I love credit cards so much! v2.0 (see first page for add'l details)

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There's been quite a few events going on this weekend to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Last night I braved the crowds and unbearable heat on the National Mall for a show. They projected the rocket onto the Washington Monument, accompanied by a 17-minute show featuring clips of JFK ("We do this not because it is easy, but because it is hard."), mission control, the Moon landing itself, and audio of the astronauts talking back and forth with mission control. Truly one of the coolest experiences I have ever had. The applause from the crowd when the craft landed on the Moon (projected onto the monument!) warmed my heart. I love living in DC.

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Family were down there also and I had a pic with the Lego spaceman but I don't have permission to post their pics and couldn't figure out how to scribble over the faces, so have to wait until I get some techie knowledge.....okay got the pic in here someway...this was in front of Air and Space
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I still have that Marriott village outside WDW, that you first mentioned, on my radar for next year. @disneymagicgirl sent me some ideas for the panhandle of FL that are on the beach. I see some nice options there but I don't see any availability at all through July 2020 so I gotta figure out what's up with that. I'm interested in DLR options as well so I'll be looking into that too!

Where did y'all stay in NO?

We did a cat upgrade so we could stay at the Marriott NOLA on 555 Canal St. I couldn't find availability for the cat 4 DLR Marriott. I'm in no rush so we will see how things look closer to the date. I'd be perfectly ok booking a 7 night stay at Marriott Village, only staying the weekend and giving the other 5 nights to a friend or family member.
 
Last minute, all inclusive, not too expensive then I vote for FL resident cruise. The rates should be reasonable and unlike HI, you won't have to pay out the nose for food (well, unless you hit up Remy, lol), transportation (Uber to port), or things to do.

I'd love to hit Iceland to see the Northern Lights but you might need to live in FL a bit longer to want to visit cold weather 🤣



Right now, there are no FL resident rates for Europe BUT there is a general IGT for everyone on one of the cruises. Also, MTY if anyone wants to take me and use me for the discount😁 There were more a couple of weeks ago for FL, general, and MTY so it looks like the discounts are doing their job and filling up the ships.
Thanks for the info! I’m actually leaning towards a disney cruise. We could use something pretty relaxing. We don’t have any discounted gcs stocked up so we would maybe just have to cash out some chase points or pay OOP.
 


IHG isn’t generally considered as good a deal as other hotel chains. We got a card because DH frequently stays there for work travel and we already had lots of points, experience with the brand, and opportunity to use the card for his work and be reimbursed later. The free nights used to be for any room, but with the newish Premier card they’re now limited to 40k points. The Indigo in Venice is 40k points so I thought it would be a good use of the free night.

What makes the decision difficult is being 3/24 and wanting to continue with Chase, this will be the only personal card I get for a while. So I want to get the one that will get me the most benefit. I’ll also probably be getting some Amex biz cards in the meantime so high value with this card is important to me in case I start to get the pop ups. I’m leaning towards the Aspire, so all the posts directed @DisneyMandC this weekend have helped me too.
I will say the Hilton Honors points add up fast just using it for everyday spend. I like using my points for hotels I can't afford to pay cash for. Like Conrad in NYC. It's 800 a night plus tax or 95000 hpoints.
 
Yeah it came off when I placed my next order. Idk how to get my $60 credit though lol
I got a notification about my app credit that told me to click a link to activate it. I did the $10/$100 credit. I just tried to use it now to make a purchase in the app while I was thinking about it. Even though I got the $10 credit from a grocery GC purchase, it would not let me use it on another GC. I chose something else on my wishlist and was able to use the $10 plus my other $5 credit from buying an Amazon GC on prime day.
 


I got a notification about my app credit that told me to click a link to activate it. I did the $10/$100 credit. I just tried to use it now to make a purchase in the app while I was thinking about it. Even though I got the $10 credit from a grocery GC purchase, it would not let me use it on another GC. I chose something else on my wishlist and was able to use the $10 plus my other $5 credit from buying an Amazon GC on prime day.

Thanks! I never got a notification. Maybe it’s coming. I also added an item sold and shipped by amazon and went to check out and didn’t have a credit come off. I really want to get this huge ottoman for our apartment and $60 off would help lol
 
On an unrelated note, we talked about travel options again for November and have come up with some different ideas. I’m on the fence about Japan because I’d like to try somewhere new. Since it’s so soon it would have to be a place we wouldn’t need a lot of planning to visit and it would only be for a week so we’ll have to save the UK for another time.

What I’m thinking right now is Iceland, a Disney cruise (hopefully with a Florida resident discount), or Hawaii. I would like to use chase points and I guess it would be okay even if we cashed points out. What do you guys think/recommend for a last minute trip? We’ve also never been to DL so that could be an option.


Our first trip to Iceland was with DCL for a Norway, Iceland, Scotland, England cruise. @Calfan and @CaliforniaGirl09 were on the same cruise. This was the summer of 2015 and Iceland was beautiful! We loved it and wanted to come back and see what it was like in the winter. So, we went again for Thanksgiving 2017 and I did post some pics on the old thread. I have linked those below.

This page has an excursion we did plus further down northern lights
https://www.disboards.com/threads/i-love-credit-cards-so-much.3528202/page-495
Pics from Reykjavik
https://www.disboards.com/threads/i-love-credit-cards-so-much.3528202/page-499
Icelandic ponies, and frozen waterfalls
https://www.disboards.com/threads/i-love-credit-cards-so-much.3528202/page-501
Blue Lagoon and ice cave
https://www.disboards.com/threads/i-love-credit-cards-so-much.3528202/page-502

I'm not gonna lie, it was bloody COLD!!!! Mind you we did Winter in Wyoming with ABD and had temps below zero which felt less cold than Iceland in the 20s. Yes, it was 20 something in November. I wasn't using Instagram back then so I don't have pics from the Iceland trip there. They are all on FB. One of these days I'll get around to posting some latergrams LOL While Iceland in the winter is lovely and worth braving the cold to see the northern lights, you'd be doing yourself a disservice by not seeing it in the summer. That said, I think it's an easy trip to plan. We stayed at a Hilton in Reykjavik and were upgraded to club level since we were gold at the time. The Aspire card didn't exist back then. We ate most of our meals in the club lounge which was perfect! Food is expensive in Iceland. There are plenty of tour operators and lots to do.

I think you could knock out 2 birds with one stone and do both Hawaii and DLR. This is what we are doing with my family next summer. I've only got a week to work with. The plan is roughly to fly out on a Friday after work, arrive in LAX and transfer to DLR. Spend the weekend at DLR, fly out to HNL on Monday morning, stay 4 or maybe 5 nights at Aulani. Fly back to LAX on Friday stay one night fly out to Florida on Saturday so we have Sunday to recuperate. I'm only doing this because none of them are well traveled and I think putting them through 11 hours of flying all in one shot would be too much. So. I'm breaking it up a bit on each end. If it were just DH and I, we'd fly out straight to HNL and then back to LAX on Wed and stay 3 nights for DLR and then fly home.
 
Dh and I finally saw Aladdin last night and both of us really liked it! I think we’re gonna go see lion king today. We need to catch up on our movies.
Saw lion king yesterday. We loved it! I missed the regular version of ‘Be Prepared’ and didn’t care for ‘Circle of Life’ but overall, it was well done and very intense.

Biggest issue for us was the theater was filled with families with very little ones. They were all super restless and crying, up and down constantly, running around, talking , etc. We see every Disney movie plus other kid movies and we’d never had an experience like this. It was ridiculous!
 
Last minute, all inclusive, not too expensive then I vote for FL resident cruise. The rates should be reasonable and unlike HI, you won't have to pay out the nose for food (well, unless you hit up Remy, lol), transportation (Uber to port), or things to do.

I'd love to hit Iceland to see the Northern Lights but you might need to live in FL a bit longer to want to visit cold weather 🤣



Right now, there are no FL resident rates for Europe BUT there is a general IGT for everyone on one of the cruises. Also, MTY if anyone wants to take me and use me for the discount😁 There were more a couple of weeks ago for FL, general, and MTY so it looks like the discounts are doing their job and filling up the ships.
Yeah—I’ve seen Fl rates out of FL and I think TX rates out of Galveston. Don’t think I’ve seen FL rates for Europe or AK. Sort of like how I don’t think there are FL rates for DL.
 
Y'all! We leave for WDW in a little over 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's been two years since we've been there for a family vacation - dh & I have been there for a resort stay but it's not the same - I am so psyched to get to go back with my family!!!!

If you've hung out on this thread for long, you know I love split-stays! My sweet dh indulges me. He despises having to pack up and move but he knows how much this makes the kids and i happy. Well, this trip, I get a triple split-stay cause we are 1 night at Pop, 4 nights at POR and 5 nights at Swan. I am so stinking excited!!! Two new resorts (Pop and Swan) and a fav (POR). Life is good and we are blessed!

Thank you ALL for sharing your knowledge and encouraging each other! This trip is costing us <$1k OOP. How is that even possible with all the hits we've taken over the years?? Welp, despite the hits, there is always another way. This group keeps finding and sharing. Love you all! Keep on keeping on, my friends!

I'm so excited for you and can't wait to hear your opinion on the swan! I wish my DD was still going to be there to chat with your DD about DCP.
She sent me a screen shot of her final DCP schedule drop last night. Last 2 days say "end of program"....so sad! I think I may need therapy about this. :sad: She, on the other hand, is ecstatic to be coming home. I think she is going to maybe apply for seasonal so she has the option to work next summer if she wants and is planning to go to auditions for character as her schedule allows...the first of which is in August for Tokyo.:scared1:
Well, all good things must come to an end, I guess. :sad1:
 
Haha I’m guessing it would be cold then? I didn’t even look up the temps. I just looked it up and it says it could be 40 F so yeah that’s not happening lol. That’s probably better as a summer trip.

I’ve seen talk about using southwest to get to Hawaii. Are there any other options using chase points? I’ve always been told that when going to Hawaii we need to do more than one island but for a week I don’t know if that’s possible. What do you think?
That seems like alot of travel for a week...coming from the east coast. Then again, ya'll seem to have way more energy for that stuff than us old folks. :yay:
I'd probably watch for a FRR on DCL. Assuming you avoid the holiday time, you should be able to find a decent rate. You could do a 7 night, DH would miss exactly a week of work like he wants, and you'd get to see 3 different places. Cruises can be as relaxing or adventurous as you make them. I'm happy to suggest what to do on the various islands if you decide thats what you want to do in November.
 
So looks like I need to clear $2500 in GC this week and I can hit my AA Citi Biz #2 spend. So I'm off to buy $200 GC from Staples and then hit Walmart to test my luck on loading it. If it works, I'll buy $1k and push that through and then try the rest later this week. Not sure why I'm scared to buy all $2400 in one transaction, LOL.

I booked my "me" away trip for before school starts. Said f-it and booked 4 nights w/ IHG again (draining my points). I do like the 4th night free I get with the premier card. I looked and when/if I want to earn more I can get the $29/AF card and get 60k. But that card is way down the list on cards to get, LOL.

Oh and my sister wants to bump up my DD's 18th bday trip to Ireland (which is supposed to be ON her bday, which is St. Patricks day) to next year (she'll be 15, but my mom has stage 4 breast cancer). So I guess I need to figure out how the hell to do international travel, LOL. We can fly out of Toronto and I've been told that is the way to go w/ Europe. So I guess now I start to look into that. Who's got tips for traveling to Europe/Ireland. Which is the best way to go about booking the flights? Detroit is our airport, but Toronto is 4 hours away.
 
If I make the call for the 100k AmEx Biz Plat, do they automatically expedite it? I was going to wait until later to triple dip but realized now might be a good time with upcoming expenses?

ETA: Also, does the private line to Taylor still work?

When I called his line in June, someone else picked up so I'm not sure if he still works there. But the call was very easy and pleasant. Yes, they automatically expedite it. I think I got it in 2 days.
 
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I am working on a paper for school.... for those of you (seems like all of you!) who frequent WDW (I only go to DL), have they done away with the plastic straws yet? I am seeing it was supposed to have been "Mid-2019". Thank you!
Yes and it is soooo annoying. They offer paper now. I travel with my own plastic ones. I suggest to everyone, if you dont want to bring along plastic straws, DO NOT order any slushy or milkshake type drink. You literally cannot use a paper straw for those. The straws turn to mush super fast and even before they turn to mush they don't work well with those thick drinks. Clearly the powers that be didn't ever try a paper straw with an ample hills milkshake. :sad2:
 
Saw lion king yesterday. We loved it! I missed the regular version of ‘Be Prepared’ and didn’t care for ‘Circle of Life’ but overall, it was well done and very intense.

Biggest issue for us was the theater was filled with families with very little ones. They were all super restless and crying, up and down constantly, running around, talking , etc. We see every Disney movie plus other kid movies and we’d never had an experience like this. It was ridiculous!

I was thinking of going and taking my grand littles - 2 and 1/2 and 3 and 1/2. You've given me quite a bit of pause. I really don't want to ruin someone else's experience, but I know we'd have to go to the bathroom at least once and we would have to sit fairly close to down front.

Older one could stay focused on her ipad for hours if allowed - she's now timed on screen time. Younger will sit with her for the youtube videos but eventually oldest will shrug her away. (No one likes someone breathing over their shoulder, lol). Youngest has a pad but it can never be found and then it always has to be charged.

We can do a weekday morning so I'll check and see if anything works. Can always just leave if they lose interest.
 
I was thinking of going and taking my grand littles - 2 and 1/2 and 3 and 1/2. You've given me quite a bit of pause. I really don't want to ruin someone else's experience, but I know we'd have to go to the bathroom at least once and we would have to sit fairly close to down front.

Older one could stay focused on her ipad for hours if allowed - she's now timed on screen time. Younger will sit with her for the youtube videos but eventually oldest will shrug her away. (No one likes someone breathing over their shoulder, lol). Youngest has a pad but it can never be found and then it always has to be charged.

We can do a weekday morning so I'll check and see if anything works. Can always just leave if they lose interest.
Going to the bathroom once is no big deal. This was a baby crying off and on for two hours, a 2 or 3 yo bored out of her brain who was whining and fussy, and just tons of littles up and down and playing (running around) in the aisles. It’s just not a little kid movie and they got bored. My 8yo stayed focused and I’m sure younger kids who have good focus would be fine but the movie is intense with lots to follow.
 
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