Disneyland or Universal Studios on Points/Miles

Disneyland is obviously a popular choice for families living in SLC, so if you are planning on going soon (who isn't???) then why not plan to get a credit card or two to help with some of the expense.

Flights: You can get flights to LAX and even Long Beach airport (which is my favorite because it's small, convenient for car rentals, and close to Newport Beach and Disneyland) for 9k delta miles.  This is the CHEAPEST that miles will ever go and you only see this during a "miles sale".  The regular price is somewhere around 15k miles.  Obviously there are lots of airlines and options for flights, but use 9K delta miles as your guideline since that is your absolute best option from SLC.

Disney Tickets:
This Website explains all the ways you can use credit cards to help cover the costs of Disney tickets
Travel credit cards that give you a cash rebate toward ANY type of travel expense would work great for Disney tickets.  Here is a list:

Capital One venture or Venture X- you can use the 50,000 -100k points as a $500-$1000 credit towards any travel purchases including Disney tickets or cruises  

the Wells Fargo Propel card ($300 travel credit) 

the Bank of America Travel Rewards (no annual fee, so never needs to be canceled).  Spend $1000 and get $265 credited back.

Or Discover It Miles does the same thing (you don’t get a welcome bonus, but it is annual free and you earn 3x points in the first year)

***So Use one of the above cards to purchase your Disney tickets (or hotel, or car rental, or cruise, etc.) and you can opt to have the rewards points credited back to your account on those "travel" purchases.  Keep in mind you and your spouse can each get these cards!

Another option: you can buy Disney gift cards (which work for buying tickets, food, parking, strollers, etc.) at the grocery store which can earn you 4x points if you use a Delta Gold or you can get 6% cash back on those gift cards if you use the Amex Blue Cash Preferred card.


Hotels:  Here's a great list of options.
Our favorite from the list above is the Marriott Theme Park Entrance

each night is 50,000 points and if you book 4 nights (200,000 points) you get the 5th night free.  If you are trying to combine Marriott points (which you might need to do to reach 200k points), you can transfer 50,000 points to spouse for $10 once a year.  You don't have to combine points though, you could book a night (or 2), and your spouse could book a night and then just let the hotel know that the reservations are together and you don't want to move rooms, you just won't be able to get a 5th night free this way.  To earn Marriott points you could apply for Marriott bonvoy brilliant a few months before going to Disney (use a referral code) and use those points for a couple nights and the $300 Marriott credit towards another night.  Marriott also has a chase card that you could technically apply for (cancel) then re-apply for (and earn the bonus again) every couple years.  You can also transfer points to marriott from chase or Amex.

If you want to stay in Newport Beach (which is only about a 20min drive from Disneyland), my brother highly recommends this place using Hyatt points, he has been able to get nights for just 20k points/per night by transferring points from Chase over to Hyatt.


If you are interested in doing a Disney cruise, check out these websites
Repositioning Cruises
Mousesavers


Universal Orlando Hotels

This fall my family plans to visit Universal Studios in Orlando.  There are tons of great hotel options nearby that you can book on points, but I decided to book "Universal's Loews Portifino Bay" property through the Amex travel portal, here’s why.

This hotel is very close to the Universal Parks entrance which is nice, but it’s also a “special” hotel because guests of the hotel get an Unlimited Express Pass free with their stay.  An unlimited express pass normally costs $100 per person, per day, and gives you “front of the line” privileges on the majority of the rides in the park.  You can use the pass as many times as you want on the rides.  No scheduling, just go through the “express” lane over and over all day long.  Nice, right?! 

I'm booking a room with 2 queens for $500, it sleeps a maximum of 5 (you have to pay $35 for a rollaway for the 5th person). We’ll have 5 people in our room so each day we’re getting $500 worth of value with the free express passes.

PLUS because I have the Amex Platinum card (not the DELTA Platinum), and this hotel is part of the Amex “fine hotels” group, I’ll get free breakfast, a room upgrade, a $100 restaurant credit, early check-in, and late checkout.  Those perks only come with the Amex Platinum card.  You CAN still book this hotel through the chase or cap1 travel portals (and use points towards your booking) you just get a few EXTRA benefits if you own the Amex Platinum card and book using the Amex portal.  So that is how I am booking this hotel.

The Amex platinum card also gives you a $200 yearly credit when you book a night at a “fine hotels” property.  So, last December 2022, I booked one night at this hotel for the Fall of 2023 (and promptly received my credit). Then when January rolled around, I booked another night using my Platinum card and one night using my husband’s platinum card (because each January, those hotel credits re-set). So in total, we now have 3 consecutive nights booked for fall 2023 and each night received the $200 credit.

The Amex Platinum card has a high annual fee ($700) but comes with LOTS of credits and value as I have just explained.  I highly recommend getting the card when the offer is at an all-time high (150k points plus $200 off the annual fee is the current highest offer). This amazing offer can be found using someone's referral link over at the website monkeymiles.com. 

Here are all my credit card referrals - it's your way of thanking me for putting all this information together for you! :)