How this muggle used bank card perks and different hacks to make a Common theme park journey extra reasonably priced

I’ve by no means taken my household on a theme park trip as a result of they’re simply too dang costly.

Different households are going into debt to go to Disney World, however I do not just like the Mouse sufficient to jeopardize my monetary safety. And whereas I am privileged to have a trip finances, a lot of our holidays contain driving to an Airbnb on a seaside or within the mountains and doing low cost actions like mountaineering, swimming and cooking dinners on the trip rental.

Then my daughter fell in love with Harry Potter. And I knew it will rock her world if we may go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Common Orlando Resort.

Now, if I am budget-conscious, my husband is downright frugal. We weren’t occurring a theme park trip in Florida except I may considerably minimize prices.

I could be a muggle, however I pulled out all of the money-saving magic I do know and leaned on my data of bank card perks and factors and miles to give you a extra reasonably priced Common theme park plan.

This is what I did to save cash — and get my husband on board — for 3 nights of Florida enjoyable with our favourite Hogwarts wannabes.

I booked our airfare with miles

Bear in mind the well-known Southwest Airways meltdown of Christmas 2022? We acquired caught in it and our flights to Savannah acquired canceled on the final minute. We managed to avoid wasting our trip with a protracted highway journey to Georgia, however Southwest nonetheless apologized with 25,000 Fast Rewards miles for every of us.

One canceled flight deserves to be redeemed for one more, so I used 82,000 miles to fly my household of 4 from Washington, D.C., to Orlando. The one catch was that Southwest let me put the children’ miles into my account, however my husband’s had to enter his. So we needed to ebook our flights after which test in individually for the journey, which wasn’t an issue till someway he ended up within the B boarding group and we have been within the C group on the flight residence.

I get that most individuals don’t get windfalls of apology miles from airways, however you will have loads of methods to earn factors and miles for a free flight. Past saving the miles you earn from different flights, you may apply for an airline-affiliated bank card when it has a major sign-up bonus that may fast-track your mileage incomes.

Day by day Publication

Reward your inbox with the TPG Day by day publication

Be part of over 700,000 readers for breaking information, in-depth guides and unique offers from TPG’s consultants

Equally, a card that earns transferable factors will allow you to switch factors to a lot of totally different airways. Be sure you’re incomes additional miles on your purchases by utilizing purchasing portals or signing up for packages that earn you miles for consuming out.

If you happen to can, ebook your flights early to get the very best availability for award seats or search for switch bonuses and award flight reductions to stretch your factors and miles additional.

I used bank card perks to chop lodge prices

I most likely may have transferred Chase Final Rewards factors to a lodge companion like Marriott or Hyatt to get lodge nights free of charge. However after researching space resorts, I used to be satisfied that we’d have a a lot better expertise if we may keep on-site at a Common lodge and get early admission to the park. A keep on the Loews Royal Pacific Resort would additionally give us a free Specific Limitless Cross and free transportation to the park, saving us cash on the expensive passes and a automobile rental or Ubers.

Since I wasn’t going to earn miles on a Loews lodge, I booked the keep by way of the Chase Journey℠ portal, which meant that I may use my Chase Sapphire Most popular® Card‘s $50 lodge credit score to avoid wasting a bit on the keep and earn 5 factors per greenback on the remaining quantity (for a complete of over 6,000 factors) that I can use towards free journey on our subsequent journey.

We booked two nights on the Royal Pacific, however to save cash on our ultimate evening (after we would not be going to the park the next day), I used the $300 journey credit score obtainable on my Capital One Enterprise X Rewards Credit score Card to ebook an evening on the Homewood Suites by Hilton Orlando-Nearest to Univ Studios by way of the Capital One Journey portal. We acquired a two-room suite that included breakfast and did not even max out my journey credit score.

I saved with a army park cross

My husband is a civilian worker of the U.S. Navy, and his Division of Protection ID offers us entry to a wide range of journey reductions. It additionally makes him eligible for Common’s Navy Freedom Cross.

Lively-duty members of the army, veterans and different DOD staff can buy a particular cross that offers them limitless entry to the parks from January by way of mid-December — for roughly the price of in the future on the parks. The extra you employ this cross, the extra you save. We’ll solely go to Common as soon as this 12 months, however we went to the park on three days throughout our journey, saving a whole bunch.

Associated: The perfect army journey reductions and perks for service members

Common repeatedly releases particular gives which can be obtainable to all friends, together with lodge and ticket reductions and packages that embody eating playing cards that you should use to cowl meals prices throughout your keep.

I had groceries delivered to avoid wasting on meals prices

Everybody is aware of that theme park meals is overpriced, and lodge breakfasts do not come low cost, both. I wasn’t going to disclaim my kids Butterbeer and pub meals on the Leaky Cauldron or ice cream at Florean Fortescue’s Ice-Cream Parlour in Diagon Alley, however we could not eat out for each meal and snack.

I all the time journey with snacks from residence, however this example required next-level grocery purchasing.

That is when my theme park professional colleague Tarah Chieffi pointed me towards a Shipt provide obtainable to Visa cardholders. If I signed up with an eligible card, I may get a free three-month membership and free supply on orders over $35.

My Chase Sapphire Most popular Card was certainly eligible, so I signed up (making a calendar reminder instantly to cancel earlier than Shipt began to cost). I downloaded the app, and whereas we awaited our flight on the airport, I positioned an order at Publix grocery store for breakfast staples like Cheerios, pastries and milk and lunch fixings like bread, jam and apples. I set the supply time for once I knew we might be on the lodge and left a observe for my shopper that we have been flying.

The app was simple to make use of; when it occurred to me that I might want some utensils, I used to be in a position to simply replace the order. My shopper was communicative over textual content; when she could not discover the scones I had ordered, I used to be in a position to swap for muffins. When she completed at Publix, I met her on the entrance drive of the lodge, and the handoff was seamless.

Ultimately, we ate out 3 times (dinner on the lodge, lunch on the Leaky Cauldron and dinner at Finnegan’s Bar & Grill at Common Studios) and acquired a number of snacks and a few additional Butterbeer. However we managed to get two breakfasts and three further meals out of our $60 grocery haul. We may simply have spent the identical amount of cash on one breakfast for the 4 of us contained in the park.

I borrowed wands from one other mother

After we journey someplace particular with our youngsters, we regularly give them a memento finances (usually round $20 or $25) for them to spend nonetheless they need. This works surprisingly effectively, and my children accepted that they might not be shopping for the $60 animatronic owls we noticed on so many children’ shoulders.

Associated: Actual-world household journey ideas that truly work

Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade each have designated “wand spots” the place, when you wave the correct wand in the correct manner, you may make one thing magical occur. I knew my children would love this, however the interactive wands price $65. That is lots for a toy we would not use after this park go to. (If you happen to simply need a costume accent, you should purchase noninteractive wands for lots much less cash.)

So I put out a name on my native Purchase Nothing group, and a mother I do know from our faculty responded. We borrowed a Harry Potter and a Hermione wand from her so every child may have their very own to make use of. The magic was a bit finicky in one of many wands, so we took it to Ollivanders Wand Store (there’s one in every park), the place they’ll “re-magick” wands free of charge.