You might be wondering how one Disney trip could turn into so many guide posts. The reason is simple: when you’re traveling as a beginner, everything feels new and worth sharing with everyone else (seasoned travelers, please forgive me). And now we’ve finally reached the last post in the series, which feels like a satisfying conclusion. This post is mainly a summary of expenses and rewards, along with an explanation of how to use credit cards and points to make a trip like this both budget-friendly and enjoyable. If you’re also a points enthusiast, try calculating the costs and returns from one of your own trips sometime.

bl__travel_card_jp_1095035f

Background

For this trip, my wife and I flew from Chicago to Orlando on July 6 and stayed at a Sheraton hotel near Disney. We spent four full days at Disney, rested at the hotel for half a day, and then flew from Orlando to a smaller city on July 11 to wrap up the Disney portion of the trip. Most of the hotel and airfare costs were covered by credit card points, and most of the cash expenses also earned fairly strong rewards.

Expense Summary (5 days for 2 people total: $1,125 + 18,000 TYP + 19,000 SPG)

Flights: $0 (18,000 TYP) + $250

ORD-MCO: AA flight booked with TYP (ThankYou Points). For 2 people, the total cost was 18,000 points, which came from the sign-up bonus on the Citi Thank You Premier card (50,000-point sign-up bonus).

SFB-small city: Allegiant budget airline, purchased through the Citi Thank You Premier website. Tickets plus baggage fees came to $250 total for 2 people.

Transportation: $42 + $18 + $0

Orlando airport (MCO) to hotel (Sheraton): Super Shuttle, paid through the Citi Thank You Premier website. Total for 2 people including tip was $42.

Hotel (Sheraton) to Orlando airport (SFB): Uber, paid with the AMEX SPG card, cost $18 (because of the $20 off for a new account).

Hotel (Sheraton) to the various Disney parks: free shuttle.

Hotel: $0 (19,000 SPG) + $100

Base hotel cost: redeemed with SPG points, 19,000 points total for 5 days. The points came from the AMEX SPG sign-up bonus (25,000-point sign-up bonus).

$100 resort fee: paid with the AMEX SPG (Starwood Preferred Guest) card.

Tickets: $488

Purchased through a Florida student ticket agency. Total for 2 people for 4 days was $488, paid with the Citi Thank You Premier card.

Food and snacks: $182 + $30

Inside the parks: meals and drinks, paid with the AMEX PRG (Premier Rewards Gold), about $182.

Outside the parks: instant noodles, drinks, and various snacks, paid with the AMEX EDP (Everyday Preferred), about $30.

Shopping: $15

One souvenir for $15, paid with the Citi Thank You Premier card.

Rewards Summary (total: 2000 AA + 1861 TYP + 2236 SPG + 400 MR + $5)

Flights: earned 2000 AA miles total for 2 people (ORD-MCO), plus 750 TYP from the credit card (budget airline ticket).

Transportation: 120 TYP (Premier paid for shuttle), $5 (AMEX Uber Offer), 36 SPG (Uber SPG promo, total points from paying for Uber).

Hotel: 2000 SPG (green choice), 200 SPG (credit card payment for the fee).

Tickets: 976 TYP (Premier paid for tickets).

Food and snacks: 360 MR (paid with PRG), 45 MR (paid with EDP).

Shopping: 15 TYP (Premier paid for the souvenir).

Bottom Line ($1,250 vs. $500)

If I didn’t have these credit card sign-up bonus points or the rewards from paying with the right cards, my total out-of-pocket cost would have been:

$1,125 + $1,000 (5 nights of hotel) + $400 (ORD-MCO airfare) = $2,525

After subtracting the 1% cash back that a basic credit card would provide, it would still come to about $2,500, or $1,250 per person.

By choosing the right cards for sign-up bonuses and using the right cards for each purchase, my total cash cost for this trip was $1,125, and all of the points used came from credit card sign-up bonuses. The rewards earned are worth about $120, so you could say this was basically a 4-night, 5-day Disney trip for $500 per person.

Credit Card Lineup

Here are the cards I brought for this Disney trip. I mainly used Premier for flights and transportation, PRG for dining, SPG for the hotel, and EDP to cover other categories.

AMEX Premier Gold Rewards (2X on dining, 3X on airfare, earn with AMEX Offer, MPX is a great helper, 25,000 MR point sign-up bonus)

AMEX Starwood Preferred Guest (2X on SPG spending, flexible points with high value, earn with AMEX Offer, 25,000 SPG point sign-up bonus)

AMEX EveryDay Preferred (4.5X on groceries, 3X on gas, 1.5X on everything else, earn with AMEX Offer, 15,000 MR point sign-up bonus)

Citi Thank You Premier (3X on travel, 2X on entertainment and dining, 50,000 TYP sign-up bonus) — overview coming soon

Please also check out the rest of my Orlando Disney series: