We’re in a season where a lot of families have had to delay or cancel trips to Walt Disney World or Disneyland. Times are weird, and for regular visitors it can be a particularly frustrating time to not be able to enjoy some Disney magic.
Wouldn’t it be nice if there was some way to magically turn a delayed trip into an even better one in the future? Actually there is… to the point a delayed trip doesn’t have to be completely bad news after all.
We often think of money being a primary factor in getting the best Disney vacation possible—how we spend it, what deals we catch, what amenities we add on… However, delays offer an unexpected second currency that can prove invaluable if you’re hoping to upgrade a trip.
Time.
Time can seem like a commodity in short supply for many families when planning a Disney trip. When the itch for a vacation comes, we want to get there as fast as possible. Kids might struggle with long waits for a big trip, and when a good deal pops up, there’s a pressing urgency to take advantage, which can limit how much time you have to save and prepare. In the current season, many of us don’t know when our next Disney vacation will be, but we are certain we intend to go back in the future.
If that’s your situation, it’s time to make some lemonade and turn the disadvantage of a delayed trip into an advantage. If you want to turn extra time before your next vacation into an upgrade, here are five things you’re going to want to do starting now…
1. Improve your trip budgeting skills
Unless you’re the Alexander Hamilton sort who delights in solving complex financial riddles, budgeting may not sound like a particularly fun subject when discussing a Disney vacation. Isn’t taking a vacation about getting away from spreadsheets and calculators?
In truth, a well-made vacation budget has the opposite effect. A good budget sets reasonable goals that free up your mind so you aren’t worried about money during your trip. You know what you can and can’t spend, and you can just enjoy your Disney days knowing that it’s already been figured out.
If you’re a Walt Disney World or Disneyland regular, there might be a specific trip budget you’re used to operating on. Whether you prefer to save a long time for deluxe amenities or prefer to pinch a penny until it screams for mercy, there are probably some things you’ve wanted to try at Disney parks but have never had the means to be able to do.
This is where a delay can prove a real advantage. Instead of just budgeting for the same old Disney vacation you planned on before, take some time to think about where you would upgrade your trip if you could. What would your dream vacation look like? You may not be able to stay in the Cinderella Castle suite and take VIP tours every day, but with a little extra time to save, you might be able to upgrade from a moderate to deluxe resort or add on some meals you’ve never tried.
Take some time to create a gold, silver, and bronze version of your vacation budget—use whatever budgeting method you’re comfortable with (I usually stick to Microsoft Excel since it does the math for me). What are the resorts you’ve wanted to stay in but haven’t been able to? Bronze might be an upgrade from All Star Sports to the Caribbean Beach Resort. Silver might be an upgrade to the Yacht Club, and gold might be that Animal Kingdom Lodge Savannah View room you’ve longed to try. Where have you wanted to eat but haven’t yet? Would you increase your shopping budget, try a behind the scenes tour, go to the spa? The sky is the limit.
Your gold, silver, and bronze budgets will become your new savings goals for the fund you’ll build while you wait for that future trip. Now, how to get there…
2. Get creative about saving
Once you have a budget, you’ll have new savings goals. Thanks to your delay, you actually have some time to reach them! The question is where does this magical money come from when bills still need to be paid?
There is so much good information online about creative ways to save—a brief Google search will give you a mountain of options. To simplify things, start with what you already have. Is there a certain amount you can spare from each paycheck to go towards your vacation fund? Set up an automatic transfer to set that amount aside each time or use a savings app like Peak Money (iOS only) or Digit to help coach you along. The goal is to start setting aside whatever you can, even if the amount is small. It will build over time.
Most of us can free up a surprising amount of money by cutting some fat from our regular expenses. See if you can get discounts on any of your regular bills or utilities—many cable companies, for example, are willing to give customers something close to a new customer discount if you catch the right salesperson (being nice might go a long way). While you can make those calls yourself, you can also utilize an app like Trim to do those negotiations for you (you pay a percentage of the savings if their negotiators succeed). Another place to look for spare cash is subscription services. What are you paying for every month that you don’t use anymore? Streaming services are the most obvious, but you can also free up money by cancelling unused memberships and add-ons to other bills.
Oh, and above all, do everything you can to get out of debt. The money you are putting towards interest can become a future vacation fund, and a debt-free vacation is a much more relaxed one.
What about making money you don’t have yet? If you have the time, you might be able to start a side hustle. There are a lot of creative ways to make extra money in our gig-heavy economy, and you may have skills you don’t even realize can make you cash on the side. Are you particularly good at crafts? See if you can sell some of your creations on Etsy. Gig-based jobs like driving for Uber or Lift or delivering meals for Doordash and Grubhub are other options. If you’re comfortable with stocks and investments, that’s another avenue for making some extra money if you have the discipline and market sense.
Finally, there’s the old fashioned method: take all that change you’ve been saving in a jar to get counted in a coin machine at the bank or grocery store. Also, let your inner Marie Kondo shine and declutter your house—if you have items in good condition, put on a yard sale, sell some items on eBay, or take old clothes to a consignment store. The point is really stop to think about what you have and if anything can become a resource to build that vacation fund.
3. Sprinkle your savings with some pixie dust
While it can be tempting to just hide your vacation fund in a shoebox, it’s not an ideal way to save for a vacation. If you want to turn time into an advantage, you’ll want your savings to do the work for you, and that means gaining interest through the magic of a good savings account.
If you want to get the most out of your hard-earned savings, you won’t want just any savings account—you’ll want the highest interest yield possible. In general, that’s going to mean thinking outside of the box when it comes to banks. Your average savings account with Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, or even a local credit union isn’t going to be able to compete with some of the newer online banks that have become popular in recent years.
There are a lot of options for high-yield savings, and I definitely recommend perusing resources like NerdWallet to get the highest returns with the fewest strings attached. We’ve had particularly good luck with Barclays, a UK-based bank who offers online savings account with some of the highest yields around for US customers (about .8% APY at the time of writing). American Express also offers a very attractive personal savings account with an average of 1% APY. Nationwide is another well-known option with around .9% APY. All of these options will build your savings over time faster than a normal checking or savings account, and they will also keep your trip fund set apart enough to discourage you from spending it before you get to that long awaited vacation.
4. Build credit card points strategically
Credit cards can be something of a mixed bag for upgrading vacations. On one hand, credit card rewards can seem an easy way to get trip upgrades. Aren’t points like getting free money? What’s the downside? Well, it is of course that credit card companies are businesses out to make money—their goal is to get you in debt and keep you there. Nothing sours a vacation like financial stress, and the risks of debt are often not worth the points in the end if you get stuck paying interest on a pile of debt.
If you choose to use credit cards, the trick is to use them prudently. If you tend to throw things on a card and never pay it off, it’s best to avoid credit cards as a strategy for upgrading your trip. If you have a good track record for paying off your card every time you use it, then you might be able to score some nice upgrades by using credit card points and new member offers.
It’s a good idea to do as much research as possible before applying for any new card—some cards are a better value for Disney vacations than others. The Disney Chase Visa is the most obvious choice but usually isn’t the best value. While it is the only card that directly produces Disney-specific rewards for your trip (and the cards look crazy cool), it doesn’t stack up quite as well as more versatile cashback cards like the Citi Double Cash card. We finally caved and got one to take advantage of a $200 new cardholder bonus to put towards our annual passes, but the rewards and perks are so-so, particularly for Passholders. If you’re looking for general cash to spend on your trip, a reliable cashback card like Chase Freedom Unlimited will be the best way to go.
Airfare is one of the biggest areas where guests can save big by building up credit card points– how much really depends on the card and the rewards program. Some airlines are better than others, and a lot of the big name airlines have complicated limitations on rewards that make getting flights to Orlando frustrating. We’ve been happy with the Southwest Rapid Rewards Visa since Southwest’s points can be applied to pretty much all of their flights and come with a decent value. If you already have points with another airline like United, American, and Delta, they all offer card options with benefits to consider. Alternatively, if you really like having a versatile card to apply points with, Chase Sapphire Preferred is a popular option with good rewards, as is the Capital One Venture Card.
For upgrading your resort, you’ll have to get a little creative. If your heart is set on staying at a Disney-owned resort, your best bet will be a mixed-rewards card (like Capital One Venture) that gives credit towards travel purchases you put on the card. This is a nice option because you don’t have to pay for your whole stay with points—if you don’t have enough, you can cover the remaining balance with cash.
In the past, the best way to stay on Disney property for cheap has been to build up Starwood points to stay at the Swan and Dolphin. A blogger famously took his family to Walt Disney World for almost nothing by doing this. Unfortunately, after Marriot bought out Starwood, the Marriot Bonvoy rewards program really tanked in value. While you certainly could get a Marriot Bonvoy credit card and build up points, you’ll probably get a better value using a mixed-rewards card like CapitalOne, VentureOne or the standard Venture card. We do still highly recommend the Swan and Dolphin—they’re two of the best resorts on property for getting deluxe amenities at moderate prices.
5. Wait for the right deal
We are seeing some truly unprecedented travel deals during this strange season, but when Disney parks open back up without the current restrictions, it seems likely that some pretty amazing deals will present themselves. If you aren’t in a hurry to get back to Disney parks, this could give you a lot of freedom to wait for the best deal possible.
I don’t just mean sales from Disney (though these are pretty significant right now, particularly for Florida locals). If you’re willing to sit and wait, you could take advantage of better choices in things like Disney Vacation Club point rentals (a tactic which can get you into a deluxe resort for significant discounts), massive airfare discounts, and lucrative credit card reward promotions. Play your hand right, and it could result in a nicely upgraded trip… Oh, and we’ve just been talking about Disneyland and Walt Disney World. If you include other parks and attractions that Orlando and Anaheim have to offer, that gives even more room for taking advantage of unforeseen bargains!
Enjoy this article? Keep reading to learn What Magic Word Shaped the History of Disney Parks Forever…
