Disney Archives - asthejoeflies

Mar 28 2018

Quick Hits: How to use Disney Mobile Ordering for food and beverage

Walt Disney World introduced Disney mobile ordering for food and beverages and it is wonderful. You have to wait in plenty of lines at Disney World – don’t wait in line for your food and drink. Here’s a simple guide for how to use mobile ordering. I used a dole whip at Aloha Isle in Adventureland as an example – something EVERYONE should do! 🙂

Note: If you have any discounts like an annual pass discount, you still have to stand in line and go to the counter to order if you want to use it. Sadface.

1. Download the My Disney Experience app

You probably downloaded the My Disney Experience app from Google Play or the app store already, but if you haven’t, do so.

2. Choose a restaurant that supports mobile ordering

You can find a list of participating restaurants here, or check out my screenshot below:

3. Click “Order Food” in the My Disney Experience app and build your order

Open up the My Disney Experience app and you should see a link to “Order Food”. From there, you will see a list of restaurants to choose from. Click through and you will see a menu, order what you would like. You can see the restaurant hours in the app so you know if something is closed.

4. Note the time you can pick up your food

The restaurant won’t actually start preparing your order until you arrive, so note the timeframe for picking up your order.

5. Order your food!

The My Disney Experience app will automatically default to the card associated with your account but you can also add a new card. You can also use Disney Dining Plan allotments via the app. (Related: How to save money with the Disney Dining Plan).

Disney mobile ordering is simple, easy to use, and will save you lots of time in the parks. Here's how to use Disney mobile ordering to save time and stress at Disney World! — You can use your Disney Dining Plan to pay for your mobile order

6. When you arrive at the restaurant, click “I’m here!” in the app

If you have location services on, I think the app actually detects when you’re near your restaurant and sends you a push notification. Either way, when you arrive at your restaurant, just click “I’m here” and they’ll start getting your food ready. You have to be nearby so it’s not like you can do this from the other side of the park.

7. Find the mobile ordering line, pick up your food, and enjoy!

The reason I love mobile ordering is I don’t have to wait in line. I ordered my Dole Whip while I was buckling my seatbelt on Magic Carpets of Aladdin and said “I’m here” while I was in the air. We got off the ride, I walked right to the mobile ordering line, and we enjoyed our Dole Whip right then and there. Brilliant.

Final Thoughts

I think mobile ordering is pretty intuitive, but hopefully this post gives you a good refresher before you head to the parks. I can’t stress this enough, download the My Disney Experience app. It’s greatly improved, and very useful for all sorts of things like mobile ordering and Fastpass monitoring.

Have you used mobile ordering yet? Do you feel it’s as life changing as I did? Let me know in the comments.

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Mar 07 2018

Three keys to saving money with the Disney Dining Plan

Do you save money with the Disney Dining plan? My stance on the Disney Dining Plan for years has been simple. I’d always say something along the lines of, “The Disney Dining Plan is a bad deal. Nobody will eat that much food.” And honestly, I still feel that way in most cases. The Disney Dining Plan reminds me of something like a 7-3 meal plan at college. Sure, theoretically you’ll eat 3 meals a day on campus 7 days a week, but in reality you often don’t use all your allotments. But it turns out saving money with the Disney Dining plan is very realistic in certain situations, though the annual pass definitely saves more families money.

The Backside of Magic podcast clued me in to the key to saving money with the dining plan, and I tested it out with the help of friend of the blog and Award Travel 101 moderator Rachel Berkey. So, let’s take a look at how the Disney Dining Plan works and how to save money. If you’re already familiar with the Disney Dining Plan, click here to skip to the part about saving money.

Do you save money with the Disney Dining Plan in 2018 at Disney restaurants? Not always, but you can if you understand the three keys to saving money with the Disney Dining Plan. See our tips and tricks and use our Disney Dining Plan calculator to help plan your trip. — Crystal Palace

Disney Dining Plan Basics

Who can get a Disney Dining Plan

Any on-site Disney guest (staying in a Disney hotel) can sign up for the Disney Dining Plan. (Related: Benefits of staying at an on site Disney hotel). While Disney’s website will only allow you to buy the dining plan for packages that include tickets, in my experience if you call after you have booked a hotel you can add it. Annual Passholders can add the dining plan to any Disney hotel reservation. Remember, you can pay for Disney packages with points if you’d like. (Related: Buy Disney tickets with Chase points).

Children under 3 in your room do not need a dining plan. However, you must buy the dining plan for every person listed in your room. You pay for the dining plan for each night listed on your Disney reservation. No more, no less. You can use the dining plan from the day you check in until the day you check out.

What you get with the Disney Dining Plan

You can purchase three different types of dining plans. Each gives you different numbers of allotments in three credit buckets (per night of your hotel stay), plus a refillable souvenir mug. The souvenir mugs can be refilled at any hotel on Disney property but not in the parks. Note one fairly major change for 2018 is the inclusion of an alcoholic beverage for both quick service and table service meals.

Quick Service Credits

Quick service credits can be used at any counter service restaurant on property. Counter service generally means just that. No wait staff, just order at a counter and get your food.

Table Service Credits

Table service credits are used at sit down restaurants on Disney property. Some of the more expensive restaurants cost two table service credits, though the majority cost only one.

Snack Credits

Snack credits can be used for anything at a cart or counter service restaurant with the purple “DDP” sign. They range anywhere from a soda to some of the more expensive offerings at booths at the various Epcot festivals.

The three different Disney Dining Plan types and prices

	Quick Service Credits (per day)	Table Service Credits (per day)	Snack Credits (per day)	Adult Cost (per day)	Child Cost (per day)
Quick Service Dining Plan	2	0	2	$52.50	$21.74
Regular Dining Plan	1	1	2	$75.49	$25.75
Deluxe Dining Plan	0	3	2	$116.25	$39.99

(Note: All prices include tax and every dining plan comes with one free refillable souvenir mug)

Gratuity is NOT included in the Disney Dining Plan, so budget accordingly.

How to pay with the Disney Dining Plan

Paying with your dining plan is simple, most wait staff will ask you if you’re on the dining plan. Say yes, tap your magic band, and the appropriate credit will be deducted from your plan. One very important thing to note is you receive your full allotment of credits at the beginning of your stay. You can also use those credits to pay for anyone’s meal. That means you can use them all up as quickly (or slowly) as you’d like, and you can pay for friends or family who aren’t staying in your room too.

So for example, if you have the Quick Service Plan and are staying for three nights, you will receive 6 quick service credits and 6 snacks. As soon as you check in to your hotel, all of these will be available. So if you buy 6 hot dogs at Casey’s on your first day, you’ll be out of quick service credits for your trip.

You can check the number of dining credits you have left using the My Disney Experience app on your phone, which I’d highly recommend doing. You also get a list of what you have left on your restaurant receipts.

Why you usually don’t save money with the Disney Dining Plan

Many people like to get the Disney Dining Plan for convenience. It definitely eases the stress food wise, you pay up front and then you don’t worry about it in the parks. It also works great for older kids if you don’t want to give them money or a credit card. The Disney Dining Plan also prevents you from having to wander outside Disney property to look for (much cheaper) food. Disney wants this (obviously), but sometimes guests want this too.

But the reason you don’t usually save money with the Disney Dining Plan is due to breakage. In other words, it’s tough to use up all the credits you’re given realistically. Take the quick service plan for example. It’s certainly possible to spend $20 per meal and $6 per snack, especially if you take alcohol with your meal. But alcohol isn’t always an option and ordering extra food because it’s “free” doesn’t mean you’re actually saving money. Plus, at that point you’re still just breaking even.

In most instances, unless you plan very well and eat quite a bit, you’ll break even at best. Which, again, if you’re looking for convenience, might not be the worst thing. To consistently save money with the Disney Dining Plan, however, you have to understand the three keys to saving money with the Disney Dining Plan.

Three keys to saving money with the Disney Dining Plan

1. Child dining plans are very cost efficient

The first trick to saving money with the Disney Dining Plan is understanding that the children’s cost is very cost efficient. Remember, Disney considers anyone between 3-9 a child (under 3 is free). Take the regular dining plan for example. It costs a child about $25 a day, but most character meals cost $25, so if you go to one character meal and one counter meal a day you save money.

Another reason why a child dining plan saves money: you can use child quick service credits to buy adult meals at counter service restaurants. In fact, Disney makes no distinction between “child” and “adult” quick service credits. Children can’t buy alcohol, however. (That would be wrong!) But let’s say you use your child’s plan to buy an adult quick service meal (~$12) and to pay for your child to go to Chef Mickey’s (~$25). You’ve already saved $12 and you haven’t even used your snack credits yet.

Note that on the regular dining plan, child table service credits must be used for children. You can also use a child table service credit to buy a child quick service meal, but not an adult quick service meal.

If you have children 3-9 listed on your hotel reservation, it can really help you save money with the Disney Dining Plan.

2. You can use your dining plan credits on anyone, including people not staying in your room

The second key to saving money with the Disney Dining Plan is knowing that your credits can be used for anyone. If you’ve ever had a stranger at the end of her trip offer to pay for your meal using leftover dining credits, you know this is true. That really happens! (Further proof that it’s tough to save money using the dining plan). That means that you can really save some money, or at least guarantee you break even, if you book multiple rooms or are traveling with a larger party. Why?

Remember I mentioned that the dining plan is like a college meal plan. It’s tough to realistically use it all up. However, if you have, say, grandparents booked in a separate room, you can use your credits to pay for their meals. If they dine with you once or twice you pretty much guarantee you will use up all the credits. When you combine this with the first key, your savings can start adding up.

My five year old daughter and I can still share a counter service meal and both be satisfied. Let’s say we were on the regular dining plan so we each have one quick service credit (2 total). We can use one credit for a meal to share between the two of us, and then the second for grandma, and boom: all of a sudden the whole family comes out ahead.

You can use your dining credits on any day

Another thing to remember is it doesn’t matter which day you use the dining credits on. If I visit Disney on a three day trip, I don’t think I’ll realistically go to three character meals. If I was on the dining plan I might end up going to three character meals due to “the power of freeeeee.” But I’d be losing money since I wouldn’t have spent that much money had I not purchased the dining plan.

However, I always go to at least one character meal. What if I use one of my table service credits to pay for grandma? All of a sudden I’m not paying more than I would have without the plan, and again, the family overall comes out ahead.

Remember, you only pay for the dining plan for the guests listed in the room you purchase the plan for. You don’t have to purchase the dining plans for multiple rooms you booked. So, if like me, your family size dictates getting two rooms sometimes, you could just put one parent and one child in one room and only get the dining plan for that room, while still sharing all the credits among the whole family.

One special note for the Deluxe Dining Plan: the dining credits have no designations. So the 3 meal credits you get each day can be used for counter service, table service, kids, or adults. So if you take my above example, I could buy the Deluxe Dining Plan for my room with one parent and one child and we’d just have 6 meal credits a day we could use for anyone, including grandma and grandpa. Contrast this with the regular dining plan, where child table service credits must be used for children. So you can make some real hay if you think about it.

3. Alcohol is included in the 2018 Disney Dining Plan

So this doesn’t apply to everyone, and even if you do drink alcohol, you can’t get it at every restaurant. Most restaurants in the Magic Kingdom still do not serve alcohol.

However, if you do partake, the 2018 Disney Dining Plan includes alcoholic beverages. That makes saving money or at least breaking even much easier. Instead of getting a $3.29 soda, you get a $8 beer and save money. Personally, I don’t drink with every meal, so I don’t consider this a huge factor when I’m trying to save money with the Disney Dining Plan, but it is a factor.

My experience saving money with the Disney Dining Plan and how to calculate if you will save money

So before I left for my most recent trip, I used this handy tool created by Rachel Berkey to estimate my costs and whether the dining plan would make sense for my family. I traveled to Disney alone with my two older kids, but only one is above the age of three. (Related: Tips for flying alone with preschoolers). My parents stayed in a different room but joined us for some meals. We stayed at Coronado Springs for three nights.

We bought the Disney Dining Plan for my room, which meant I paid for one adult and one child, about $100 a day. However, I used two of my adult table service credits at Chef Mickey’s because my mom joined us. I used my last table service credit at Crystal Palace so I got good value out of all of those. On top of that we always used my daughter’s quick service credits for adult meals, and I bought one alcoholic drink.

We spent about $100 less than it would have cost us for our meals and snacks out of pocket on the trip. I don’t, however, really consider that our true “savings”. Simply put, if we had not bought the dining plan we would not have bought refillable souvenir mugs and some of the snacks we bought for the road. Even taking into consideration that I probably would have bought Diet Coke from Amazon Prime Now, I don’t count the refillable souvenir mugs as “savings”. So if you look at my rough spreadsheet below (from an earlier version of the tool), you’ll see I calculated that my real savings were $50. But I know some people think everything they get for “freeeeee” counts, and if you are that type, then you’d probably say I saved the $100+.

If you are Type A, which many Disney planners are, I advise you to try Rachel’s tool out to figure out whether the Disney Dining Plan will save you money. Remember, you’ll probably only save money if you use one or two of the tricks above. If I had to boil things down to one rule of thumb? If you are booking for multiple rooms, definitely do the math to see if you’ll save money by getting the dining plan for ONE of your multiple rooms.

Here again is the link to Rachel’s Disney Dining Plan Estimate Calculator. Make a copy for yourself and be sure to read the instructions carefully. It also includes some sample estimates as a guideline. Note we’re still working out some kinks so if you have issues, please e-mail me.

Final Thoughts

For many people, trying to save money with the Disney Dining Plan just isn’t worth the trouble. But if you like to plan, you definitely save money in the right circumstances. Remember, you can save if you book for one room but pay for guests in multiple rooms. You only pay for the guests listed on the room. Kids underpay, so you can take advantage of that as well. All in all, I kind of found managing my credits fun in a weird way. But I get that isn’t for everyone, so make sure you figure out what works for you and your family.

Still, I now am a believer that the Disney Dining Plan CAN save you money. You just need to approach it from the proper angle. Any questions? Drop a comment or e-mail me at asthejoeflies@gmail.com. I’m happy to help if you need it!

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Can’t get enough Disney? Check out our Disney planning podcast, Disney Deciphered (latest episode embedded below)!

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Feb 26 2018

Quick Hits: Get a Chase Disney Debit card for a free meet and greet

Rachel Berkey, a moderator at the Award Travel 101 Facebook group, inspired me with this tip. One of the benefits touted with the Chase Disney credit card is a free meet and greet at Epcot Center, amongst other ancillary benefits. However, the Chase Disney debit card offers the same benefit, doesn’t waste a credit card application, and can be obtained easily for current Chase bank account customers.

I signed up for a Chase checking account years ago and use it occasionally. Since Chase doesn’t have branches in Massachusetts (yet!), I always assumed product changes and the like would be pretty difficult. Why? Because whenever I tried to do the product change to a Disney debit card online it said “product not available in your area.” I assume that’s due to the no branches in MA thing.

I’m not sure you can even sign up for a Chase checking account online if there is no branch in your area, but somebody please correct me if I’m wrong.

Changing your regular Chase debit card to a Chase Disney debit card

Anyway, if you find yourself in a situation like me and want to change your debit card to a Disney debit card for the free meet and greet, follow these simple steps.

Call the Disney Visa Debit Card Customer Service line: 1-877-388-5726. I got the number from disneydebit.com.
Press 2, other options
Press 3, open new account (even though you already have a Chase account)
Press 1, personal accounts
Press 1, new account (again, even though you already have one)
Tell the representative you want to switch to a Disney debit card

That’s it. A simple five minute phone call and a week later your Disney debit card will show up in the mail.

Disney Debit card benefits

The debit card mostly has the same benefits as the Disney credit card, without the Disney dollars earning. I can basically boil it down to two benefits that matter (1.5, really). But again, changing to the card is free and has no practical effect on your account with Chase aside from gaining these benefits. The benefits are:

Free character meet and greet (including Photopass photos) at Epcot (Disney World) or Disney’s California Adventure (Disneyland)
10% off at various stores and restaurants

There are quite a few random restrictions on the stores and restaurants you get the 10% off at, so make sure you read the fine print. Or don’t, the card is freeeeeeee. My biggest “issue” with the 10% food discount is you have to use the debit card to get it, aka no points. Too much math for me.

The debit card also offers various random discounts at random places, but they’re too niche to consider valuable for all. But definitely valuable for some.

Let’s finish up by talking about the meet and greet. It’s the whole reason why I think the Chase Disney debit card is worth the five minute phone call.

Did you know that the Chase Disney debit card is free for Chase checking account holders? Find out how to get a Disney debit card and five minutes and how to use it for a FREE character meet and greet. — Freeeeeee photo

Epcot Center Meet and Greet

The entrance to the free character meet and greet sits right near Journey to Imagination with Figment. Basically walk up towards the jumping fountains and you should see it to your left.

Let me just detail why this meet and greet is great.

Little to no lines, I had three parties in front of me, which is the most I’ve ever heard of.
Free Photopass photos, meaning you don’t have to pay for the photos. If you don’t want to pay for Memory Maker but want at least a few photos with some characters, this is a great option.
The character meet is Mickey and a friend, and you get to take pictures of them together. That’s always fun since most (though not all) meet and greets are just one character at a time.

That’s it! A short line for a cute meet and greet with free photos. You can do this once a day for up to six people, and just need to flash your card when you get in. I don’t even think I had to swipe anything, just show the card, so…

Final Thoughts

If you already have a Chase checking account, switching to the Chase Disney debit card is fairly easy. If you plan on opening a Chase checking account and ever going to Disney World or Disneyland, consider grabbing the Disney debit card version. You get some nice benefits, your kids get to take a few pictures, and you get to download them for free. Everybody wins!

Never miss a post! Subscribe below and receive an e-mail once a day for new posts from asthejoeflies. Also, follow our family adventures on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Can’t get enough Disney? Check out our Disney planning podcast, Disney Deciphered (latest episode embedded below)!

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Feb 15 2018

Daring to Disney: When a Disney annual pass makes sense

Trying to figure out whether an annual pass makes financial sense for your Walt Disney World trip? Are there times when it’s better to buy one than individual tickets? This post will explain what you need to know to make the best financial decision for your Disney World vacation.

Update: With the new 2019 ticket prices going into effect as of 3/12/19 and the new annual pass prices going into effect 6/18/2019, this is an update of my article from 2016 about how an annual pass often makes financial sense. Since Disney World has gone calendar based, I can’t account for every single ticket available. What I’ve done is used the median ticket price for calculations. I’ve updated the Annual Pass calculator with these median prices – add in your trip lengths and options to see if buying the Disney Annual Pass makes sense for you! The annual pass has gone up a LOT, so it’s starting to make less financial sense. Scroll to the bottom.

So I mentioned in my last post that I saved money by staying off site, but I should have saved more. It’s downright shocking to me, but it would have made a ton of sense to buy an annual pass on my Disney World trip. Haley Bach (a Disney Expert who is going to be on the next episode of the Observation Deck!) summed it up perfectly with this tweet:

@asthejoeflies 😱 yeah, ticket math often makes an AP a good call.
— Haley B °ο° (@BachFancy) January 11, 2016

So what ticket math would make an annual pass a good call? I think I read somewhere that if you are spending at least 12 days in the parks over a calendar year an AP is probably worth it, but to me, it’s even less than that. Towards the bottom of the post I have created a simple tool that you can use to calculate costs for your own situation if you want to skip ahead!

What you get with an annual pass

The basic Disney annual pass is called the Disney Platinum Pass and costs $1191.74 (after-tax) for a 366 day period (so you can use it from 6/18/2019 – 6/18/2020, wait, do you get 367 days in a leap year!?). Here’s what you get:

Unlimited admission to the four Walt Disney World theme parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom)
Park hopping privileges (you can go to multiple parks in the same day)
Free theme park parking
Free Disney Photopass downloads
10% off merchandise
10-20% off dining depending on location (excludes quick service, thanks Haley!)
Various discounts on lodging

Let’s take these one by one before we go through the ticket math, in order of importance in my mind from least to greatest.

1. Lodging and dining discounts

For discounts on lodging and dining, my guess is take it or leave it. There are often sales during off periods available to everyone of up to 30%, I read online AP discounts are usually up to 30% as well on hotels. My guess is during peak times you’re probably looking at paying close to the rack rate anyway, it’s just simple supply and demand. I’d love to hear people’s experiences in the comments though. Dining discounts can add up, Disney annual pass holders have had a running 10% discount for a few months. Penny pinchers bringing their own food obviously might not save as much with an annual pass.

2. Park Hopper

Park hopping is great, but to me it’s usually more of a luxury than anything else. If you are staying for a week, like we did, spending one day per park is definitely enough. If you’re thinking about getting an annual pass, then you definitely have the time to spread things out and visit one park per day. I’d say the only exception is dealing with the Magic Kingdom and young children: taking the ferry or monorail across the Seven Seas Lagoon adds like 15-20 minutes to your commute each way and makes going back home for a nap really annoying. The luxury of park hopping to Epcot for dinner is very tempting. But I still think it’s a luxury (more on that later).

When does a Disney annual pass make financial sense? Compare the features your family needs for your next Walt Disney World vacation and save money on your travels with this free tool. — Disney’s professionals probably wouldn’t get the hand in the picture

3. Photopass downloads

Free Disney Photopass downloads are another luxury, but you can glean a lot of value out of this benefit. Unlike Memory Maker (subject of my next post), you don’t get automatic downloads of your friends and family pictures. However, that’s pretty easy to circumvent – anyone who is linked as family and friends to your My Disney Experience account effectively receives your Photopass privileges. You can download their photos as if they are your own.

If you don’t want to make people your friends and family, grab a Photopass card (say, from a character meet and greet or something). Scan the same Photopass card for whatever photos they take. Then link all those Photopasses to your account and for a little extra work you should be able to download everyone’s photos (in theory at least).

4. Free theme park parking

If you’re saving money by staying off site, free theme park parking is huge – $25 a day adds up quickly. Doesn’t mean anything if you’re staying on site, but it adds up quickly if you’re trying to save money by staying off site. Sometimes it might make sense for at least one person in your party to grab the annual pass just for this benefit.

Why the math on my ticket meant I probably should have bought an annual pass

Of course, getting admission to all four theme parks for a year is great. And that’s where the ticket math comes in.

Here’s a quick tip that a lot of first time Disney goers might not know: as long as you have at least one unused day left on your ticket, you can use the value of your ticket to “upgrade” to a more expensive ticket at any time. Put a pin in that and we’ll get back to it.

Anyway, let’s take a look at my costs compared to an annual pass (note these were prices from Jan 2016):

Item	Our Trip	Annual Pass
7 park days	$335	Included
Park hopper	$65	Included
Parking	$120	Included
Memory Maker/Photopass	$169	Included
Total Cost	$689	$749

As you can see, with all the things I ended up tacking on to my tickets, I spent only $60 less than I would have spent if I had gotten an annual pass. That year, I visited Orlando again for FT4RL4, so bought another ticket – that cost more than $60. So you can see how ticket math can really hurt you. And even if I hadn’t visited a park, I probably would have gotten close to $60 back with the dining and merchandise discounts.

I would have spent less money if I had bought an annual pass in 2016.

Is an annual pass the right decision for you?

Should you get an annual pass? In my case, I think we should have bought at least one annual pass. There are also some pretty easy rules of thumb.

You should almost always buy an annual pass if:

You plan to visit the parks on three separate occasions in a calendar year
You plan to visit the parks for at least twelve days total across two trips

However, if you want to mess around with some calculations yourself, here’s a simple tool I made. You can input trips you plan to take and ticket types you plan to buy, along with Memory Maker and parking. At the bottom of the table, you’ll see how much you will save with an annual pass or how much more you’ll spend. The tool is in beta so please let me know if you see any errors! You can either click the link below or I’ve embedded the tool at the bottom of the post.

Update 10/16/2018: Since I obviously can’t account for all of Disney’s variable pricing, I’ve done my best to take the AVERAGE ticket prices for the year. So this Annual Pass calculator tool should be in the ballpark, but if your number is close, you might want to throw your actual dates into Disney World’s website.

Disney Annual Pass Calculator Tool!

If you want to go deep down the rabbit hole, check out this very amazing and very in depth spreadsheet made by Touring Plans forum user JJT. It includes a bunch more options plus info on ticket discounters.

Note: Only use the tool if you’re not a Florida resident, since Florida residents get discounted rates on everything.

Upgrading your ticket

As I mentioned above, as long as you have one unused day on your ticket, you can upgrade it to a more expensive ticket. This includes adding park hopper options, water park options, or even upgrading to an annual pass.

If I had figured all this out about the annual pass before I had gotten to the parks I probably would have upgraded to an annual pass on the first day. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize this until day six, meaning I had already paid $120 for parking.

But if you have a trip planned and you’ve already bought tickets but want to upgrade them, you can totally do it before you pay for all the parking and make it worth it. You can upgrade at the ticket booths at the park, but that of course would require you to pay for one day of parking. You can also do it at any Disney hotel or at guest relations at Disney Springs. I think if you bring your parking receipts they can be applied to the cost of the pass as well.

Final Thoughts

If you’re going to Disney World for close to a week, you should definitely think about upgrading to or buying an annual pass, especially if you are going to have to pay for theme park parking. The math often makes it worth it – feel free to use my table if you’re too lazy to do the math yourself!

Never miss a post! Subscribe and receive and e-mail for new posts from asthejoeflies. Also, follow our family adventures on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Can’t get enough Disney? Check out our Disney planning podcast, Disney Deciphered (latest episode embedded below)!

Other Posts in this Series

Flights, Hotel, and Car

Making Disney Dining Reservations

Saving Money on Disney Tickets

Using Touring Plans (the non-touring plan parts)

Optimizing a visit using Touring Plans’ touring plans

Saving money by staying off site

When a Disney annual pass makes sense

Touring Epcot attractions with a toddler

Touring Animal Kingdom with a toddler

One perfect day at the Magic Kingdom

Dining Reviews

Tips for parents of toddlers and infants

Things I wished I knew before I went to Disney

Feb 08 2018

Quick Hits: Using the Chase Sapphire Reserve to buy Disney World Tickets with Ultimate Rewards Points

The common school of thought posits that you can’t use miles and points to offset your Disney World vacation. The advice lots of big blogs defer to generally revolves around cards like the Barclays Arrival+ or Capital One Venture where you get one cent per point. But as I’ve written elsewhere, you can save money on Disney tickets and hotels if you buy Disney World tickets with Ultimate Rewards points using your Chase Sapphire Reserve. So how do you use Chase points to buy Disney World tickets?

Update: Chase has told its cruise and tours department they can no longer book anything Disney related. Crushing news.

Did you know you can use Chase points to buy Disney World tickets? Instead of using cash, you can use your hard earned Ultimate Rewards points to save money on your Disney vacation! — Huzzah! You can pay for your Disney tickets with points!

Before we start, the common retort I’d expect to hear at this point is “you could get so much more value using your Ultimate Rewards points for hotel rooms (Hyatt) or for first class flights (Korean, United, etc.)! You’re dumb for this!” I’m not going to get into it, but suffice it to say, use points in a way that will make you happy. If you want to redeem for 1.5 cents per point (if you have the Reserve) for flights, hotels, cars, or Disney World tickets, you just do you.

Now I’ve confirmed this works with Chase Sapphire Reserve (1.5 cpp), Ink Plus (1.25 cpp), Freedom (1 cpp). I sort of assume it will as well with the Chase Sapphire Preferred at a rate of 1.25 cents per point but I cannot confirm this as I ditched my Preferred years ago. If you have any experience please let me know!

Anyway, here’s how to use Chase Ultimate Rewards points to buy Disney World Tickets if you have Chase Sapphire Reserve.

1. Call 1-855-234-2542

This is the Chase Sapphire Reserve travel agency number. You’ll need your card with you to input the number.

If you are using Ink or Freedom the number is 1-866-951-6592.

2. Select option “2” – Cruise or Vacation Package

Normal business hours are Mon-Fri 9 AM -9 PM EST and Sat 9 AM – 5 PM EST.

3. Tell the agent you are interested in booking Disney World tickets

You may have to clarify you are interested in tickets only. The agent should also ask you whether you are interested in Disney World (Florida) or Disneyland (California), make sure you know where you want to go! You can book room packages as well if you’d like, though I won’t go into that here (see this post for some details on that).

4. Figure out which type of ticket you’d like and confirm price is where you want it to be

One quirk is that you cannot buy one day tickets – Disney wants you to just buy those at the gate. Other than that, you can buy pretty much any ticket you’d like. The base Magic Your Way tickets allow you to visit one park per day. Add a Park Hopper option and you can visit multiple parks in one day. You can also add the Park Hopper Plus option which allows you to visit the water parks.

For some reason, the prices Chase quoted were a little bit off from what I saw on Disney’s website. (Don’t forget, you should be comparing the price to ticket discounters who usually knock a few bucks off).

You’ll need to decide whether you value the points more or cash, but these days I like to redeem points first. If you can earn Ultimate Rewards at a cost of 1 cent each (not too difficult overall), then you’re effectively getting a 33% discount on park tickets. That’s tough to beat.

One important note: Chase can book through two avenues, Disney itself and this company called Funjet. Ask the agent to book you through DISNEY – that way you don’t have to wait until 60 days before your trip to confirm your tickets in My Disney Experience.

Anyway, here are the prices from Chase Travel compared with Disney and Undercover Tourist as of Feb 2018 (including tax):

Ticket Type	Chase Travel price	Chase Travel price in points (w/ CSR)	Disney World price	Undercover Tourist price
2-Day Magic Your Way	$222	14,800	$211.94	$217.76
4-Day Magic Your Way	$373	24,866	$372.75	$356.95
3-Day Magic Your Way	$325	21,666	$324.83	$309.99
5-Day Magic Your Way	$395	26,333	$394.05	$373.95
6-Day Magic Your Way	$416	27,733	$415.35	$394.35
Mickey Not So Scary Halloween Party 2018 (Select Dates)	$85	5,609	$84.14	$79.88

As you can see, Chase Travel prices are basically the same as Disney rack rates, but you can pay for them with points! Easy peasy. Also, note that Disney doesn’t offer discounts for 1 and 2 day tickets for buying in advance.

Final Thoughts

While Citi’s travel concierge won’t sell you Disney World tickets outside of a package, you can use your Ultimate Rewards points to buy tickets with your hard earned points from the Chase Sapphire Reserve. So don’t let anyone tell you you can’t use points to offset costs on your Disney vacation (if you want to). If you have any experience with this, I’d love to hear it, let me know in the comments!

Update: I just called last week (4/21/2018), and confirmed that you can also use Ultimate Rewards to book holiday parties like Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas party. Also, reader Judah Wilkins e-mailed me to say that Chase told him they could do Annual Passes as well!

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