How I saved $483 on my Walt Disney World Vacation

A few weeks ago, after about a month of research, I finally "pulled the trigger" and booked our family vacation to Walt Disney World.

I love Disney World.

I don't love the expense.

Now I know why my parents waited until I was a freshman in High School before taking us on our first trip to WDW!  I've been to Disneyland twice and Disney World four times. So I guess you could say I'm a "veteran". But we have never stayed in the park. So we decided to "do it up" this trip and "splurge"...well - "splurge" our way.

The most frustrating and overwhelming part of booking a trip to Orlando is the SHEER QUANTITY of hotels, packages and parks available. It's overwhelming, and I can see why so many travel agents specialize in only Disney vacations. But I'm EXTREMELY resourceful and ended up getting a pretty good deal... well, at least in my mind. So here's how I SAVED $483.32 on my Walt Disney World vacation.

#1 - Shopathome.com offers cash back on your online purchases when you sign up for a (free) account. Basically you log into your Shopathome.com account and type in the site search box where you want to shop. You then click through their link and the transaction is recorded in your account. They offer cash back,  exclusive coupon codes and promotions to thousands of online retailers. In my case I decided to book our trip through SouthwestVacations.com. At the time of my booking Shopathome.com was offering 6% cash back at SouthwestVacations.com. I also have an account with another cash back site - Ebates.com. I ALWAYS compare the cash back offered with both Ebates and Shopathome before making any online purchase. These are LEGIT cash back websites. Ebates issues you a check quarterly and Shopathome issues you a check when you have a minimum of $20 in your account. I have received cash back checks from both sites over the past year. It's FREE MONEY in my mind! Here are the links to the 2 cash back sites:

Shopathome (Click here)


Ebates (Click here)

#2 - Because I was getting 6% cash back, I decided to bundle as much as I could with my SouthwestVacations.com package. They give you the option of purchasing airfare, hotel, Disney park tickets and even the Disney Dining Plan packages among other options. When you book an airfare/hotel package, you can expect to save a little bit. But you can RARELY find discounts on park ticket and dining plans, I figured a 6% cash back "discount" was better than nothing!

#3 - When booking my package I compared the pricing for the 2 promotions that were currently being offered. The first was "% off" at select Disney Resort properties. The other was "kids play free" in which you get FREE child park tickets. At first glance, you'd think the % discount would be greater. But once I priced out the park tickets, it actually came out to be about $100 less to go with the "kids play free" option, and pay "full price" for the hotel.

So here's the pricing breakdown for the exact package, had we just booked it at "FULL PRICE" without booking a package or getting cash back.


Airfare- Southwest Airlines 

 

 Hotel - 4 nights, 5 days at Port Orleans - French Quarter in a "Standard" room:

Park Tickets - 3 day Base Ticket, no Park Hopper

Disney Dining Plan- 4 Nights (peak season pricing)

Total Price: $2898.30

And here's what I paid:

PLUS subtract the 6% cash back from Shopathome.com = (- $142.24)

I SAVED : $483.32

I hope that my cash back shopping tips help get a little bit of extra money back in your pockets. It's a small amount of extra effort to check for the cash back percentages. There have been a few time where one site offers cash back, and the other one does not for a certain retailer. Or maybe one site has a significant difference in the percentage you get back. But in my mind, every penny I can save is money we can use for something else. Happy "cash back" shopping!!!

Back to the 'Lou

This past weekend I traveled (SOLO- no husband or child!) to my hometown of St. Louis, Mo. Although my family no longer lives there, I have a gaggle (that's right- I said gaggle) of friends who still live there. So I spent a long 4th of July weekend with my best girlfriend (since 7th grade) Kate. And just like old times, we were all about the shenanigans. Here's a quick recap of our insane weekend.

Friday - I flew to STL, and got picked up by Kate. We immediately head to St. Louis Bread Co (aka Panera Bread for anyone outside of St. Louis). After a late lunch we head to Kate's salon for some funky hair highlights by Lola. I let Lola do whatever, and got some awesome turquoise/teal highlights:


After the salon we head to Kate's house where we meet up with Joe (Kate's husband), and high school friends- Wendy (my cancer buddy who was the most awesome friend during my chemo and treatments) and Josh (my artist buddy, who lives in Baltimore and was in town as well). The 5 of us pile in Wendy's SUV and head to the Cardinal's game. Highlight: Josh's dad works downtown and gave us his parking garage pass = free parking. Josh's dad also drew us a map with turn by turn directions, like we were 16 years old driving to the city for the first time. It was so sweet!n Plus the Cardinals beat up on the Brewers BIG TIME!

After the game, we head where ALL Cardinals fans head: Ted Drewes. I had my favorite- a Terramizzou concrete, which is chocolate frozen custard with pistachio nuts. YUM! Wendy busted out the cars tailgate and we all enjoyed our frosty concretes.


Saturday - Kate and I headed to the Montelle Winery in Augusta, Mo to celebrate the birthday of a friend of Kate's. WOW- this place is amazing. There was about 12 of us and we had a catered luncheon, and wine GALORE! There was a live band and beautiful scenery.



After the Winery, we all headed to Froyo. Froyo is a frozen yogurt/sorbet joint where everything is self serve, with a giant topping bar. After you make your concoction you weigh it and pay per ounce. I enjoyed a 1/2 Mango Tango, 1/2 Pomegranate Raspberry sorbet topped with fresh raspberries and kiwi. HEAVENLY! The wine + froyo required a late afternoon nap.

After "adult naptime" we headed to Club Viva which is a Salsa Club located in the CWE. I was a little intimidated. We missed the 8pm salsa lessons, and the place was pretty empty when we rolled in at 10pm-ish. But by 11pm- OH MAN - it was a Salsa Fiesta! I have never been to a more diverse, friendly and welcoming club - EVER. Highlight: all cocktails were served in pint glasses. WOOOOO!

Sunday - Happy 4th of July!!!! After our late night, we needed some serious food. So we (Kate, Joe and I) went to Pi. I would seriously fly to St. Louis for Pi. We got the delmar – mozzarella, cheddar, barbeque sauce, hormone-free chicken, red and green peppers, red onion, fresh cilantro after baking. (minus the peppers, but added artichokes). It was heaven on pizza crust.

Now in a pizza coma we (me and Kate) headed to the Drury Plaza Hotel. We thought it would be a) smart and b) fun to stay downtown for the 4th of July. Let me say this- I lived in the St. Louis area until I was 18. This place is a MUST for ANYONE traveling to the city, or anyone looking for an overnight stay Downtown. It's directly across from the Courthouse and Arch. Highlight: FOOD. Upon check in, we got 3 cocktail vouchers EACH! There was a hot food buffet happy hour and sodas and popcorn available all night. Although we didn't have a outside view, they had a nice courtyard view for interior rooms.

After the free drinks and snacks we headed across the street to the Arch grounds for Fair St. Louis.

And the main reason we went (aside from the fireworks in front of a national monument) was : The B-52s concert. We somehow scored the reserved seats, about 12 rows back. I don't know how we managed this, the guy just opened the gate and let a group of people in. Lucky us!

And then immediately after we rocked out to Planet Claire, Private Idaho, Roam, Love Shack, Rock Lobster, Wig, Cosmic Thing the fireworks started!

But the night doesn't end there! We then headed to the Landing which was PACKED and finished off the night at The Big Bang- a dueling piano bar. Here's our carnage:

Monday - no trip to St. Louis is complete without a visit to the Zoo. We (me and Kate) picked up Josh (our artist friend) and met our friend Dan and his family there. Highlight: it's free. It was crowded and sweltering hot, but we had a fun time checking out the animals and riding the train.


After the zoo, Kate Josh and I headed to a St. Louis institution- The Pasta House. Highlight: the Pasta House Salad (which no longer comes with unlimited refills, total bummer, but still awesome) and TOASTED RAVIOLI - which I ordered 18, plus a to-go box so I could bring some home.

We had a quick "early dinner" and headed to the airport. I caught my flight home and held back tears as I had to say goodbye to Kate. After 20 years, she's still my soul sister.

Back from vacation

I am too tired to type much, but we just got back from an 11 day trip to Florida. We stayed in Boca Raton with the 'rents, and then Mike and I had a SWEEEET escape to Key West for 4 nights, while Lilly stayed at "camp mom-mom and g-daddy".

In Key West, we stayed at The Waldorf Astoria Reach Resort, and walked to Duval Street every day/night. We ate/drank at Keys Fisheries, Islamorada Fish Co., Salsa Loca, Mangoes, Sarabeths, Cowboy Bill's, Sloppy Joes, Hog's Breath, and Aqua...which has a Drag Queen show....which was HILARIOUS. Mike and I also took a snorkeling day trip to Fort Jefferson at the Dry Tourtugas National Park. It's 70 miles off of Key West and amazing. We saw millions of fish- including a tarpon, parrotfish, a squid (although my mom said she thinks it was a cuddlefish), spiny sea urchin, conch...just to name a few. It was our 3rd time in Key West and it was a great getaway!

Taking a little vacation (& info on giveaways / upcoming sales)

Yes- it's true- The Diaper Bag Wrangler is taking a vacation...

I will not be sewing, teaching, driving the kid to school, e-mailing, shipping orders, updating the blog/facebook/twitter for SEVEN days.

I was thinking maybe I could buy a mini sewing machine to bring on vacation with me....
But it's probably a piece of crap, and a waste of $30.


In the meantime....check out these fab blogs for October Diaper Bag Wrangler giveaways:

Making Lemonade- Halloween SPOOKtacular



Minnesota Mama's Must Haves - October Baby Shower Bash!




Upcoming Sale info:
p.s. #1: I promised myself that I WOULD NOT have another SupeR CrAzY SALE for 2009, but I lied. I am having a *SUPER* SupeR CrAzY SALE for ONE WEEK ONLY from Nov 1-7, 2009.

p.s #2: I came up with an AWESOME Black Friday promo. But I'm not telling you what it is just yet. :)

Vacation time!!!

I love a good vacation. Don't care where we go as long as it's somewhere else. So this week we are headed to Florida for some much needed R&R. Mom-mom and G-daddy are waiting (im)patiently to spend a week with the 3 of us.

When we return, the fun REALLY begins!!! On Friday August 14, our newly re-designed website will be going live!!!! We have been working endlessly on it, and I am so excited. Additionally there will be a super secret discount code for my bloggy readers, fb friends and twitter followers...so check back to get the code!

Overnight Escape to AC

Mike and I got to take a little overnight trip to Atlantic City last night. My parents are in town from FL, so we had a built in babysitter for Lilly. Kathy Griffin was doing a show at the Borgata- and we got a great price on a hotel room there! One of the few upsides to a crappy economy- "cheap" hotel rates in AC (if you consider $249/night cheap).

We left around 5:50pm on a rainy Friday night. It usually takes a little under 90 minutes to get to AC, but tonight it took 3 GRUELING hours. A little bit of everything - shore traffic, rain delays, and accident rubbernecking. We finally got in around 9pm- thank goodness our tickets were for the 11pm late show!

I booked a basic Classic Room at the Borgata but when we checked in, we were upgraded to a Fiore Suite! That's a $200 room upgrade! SCORE! I didn't even ask for an upgrade, although I had every intention of using my "cancer card" if the opportunity arose. So we went to our room on the 9th floor and here's some pics:

It was gorgeous- floor to ceiling windows, marble everywhere...awesome. The only downside- the TV. What's up with that? You have this impeccible room and a crappy 27" TV? Mike and I have never actually stayed in AC overnight before- we're Vegas people (we even got married in Vegas!). But I LOVE this hotel. It's like The Bellagio of the East Coast. Thank you Steve Wynn for building the Borgata!!!

We were hoping to have a nice dinner, but since it took us so long to get there, we ended up just heading down to the Borgata's Cafeteria and ordered up some Fatburger. YUM! We enjoyed people watching since AC is prime spotting for NJ Guidos. And boy did we see some characters. I even got all dressied up...well- I wore makeup and heels....that counts- right?


We went to The Music Box and found our seats, and who do you think rolls in....Jill Zarin- from The Real Housewives of NYC. Uh- does she not know that Kathy is inevitably going to rip on the Housewives??? Anyway, the crowd goes nuts and she's there with her husband Bobby and a few friends. (I enjoy watching the Housewives, so I got a kick out of it). She sat a few rows ahead of us and was promptly bombarded with people wanting photos. Geez- just leave the poor lady alone! She owns a fabric store, so Jill is a-ok in my book.

So Kathy comes on stage and does her stand up- mostly about- who would have guessed- The Real Housewives! It was so funny, even Mike thoroughly enjoyed the show. When it was over we gambled a little bit, but I was ready to call it a night!

Saturday morning I had one goal- Borgata Breakfast Buffet. We actually woke up a little late and Mike was worried that we wouldn't make it to the Buffet in time. So we hustled to get ready, checked out, put the bags in the car and went back inside for....the Buffet. Oh My....the Buffet. My most favorite restaurant in the world is probably The Bellagio Buffet. But, it's not so easy for us to fly out to Vegas these days, especially with a 3 year old kid in tow. (ahhh...the good ol days). So the Borgata Buffet- I am pleased to announce- is a great facsimile of the Bellagio's. If I ever have that incurable craving, it's nice to know I can drive 90 minutes to the Borgata! I filed my plate with huge strawberries, waffles, cinnamon french toast, cheese blintzes, danish and bacon. Mike filled his plate twice and has not eaten anything since then!

We did just a little gambling. Our tradition is to cash in our "coin jar" and just use that money to gamble. I'm sad to say we lost our money. No big winners here, but we had fun.

Cheerleaders Invade Disney MGM Hollywood Studios (or whatever it's called these days)

Here's my first post about the big trip to WDW....and only about 1 month late. It was Lilly's first time but I've been to WDW and Disneyland 2 times each prior to this trip.

On Saturday we all headed to MGM Studios but didn't get the memo that it was cheerleading day. Tens of thousands of obnoxious and hoochied-out girls ran rampant around the park all day. Everyone was in their full on cheer gear including blue glitter eyeshadow and red lipstick show makeup and those huge hairbows which made Minnie Mouses' bow look minuscule. The girls ranged in age from about 6 or 7 years old to high school age, and the mom posse following them around were equally as annoying. To make it worse, the Indiana Jones Stunt show was canceled on Saturday because the cheer performances took over the stage all day. Had the cheerleaders not been there, it would have been the perfect day.

The weather was gorgeous- about 82 degrees, slightly overcast and no humidity. Lilly would have had fun just riding on the parking lot tram all day...


The highlight of the day for Lilly was definitely getting her "princess" Minnie Mouse ears.


One of the highlights for me (aside from seeing my daughter have the time of her life) was going on the Tower of Terror (again). The only issue I have with this ride is this- when it first opened about 9 years ago, there was just a lap bar that went across the rows. For us "smaller people" that meant it could only go down as low as the biggest person in the row. So sitting next to Mike, who's a good 9" taller than me, meant I had a big gap between my lap and the bar. I guess someone died on the ride and now they have individual seat belts. That sucks because the most fun part of the ride (originally) was lifting off the seat when it dropped.


Our new favorite ride is the Toy Story Midway Mania:


Basically it's a spinning arcade 3D shooting gallery game. SO MUCH FUN. Make sure you get a FastPass for it! The "stand by" wait was insane, but with our FastPass ticket we got on the ride in about 10 minutes. Lilly wanted to ride with Grandmom, so Mike and I rode together and Nancy and Lilly rode together. We couldn't see them, but we heard the giggling going on...

The nice thing for Mike and I was that Mom-mom, GDaddy and Grandmom all came with us, so not only did we all get to have fun together but Nancy was especially great with taking Lilly on kiddie things so Mike and I could enjoy the "grown up stuff".

Floridays Resort Orlando, FL (Review)

Because there were so many family members making the big caravan trip up to Orlando, I tried to find a hotel that would suit everyone (5 adults and 1 toddler). My parents can be...ummm...particular about where they stay. Mike's mom couldn't care less and Mike and I just want something to accommodate Lilly.

I found a potentially great hotel online- Floridays Resort in Orlando. When I looked up the hotel reviews, they were a mixed bag, but I think guests are more inclined to post negative reviews than positive ones. They offered a FL resident discount, which pretty much sealed the deal in my mind. I also got the "thumbs up" from Dr. Gary so we booked it. Floridays is a timeshare/hotel resort that has 2 or 3 bedroom condos with a kitchen, dining room, living room, laundry, 2 bathrooms, plasma tv...etc. We had a ground floor 3 BR suite in the back of the property. It appears that they are starting another phase of buildings, but there was no construction going on when we were there.

The Resort has a restaurant, bar, main swimming pool and 1 or 2 smaller pools, exercise room, game room, and a mini convenience shop. It's located on International Drive, almost walking distance to the Orlando Premium Outlets, and about 15 minutes to WDW (it's only a few miles away, but it takes a little while to actually get there because of traffic, roads, stoplights etc.). Sea World is extremely close by. They offer shuttles to the theme parks which we took one day, and drove ourselves the other day. The shuttles are good, but you need to pay attention to the assigned pick up bus slots, verify the drop off hotel with the driver, and be flexible with a fixed schedule. It also saves you $12/day in parking fees.

So- the rooms- I really didn't know what to expect, but I think we were all thrilled with the accommodations. It felt like we were the first guests to stay in this room. It was spotlessly clean, well decorated and had just about everything you could ask for...except enough hooks to hang wet towels. Mike and I got to be the "grown-ups" and stay in the master suite which had a king bed, jacuzzi, glass shower, tv, chaise sofa and enough room for Lilly's "special bed" - her kid's aero bed.

Nancy and my parents both had rooms with 2 double beds and tvs. They shared a hall bathroom, which was a decent size. We had a handicapped accessible room so the hallway bathroom shower might be different than typical rooms, but I don't think anyone minded. There was also a screened in patio which was a nice place to relax and read or check e-mails.

The only strange thing that happened was on Sunday night 1/2 of the power went out in our room. There was a fuse box located in the family room, and I flipped the trip switches but did not have any luck restoring electricity. We got ahold of the desk and they sent someone over to fix it, the maintenance guy arrived in about 10 minutes and worked his magic. Apparently you have to "tap" the fuse switch...hey- I tried....

Here's the overall pros and cons of the Floridays Resort...

Pros:

Price- we got a 3BR for $170/night (FL resident rate) plus taxes and "resort" fees, so the total per night was about $190. The rack rate posted was $550/night.

Size- great for a large family, multiple families traveling together or families with older kids who might want their own space.

Personal amenities- they provided Crabtree & Evelyn and Indigo soaps, shampoos and lotions. Plenty of towels, dishes, utensils, tide for laundry, dishwasher detergent, and Starbucks coffee to brew in room.

Kitchen- ideal for those staying at least a few nights, you can cook your own meals, go grocery shopping (there's a Publix around the corner).

Cons:

Hooks- there was 1 hook and 1 small towelbar in the master bathroom. No handtowel hooks or anywhere to hang more than 2 towels.

Walls- the walls/ceiling were pretty thin so it was a little noisy here and there. Nancy could hear the upstairs rooms water running, and I could hear people walking upstairs. it wasn't enough to be bothersome, just a notation.

The bottom line:

I would stay here anytime. There's nothing more that we could have asked for and I would easily rate it a 4 or 5 star resort. Definitly one of the nicest hotels I have stayed in...equal to Paris Hotel in Las Vegas in my mind. Heck- they even have golf carts that will drive you to your room. Plenty of restaurants close by and not in a overly congested area.

Beachy keen

Lilly LOVES the beach, unfortunately the water was a little too chilly to enjoy a swim in the ocean. There was also a man of war jellyfish warning:




So instead we collected seashells, made a sandcastle and jumped in the waves (a little bit).