Booking Report #2 - Spring Break 2018 in Orlando

Last winter we had such a fun time in Orlando, FL that we decided to go back again.  Instead of December we decided to do Spring Break time in March.

Flights:

Southwest of course!  Southwest extended their schedule into March 2018 back in August.  The day the extension came out I went on and booked flights.  I wanted to book ASAP since I knew Orlando at spring break time would be a popular time to fly.  I booked 4 round trip, non-stop tickets at 19,200 points per piece.  This is higher than normal for a trip to Orlando but again it's spring break.  We expect everything to be more expensive and crowded.  I will continue to check the prices during upcoming Southwest sales.  I bought a ticket for Kim just in case something goes wrong with gaining my companion pass for 2018 & 2019.  You can read about our effort to get the pass here and here.  I fully expect to gain my pass and will cancel Kim's flight and receive the points back.

Emmy will be 1 and on the move at this point. I feel like this is the hardest age to fly with. They really don't want to hang out in their seats (aka your lap) and are hard to entertain. Hoping to find some good snacks and for no flight delays.

Hotel:

Happy hour at the resort bar

We are returning to Marriott's Harbour Lake Resort.  We stayed there in January of 2017.  You can read about it here.  We booked this resort back in May.  At the time they had great rates available,  especially during spring break.  We booked a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom villa for $250 per night.  This rate also came with a $50 food and beverage credit per night.  This was such a great deal I did not use points.  After taxes our total will be around $1400 for 5 nights.  This is by no means cheap but for spring break I think this is reasonable.  I will try and use points for all our other 2018 trips.

Car:

Again, cars are not cheap during spring break.  I have only searched for mini vans so far.  The best I could find for our 6 day trip was $408.  And the $408 does not guarantee us a mini van!  Through my Chase Sapphire Reserve we get National Car Rental Executive privileges.  If you've ever seen the commercials with the guy that played Puddy in Seinfeld, it's pretty accurate with what happens.  We walk right past the counter, pick a car in the emerald aisle,  drive to the booth and show our ID and off we go.  The cars in the emerald aisle can be anything from a Cadillac sedan to a mini van.  We have used this perk twice and each time we got a 3 row SUV such as a GMC Acadia or Buick Enclave.  I will continue to check rental prices to hopefully find something cheaper.

Activities:

So far we have only booked one activity - a Disney character breakfast.  It's called Bon Voyage Adventure Breakfast.   We have had a great time at past character breakfasts, and it's also a great way to get more autographs for the kids' books.  Other than the breakfast we plan to visit Disney Hollywood Studios.  We have never been there with kids so if anyone has any tips please let us know.  We are excited to try the Star Wars activities.  I believe they also have a Star Wars themed fireworks as well.  From what we have heard the Star Sars activities and training can not be fast passed and book up quickly. We are planning this park for a day that the on Disney property hotels do not get early access. This way we hope to get a fair start and go straight to the star wars attractions.

We plan to spend most of our trip at the pools hopefully enjoying the warm weather.  I'm sure we will also visit Disney Springs once or twice for dinner as well.  Where is everyone else going for Spring Break?


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Our Family Travel Bucket List

As 2017 comes to an end we look forward to 2018.  We like to plan our trips way ahead of time if possible.  This makes it easier to use points to cover hotels and flights.  In my experience the earlier you book the more options there are to use points.  So our planned 2018 trips include Orlando, Cancun, South Florida, Southern California, and most likely Ocean City.  Only Orlando is fully booked.  Cancun is mostly booked.  During our planning for 2018 we went ahead and formally wrote down our travel bucket list.  Here it is in no particular order:

Hawaii

St. John/St. Thomas USVI

Bora Bora*

San Diego

Destin, FL

Whale watching trip in the North West US

NYC in fall 

National Park Summer Road Trip - Minimum month long

Atlanta (Aquarium & World of Coke)

Disneyland

Mackinaw Island, MI

Figi*

Monaco for F1 race.

San Francisco

Greek Islands

Arizona

Spanish Islands

Germany

Nordic Countries

Australia 

Canadian Railroad Trip

Denver

Cancun 

Bahamas

European Disney Cruise

Cabo San Lucas

Puerto Rico

Turks and Caicos

Thialand

Belize

Italy

Sailboat Trip
Bali*

*Without kids

Where do you plan on going in 2018.

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Update on my quest to renew the Southwest Companion Pass

It's been a month since I applied for two Southwest credit cards on the same day.  You can read my original post which goes through my strategy here.  I was not instantly approved for either card, which made me nervous.

Business Premier Card:

I applied for this card at the beginning of October.  I filled out the application honestly and stated I made revenue of a couple thousand dollars reselling things such as concert and football tickets.  Once I hit submit, the window start scrolling and then a screen came up that said you application is under further review and could take up to 30 days.  This has happened before so I wasn't worried.  In the past I would check my online Chase account once a day to see if the card popped up in my account list.  The following morning I did just that and what do you know the Southwest business premier card was listed under my business accounts!

I believe the day after the card showed up in my online account the email from Chase stating I was approved showed up in my inbox.

Personal Plus Card:

I applied for this second card right after I submitted my application for the business card.  After hitting submit I got the same response as the business card - your application is pending and you will receive a decision within 30 days.  I was surprised this card wasn't approved immediately since I only had 3 other Chase personal cards open.  I checked my personal online Chase account daily for the card to show up in my account.  After a week of nothing showing up I started to get nervous.  Roughly 7 days after applying I got a letter in the mail from Chase saying I was denied!!

Just below the line about being denied was a phone number to call for reconsideration.  The letter also stated I had too many accounts open which really surprised me.  Obviously, I immediately called the reconsideration line.  A woman answered and I politely asked why I was denied.  She said I did not have enough credit capacity available through Chase.  I was instantly relieved.  Basically this means I just need to shift around some credit from other Chase cards.  I never reach my credit limit on cards so this was a simple fix.  I quickly said please move 5k from one of my other accounts to the Southwest account.  She agreed that would work and put me on hold to make the switch.  A few minutes later she was back and said it went through approved!

Spending:

We are working our way through the spending requirement for the bonus (2k for personal and 3k for business).   I've been racking up the charges by buying Christmas presents early this year.  To be safe I will probably take the cards out of my once I get within $200 on either card.  Once January 1st gets here I will quickly meet the spending requirement.  Both my statement end dates occur before the 10th of the month.  I hope to have the bonus points deposited into my account by the 20th of January.

Did anyone else go after the Companion Pass?


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We won't go to Disney trip #4 - Our best trip yet!

First Visit for Emmy!

We decided before having Emerson that we should do a trip to Florida/Disney while I was on maternity leave. I wanted to at least wait until I was cleared from my c section and maybe give Emmy a chance to be sleeping a little more at night. We decided to go when she was 9 weeks old in January. I was VERY concerned and stressed about this trip. I feel like the husbands/dads never think of all the stuff that bothers or worries moms about a trip. I was worried about flying with that young of a baby due to flu season. I was concerned with pumping and nursing during the trip and throughout the parks. I wondered how bad this would off set our sleep progress and how miserable we'll all be if we are all up all night. Soooo many things to consider.... but we went anyway!

Some how I always get talked into it...

It's funny because as concerned as I was, we actually did the most activities on this trip! My dad met us in Florida which was nice to have the extra set of hands. We stayed at Marriott's Harbour Lake Vacation Club Resort which we touched on in another post. We loved it! They had great kids activities and amazing pools! We are going back again in March because we loved it so much. We had a 2 bedroom suite as well which made everything possible. Emmy had her own room in one of the bathrooms so we could keep her place dark and quiet with her sound machine. It seemed to work pretty well, we got up one to two times a night not terrible for a nine week old. 

Babys first swim 

This trip was 5 days long. We spent one whole day just enjoying the pools at the hotel, a lesson we learned from previous Disney trips. The kids actually wanted more days just lounging at the pool. On our first night there we did a pirate dinner theater which was very neat and is described more in the post referenced above as well. Emmy slept through most of it and I nursed in the middle. 

On our first Disney day we did Magic Kingdom as always. We started this day with a pre-booked breakfast with the princesses at the castle. The only time we could get was 10am which was a bit late but still worth it. This breakfast was so great. The kids got swords and wands and the food was delicious. They really have it down to a science. It was also a great way to meet princesses and get signatures without having to wait in long lines. Believe it or not this day at magic kingdom is the first time we have ever made it until the fireworks! 

Princess Breakfast

Fireworks!

The weather was pretty hot and I nursed Emmy every 3 hours through the park while my dad, Keith and the kids rode rides. I couldn't believe we made it til close. We ended the day with hot dogs and fries sitting on the curb by the entrance watching the fireworks. A few tricks to help keep the kids going at the parks is to pack lots of snacks and drinks. I love my 31 products and they help save me a ton of money (insert picnic cooler) I also bring extra bags to toss changes of clothes and hats etc... (stroller bag)  What a great day!

This trip was also our favorite trip to sea world with our Shamu dining experience. (See  this post).  We saw all the shows and rode Manta our absolute new favorite roller coaster. We got to the park at opening and ran to this coaster. One adult stayed with the kids and we kept switching we probably all rode 3 times before people made it back to that area. Sadly the wind picked up and we were in able to ride the other coasters but honestly nothing could compare anyways! 

Later in the week we finally made it to Animal Kingdom. We had the Disney gird cards left over from our last trip when we were too tired to go. We choose this park on the day the Steelers played in the playoffs hoping to knock it out quickly and get  back by kick off. This day was supposed to rain so we were nervous but decided to go anyway. I'm so glad we did! Tons of people were dressed for the game and were yelling stuff throughout the park that's always so fun. Macie rode her biggest coaster yet, Everest! We also did the safari ride and A Bug's Life 4D which the kids cry at every time. We got back to the hotel in time to hit up their pool bar watch the game and have drinks while letting the kids swim right there at the pirate ship pool. Another awesome day!! 

Bugs Life

Hotel pool

Macie on Everest 

Sea world 

During this trip Emmy did a lot of sleeping which made things pretty easy and a lot of eating. I was just prepared to nurse every few hours and planned accordingly. I was definitely not the only mom nursing through out the parks. They have mom rooms where you can do all baby stuff and feed but they didn't really fit into where we were and when she wanted to eat. There were all kinds of moms feeding there. I even saw one mom completely exposed nursing as she walked down the middle of the main road in magic kingdom... she looked at me feeding Emmy under a cover and shrugged saying "oh it's my third kid". I didn't mention it was mine as well haha, to each their own. 

Some things I've learned to help me cope with traveling is to plan ahead and be prepared. I try and do my best to pack appropriately and plan out days so things are spread out.

One thing I am working on every time I travel is to relax and try and go with the flow. With young tired kids it's the only way to survive.

"The key to happiness is letting each situation be what it is instead of what you think it should be"

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