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Legoland Florida was surprisingly enjoyable!

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Five years ago we took our three kids (we’re up to four now) to Disney World. We had a five-day park pass but we only ended up using four of those five days and decided to goof off and relax on day five since we were burned out on Disney. My wife and I were of a “Never again!” opinion after that Disney trip. Surprisingly, the kids weren’t too wild about it either, perhaps on account of the time spent waiting in line.

While we were in Orlando our Lego-obsessed son, then five, noticed a Legoland billboard and he has been asking to visit there ever since. Everything I’ve read about Legoland Florida says that the target age is kids less than twelve years, and all of our kids are under that age AND none of them are currently wearing diapers, plus I’d been wanting to do a couple of days in north Florida as well, so we decided to capitalize on this window of opportunity and do a Florida road trip.

To my surprise, in light of our previous Florida theme park trip, everybody had a great time in Legoland! There were a few factors working in our favor: we visited in the first week of December and the weather was absolutely perfect. Temperatures were in the high 70s and there was no rain. Also, since we visited in the offseason, the crowds were sparse. We didn’t have to wait more than 10-15 minutes for any ride, and on some rides there was no line whatsoever. Apart from a few attractions being closed, it was pretty close to an ideal theme park experience. 

The rides were perfect for our family–nothing there is too scary or intense for the kids. The advice about the park being best for age 12 and under is right on; I think teens might get bored but our kids loved it. And the adults (my wife, mother-in-law, and me) loved it too on account of the great weather, lack of lines, and happy, non-cranky, non-melting-down kids. 

All of which is to say, if your kids are that age and you can get away during an off-peak time, go for it. The rides certainly aren’t as nice as the Disney rides but given the cost and crowd factors I prefer my Legoland experience to my Disney experience. Obviously, your mileage may vary, especially if you’re a Disney loyalist. One nice thing Legoland has that Disney doesn’t is a smattering of playground areas where the kids can just run around and do kid stuff for a bit. I recall there being a play area in the line for the Dumbo ride at Magic Kingdom but that’s the only one I can remember.

So how much do Legoland tickets cost? A two-day ticket goes for $100 on the Legoland site but there are deals to be had from resellers. Leana from Miles for Family (read her Legoland review here) recommended dealsea.com, and while that’s an improvement over the official prices I wasn’t seeing good deals on two-day ticket. I ended up buying tickets from a reseller called 365 Tickets USA which I hadn’t heard of but which turns out to be a reputable outfit. The tickets were 14-day passes (we only used two of the days) and the cost was only $42 per person! So all seven of us spent two days there for under $300 which was a tremendous value. 

How much time do you need to see the park? On uncrowded days like the ones we had, you can ride everything in the park in a single day, though your kids will want more. Two days worked great for us: we hit just about everything on day one, then repeated their favorites multiple times on day two. Keep in mind this does not include the water park, which is closed at this time of year.

Where should you stay? I looked into staying at the Legoland Resort but it was more money than I was willing to pay so we paid 30K points per night per room to stay at the WInter Haven Hampton Inn, which is about two miles away. That worked out just fine as staying onsite isn’t as big of a deal here vs Disney. The hotel itself was decent; it’s a typical Hampton Inn, although the rooms had been recently renovated. I’d been hoarding Hilton points for a stay at our favorite Managua hotel, the Hilton Princess, but there ended up being a Pointsbreak opportunity that we pounced on so it was time to burn those Hilton points. There aren’t a ton of great per-point values to be had in Hilton’s program these days so I don’t feel as bad spending them on a Hampton Inn as I might have a few years ago.

There are some good hotel pooling opportunities out there

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A lot of people will tell you not to hoard points and miles, and there are some good points to be made in favor of that argument, but at the same time speculative point hoarding has worked out for me more than once. My wife and I have signed up for Marriott and Starwood cards the past year or two with no firm plans (other than having a few Starwood points lying around for the occasional low-level redemption as needed), but with the merger letting us trade Starwood to Marriott at a 1:3 ratio and with both chains letting spouses transfer points to each other, we had more than enough points pooled for a Marriott flight and hotel package.

I hadn’t done one of these before, so it was a new experience. You have to do it over the phone, but the process was quick and painless and the customer service rep said the points should show up in about three business days. If you’re not familiar with these packages, they give you one week at a category 1-5 Marriott hotel (or more if you’re willing to shell out extra points) plus a bunch of airline miles. In my case, it cost us 270,000 Marriott points (or 90,000 Starwood points) for one week at a Marriott plus 120,000 British Airways Avios. And right now there is a 35% Avios bonus for transfers from hotel points, so assuming everything works out I’ll get 162,000 Avios for my Starriott points. That’s darn near a 1:2 Starwood/Avios ratio, well above the usual transfer rate for Starwood points. 

It works out even better for my personal situation since my household has a steady demand for Avios. Specifically, as I’ve mentioned before, we use them for family travel between CLT and MGA, a route where tickets are usually in the $600-900 range (there isn’t a ton of demand for CLT-MGA traffic) but are only 30,000 Avios. Even after taking taxes and fees into account we’ll be getting at least three cents per Starwood point with the transfer to BA.

Yes, AA low-level availability is weak and getting worse but so far we’ve always been able to use Avios on this particular route. Having the flexibility to travel outside of high season helps. And occasionally we need a last-minute redemption, so the lack of close-in booking fees is nice as well.

Ironically, the one-week hotel stay is an afterthought in this transaction. I’ve read that the one-week certificates can be difficult to use, so we’ll play it by ear. I’m doing this deal assuming I won’t get any value from the hotel certificate so if I do it’s a bonus. Apparently at least one of the Marriott chains has rooms (Residence Inn, I think?) which can sleep six people, so I think I’ll go for something like that in an area which can entertain the family for a week.

Obviously, not everybody lives near an AA hub and not everybody has travel needs like mine, so this is very much a YMMV situation. The Marriott packages aren’t for everybody. But you know what might be for everybody? Pooling Hilton points!

One of the nice things about the HHilton Cchanges (besides the dropping of superfluous letters) is that you can now pool your accounts with others:

Beginning in April, Hilton Honors members will be able to combine – or “pool” – their Points with up to 10 friends or family members for free. A total of 11 members can pool their Points for stays in great locations for family reunions, bachelorette parties or any other event that brings people together.

And unlike Starriott, there does not seem to be a requirement that you be married to these 10 individuals or live at the same address. So if you have any family members who have good credit and a willingness to play along (presumably the same people whose Bluebird cards you used once upon a time), you now have a way to get around Citi’s 24-month and Amex’s lifetime Hilton bonus restrictions. Time to start hoarding?

Hilton HHonors Auctions can potentially give you some good value for your points

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The Hilton HHonors auction site doesn’t get a ton of press, but for a few of you it may be a good way to wring some extra value out of your Hilton point stash.

For example, right now there’s a listing for a stay in the presidential suite at the Hilton Vienna Plaza, a category 7 hotel. The package includes:

-Two (2) nights’ accommodation in the Presidential Suite at Hilton Vienna Plaza
-Daily breakfast at Brasserie & Bar ÉMILE
-Afternoon treat: Participate in the apple strudel making class in the hotel and experience what it takes to become a master in preparing this traditional Viennese pastry
-Evening treat: Private candle light dinner in your very own gondola at Wiener Riesenrad, Vienna’s prestigious landmark
-Airport shuttle
-Late check-out
-Executive Lounge access

Here’s a picture of the suite:

hilton hhonors auction - vienna presidential suite

A look at the hotel’s suites shows that the presidential suite is the hotel’s biggest, at 1,658 square feet. If you wanted to book that room in the summer, you can pay over $2,000 per night. So by that measure, this package is worth over $4,000, and that’s not even taking into account the incalculable value of the streudel making class and the other perks.

I know some folks find point valuation exercises tedious, but right now the high bid for this package is 135,000 points. A $4,000 valuation on this package at that points cost would give you three cents per point, which is several times what you can reasonably expect from your Hilton points.

Unfortunately, packages like this are far and few between on the HHilton HHonors AAuction site. Almost everything you can bid for is a concert ticket for some reason. And that’s puzzling: you’d think that Hilton would throw in a few more nice hotel packages like the Vienna one in light of the fact that they’re, you know, a hotel chain. As things stand, the site’s appeal is pretty limited and I’m not sure of the rationale for its existence.

 

Hotel categories: international version

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This is a follow-up to a post from a few weeks ago breaking out hotel redemptions by category. That post looked at the number of redemptions by category for domestic hotels; this post will do the same thing for hotels outside the United States. Here are the number of hotels by reward category for the four major non-IHG chains:

hotels_international_3

 

And, as a reminder, here are the points required for redemption for each category/hotel combination:

hotels by category 3

 

If we take the numbers from the first table above and convert them to percentages of the total number of hotels for each chain, here’s what we get:

hotels_international

 

Observations:

  • The international distribution is more balanced than the domestic distribution, with no category going above 30% of the total for any chain. And though the absolute numbers are lower, everybody has proportionately more hotels in higher categories.
  • Once again, Hyatt’s pretty strong on the low end, though of course there’s the standard Hyatt not-enough-locations issue.
  • Marriott’s distribution is bifurcated, with a lot of Category 2 and Category 7.
  • As it does domestically, Hilton has a lot of Category 4. I’m not too pleased with the Category 4-ization of Hilton’s rewards program, but then their points are relatively easy to come by, so I guess it balances out.
  • Most of the Hilton Category 1 properties are concentrated in a few countries: Egypt (about which, see Travel Is Free here) and China have 7, Turkey has 8, and Mexico has 9. (You may recall the U.S. has only 2.)

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Saverocity is Journalistic in Nature, please obtain Professional Representation prior to attempting anything discussed herein. Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.