Deluxe It Up - To Infinity & Beyond!

[JJT]

My speculative bookings earlier this year have dwindled to one - my first one for last week was really trying to shoehorn a trip in between end of school for my DW and an annual camping trip my DS has with his buddies.

I’ve modified my Conrad Orlando free night certificate stay to the end of July - also squeezing it in after our front yard reconstruction (starting next week) and another thing, but with more wiggle room.

Last night I watched this Conrad YT video with my wife to give her an idea of the Evermore resort. The couple in this video does a fairly good job providing an overview of the hotel and resort and did a great video walkaround.

We stayed at the new Conrad Orlando Resort with view of the blue lagoon! Next to Disney World!

@JJT

Quick write up of the thing I wanted to post:

I’m working on a couple of Deluxe It Up resort bookings this Summer - still have no idea when I can get all 4 of us together for a trip AND in between our massive front yard restoration, which we are still waiting for a start date on.

So, I’ve booked a 4-night splurge with free night certificates at the reportedly bodacious Conrad Orlando, as well as a 5-night stay at the Swan on some dates where the per night cost is at or under 50K points.

[JJT]

Almost goofed today!

When I book placeholder trips, I usually book one for each human even if I know we plan to use a Companion Pass seat for them.

I do that for two reasons:

• As a way to can guarantee that I have options if there is an unexpected change to the booking - say, if one of the CP holders can’t make the trip I still have a seat booked at the best price for the person who would have ridden for free.
• Also, if there was a more complicated change (two people can’t make it) and I needed to change one of our CP companions to be the other kid, I have those booked seats as placeholders to help insure I can add the companion after making the changes.

As we get close to our still “I think we’re going but not really sure” upcoming trip, my calendar reminded me to swap my DS to be my DW’s companion.

Except, just as I was about to start the process of adding him as companion and cancelling him from the group PNR I realized - this would be considered a booking change by Southwest and likely kick in bag fees for DS!

Neither of us have a SW credit card right now to negate the fee, so No thanks to that - I booked our tickets for only 6K points each, so I’m just going to leave it as is and keep on keepin on.

[FelisLachesis]

@JJT

Neither of us have a SW credit card right now to negate the fee, so No thanks to that -

between now and January 26, 2026, there are going to be people on all sorts of different rules for these flights. Some get 2 bags, some get 1, some don’t get any. I don’t know how their old computer system didn’t melt down on all these changes.

[JJT]

So, received this for my DD18’s passport application today:

This will be me visiting my multi-denial friend at my local post office passport office tomorrow:

@JJT

So, I read all the rules, I know all the rules and after the same POSN USPS worker came up with different reasons EVERY TIME we tried to get DD’s passport application submitted, I traced down every spurious Reddit and/or FB thread related to getting a passport with a learner’s permit, which apparently is the latest thing that set the USPS worker off.

Also: She REALLY, REALLY does not seem to like me for some reason. Hey, that’s fine, but I always go into any meeting cheerful and prepared, documents all in order and paper-clipped up with post-its defining what they are.

The last time we sat down it took about 3 seconds for her to tell me it was wrong - then she asked me a question, and when I started to answer she told me I was talking over her. It was odd. Should have seen my DD’s face!

So, now that DD is back home again I booked another appointment in the next town over, which nicely has Saturday passport application hours, so I didn’t have to take even more hours off from work.

Walked in, new USPS worker looked at my paper-clipped pile of documents, check, photo - and said, “Oh, boy, you’ve got it all set up!” Looked through them, filled out his portion, had DD present ID and sign, stamped paid, out the door in about 9 minutes.

[melcort10]

Does she get 10 years of validity now??

In my recent experience it should only take a few days for it to be printed.

[JJT]

Yes! At 18 she gets the full expiration.

We already received a shipping tracking number, so should be here by Friday.

We’ll be applying for Global Entry ASAP and hope it goes through quickly. If it does, she’s been working part time at my office this summer, so will be a great opportunity to set up an appointment for the GE interview at JFK before she goes back to school.

[melcort10]

Score! I hope it works out. Are GE interviews as hard to come by as they once were?

[JJT]

I looked a few weeks ago out of curiosity and JFK had weeks of completely open appointments. So much better than when looking for my own, I had to refresh the calendar page many times to catch a single appt!

[lizzieanne771]

In the future, use the state department’s renewal online option. I helped my dad do his when I was home June 27-30 and he already has his new passport - it came on Monday.

[melcort10]

Children’s passports are not renewable.

[SirGreggLadyV]

@melcort10

Children’s passports

I didn’t realize that. I can understand, though.

[lizzieanne771]

For those that are renewable, it’s well worth the small amount of time online.

Since @JJT 's daughter now has the 10 year adult one, she can do that next time. And any adults who have basic renewals can do it online - there is a checklist to see if you qualify, but barring it being your first or replacing a lost passport, there shouldn’t be an issue doing it.

[JJT]

Just realized I meant to follow up on this for posterity:

We received my DD’s passport in the mail a week ago Friday. Early that evening we signed into the gov site to apply for Global Entry. Paid with a card that give a GE credit (free baby!)… by Saturday evening we had notification she was conditionally approved.

Appointment calendar still completely wide open so set up an 11:30am appointment on Tuesday when she’d be with me at work.

Not so early we’d have to deal with commute traffic, not so late we start getting early work leaver traffic on the way back. Anyone who knows the Belt Parkway et al in that area knows that there is almost always some sort of hold up around JFK, but it can make a huge difference if you avoid the bad times.

Oddly more people waiting on line when we arrived at JFK than when the rest of us had our appointments - which were all at booked up calendar times. Even so, in and out in about half an hour, so we are all now TSA pre-check on domestic flights! Woohoo!

@JJT

We’ll be applying for Global Entry ASAP and hope it goes through quickly. If it does, she’s been working part time at my office this summer, so will be a great opportunity to set up an appointment for the GE interview at JFK before she goes back to school.

[JJT]

DELUXE RESURRECTION POST 2025

Looks like this placeholder trip next week has become an actual Deluxe It Up competitor - just waiting for DS to confirm he can shift to get all of the days off.

This will be a hang out resort trip - no theme parks at all.

Likely will hit a few Disney restaurants since I’ve amassed some discounted Disney gift cards plus Rewards cards, not to mention that we like them and the good allergy handling, of course.

With free night certificates you get to book rooms available with a “standard award night”, which typically are not the better views etc. In the new 5-star Conrad, I’m sure any room will be great even without a view.

I have been hoping with luck and as a Hilton Diamond the request I am about to send to the concierge might secure a view upgrade to Pool or Lagoon - like in the image below. But, looking at current availability I think that is a low possibility.

As a Diamond, we’re going to get a $50/day food and drink credit at the Conrad, so that should cover at least a couple of coffees.
(Adding later: I just realized that it seems the $50/day credit is for HH status Gold or higher, so if you have an Amex Plat you’re…ummm. golden!)

My Hilton Aspire card has a $200 resort credit every 6 months and my Hilton Surpass has a $50/quarter credit, which will cover the hefty $50 valet parking fee for the stay. (No self park here, which is not my favorite.)

Note: I did not pay 380,000 points for this trip - just 90,000, plus free night certificates. Bazinga.

So, right now without any room upgrades here’s the thumbnail non-food trip cost tally for the 4 of us - note I used a free night award earned for my National rental car to bring that cost down by about $74.

Item	Cash Cost	Actual Cost
Airport Parking	$104	$104
Southwest Flights	$640	$40
Conrad Hotel	$3,200	$0
Valet Parking	$200	$200
Car Rental	$440	$366
Trip Totals	$4,584	$710
Credits		(-$450)
Net Trip Totals		$260

If we did get lucky with a view upgrade, you could assume the Conrad cost goes up by $600-$700 or so.

ETA: I realized I undercounted my credits by $50, fixed above.

ETA ETA: While looking through recent resort reports to see if there was anything newish I should know before we go, I realized that above I did not mention that included in that Conrad Hotel cost above is $200 in resort fees. It does not change the final tally in my table (say that 5 times fast!) because resort fees are waived on point and free night cert bookings.

[drvillarejos]

Sweet!!!

[JJT]

So, the Conrad send out a welcome message and lets you create an itinerary and send in special request to the concierge there.

As I mentioned, looks like a pretty full boat at the Conrad next week - but let’s see how we do with a room upgrade!

[JJT]

Fun pre-trip stuff: I learned that Conrad/Evermore has a trolley shuttle tracker for the resort:

https://trackmyshuttle.com/a/evermore

[janamelia]

Just been reading about Evermore and the Conrad. An internal (not ocean side) beach sounds inspired. There was also talk in the article I read about a mountain ski in and out resort. The considerable range of lodging choices is smart also.
Be interesting to see what your experiences are like.

Doesn’t seem that long ago that DH and I were driving by miles of scrub along that road. Have to prefer miles of sand beach to max capacity condominium layouts.

[JJT]

From video, the mix of houses, villas, and the hotel look well done!

One of my good friends was renting one of the giant homes for a family reunion, I think they were there last week. I’m going to see him for his daughter’s graduation party this weekend. I’m looking forward to hearing how they liked it.

[drvillarejos]

@JJT

I’m looking forward to hearing how they liked it.

I’m also excited to here about your stay here. I’ve been seeing a lot of hype about Evermore. They have this concept in other locals. Just don’t know anyone that’s been to one.