Deluxe It Up - To Infinity & Beyond!

[JJT]

So, I was able to get what I needed transferred to buy the four 4-day convention ticket PH but it took 5 phone calls, uploading and transferring the maximum 5 card balances on each one.

Thankfully the CMs after the first one were both better connections and faster at the system. But, took a lot of time to read out all of those numbers, tell them the original value and purchase locations and have them verify.

Still there were a couple of cards that did not transfer when the CM thought they did, so I suggest keeping the Disneygiftcard.com page open and refresh it before you end the call to verify things.

I still have dozens of $50 and $25 gift cards to combine, but at least I have until August for them to fix the system.

[JJT]

Another Deluxe It Up Sidebar

Up in Vermont on similar trip to last year’s, Manchester for a couple of days, then in a suite in the mountain at Stowe in The Lodge at Spruce Peak.

That suite is using up an Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts $200 credit. So getting a $400 room (incl stoopid resort fee, not peak pricing, no pun intended) for $200. We get late 4pm check out, room upgrade to better view, free breakfast for 2, $100 resort credit.

Plus 5x Amex points for using portal.

So that stay is a moneymaker.
DW especially loooved her breakfast last year so looking forward.

Current stay is Inn at Manchester, starting in a converted carriage house.

[JJT]

[motherofdaughtersthree]

WOW…that’s amazingly gorgeous!

[OBNurseNH]

The 802 is a pretty special place too. Not quite a 603 but close

[JJT]

If we get some sun, watch for some great photos when we get to Stowe! Resort we’re staying at is Wilderness Lodge on steroids.

[motherofdaughtersthree]

for sun!!

[JJT]

Staying up at Stowe for the night using Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts credits.

Started raining pretty hard as we got up here, have a late 4pm check out tomorrow and reports of sun so fingers crossed!

Didn’t get a photo of the front of the lodge in the downpour, but excellent view. We got a double suite upgrade to highest floor.

[JJT]

Promising…

[SJCricket]

Stowe is lovely. I hope you get clear weather tomorrow to enjoy the views.

[JJT]

[FOMOm_VA]

@JJT

I highly recommend taking the free 10x Travel course - you can go through it a little at a time to get a good base of knowledge on all of this.

@WakandaForever this is what I was saying to get your international travel super cheap

@JJT

Executive Aisle car lottery

This is the only way my husband will ever rent a car now after a 3 hour budget line one time at MCO. It costs more but man, rolling up to a car of your choice, hopping in and driving off is

[JJT]

@FOMOm_VA

This is the only way my husband will ever rent a car now after a 3 hour budget line one time at MCO. It costs more but man, rolling up to a car of your choice, hopping in and driving off is

The National price dropped a few times since first booking, I’m hoping for another right before the trip! That will bring it right down near the other rental places.

[JJT]

[OBNurseNH]

That’ll do.

[motherofdaughtersthree]

So beautiful!!! It almost looks like a place overseas. Idk what place, but a place…

[JJT]

@JJT

The National price dropped a few times since first booking, I’m hoping for another right before the trip! That will bring it right down near the other rental places.

I’ve only rented cars a few times recently after not having to for many years.

I’ve continued to check my National Car rental at various times each day and caught a few smallish price drops - then today I remembered to check before 8:30AM and it had dropped more than $80 (from $285) so I rebooked.

Checked again this afternoon and it is back up to $285.

Wondering if there’s some early morning price hack I wasn’t aware of, or was that just a lucky accident?

[JJT]

Another Side Topic

I’ve been thinking about getting a Samsung Galaxy 5 smartwatch for awhile - need to keep better track of my BP and fitness stats. I’ve been upping my walking game lately and trying to hit 3 miles or more 4 days a week - plus been thinking of all them steps coming up in the parks next month.

In case anyone might be interested - Amazon dropped the price for Prime Day to lowest ever: this morning it was $170 for the 40mm and $180 for the 44mm watch.

Walmart had the 44mm for $170 and I ordered it there because we let Prime lapse (and I get Walmart+ with free shipping for free with my Amex card.)

Just now as I was closing my research tabs from this morning I noticed that Amazon changed the 40mm price down to $151 now and matched Walmart’s price for the 44mm.

Amazon.com: SAMSUNG Galaxy Watch 5 40mm Bluetooth Smartwatch w/Body, Health,...

[JJT]

FWIW Anyone about to buy park tix:

I received a DVCRentalStore email offering "up to 10% off select Disney tickets through July 31st."

Out of curiosity I checked the prices for August dates I had recorded before buying my convention tix a 4-day PH is going for $573.16 all in, which is equivalent to the convention ticket pricing.

It beats Disney direct by $47, beats UT by $25.

Of course, you don’t get the extra water park day you’d get with con tix and can’t pay with discounted Disney GCs for more savings. (I paid net $413 for my 4-day PHs using con tix GCs.)

But, if you want some extra savings and don’t want to fuss with buying bunches of GCs this seems a good temporary option.

You can see the convention ticket pricing for 4-day PH in the circle below.

Using discounted GCs I actually paid somewhere around the “Con Tix @ 90%” line of $517 per ticket.

In reality I probably did better than that as some of my discounted gift cards were more like 15% - 20% off using credit card linked offers stacked on top of Rakuten and Paypal cash back at shopDisney, BestBuy etc.

[JJT]

Now, Back to Some Actual Park Planning

A week or two ago, TP sent out some notifications on crowd level changes, which was pretty good news as most days for all the parks went down. I don’t rely too much on CL in reality, but I do like to be aware of the general drift of things.

My original park plan for our 4 days was to take advantage of both the EP and MK evening Deluxe resort hours, plus take advantage of the vacuum effect that occurs in MK on days when there is a MNSSHP scheduled.

The plan had us starting in AK Monday and hopping to EP for the 11PM close.
Tuesday was MK (party day) then hopping to HS for some evening hours (first glimpse at GE.)
Wed was HS, then hopping to MK for the Midnight Special hours.
Thursday was straight up EP.

But, as I’ve sweated out some (many?) brain cells in heat-induced fever dreams on my 2-3 mile walks lately, it occurred to me we’re going to be bushed after that midnight close on Wednesday.

Also, this lineup might not give us enough opportunity to call an audible if we, say, decide we need to hit HS more because there’s so much new stuff for us there. or EP to catch GOTG, which I’m sure we’re going to love.

So, with MK dropping to a CL 4 on our Monday, and HS to a 5 on Tuesday I reordered all of the starting parks. It gets us a full day in HS earlier in the week and places AK after the midnight MK close.

We’re normally a rope-dropping family, but I don’t think any of us will have heartburn sleeping in on Thursday and hitting AK for a greatest hits day. (I personally think my family checks out at AK wayyyy too early when we’re in that park. But, whatever. See if I care. Nerdz.)

Worst case scenario - I’ll buy an ILL for FoP and we’ll aim for Safari when we can, plus hop as many EE’s we can manage. Hopefully a Navi or two, Satuli Canteen for sure. Plus wandering and a Dole Whip or three.

So, now our weekly lineup is:
Monday: MK, hop to EP for evening hours. (Via Napoli booked at 4:30PM.)
Tuesday: HS.
Wednesday: EP and hop to MK for HEA and evening hours.
Thursday: AK late arrival. Possible hop to HS or EP?

In between each park hop I’m thinking we’ll either take some time to hit the Swan for a shower or a dip in the pool. The only park we really want to go commando in is HS, otherwise I’ll just try to stack LLs and do whatever tickles our fancy. Or whatever needs tickling at the time.