Seasonal depression hit hard and early this past winter. Typically it starts after Christmas, so I was caught off guard at its early arrival.
I usually start planning something to look forward to when the seasonal depression hits so that I can have some kind of happiness to look forward to. We already had a trip to Cancun planned for April vacation, and it was kind of late in the game to plan something for February vacation, but I knew I needed something sooner than April to lift my spirits a bit.
Whatever it was had to be short in time frame so as not to miss too much school/work, cheap enough to justify another vacation so close to our already planned Cancun trip, and have lots of sunshine and fun for my mental health.
Because we have 3 littles, it also had to be somewhere that would entertain them.
The obvious choice for me was Disney World. The obvious time frame was for my birthday (beginning of March).
I understand that Disney is typically a huge cost, especially with 3 kids, but hear me out on how we did this.
Back in one of my ADHD hyper fixation moments a little over a year ago, I discovered travel hacking. I spent hours/days/weeks researching and came out with tons of points to use towards trips. (More to come on this soon).
We typically fly Southwest when we visit Disney because it’s usually the cheapest, allows free bags, and we can board during family boarding time which allows us to find seats all together. Because of the research I had done, I was able to get our flights to Orlando for FREE by using points! This involves opening Southwest credit cards in order to earn a substantial amount of points to put towards flights. Huge win for a family of 5.
As far as accommodations, we like to stay on Disney property as part of the whole experience. We love the ease of Disney transportation, the feeling of being immersed in all things disney, and the extra perks resort guests are afforded. HOWEVER, if this was going to be a cheap trip, we were not going to stay on Disney property. This is where my travel hacking research came in handy again. I opened a Chase Sapphire card, met the minimum spend in the allotted time frame, and was awarded more than enough points to allow our family of 5 to stay right down the street from Disney World at the Hyatt for FREE.
Was it the best hotel we’ve even been to? No.
Was it conveniently located? Yes.
Was it worth the price tag of free? Absolutely!
We were also able to use our Chase points to pay for a rental vehicle in order to get to and from the parks. Another win!
In order to save money in the parks, we like to eat breakfast in our room and bring snacks into the park. This hotel offered complimentary breakfast which was great. But we still wanted to bring some snacks and sandwiches into the parks. Since we had a rental vehicle, we were able to stop at a local grocery store and stock up on everything we would need for the time we were there.
There was no way for us to save on park tickets, so we did pay full price there. But we decided 2 parks would be enough. Since we were going for my birthday, I decided to choose Magic Kingdom for the day of my birthday and Epcot for our other park day. The kids love all of the parks so they were on board with whatever I chose.
Magic Kingdom was literal magic. It wasn’t crowded and with the Genie+ we were able to get on so many rides. We watched the parade, explored Tom Sawyers island and even made it to the fireworks. It really was the best birthday ever!
Epcot was also amazing! My in-laws met us there (they live in Florida) and we had a blast exploring the different countries with them. We loved the new Moana water area and had a blast on the rides (except when we got stuck on the Frozen ride when my youngest had to pee).
On our off days, we spent time walking the Boardwalk, exploring Disney Springs, and resort hopping. The kids wanted to ride the skyliner which was free, fun, and relaxing, so we did that for a while one day.
We splurged on a character breakfast for one of the days as a special event for the kids, and chose Cape May Cafe. We’ve done this character breakfast before and loved it! Great food, great character interaction and great location.
Overall, it was a great trip and so much cheaper than usual. I’m not sure if I would stay off site again because we really do love staying on Disney property, but this was definitely a great way to get a quick and cheap trip in. At the end of the day, we paid for park tickets and food out of pocket and flights, hotel, and car rental with points. I’d say that’s pretty great!
Follow along for more travel tips and tricks as well as for more info on travel hacking.