I love visiting South Florida in the winter to get a dose of sunshine and warmth. In this post, I’ll show you how to take an affordable family vacation to Miami, the Everglades, and Key Largo that your kids will love!
There are some pretty pricey things to do around South Florida, from harbor cruises to airboat tours. The key to keeping your trip under budget is to find some affordable activities everyone in the family will love. Read more...
My favorite credit card for free travel is offering a huge sign-up bonus through April 4th, 2018! Don’t miss out on over $900 worth of free flights – read on to learn all about the Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Visa!
I fly from North Carolina to Orlando three to four times each year to visit Walt Disney World, and I almost never pay for airfare.
How do I pull this off? Read more...
I was compensated for this post but all opinions are completely my own.
You may be familiar with renting Disney Vacation Club (DVC) points to save money on stays at Disney’s Deluxe resorts. But have you ever considered how much you can save on future Disney stays by becoming a DVC member yourself?
In this post, I’ll break down how much you can expect to save by purchasing a DVC contract on the resale market. Read more...
Every resort at Walt Disney World offers daily resort activities for guests. I’d argue that Animal Kingdom Lodge offers the widest array of resort activities and the best options for kids of any Disney resort.
This fall my family stayed five nights at Animal Kingdom Lodge and only went to the theme parks one day, so we had lots of time to explore the resort and try out the many offerings! Read more...
Whenever possible, I recommend staying on-property at a Disney resort when visiting Walt Disney World.
But sometimes that’s just not possible, such as on a last-minute trip when Disney resorts are booked or if there isn’t a Disney resort available that fits your budget.
When we planned our short trip for December there were zero rooms available at Disney resorts so I began researching cheap hotels near Disney World.
I booked us a one-bedroom suite at the Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham Lake Buena Vista based on the great reviews of the property (four and a half stars on Tripadvisor). Read more...
Who’s ready for some free food at Disney World?
Disney has just released a new discount for summer 2018 that includes one FREE quick service meal per person (ages 3+) per night of your vacation when you stay at a participating Walt Disney World Resort Value hotel!
When you purchase a minimum three-night magic your way package at one of the value resorts at Disney World with at least two days of park tickets, then you will receive one quick service meal per person (age 3+), per night of your stay. Read more...
The single easiest way to save thousands on a Disney World vacation is to rent DVC points for a stay at a Disney Deluxe resort hotel. My family has been doing this for years and it allows us to visit Disney World often, even on a limited budget!
In this post, I’ll walk you through how to book your Disney World vacation with a DVC points broker, which is by far the simplest way to go about renting DVC (Disney Vacation Club) points. Read more...
I’ve recently come to love the Hilton Honors program because you can now redeem Honors points to reduce to cost of any available hotel room thanks to their Points + Money option!
In this post, I’ll show you how to find the best deals using the Hilton app (which doesn’t work on their website) and how to use the Hilton Points + Money feature to save big on a vacation to Disney World (or anywhere else). Read more...
One way to visit your favorite vacation destination more often is to get your family members as obsessed with it as you are!
We get to visit Walt Disney World one more time this year, thanks to my mother-in-law’s willingness to make a short trip down for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. Here’s how we are saving money on this trip.
My mother-in-law has bravely agreed to stay two nights at an off-property hotel that seems too good to be true. Read more...
I finally got a chance to stay at Disney’s Dolphin Resort last month and I have much to share about the experience!
The Swan and Dolphin are unique hotels at Walt Disney World because they share some of the benefits of on-property Disney resorts but not all. And that makes them very confusing when comparing them to other Disney World resorts!
Normally I would wait until the end of a post to share the pros and cons of a resort, but with the Dolphin, I feel it makes more sense to share them upfront. Read more...
Here’s an easy way to save $30 on a $100+ hotel stay booked through Orbitz!
Head over to the Max Your Passion Sweepstakes site before March 31st, 2018 and enter your email address when prompted. You will be asked to enter a code, but you won’t need to because you will already have a promo code for $30 off waiting in your inbox!
Then just head over to Orbitz to book your discounted hotel stay. Read more...
After years of researching how to get the best deals on car rentals, I’ve finally settled on an easy three-step process for getting the lowest price with the least hassle.
In this post, I’ll walk you through my method and show you an example of how I saved on our recent rental!
First, you might be wondering how far in advance you need to book your rental car. Read more...
One of my favorite cards for free travel is offering the best sign-up bonus ever! The InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) Rewards Club MasterCard from Chase is offering an 80,000 point sign-up bonus for a limited time through this link from Million Mile Secrets.
Why did this card make my list of top five favorite credits cards for free travel with points and miles? Here are a few reasons:
If you are looking for creative ways to save money on a Walt Disney World vacation, here is one of my top suggestions. I have used this strategy MANY times and have saved hundreds of dollars!
In a nutshell, it is possible (and pretty easy) to stack two discounts on top of each other for Disney World resort hotel reservations when you book on Orbitz.com.
With both discounts, you can get up to 50% off of the regular prices of Disney World hotel rooms! Read more...
My daughter and I took a trip to the beach a few weekends back and today I’m sharing how we made the trip for a little over $100. This includes two nights at a hotel, gas, food, and entertainment!
My husband was out of town on a fishing trip so the girls headed to beautiful Atlantic Beach, NC. Here’s how we had a fantastic time on a limited budget:
I spent $40 total on our two nights lodging at the Holiday Inn Express – Havelock NW New Bern thanks to my stash of IHG Rewards points. Read more...
If you have any travel planned for the rest of the year and still need flights, don’t miss the 3-day fare sale on Southwest!
Get flights from $49 each way or only 2,330 points through 6/8/17 for travel through the end of the year. This is a great way to stretch your points earned by opening a Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Card. Plus the sign-on bonus is a whopping 60,000 points right now! Read more...
Here’s a quick post to share how I booked two nights at an on-property Disney resort for only $90/night – in peak summer travel season!
I was able to get us discounted rooms at Disney’s All Stars Music Resort for two nights in June with one of my favorite money-saving strategies – using Orbitz promo codes in conjunction with Disney World discounts!
Orbitz regularly releases 15% off promo codes for hotel stays booked on their sites. Read more...
I fly from North Carolina to Orlando two to three times each year to visit Walt Disney World, and I almost never pay for airfare.
How do I pull this off? I fly for (almost) free using Southwest points! In this post, I’ll show you how to earn and redeem points so you can visit your favorite destination more often.
The main way I’ve earned Southwest Rapid Reward Points is by opening a new credit card. Read more...