I am a HUGE money saver and anytime I can get a deal I do. I mentioned in the first post to rent DVC points if possible or watch for room deals. I won't go into that as I was late in the game and the DIS board seems to have a lot on that topic. I will tell you about some huge money saving tips I did use. The first is car rental. I am a Costco member and I knew that I can book a car anytime through them without paying upfront. The good thing to this is, I can also change a reservation as many times as I want as often as I want. I also knew that renting from the airport would be cheaper then the resort. No matter how many times I looked at Alamo for the days we were at the resort, the rental for one day in a car was no less than $98 dollars a day. So although the overnight fee is $37 a night, my rental for one week from the airport is way cheaper in a SUV! I started in January and booked a one week rental. At first it was about $298. However I kept checking and rebooking and you know what..... that same SUV went as low as $155 ($22 a day for an SUV). So Even with the $37 fee a night, I have a rental that is cheaper then a daily one with Aulani. (on a side note, the resort is giving me $150 free so that will help pay for the parking anyways) And as an executive member at Costco, I am getting 2% back on that rental. Money saved! There are other rental deals out there if you are not a member at Costco but I didn't look into them as this was a great deal.
The next little gem of a deal I did was buy the Hawaii Entertainment book. I knew we wanted to take the kids to a luau and after comparing prices I found Paradise Cove the best for your buck. It just also happens to be in the entertainment book for $25 off every adult.... 2 adults that is $50 we are saving. I decided to sign up for their email list as I knew they send out promotions all the time. And after a few weeks, I received a $5 promotion for the book to be mailed plus, a free app. I bought that and immediately booked the luau. They just asked for me to bring the coupon from the book upon arrival. And I have already been using the app around town where I live. It has already paid for itself and then some. I highly recommend this gem of a deal. There are other great deals in there like excursions, food and shopping. Worth every penny.
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The last deal we did was the Go Oahu card. Now I have to say I was very very confused about this card when I first read about it. And after I use it, I will post a blog just on it because no one seems to have a clear posting on how to use this card. It was the nice lady at the Sea Life park who gave me the low down and I am so glad she did. This card is only worth the money if and only if you plan to explore the island. If you plan to stay at the resort or only venture out for a day or two, do not do this card! Since we have planned several days out, this is a big time money saver. Let me explain why. The card from the Go card site will have 1, 2, 3,5,7 day cards choose from. Any card with 3 or more days gets you a premium activity like dolphin encounter, luau, Sunset dinner sail etc... that excursion alone costs you the price of the card so anything you do above that is money saved. To make this deal even better, Costco sells a 4 day card for the price almost of a 3 day card. So naturally we bought the 4 day.... that is a free day in my eyes! Here is what we get, we bought the card for $199 an adult and $166 a child (prices went up this month ugggg) we already wanted to do the dolphin encounter as that is my daughters dream so right there that would have been $150 if we paid it at the park. Then we also knew we wanted to take the kids to the Polynesian Culture Center that's $60. Just those two things alone has already paid for the pass so the 2 visits to Kualoa Ranch, Dole plantation, surfboard rental, scuba rental, Pearl Harbor are now 100% FREE. See why I bough the card?
Now let me tell you some things I have learned about this card. You must make reservations with some of the places; you just can't show up and go there. Any place that requires this, will have a R next to it on the paperwork they send you when you order the card. I recommend you do this as soon as you know what you have planned and you have the card. Many of the places require you to provide them with your Go Oahu card number. Ask lots of questions if you don't know. Everyone was more than helpful when I booked them. I asked things like where do we go, do you need ID, etc.... I also down loaded the app on my phone along with printing the pass. It comes with a nice print out of everything you can see or do as well as basic instructions. I just used a highlighter to highlight the ones we are interested in and any important info. Again I plan on posting after the trip on how it went. Spread the love.
Next post coming soon.....