Spent about 5 days at WDW last week to check out Halloween on a solo trip! Planned last minute-ish. I have an AP this year and wanted to do the Halloween Party for the first time. No regrets! Gosh, the party is great. (Much more fun than
disneyland’s was last year imho.) I stayed at Gran Destino in a standard room for one night and club level for the rest both booked at AP rate. WOWZA! Loved it. Would definitely return. It’s beautiful and the rooms feel like a deluxe. I would bring ear plugs because there was a weird background sound coming from the fire alarm in both rooms. The Disney movies on demand was nice but there were only a couple available. Club was good too, will review that on the CL thread later. Paid with Disney Gift Cards gotten on different deals over the last few months.
Points! Points! Points! Ok, ok. So where did points come into play since that’s what we’re all about? Airfare I booked one way with my skypesos and one way with AA miles. Nice to have diversified currencies to grab the routes at prices I wanted! I’m a cardholder for both airlines so free bags. I bookended my trip with Hyatt Place stays using URs to Hyatt points because I left early and arrived late and didn’t want to drive tired. I used Minnie Vans for about half my transport while there because of my Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards and about 75% of my drives ended up covered. I booked CSR but hate buses so I had budgeted for some Minnie Vans ahead of time. I have bad luck with Uber’s and Lyfts in Orlando, Minnie Vans are like 3x more expensive but not one bad experience. (I ventured to Lyft one morning and he raced right past the exit for DHS! Regretted that one. Vacation is not having to think “is this a moment to get ready call 911?” ). Since Minnie Vans bill through Lyft they trigger the 1.5x Real Time Redemption option on the AR.
While not points related this was my first solo Disney trip. I’d done a couple days with friends & then a couple days solo but first time a whole Disney trip was just me. It was so nice. It’s a lot easier to pick up 4th FPs as a solo traveler! Finished my 3 at DHS one day and refreshed a few times & got one for RNR for 10 mins later, as soon as I scanned in I got another for like a minute later and after I scanned in for that I got Slinky Dog at night! (I ended up scoring nighttime SDD as 4th/5th FP on two nights!!). It was a really fun and relaxing time that I sorely needed and was only possible because of The Game