Prior to points and miles I had never visited Disney World. I live in California and so it was not an easy feat to make it out to Florida. My first trip to Disney World was in March of 2024 with my family of 6. Due to time constraints for my ex husband’s PTO we only had time to stay and do 2 parks, one day at Magic Kingdom and one day at Hollywood studios (Links to full blog posts for this trip are below). Since I am a full blown Disney adult, I always dreamed of going back and experiencing the other two parks. The opportunity presented itself when Sam, from the Disney Points Podcast and Instagram @almostfreetraveling, invited me to be part of the points and miles Disney meetup. I jumped at the chance to visit the final two parks and meet all of the wonderful creators I see online.
https://www.mamitravels.com/disney-world-on-points-and-miles/: Visiting all 4 Disney World Parks & Staying at the Grand Floridian https://www.mamitravels.com/hyatt-place-orlando-lake-buena-vista/: Visiting all 4 Disney World Parks & Staying at the Grand Floridian https://www.mamitravels.com/be-our-guest-restaurant-magic-kingdom-fl/: Visiting all 4 Disney World Parks & Staying at the Grand Floridian
Points and Miles Cost
Because I have a decent amount of my favorite bank points, I decided to fly with Southwest. Those points can be transferred to a number of airlines, but Southwest is my favorite because they fly out of my home airport, which allows me to avoid the busy Los Angeles Airport, and because they have cheap reward flights. I booked my flights as soon as I was invited to the meet up because the sooner you book your flights, the cheaper your flights will be. If they are expensive at the moment, I would say book anyway because if the prices drop in the future you can always get points credited back to your account for the difference. If you wait, you run the risk of flights getting more expensive.
I paid 24,458 of my favorite bank points and $11.20 in taxes for my round trip flight from Ontario, CA to Orlando, FL
Saving me $494.80 if I were to pay cash for the flights
DVC Rental for the Grand Floridian
Usually any trip will involve me booking a hotel for $0 using credit card points. However, on this trip I was presented with an opportunity to stay on property at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa. The usual cost per night at this hotel runs anywhere from $700 to $1,000 per night! Way out of my price range!
I was lucky enough to be going on this trip with travel creators who know way more than me about Disney and they were able to get a great deal for our stay. Go follow @summerisjoy and @pixiepointgals on Instagram. They are the experts on staying on Disney property without having to pay the public price.
The rates for the dates that we went were:
- Friday: $901
- Saturday: $901
- Sunday: $836
Bringing the grand total to $2,638 for 3 nights! The cost @summerisjoy and @pixiepointgals were able to get per room for our group was $1,026 total. We roomed together in groups of 3, so each person had to pay $342. They were able to get this deal because they rent rooms on Disney property through Disney’s DVC, Disney Vacation Club, points system. The very basics are that you pay to rent per point and you have to buy enough points to be able to rent at the resort you want for the number or nights you want. The more popular resorts will cost more points. But regardless, by renting through them, you are saving SO much money.
Click the link below to inquire with Pixie Points Gals about renting Disney property for your next vacation. Use coupon code MAMITRAVELSWITHPOINTS to get $50 off your rental.
https://pixiepointgals.com/welcome-to-pixie-point-dvc-brokerage-shop/: Visiting all 4 Disney World Parks & Staying at the Grand FloridianThe room at the Grand Floridian had a Mary Poppins theme and was a very cute touch to our Disney vacation. The room had a coffee maker and fridge for your family’s snacks. The bathroom had a door separating the shower and toilet and had double sinks to make getting ready in the morning easy for large families. The room had 2 beds and a couch that turns into a bed as well, so it could comfortably sleep a family of 5. The hotel has a pool and a cute Alice in Wonderland themed water area for small children.
Some would ask why stay on a Disney property when you will be at the parks most of the day? It is a fair question to ask. Here are some benefits of staying on property:
- You get 30 minute early entry to the parks, so you can race to those popular rides
- You can also get extended evening hours on Mondays and Wednesdays at the parks
- You get the ability to buy Lightning Lane multi and single passes 7 days before your stay and set up your rides 7 days in advance
- There is no fee to park at the resort OR at any of the parks
If you think you cant afford to pay the discounted cash price Pixie Points Gals will get you, you can if you open one of these 2 cards:
- Capital One Venture/Venture X card: you get a 75,000 point welcome bonus which means you can get a $750 dollar statement credit for travel purchases. If both you and a spouse each open a card you can get $1,500 worth of statement credits, making your Disney stay affordable. Support my content by applying for this card using the link in my linktree.
Visiting all 4 Parks
I paid cash for the 3 day park hopper tickets. @summerisjoy got us discounted tickets through her hack. A Disney World hack, not for Disneyland, is that you can buy tickets at a slight discount if you buy them through a conference link. The discount will vary. Hotels around Disney World host plenty of conferences for different businesses and they offer their attendees discounted tickets. @summerisjoy found us tickets at discounted rate of 20%! Learn all her tricks in her Disney Savings Blueprint, which you can purchase through the link below https://pixiepointgals.com/disney-savings-blueprint-course/
In the span of 3 days I was able to visit all 4 parks and get on the most popular rides. None of this was due to me. It was all due to @summerisjoy planning services for our group. She purchased our lightning lane passes and was able to book all of our rides. Go follow her on Instagram, she is an amazing source of knowledge for all things Disney. Below I will list all of the major rides she was able to get us on:
- Friday: Avatar, Naavi, Dinosaur, Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safari and then I left for the VIP tour.
- Saturday: Star Tours, Rock and Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, Spaceship Earth, The seas Nemo ride, Guardians, and Soarin
- Sunday: Tiana, Guardians, Living with the Land, and the people mover
I’m sure I forgot to list some rides, but we were able to do A LOT! Much of the time we also spent shopping, eating at restaurants or getting snacks, and exploring Epcot’s Festival of the Arts Food Festival they had going at the moment.
VIP Tour
During the first day of the trip some of us chose to do the VIP tour of Disney World. Follow @ashleygetsaround on Instagram for business class flight deals. Ashley took the lead role in organizing this VIP tour. VIP tours can be scheduled by anyone and cost, depending on the day, between $450-$900 per hour for a minimum of 7 hours. The maximum amount of people per group is 10 people and infants and toddlers count too. For our day it cost $4,500 for our group.
You get a private guide that takes you to the front of any of the rides you want to go to. So have a list of rides ready to make the most of your time with your guide. You get access to all 4 parks and transportation if you want to hop between parks. They provide small snacks for free and soda or water upon request. If you want to order meals through the mobile app you can order it and the guide will go get it for you while you are on the rides. Our guide had Jack Jack Chocolate Chip Cookies waiting for us when we got out of Toy Story Mania.
These were all of the rides we were able to get on in our 7 hour span across 3 parks: Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Rise of the Resistance, Slinky Dog Dash, Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror, Guardians of the Galaxy twice, Buzz Light Year Space Rangers, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, we took pictures with Mickey, Space Mountain track 1, Space Mountain track 2, and to finish off Tron. Because we were able to hit so many big time rides on day 1 thanks to this tour, I felt relaxed the rest of the days knowing I didn’t have to be in a rush to experience all of it.
The best part of this was that VIP tour guests get exclusive merch. Yes, its great to have the experience and memories but you want the world to know you have done a VIP tour. Below is the menu of items available.
Everyone will get a pin simply for being on the tour (pictured below).
I planned on getting the Christmas ornament because every year I need ornaments to represent special events of that year. I also planned on getting the ears. Unfortunately, they were out of the ornament. They do not offer rain checks. So all I got were the ears.
Follow me on Instagram @mamitravelswithpoints. DM me with any questions you have about this trip and I will be happy to answer your questions. Hope credit card points and miles can bring you and your family to the magic of Disney.
