card. There is an annual fee on Gold and Platinum, but then your baggage is free, and with platinum you also get a BOGO free airline ticket once per calendar year. Blue has no fee, Gold has $95, and Platinum $195.

You can earn miles for every dollar spent, so I have the Amex App, and I pay almost all of our bills with Amex, then click “Pay It” in the app to pay off that charge with my bank account. My goal for going to Disney every 2-3 years is to spend $800 a month on Amex, earning me 800 miles. I’ll have to up my goal next time because I had a 30,000 signing bonus for the Platinum card that covered the rest of my miles needed. You need 25,000 miles PER person traveling to get to Orlando. Keep that in mind when budgeting, and try to get a sign-on promotion for your Amex account when opening one. Check your Amex offers because many times 2x-4x miles are offered when you spend on certain categories. From March-July, 2020, I was able to earn 14,000 miles because of these bonus offers.

I'm using Pay with Ibotta when grocery shopping at Walmart. I have it linked to my Amex account to earn an additional % back at Ibotta and airline miles on my card. I then pay off my card for whatever groceries I bought.

PARK Rewards:

Now, one final card to keep in mind is the Chase Disney Rewards Visa. It gives you 1-2% of purchases back as Disney Rewards dollars (spendable in the park) and lets you book a Disney Vacay with 6 months zero interest. Good if you need to spend a bit more on your trip than planned. Use the card in the park for a percent off all purchases over $50, and use the Disney Rewards Gift Cards on anything in the park, too. Win-win!

Your Disney Chase ALSO lets you get into Members-only character meets at the parks, save on Movie Tickets, Cruises, and Disney Shows and gives you special promotions for ShopDisney.com. Super!

Using Rewards Apps To Make Bank

REWARDS Apps:

I'm really trying to pay for this trip without spending much out of pocket. One of the ways I am doing this is by using receipt and rebate rewards apps.

Today I'm going to break down my process and how I managed to get us to Disney last time, and how I'm going to do more to get us there this time.














I use the following apps (with short descriptions).

Receipt Hog:

Receipt Hog allows you to submit ANY receipt (with few exceptions like movie theaters), and get points. You simply save your paper receipts, snap a photo of them, and then tell Receipt Hog who was shopping. They collect the demographics and benefit from your receipts that way. I have not connected my email or my Amazon account.

The points breakdown is 1,000 coins for $5.00 and can be cashed out via PayPal. If you save your points long enough, you actually get a better deal. 6,500 points becomes $40 (instead of 8,000 coins if you went in the $5 cashouts).


I'm saving my points until I hit 6,500 and then I'll cashout either via Visa or PayPal. Either one will work for me. Stay tuned for what I'll do with my payout later, as I'm adding it to my Disney Fund and earning rewards for doing that.

Fetch Rewards:

 

Fetch Rewards is another receipt submission app. This app gives 25 points for every receipt from a grocery store, big box store, or convenience store. They also give points for buying certain brands like Oscar Mayer, Kleenex, and Pepsi Cola. There's dozens of brands on the list, and then there's bonuses for buying specific brands/items.



The payout scale isn't great if you're just submitting generic receipts, but if you're buying on-brand, which is what they want you to do, you can really make bank with your grocery trips.

I'm aiming for a $25 visa or master card gift card from this program. That's 27,000 points. With each receipt being worth 25 points, it looks like this goal could be unattainable, but wait, because it's not as hard as you think.



Each week there are bonuses for items we regularly use. For example, this week there was a "50% points back" bonus for Hidden Valley Wafer bars. We use these, so I picked up a $3 box. Boom! I got 30 points for the bars, 25 points for the receipt, and 1,500 points in the "50% points back" scheme. That's a whopping 1,555 points for a $3.00 item.

If we figure out that a cash out costs 27,000 points for $25.00 in gift cards, and you bought ONLY the 50% points back items, you'd have to spend $53 in real cash to get a $25 gift card, and that's not shabby. That's a 47% kick-back. With the added 25 point bonus for each receipt, it might even be as much as 50-53% of a kick-back.



I'm saving up my Fetch Rewards points for to buy a Rainforest Cafe gift cards that we can use at the cafe in Animal Kingdom park. This will make for a nice sit-down meal when we get to AK.

SavingStar:

 

SavingStar is a branded rewards app that offers cash back for buying certain grocery items. I hardly use this one, but the nice thing about it is that if you clip every single offer each week, you'll occasionally match something they're asking you to buy.




Of course, you can always buy whichever items they're asking, but that seems an unnecessary expense just to get rewards. Their minimum cash out is $20 and it's to PayPal.




I'm saving up until I get $20 in my account and then cashing out in PayPal.

Ibotta:

Ibotta is a grocery rebates rewards app. You get money for buying the types of items the app has advertised. You'll have to prove your purchases with a receipt. You'll also need a bit of planning to clip the items that are required before you head to the store. If you clip them after you've shopped and have a rewards card linked, you'll not get credited. So, prior plan. If there's something on their list that I need, I'll clip it. Otherwise I clip the "Any" receipts for $0.10 in rewards each.



The nice thing about this app is that the rewards can be compounded with teammates, other friends and family who are using the app. I've cashed out the most out of this app. Much more than any other. There are bonuses for redeeming certain amounts of offers, too, and those bonuses can help you reach the $20 minimum cash out much more quickly. You can also earn cash through online purchases within the app, but that can take 60-90 days to arrive. 



Recently I've learned about Pay with Ibotta and have used it successfully. You go to the store, and at the cash register, once you're ready to pay your bill, open your Ibotta app. For Walmart, for example, there's a 1% Ibotta reward for using Pay with Ibotta. I had a $79 grocery bill. Ibotta asked me the total, I entered $79 and it immediately charged my debit card for a $79 Walmart Gift Card. It was instant and popped up in the Ibotta screen. All I had to do was scan that gift card code on my phone and my groceries were paid. My debit card was charged $79, and my Ibotta gave me an instant $0.79 in my app balance. What I REALLY like about this feature is that my debit card was NOT in Walmart's machine. It kept my number/chip clear of the scanner, and we all know how often our cards are compromised by stores.



With Ibotta, I'm planning to cash out at $25 because that's the minimum price of a Disney gift card. Watch and see what I do with them.

ShopKick:

ShopKick is a rebate app that allows you to scan items in the store (no purchase necessary) or submit a receipt for the purchase of specific items in order to earn Kicks. You can also make purchases online through the ShopKick app in order to earn further kicks, usually in a kickback amount like 1 kick per $1 spent.

This is the pinnacle of the apps for me because it works for everything I need. I can earn kicks just by walking through the doorway of a store (75 a day at TJ Maxx, for example!), the payout number is achievable and comes in the form of a Disney Gift Card, and I can earn more for making purchases online.





You can set up your cash out goal as any gift card in their list, and in different amounts. I'll be cashing out a $25 Disney gift card at a price of 6,250 kicks. This should take approximately 4-6 weeks with my shopping habits.




If I hit Walmart every week on my day off and JUST scan 500 kicks worth of items, I’ll have a gift card every 12.5 weeks. That’s $100 a year in just scanning cards. With a trip being planned every 3 years or so, that’s $300 off of our grand total. I did mess up today at TJ Maxx. I lost kicks because I used debit instead of credit when I paid with our linked card. Drat!

Stay tuned to my next blog post to find out what I'm doing with all these Disney Gift Cards, how to consolidate them, and future blog posts about saving money on your trip planning by planning your vacation yourself (it's easy!). As we delve further into this, I'll be giving tips about your parks stay, and the best way to get free airfare to Walt Disney World.

UPDATED: You cannot earn kicks from buying Gift Cards through ShopDisney on Shop Kicks app. I tried and was disappointed to find I did not earn any kicks. Darn! They're excluded. Would have been great to earn from my earnings though!

Sam's Club:

We found out that purchasing Disney gift cards through box clubs gets you a better deal - like $48 for a $50 gift card at Sam’s Club. So, save those reward cash outs and go for the $50, $75 gift card deals as they have the most savings per dollar. Definitely skip the cards that are a higher value than that, if you can, because the percentage off is not as high. It's about 4% off with the $50 and $75 cards.

Now here's a REAL money-saving tip. We saved our cash in our bank account, then used our Disney Rewards Visa card to buy our Disney gift cards. This gave us 4% off the cards AND we got the Disney Rewards points which we used to bank another $160 in "Disney Rewards" cards (gift cards usable at Disney properties). But that's not all! Suddenly our Sam's Plus account had a cash back rebate - I don't know how or what the percentage is, but we got $56.00 in rewards after our $1,500 purchase of gift cards. Phenomenal!