My family and I were able to make another Disney dream come true this summer when we sailed aboard Disney’s Magic ship for a 4 day cruise to the Bahamas. The cruise took us from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Nassau, to Disney’s Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point, and then back to Fort Lauderdale.
I booked 2 ocean view staterooms with 3 people per room. The room had a queen size bed with a sofa that turned into a twin bed, a desk, and a bathroom that was separated into one bathroom with a sink and shower and another bathroom with a sink and a toilet. It was very comfortable accommodations for the 3 people per room. We were also able to get connecting rooms, so the whole family had plenty of room. These rooms came at a cost of $7,011.94. Additionally, there were also mandatory gratuity fees of $372 dollars total for both rooms, bringing the grand total for a 4 day Disney cruise to the Bahamas for 6 people to $7,383.94
The cost included room, Disney style entertainment, breakfast, lunch and 3 course dinners per night at their restaurants, unlimited drinks and ice cream, room service, fireworks shows, picture opportunities with Disney characters, and so much more.
Below you fill find how I cut down the cost of this trip to something more manageable, because I am not someone who can afford to take vacations like these. I hope you gain some inspiration as to how you can make this happen for you and your family as well.
Flights and Hotel:
My family and I live in California. In addition to the $7,383.94 cruise cost, we also would have had to pay for flights for 6 people and a hotel for the night before and after the cruise.
The cash rate for both hotel stays would have come out to $924 for one night at a Hampton Inn and then 2 nights at a Hyatt Place. This is how I got this completely free.
- 1 night at a Hampton Inn before the cruise: I used a Hilton Free Night certificate that I got when I opened my American Express Hilton Honors Business Card
- 2 nights for after the cruise at a Hyatt Place: I used 36,000 Chase Ultimate Reward Points which I have earned from opening Chase Ink Business cards and my Chase Sapphire Preferred card.
Roundtrip flights for 6 people from California to Fort Lauderdale would have been $2,508 dollars. Instead I paid $530 dollars. If I would have had enough points at the moment of booking, this could have been as little as $67.20. Heres how: I used all of my Southwest points and Chase Ultimate Reward points I had at the moment. I transferred Chase points to Southwest and I was able to use 85,602 to help pay for most flights. Flights that I did not have points for, I paid for in cash and thats where the $530 were spent. IF I had had all the points to cover the flights, I would have only had to pay the flight taxes per person, which is $11.20 per person. Thus, bringing the grand total for flights to $67.
Cards you could open to earn these miles:
- Chase Ink Business cards
- Chase Sapphire Preferred
- Chase Co-Branded Southwest cards
Through credit card points I only spent $530 getting us from California to Florida, instead of $3,432.
Making The Cruise Cost More Manageable
Now, on the main event, making your cruise cost more manageable. This will depend on how much work you are willing to put in.
- Bank Bonuses: Banks will give you cash bonuses for opening either checking accounts or savings accounts. Some will require direct deposits and some won’t. Some just require you to have a certain amount of money in your account for a certain time period. Read the requirements and open ones that you qualify for. You and your spouse could take turns opening some for the bonuses. Look on doctorofcredit.com for the most updated bank bonus offers.
Between my player 2 and I, we opened 7 bank accounts, for a total of $3,525 in bank bonuses that we applied to the cruise.
- Discounted gift cards: Around the holidays stores such as Costco, Sam’s Club, Target, and Best Buy will sell Disney gift cards for a small discount. Buy those when on sale and make your payment for your cruise with those. I’ve seen discounts of $5 off of $50 gift cards or as much as $50 off of a $500 gift card.
I used 2 of the $500 offer for a savings of $100
- Credit Card Points and Miles: the 2 best credit cards to use for this is Chase’s Ink Business cards and their Sapphire Preferred card, as well as Capital One’s Venture and Venture X card which gives you miles. These are great ways to bring the cost down because both cash out at 1 cent per point. Other bank’s points will NOT. Opening these cards and following the terms to earn the sign up bonus can help you bring the cost of your trip way down. Chase Sapphire Preferred’s bonus will give you $600. Chase Ink cards will be $750 (you can open multiple of these). Capital One Venture or Venture X will give you $750 from each card. If both you and your spouse take turns opening cards, imagine how much of your trip you could discount.
I do not like to use my points and miles to cash them in. I prefer to use them to book flights and hotels for other trips, so I did not use this strategy to bring down the cost of the cruise further. But this is a solid strategy if you want to bring the cost of your cruise way down. I currently have 400,000 Chase points accumulated, so if I really wanted to I could cash them in for $4,000 and have an almost free cruise!
Using the above strategies, this trip, which would have cost $10,815.94, only cost us $4,288.94. A much more manageable cost for our family.
If you plan to open any of the above cards, please use my credit card links. It is a no cost to you way to support my content: https://linktr.ee/mamitravelswithpoints
