Being savvy at Disney? Sounds impossible....

Well maybe because it pretty much is.


Lets face it,the assumption is that if you live in Florida "you must always go to Disney."
Let alone, living withen a reasonable driving distance.
Sad to say that's not the reality for most of us. Not to say that there's not options for enjoying a Disney vacation on the cheep side of things.  Downtown Disney and the Disney resorts can provide a fair amount of entertainment for a long weekend get-a-way. Take for example what we have done and have plans to do again.

 Fort Wilderness campground brings out the inner 8 year old in all of us. Campfire sing-alongs, free smores around the fire pit,free nightly movies,and easy access to the rest of the resorts on Disney property. Don't forget that staying at Fort Wilderness means that you are only a boat ride away from the Wilderness Lodge, the Contemporary, the Grand Floridian and the Polynesian.
Sure if you stay Fort Wilderness they have some great pools....but so does the Wilderness Lodge or even the Polynesian...If you get what I'm trying to indirectly say here. Side note: the Polynesian is undergoing major renovations,the pool area may be closed right now.

Lets briefly talk about the refillable mugs...also know as the "rapid fill" mugs. These mugs are available for purchase while staying at any Disney property (Not for use in the parks). For a flat price of $16.49 you can refill this cup as many times as your little Disney loving heart desires. The pricing used to be based on length of stay but apparently in the summer of 2015 that changed. Does this influence if I'd buy it for a long weekend at the resorts? I'm still not sure. What sold us on this cup last year was the fact that we could use it for coffee. Why? Because if Starbucks offered such a promotion,my husband and I would abuse the use of such cup to the point they might discontinue such a deal. In short,we love coffee. Any and all times of the day. For our upcoming trip to Fort Wilderness it will come out to less than $4 a day for us. I would venture to say that's a pretty sweet deal. Think about it.....1 or 2 coffees in the morning, 3-4 refills during the day of regular fountain drinks, and then 1 or 2 refills of coffee and or hot chocolate at night. I'm also factoring in the weather...February is cold. I love a constant stream of warm beverages.
Now don't try to use the cup you bought last year.....Disney is to smart for that. Each cup has a built in chip the machine recognizes. It even tells you on the screen when your cup is good until. Last year the coffee and tea machines didn't have that. But I'm sure Disney has changed that since. Regardless, don't tell Disney I noticed. Or that my husband and I may or may not have shared a cup last year. It's not like I was handed a rule book with my cup or anything. I'm sure Walt wouldn't have minded.
Am I getting off topic? Yeah I don't think so either. Anyways! There is nothing better than sitting on the beach at Fort Wilderness,sipping your hot chocolate mixed with coffee and watching the Magic Kingdom fireworks. And then you can always catch the boat and head to the Contemporary and grab some yummy dessert. Maybe even watch the fireworks there. Another thing I'll just briefly mention is the outdoor movies. As far as I know almost all of the Disney resorts have nightly movies. I've even seen the resort play movies that are still new and not out on DVD. A quick Google search can show you the schedules for each resort, so you'll have a fair amount of different movies to pick from.
Here is an example for September.

Needless to say, there isn't a shortage of fun things to do on Disney property that excludes going to the park. Don't forget about Downtown Disney, The Boardwalk, riding the Monorail,and taking a bus to the other resorts like Animal Kingdom Lodge or Port Orleans. (Port Orleans has a boat that will take you to Downtown Disney.) If you're fortunate,you'll discover a quiet place to enjoy a coffee and relax. (Just don't take my spot by the fireplace at the lodge.)

So go to Disney! But don't feel like you have to "go to Disney" while you're there.

How we flew round trip to Alaska.....for almost nothing.

At the beginning of 2014 we began our hunt for flights to Vancouver where our journey would begin.
Thanks to my friend over at Miles for Family (Link on the side) we were able to take advantage of a great deal.
The AAdvantage card (Then called the US airways card I believe. They were merging at the time,which is an awful time to try to book mileage flights.) at the time was offering 50,000 miles as a sign on bonus with no minimum spending amount. The one drawback was the $89 annual fee....which in the end practically paid for itself. My husband and I each applied and got cards,meaning we now had 100,000 miles to use. Seems easy enough right? Lets fast forward to March when our miles finally posted.  The chances of getting super saver seats to use our miles on to fly to Vancouver and back from Alaska on the exact days we needed was not an easy task. It took us many hours online and on the phone until we finally got our tickets in April. A mere month and a half before our trip. Originally we booked tickets using 37,500 each and come home a day later..... but we had to make some adjustments (The time between layovers on the way back wasn't enough for Alaska Airlines policy....5 minutes short of their 60 minute requirement...very strange....good thing I checked our booking status everyday) and it ended up working out in our favor. The new reservations only used 25,000 miles each and leaving at 11pm the day we planned on originally leaving and even ending up on the same first flight as my parents and two friends...what are the odds? 

Thanks to the card we also got free checked bags on the flight out. Sadly the affiliate airlines don't honor the promotion so flying back on Alaska Airlines we had to pay. That being said, I would still fly Alaska Airline again. I now see why they're rated so high in the airline industry. 
If this has sparked your curiosity, they're running a great special!

All sounds peachy right? Lets not forget that in order to use our miles and get from Alaska to Florida it took 4 flights. Fairbanks,Seattle,Chicago,Miami,and then FINALLY we arrived in Orlando.

We said goodbye to Alaska Wednesday night and hello to our house early Friday morning.

So whats the price breakdown?

$89 Annual fee per card. Granted,we only used miles from one card for this trip.

$60 in "over the phone" booking fees. I would have booked online but because of our timing,we just couldn't get the seats ourselves...let alone seats together.

$22.40 in taxes.

$50 unexpected fee for checked bags on our way home.

GRAND TOTAL 

$221.40

Not to shabby for first time millage users huh?

If we had more time to buy tickets we could have knocked $60 off that.

The best part?? We still have over 25,000 waiting to be used!