August 2021 - 2 years waiting

[Tenacious K]

Hi everyone! I've decided to return to WDW during the Summer of 2021! Our last trip was in May 2019, so waiting just over 2 years to return will make this trip really exciting for us and our kids. By the time of the trip, our daughter will be 5 and our son will be 7 and those will be really fun ages for Disney.

I'm excited to see how my plans change and shape up over the next 18 months or so and can't wait to share them with you!

Details
To come..
We'll have up to 124 DVC points available (100 points plus up to 24 one time use points), so at minimum part of the trip will be on property.

Game Plan
Now, ongoing: credit card points
We have enough points to fly on Southwest, but I'm also looking into a different reward program such as United, since Southwest hardly flies out of our local airport anymore.

August, 2020: Book off-property hotel
August is the month that my credit cards email me with my anniversary free nights. Depending on when they expire (beginning of August, or end of August?) and depending on the point values of hotels, I can get a clear picture on how many nights we want to spend off property.
I will also have to get an update on new rules at resorts. For example, the Holiday Inn express that we stayed in 2019 now charges a resort fee for point stays (it was previously waived). The staybridge suites next to seaworld used to have 1 bedrooms available for point stays, but I no longer see that. I'm heavily leaning towards putting all of my eggs into the Hilton basket and looking into available Hilton deals.

September, 2020: Park Tickets, Book Polynesian 11 months advance, begin researching flights
Polynesian is my home resort so I can book there at 11 months in advance.
Now that I know the exact number of on-site and off-site nights, I can start researching what types of park tickets

February, 2021: ADRs

June, 2021: FastPass selections

 

[Tenacious K]

I created this thread a few days ago, thinking that it would be months before I had any updates. At the same time, I reached out to my extended family to confirm plans for an upcoming cruise trip (they had generously offered to book our rooms, but we're still responsible for passports, travel, activities/excursions, etc) and said they had cancelled it. Although I had taken the time to fill out passport applications for my family, I hadn't yet paid for or submitted our passport applications, so that's a relief.

Basically, this means two things. I have an extra 5 vacation days that's no longer tied to a cruise. We also have some money that we can budget towards a Disney trip instead of the Cruise, since our budget is to spend no more than 4% of our income on vacations. Even though the room was paid for.. cruises are expensive!! It gives us a lot more options for the 2021 year.

I looked into the DVC price for Platinum Plus AP and for four of us, assuming we can go down to WDW in Aug '21, Easter '22, and July '22 and it's $4,255.76USD --NOPE! And ya'll know that it's going to increase again before I buy them! Gold pass is $2977 and water park annual pass is $592 which would be $3,569 minus 5% Disney Gift Card deals which is much better. Now this is something I can plan for.

Now:
-My calendar is cleared between 2021-2022, the more trips to Orlando avoiding gold pass blackout dates, the better
-Purchase about $500 in Disney Gift cards every month for the next year
-Credit card points-- I'm considering getting the Hilton Amex Aspire card. It's $450 fee/year, oof, but if we stay exclusively at Hiltons and Disney Resorts when we travel over the next few years, it could be a really great value for us.

My ultimate goal is to make atleast 3 trips under the annual pass (about 23 nights), and pay under $10,000 total out of pocket (including all the credit card fees, parking fees, flights, food, hotel, tickets, rental cars, DVC fees, etc) and getting the most bang for our buck.