Travel Planning Archives

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!

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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

Jul 20 2017

Disney World Fastpass+ Tips and Tricks

When Walt Disney World implemented its FastPass+ system, it fundamentally changed the way guests could tour Disney parks. Visiting Walt Disney World requires much more planning than you might think. Fastpass+ is a big part of that. If you know how the system works, you can ride more and wait much less. Or, if your child isn’t interested in rides, you can use it to see more characters. Here are some of my favorite Disney World FastPass+ tips and tricks. The last one is a real favorite of mine; it can be really powerful if you use it, as I can attest. I made a visual guide for that one that hopefully can help you.

Note: I recognize not everyone loves planning and maximizing. Still, if you use one or two of these tips you might make your Disney vacation just a little bit more magical!

Disney World Fastpass+ can be confusing to some, but learn how to maximize your time in the parks and minimize stress with these simple tips and tricks. — Simple rule: Even though the Flight of Passage queue is really cool, get a Fastpass+ reservation for this if you can! (Photo Credit | Kent Phillips, wdwnews.com)

Quick Primer on Disney World FastPass+

FastPass+ doesn’t cost any extra money. As long as you have a Disney ticket, you can make FastPass+ reservations. For Disney guests staying on site at a Disney hotel, you can start making FastPass+ reservations 60 days in advance of the first night of your reservations. For all other guests, you can make FastPass+ reservations 30 days in advance. Fastpass+ reservations are for one hour time windows, usually with a 15 minute grace period. After you’ve used your initial 3 FastPass+ reservations you can make additional FastPass+ reservations, more on that later.

Every Disney guest receives an allotment of 3 initial FastPass+ reservations per theme park day. At the Magic Kingdom, these 3 FastPass+ reservations can be used for any attraction. Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom (and the new, awesome Pandora: World of Avatar) have a “tiered” FastPass+ system. That means you can only make one reservation on the most popular transactions. Your other two fast passes can be used for any attraction. The top tier attractions at Epcot are Frozen Ever After, Soarin’, and Test Track. Animal Kingdom puts the Pandora attractions (Flight of Passage and Na’vi River Journey) in the top tier. The top tier attractions at Hollywood Studios that matter the most to the majority of guests are Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster and Toy Story Mania.

Take advantage of your Disney World Fastpass+ early booking window, especially if you stay on site at a Disney Hotel

One major benefit to staying on site is the ability to make FastPass+ reservations for the length of your vacation. Let’s say you have a 5 night stay on Disney property. 60 days before the first night of your reservation, you can make FastPass+ reservations for your entire stay plus the day you check out. So if you’re staying on site at a Disney hotel, you can book FastPass+ reservations way ahead of everyone else.

There are lots of benefits to staying off site but this is one of the best benefits of staying at a Disney hotel. Regular guests and annual pass holders can only book 30 days in advance, but you have to book day by day. In other words, you can’t do multiple days at once if they’re beyond your 30 day window.

Regardless of your personal window, one of the most important FastPass+ tips is book as early as you can. This will give you the best chance to get those hard to get rides like Frozen Ever After, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, or the Pandora rides with the least amount of stress.

Book your FastPass+ reservations for early in the day

When you book your initial three fast passes, you want to book them for as early in the day as possible. Since each FastPass+ reservation window is an hour long, booking early in the day basically takes up your entire morning (9-10, 10-11, 11-12).

The reason to book early in the day isn’t the obvious one. When you get to Disney parks early, the lines are much shorter than later in the day, so it’s actually one of the best times to wait in line. Fast passes help make your waits even shorter, but the real reason why you want to use up your FastPass+ reservations early in the day is to utilize the extra FastPass+ reservation you get after using your initial three. We’ll talk more about this “rolling fourth fast pass” later, but basically, after the first three you can keep booking and using FastPass+ reservations one at time.

Prioritize the busiest rides

If you want to minimize time in line, you’ll want to prioritize getting Fastpass+ reservations for the busiest rides. A list of the busiest ride in each park is below. Unless there’s something you MUST do, try to get most of your Fastpass+ reservations for these attractions. Generally, common sense will tell you which attractions you need to book.

Magic Kingdom

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Meet Mickey Mouse at Town Square Theater
Peter Pan’s Flight

Epcot

Frozen Ever After
Soarin’
Test Track

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Toy Story Mania!
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Flight of Passage
Kilimanjaro Safaris
Expedition Everest

Utilize your extra FastPass reservations early and often

After you’ve used your initial three Fastpass+ reservations, you get a fourth Fastpass+ reservation to use. This reservation can be used for any attraction in any park. In other words, once you get to this point you don’t need to worry about “tiered” attractions. Of course, it’s likely that many of the most coveted reservations are gone. Use these “rolling fourth” Fastpass+ reservations to book attractions that have lines but aren’t the most popular. Each time you use one, you can reserve another, so once you’ve gone through your initial three you can make Fastpass+ reservations for the rest of the day. That’s why you want to get the initial three done ASAP.

Use the My Disney Experience app and this technique for hard to get FastPass+ reservations

I learned a simple technique for hard to get Fastpass+ reservations from the Backside of Magic podcast. The basic premise is this. For hard to get reservations, you can often get lucky on the day of using your My Disney Experience app. First, make a reservation for a non-popular attraction. Then, go into your Disney app on your phone and choose to “Modify” that reservation. At that point you can quickly keep searching for Fastpass+ availability. I personally just jumped back and forth between “Afternoon” and “4:00 PM” until I found availability for Frozen Ever After.

My best guess as to why this works? This is the equivalent of furiously refreshing your browser trying to buy concert tickets or something. People switch Fastpass+ reservations all the time, this “refreshing” gives you the best chance to hop onto them when they open up. Best of all, you can do this in line in another attraction. I had no trouble securing Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Frozen Ever After for 3 people when I messed around with it last week.

The downside is, your spouse and children might get annoyed that your face is buried in a phone the entire time. But think of how happy they will be not to wait in line!

Final Thoughts

The Disney Fastpass+ reservation system can be a real asset when you tour the parks. Follow these guidelines if they help minimize your stress when entering the parks. You can really use them to your advantage to cut down your wait times!

Any other tips I missed? Hit me up with any questions or comments down below.

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

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

Jun 02 2017

Compensations after travel delays: my experience and how to ask

Originally I had planned on lambasting Jetblue after how they handled weather delays on my flight home from Orlando last week. Apparently I am destined to have bad return trips from Orlando every single time. But…Jetblue ended up dealing with compensation proactively so they’ve spared you the rant. So instead I decided to write about travel delay compensation, specifically weather related compensation.

Note that for the most part, airlines usually don’t owe you anything due to weather related incidents. While I’d love to blame American Airlines for thunderstorms, they actually have no control over that. So according to the contract of carriage, weather does not entitle you to any compensation.

Has your flight been canceled or delayed? Looking for travel delay compensation? Learn from my experiences and find out how to get compensated. — It might be clear skies over Boston right now, but that’s not always the case

Still – airlines do recognize the bad optics of major delays during weather. For example, last week in Orlando during my delay, it was 70 degrees and sunny. In Boston, my destination, it was overcast but no storms. Yet bad weather in Washington D.C. delayed my flight for five hours. So while airlines don’t technically owe compensation, I think they understand in reality it’s difficult to look a customer in the eye and say “tough luck.” (For the record, I would be 100% okay without receiving compensation for weather related issues).

Let’s take a look at some compensation/allowances I’ve received during weather travel delays.

1) Rerouting onto a different carrier (US Airways)

Five or six years ago my wife and I jumped on an amazing sub $400 fare from Boston to Madrid. It rained in Boston the night we left. For some reason US Airways flights were very backed up, though most other carriers were getting out.

The first person I spoke to at the airport said we had to go home and return the next day, which wouldn’t work since we planned a three night trip. I decided to wait in line again and the next agent put us on a Delta flight and we got to Madrid only four hours later than originally planned. We also ended up with a nice little layover in Amsterdam.

I only realize now how very generous that agent was, but agents do have a lot of power to get you to your destination, even if it is on a different carrier.

2) Free changes onto alternate flights for same carrier (All airlines)

Generally when airlines know bad weather is on its way, they offer free changes or cancellations. A lot of this can be done online, though I’d say the best experience I’ve ever had is with Delta. Delta preemptively gave me the option to change flights right from my app. I could look at the different flights and just click on what I wanted without speaking to a human being. I found that incredibly useful. If people know of other airlines that allow you to do it from the app, please let me know so I can give them a shoutout.

3) Automatic $75 travel bank credit (Jetblue)

One nice thing that Jetblue does (and did last week) is automatically credit a $75 travel credit to your account if your flight has been delayed for a considerable amount of time. I received $75 a day or two after my severely delayed flight (I got home at 4 AM that night). A friend of mine on Twitter also had the same experience and I’ve seen people write about it elsewhere. It’s nice that Jetblue does this proactively. Yes, the purpose is to build good will, but the bottom line is they didn’t owe me any compensation since my delay was due to weather but they did it anyway.

4) Compensation for night of hotel, car rental, and a gift card (Delta)

My single best weather related delay compensation also came from a MCO-BOS flight. After getting stuck in Orlando for an extra day due to a blizzard in Boston, I rented a car and a hotel room for the night. Delta not only offered me Amazon gift cards for the delays (which, again, were out of their control due to weather), they also reimbursed me for my car rental and hotel room. Excellent compensation in a situation where the company didn’t owe me anything.

So how can you maximize your chances of receiving compensation from weather delays? Admittedly, I’m not the best at this, but here’s how I’d recommend thinking about your course of action:

Getting travel delay compensation for weather delays

1) Focus on getting home first (and stay calm)

There’s definitely room for argument here, because sometimes the thick of the delay situation might be the best time to ask for compensation. However, since I’m normally traveling with my kids, it’s not feasible to talk compensation when I have two ticking timebombs in tow.

So what I’d suggest you do is calmly figure out a way to get to your destination. I generally get on hold with the airline while waiting in line for a live representative to wait in two lines at once. Also, it’s important to come up with alternatives yourself, that saves time. “I noticed that a flight leaves tomorrow at 8 AM, is there any space on that one?”

Obviously if you change your flight, change it online. But first and foremost, make sure you’ve dealt with the immediate issue – being stuck at the airport.

2) Fill out an online form clearly explaining the situation and stating your frustrations (without blaming the airline)

Since my aforementioned distaste for human contact, I like to fill out online forms. Each airline website will have a feedback or complaint form. Keep it simple and just explain what happened and how you and your family were inconvenienced. I also find it important to highlight any good customer service that I had as a result and to remain positive.

I don’t find threatening very useful, instead I try to politely ask for some compensation. For example, I might say something like “I recognize everyone was trying their best but it still was an unacceptable situation. I would appreciate compensation for the hotel and car or anything else if possible.”

I don’t rush filling out these forms, I usually wait until the trip is over and done with or when I have found some mental space after dealing with the stress from the delay.

3) Be prepared to expect the outcome, even without compensation

I like to take a long view on things, so if I don’t get compensated for a particular instance it doesn’t mean I’ll change my policy on asking nicely. Remember, I am talking about travel delay compensation for weather related issues. The airlines don’t owe us any!

So every time I ask for compensation, I am fully aware that I might not get any. And that’s okay with me, I will just bear that in mind when making choices in the future. If we were talking about bad customer service or things that clearly were the airlines fault, I might take a different tactic, but this is how I handle weather delays.

Final Thoughts

In the end, the airline’s job is to get us safely from point A to point B. When bad weather hits, that might not always be possible to do in a timely manner. Still, long delays are inconvenient, so it’s okay to ask for compensation. I’ve found that airlines can be very generous – you just need to remember to ask.

Anyway, this is just my policy. Have airlines compensated you for weather delays? Do you like to ask, and if so how do you do it? Let me know in the comments!

Jul 09 2016

Surveying Scotland: Preparing to travel with two children under four

As I mentioned in the introduction, a lot of decisions now revolve around my kids. I thought it might be useful for some young parents to see what other decisions the kids’ affected.

I’ve gotta say, preparing for travel with two children is pretty different than preparing for one. At least when they are this close in age (2.5 years). Here’s how we tackled each problem presented (note: this is being written three days into our trip so there is still plenty of time for things to go south). I’d love to hear feedback from other parents about how you handle these things.

And those of you who fall into this category:

@asthejoeflies @thepointsjock Until you guys are playing zone defense instead of man-on-man, don't even speak to us. 😂😂😂
— Mark DeBoer (@maulermark) July 4, 2016

I have no good comeback.

Transportation

I went through most of this in the introduction, but one or two more points here. One of the reasons I chose to mix it up so much is variety keeps my kids’ interested. I know most people in the UK would probably drive up to Scotland (10 hours). I considered it – it sounds like a beautiful drive.

travel with two children — Driving affords the ability to stop and take pictures

But with little knowledge about rest areas and the like, I didn’t want to risk driving that far. Plus, that gets boring. At the same time, the drive from Inverness to Edinburgh isn’t that far, but I thought my daughter might enjoy riding the train. And infants basically light up at every new experience so I know I’m covered there.

I also booked direct flights whenever possible: pretty much a no brainer at this point. Gone are the days I’ll take an extra leg to try a new business class product. Oh well.

Car seats

These freaking things. I realize this makes me weird, but nothing causes me more stress as a parent than deciding how to handle the car seat situation. Buy? Rent? Ship? AHHH! And we need two car seats to travel with two children!

Well, I’m exaggerating there because handling the car seat for H was a piece of cake. We brought his Chicco Keyfit 22 and caddy: car seat plus stroller, done. Those are both getting retired when we get home, but he can slum it for two more weeks.

M, on the other hand, needs her front facing car seat. Normally, we bring it in this huge bag and load it up with diapers (not a bad plan). However, with two kids, that’s less hands available, and we decided to leave the bag at home. Let’s ignore the fact that it’s been sewn back together three times, it just wasn’t going to be feasible.

So I decided to bite the bullet and rent the car seat for a week. Even typing this I am still annoyed: it costs more than buying a seat (about $80). I wanted to buy one and ship it, but that presented two problems.

1) The only place I could logistically ship it to before we need it was our hotel in London. That would necessitate us dragging it on our flight to Scotland with us.

2) H needs a front facing car seat, as alluded to above. Meaning I would want to keep the one we bought here. Meaning we’d have to get it home somehow. Forget it.

History has proven that, for my family, I made the right decision. We had some, um…developing situations at Paddington Station that an extra bag might have further complicated. So I spent a little extra for convenience. I am the one percent!

Of course, did I mention we used to stuff the car seat bag with diapers?

Suitcases

So we needed to find space for 75 diapers. Yes, yes, could have ordered them online and had them sent to various places we were staying, I know, I know. That is the smart thing to do (I am Amazon Prime UK for another 3 weeks), but I’m not a smart guy. I’m a glutton for punishment.

Instead, we loaded our diapers into this baby:

That’s right: a carry on sized rollerboard with a backpack ZIPPED ON. It’s made by Ful, which I pronounce “fool” because that’s how I look dragging that thing through the terminal. But who cares, it works. I have no shame.

In addition to that we brought a large suitcase. Scotland is cold and rainy so we just couldn’t get away with two carry on sized suitcases. I’d love to hear from parents who can take two week trips with 2+ young kids and carry on only: teach me! For us, it’s checked bags or bust now. At least they are free. 😛

Strollers

Jess and I love to walk, especially in Europe, and the reality is at 3.5 years old M can’t keep up. So we had to bring her a stroller – we brought our Uppa Baby G-lite which is D-liteful. The shoulder strap is super convenient and came in VERY handy in London.

As mentioned above, H can ride in his caddy/carseat combination, but he prefers not to. So the real decision was whether to bring a second umbrella stroller or not. Answer: enjoy being uncomfortable buddy! Maybe you can use the big stroller when M feels like walking!

Worst case scenario, I’ll buy one on Amazon UK and ditch it in Scotland.

Length of stays and location choices

In the past, Jess and I would be happy spending one night in a city if it seemed interesting enough. After we had M, we reduced the minimum length of stay to about two nights, now with two that is more like three nights (though it’s not a hard and fast rule).

We also look to travel a bit more off the beaten path, places like the Isle of Skye where the natural beauty is the attraction in and of itself. That prevents us from feeling pressure to go see everything: instead we can take things slow and enjoy one or two attractions a day.

Food

There is a famous story in my family that goes something like this: my negligent parents once took us on a day long drive through the Outer Banks during the offseason where every eating establishment was closed. We survived only on the strength of four Polly-o string cheeses.

While that story has grown in legend over the years, it approximates the truth. So my goal as a parent is to avoid those kinds of situations (we were close yesterday though).

Hence we packed a lot of cheap snacks that we could use at any time even though they took up a lot of space. Cheerios, puffs, and teething biscuits for the baby. Instant oatmeal, goldfish, kind bars, and trail mix for the preschooler (mixed results on the last two).

Final Thoughts

Planning for two kids is pretty different than planning for one. In some senses you have to be more prepared; in other senses you just care less. The nice thing with the second kid is you know what worked for the first so you have a baseline to start with, but it won’t necessarily work for the second. Would love to hear how people with young kids handle travel in the comments!

Jul 07 2016

Surveying Scotland: Introduction

Two kids creates more than twice the work. That holds true for regular life and travel. Nonetheless, we took it upon ourselves to travel to the United Kingdom to celebrate our son’s first birthday. Just kidding, it’s just when we were free.

As always, we paid for the majority of our flight with points. We even booked our first transatlantic flights in coach for the first time in five years. Slumming it! Just kidding, I’m just practicing what I’ve been preaching in my family travel hacking guide.

Read below for details of what we booked and the thought process behind it all.

Flights for Four

I wrote about booking our flights to the UK awhile back. Man, can’t believe I booked this trip back in August 2015. Either way, Delta availability still remains great. We elected to book in Delta One (aka business class) for the extra space. We figured since it was a redeye it’d be good for the kids to have “beds” overnight. I had to pay about $560 for the infant ticket: on international flights you pay 10% of the base fare even on award tickets. So overall call it 187.5K miles + $600 in taxes and fees for the four of us.

I'm convinced screen time is half the reason she flies — I’m convinced screen time is half the reason she flies

On the way back, the decision was between buying three business class tickets on United or four coach seats. Like I said, we haven’t flown coach across the Atlantic in years (though we did fly it to Aruba). That being said, we would fly our kids to California in coach and Europe only takes an hour longer.

Here’s how the pricing broke down:

Business Class (3 seats plus lap infant): 172.5K miles + $819 taxes and fees + ~600 for infant fare

Coach (4 seats): 120K miles + $384 taxes and fees

So basically, flying coach would save us 52.5K miles and a thousand dollars.

This ended up being a much easier decision than expected. You can do a lot of things with $1000… Plus 52.5K Ultimate Rewards points is like another $500. Anyway, we decided to fly in the back on the way home: it’s a day flight anyway. Gonna be interesting!

Not gonna lie: was pretty tired after this flight. We'll see how the return goes — Not gonna lie: was pretty tired after this flight. We’ll see how the return goes

We also used some Wells Fargo Go Far Rewards points to book a quick hop from London to Inverness, not much worth writing about there. Miss you Wells Fargo!

Lodging

While we use miles and points to save money, at this point we have committed to traveling to where we want to go – not necessarily where we can get everything for “free” (note: not free). Thus we decided on Scotland knowing full well that the Scottish Highlands are mostly devoid of chain hotels that we could use points redemptions on.

I’ve written about the importance of having a separate room, especially for my one year old. We can do without but then lose access to the bathroom. Only two of our stops have chains we can even redeem at: London and Edinburgh. I decided to book a room with a confirmed Diamond Suite Upgrade in London at the Hyatt Regency The Churchill. I figured we’d really need that second room to recover from jetlag.

Our first and last hotel room on this trip - not complaining — Our first and last hotel room on this trip – not complaining

We booked everything else through airbnb, Trip Advisor, or directly from websites. For the rest of our trip we will not be staying in chain hotels. Though in this case we’re only giving up staying at a Club Carlson or Hilton in Edinburgh – but I really wanted to avoid getting stuck with a small room. Maybe when H is older. If only this kid would sleep in bed with us!

Ground Transportation

Our one final cost was ground transportation. We bought round trip tickets on the Heathrow Express and then took a taxi to our hotel. We’re planning on doing the same in reverse but will eat the sunk cost and take a cab if we are running low on time for our departure (still recovering from jet lag).

We rented a car for a week in the Scottish Highlands. No tricks or gimmicks just looked for the cheapest price I could find and called it a day. Too much running in the background to worry further.

We’re planning on taking a train from Inverness to Edinburgh, though that is subject to change as well. Everything depends on the kids!

Final Thoughts

When we traveled with one kid, I’d say she only affected about 60-70% of our decision making. Maybe even less (40%?) once we had gotten used to traveling with her. With two under four, about 95% of our decision making has revolved around them. That’s just life for us now. So we’re flying coach, not worrying about saving every last penny, and thus far, having a great time. Will update with thoughts as we go along!