Budget travel Archives - Alaska to Mickey

Planning May 18, 2020

Benefits of Booking Your Vacation Early!

Does booking my vacation early benefit me or the travel companies?

Over and over you see travel companies saying “Book Now” or “Don’t wait any longer, book that vacation today.” Do you wonder, “Is this just to get me locked into a vacation? Is it just to get my money?” My answer to the question, “Should I book my trip now?” is YES. There IS a benefit to you, the traveler, to booking that trip earlier rather than later and not just the travel company. So, read on to discover the benefits of booking your vacation early.

Can’t I take a last minute trip??

Please don’t get the idea from this blog post that you shouldn’t book those last-minute, spur-of-the-moment trips or even 6-9 months ahead (this is my usual booking window). Last-minute trip planning can be super exciting and fun. Instead, I just want to show you the benefits of a little planning ahead, like a year or more.

Planning during the Pandemic

I am writing this in the midst of the Pandemic. We aren’t able to travel right now and for many that can be really hard. When this all started, we had just come back from vacation. So, we weren’t planning on going anywhere for a while, but, I still have the feeling of being trapped simply because I can’t travel. SO, since we cannot go, I feel that planning for a vacation is really important. Having something to look forward to brings hope in difficult times.

But, traveling costs money which might be in short supply right now! Continue reading and I will address this as one of the benefits of booking your trip early.

At the end of this post there will be a FaceBook live that I did a few months ago about the benefits of booking your vacation early.

Benefits of Booking Early

Definition of booking early–Booking a trip a year or more ahead of time. Now, many companies are booking well into 2021 with some going even into 2022.

Best Selection when Booking Early

Cruises

Stateroom Selection–As you know there are only so many staterooms on a cruise ship. And then, there are only so many staterooms in a certain category or the location you want. If you want connecting cabins, cabins right across the hall from each other, or some of the few larger cabins that sleep 5 or 6 then booking early will help get the perfect stateroom. Want one of the few suites or one of DCL’s Deluxe Family Oceanview split layout staterooms? Booking early is imperative! Especially if you want the one and only, super amazing, super awesome (and super expensive) Royal Caribbean Ultimate Family Suite which is booked up at least a year out.

River Cruise ships are small (100 staterooms or less) and definitely have a limited selection. Some boats have only 1 or 2 single rooms, a handful of the economical window, french balcony or lower balcony staterooms.

For those needing an accessible room booking early gives you the best selection as these are usually limited in number.

Cost–Often Cruise lines offer their best prices when they first release their cruise dates about 15-18 months out. This is especially true of Disney Cruise Line. The cost will then go up for a while and only go down a few months before with a Guaranteed fare so you cannot pick your own cabin (and that is often to the same fare as the time of release).

Dining–The main seating time in the main dining room is always the first to go. We booked our cruise 9 months ahead. Our family was able to get a main seating reservation only because we had children but the whole rest of our party was relegated to the second seating. We had to wait and wait and wait to see if our party could eat all together.

Excursions–There are some excursions and activities that are limited to a certain number of people. Once the numbers are filled you are out of luck. Cabanas on private islands are one example. Booking early is essential to securing a cabana for the day. Another is the water park on Royal Caribbean’s Coco Cay. The capacity of the waterparks is significantly lower than the capacity of the ship. If that is a must-do for you then early booking is important.

Resorts

Most Resorts aren’t in as much danger of booking up like cruises except at busy traveling times such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter/Spring Break. Popular smaller resorts might get booked up during the summer. So, there are some resorts that benefit form early booking.

Disney World–Disney World definitely is a place that benefits from booking your vacation early. Value and Moderate resorts are some of the first to fill up all year round but especially during the busy seasons. Getting a 5th sleeper at Disney’s Caribbean Beach or Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside becomes incredibly challenging if you wait too long. These rooms are the least expensive way for a family of 5 to stay on Walt Disney World property and as such, they are in great demand.

Dining reservations at Disney World–Advance Dining Reservations can be made 6 month ahead. In order to get the time you want to some of the most popular restaurants (Be Our Guest, Cinderella’s Royal Table, Le Cellier) need to be reserved at the 6 month mark.

Guided Tours

You cannot go on any tour, any time of year. Guided tours are scheduled at specific times and they are limited both in the number of travelers and the number of expeditions. Sometimes there might be only one trip to a country. Getting to go where you want, when you want is a big reason to book a tour early.

Ability to Budget Your Vacation

The ability to accurately budget for you vacation is another one of the benefits of booking your vacation early. Once you plan and book your vacation you know exactly how much it will cost. Some companies allow you to pay a deposit and then make the final payment at a certain point before you depart. This gives you the opportunity to make yourself a monthly budget in order to have the vacation paid off before you go. You can ask your travel advisor to set up a payment schedule for you to help you stay on track.

Companies that work well for budgeting:

Disney Parks–$200 deposit and final payment due 30 days ahead
Disney Cruise Line–20% deposit and final payment 3 or 4 months ahead depending on length of cruise
Adventures by Disney–10% and final payment due 4 months ahead
Royal Caribbean Cruise Line–$250/per person deposit and final payment 3 months prior (does depend on length of cruise above for 6+ days)
Norwegian Cruise Line–Same as Royal Caribbean
AmaWaterways–$400/person deposit and final payment 3 months ahead
National Geographic Journeys by G Adventures–$500 or $750 (some $2000) deposit depending on length of journey and final payment due 3 months ahead

This list certainly is not exhaustive. There are quite a few other companies that have the same deposit and final payment options. So there are lots of vacations you can plan early and be able to budget easily. Yippee!

Groups Get Choices You Want

If you are coordinating a group (or your travel advisor is–so much easier for you) a huge benefit to booking your vacation early is to get the features you want–rooms together, cruise dining times, excursions, dinner reservations, etc. We traveled with family for a reunion cruise and because we booked 15 months ahead we were all able to have main seating dining and we had a better selection choosing staterooms closer together. Groups usually take up quite a bit of room and it is best to book when there is a lot of selection available. One group of 10 couples on a river cruise ship could take up 10% of the staterooms. One extended family could fill an entire guided tour so if you want your choice of dates you have to book early.

Something to Look Forward To

I actually think that this is an important reason to book early. Studies show that it is good for your psyche if you have something good on the horizon. For me, when I don’t have a specific planned I feel a little at loose ends. Even if that vacation is a year or more away I feel better. Also, if you know for sure you are going on a trip it sometimes makes it easier to scrimp and save.

If you have any more suggestions you have experienced about the benefits of booking your vacation early just comment below!

Happy travels to you…Until we meet again!

Links you might be interested in reading:

5 Reasons to Book Your 2020 Disney World Vacation NOW (still applies to booking for 2021)
It’s Tulip Time! Explore the Netherlands and Belgium–Start planning for Tulip Time next year
Planning a Family Reunion? Consider a cruise!–Planning ahead is very beneficial when planning a group trip.

Cruise Deals February 6, 2020

Royal Caribbean February 2020 Specials

Budget Travel May 25, 2019

New Disney Summer One World Ticket Offer

Disney World 2019 Summer One World Ticket offer

The 2019 Summer One World Ticket

Enjoy Dino Land will all of Disney World with the Disney World Summer One World Ticket — Experience all of Disney World this summer including Dino Land

I am so excited to tell you about the Disney World 2019 Summer One World Ticket offer. This awesome deal starts June 4, 2019! Purchase this ticket anytime between June 4, 2019 and August 28, 2019 and have up to 6 days of fun.

Ticket Includes

One 1-day Admission to each Disney World park

Magic Kingdom
Animal Kingdom
Epcot
Hollywood Studios
Typhoon Lagoon
Blizzard Beach

Yes! You read correctly! This ticket even includes water parks. This ticket is the first of it’s kind. Normally to add on water parks you would have to purchase the Park Hopper Plus option for an additional $100/day. With this ticket you experience the water parks for less.

Enjoy Blizzard Beach the Disney World Summer One World Ticket — Blizzard Beach overlooking Kids Ski Patrol Training Camp

Important Details

Ticket can be purchased as of June 4, 2019
Use tickets any day until August 28, 2019
Allows one entry into each park but you can go to more than one in a day. (but not a park hopper ticket)

Do I save $ with this ticket?

The cost of this ticket will be $444 (not including tax) which is only $74/day.

When I priced the current cost of tickets (on 5/25/19) I found that on the cheapest day of the summer a 4 day (1 park/day) ticket would cost $400 (not including tax). Most days of the summer this same ticket would cost even more (up to $433 if you purchase tickets to go in June).

So, YES! Using this ticket you get to splash and play at the the water parks for hardly any extra cost. How AWESOME is that!!

What if I need a place to stay?

Purchasing the Summer One World ticket also gives you the option to immerse yourself in the Magic by staying in a Disney resort. You save up to 25% on select rooms at select Disney resorts.

If you would like to learn more or to purchase these awesome tickets just let me know! Email me at tamara@alaskatomickey.com or use the contact form in the link above.

Happy travels to you…until we meet again!

Quantity vs. Quality: A Vacation Travel Philosophy

Who’d have thought there would be a philosophy discussion on a vacation blog? What could philosophy possibly have to do with traveling? Well, let me enlighten you.

There are probably many philosophies people can have regarding going on vacation. The ones that I have considered throughout the years is between quantity and quality.

Quantity of Travel Philosophy

This philosophy of traveling is one that enables the traveler to go away as much as possible. People with this philosophy often travel on a budget in order to do so as much as possible. They stay in less expensive accommodations, eat mostly at inexpensive eateries, and don’t purchase many extra excursions, activities or events. Penny pinching on each vacation allows money to go more places more times.

Quality of Travel Philosophy

This philosophy is held by those who want grand, dream vacations. They will save and save for a vacation with all the bells and whistles. This type of traveler will not travel as often but when they do, they do it in style. First class accommodations are booked, excursions are planned, every activity they want to do is experienced.

The Alaska to Mickey Philosophy

In the past many, many years my philosophy has been plan budget vacations in order to travel every year (sometimes more). We have tent camped on many vacations, rarely eat at nice restaurants (packing food, cooking ourselves, and faster food options instead), stayed in timeshare resorts (although this certainly hasn’t been roughing it) instead of Disney Resorts, refrained from most extras (like cruise excursions, tours, and other activities). We bought and sold (in order to pay for the trip) an RV in order to tour the East Coast.

We have has so many wonderful family experiences with this philosophy. Our family has seen so many fantastic places without spending a ton. Only once in a while did we feel like we were missing out.

BUT…

The last couple of days I have been going through the Disney College of Knowledge learning how to book magical vacations for families. Specifically, I have learned more about Adventures by Disney and Aulani. If you are not familiar with Adventures by Disney, these are spectacular tour vacations all over the world. They are geared toward connecting families together and then together experiencing the history, culture, and countryside of their tour destinations. Every last detail is taken care of as only Disney can. And then there is Aulani, Disney’s Resort in Ko Olina, Hawaii on the island of Oahu. This beautiful resort on this gorgeous island seems to just be calling to me.

Now, both of these vacation destinations would require saving for a while. But, after learning all the benefits, possibilities, and really cool things about each I am thinking saving up might be worth not traveling as much.

What do you think?

What is your travel philosophy? How does your family travel? Do you prefer dream vacations, many budget vacations or are you somewhere in between? Let me know in the comments!

Happy travels to you…until we meet again!

Saving on Car Rentals through Costco

Up until a few years ago I always went through Hotwire or Priceline for car rentals. But now, both of these companies work with Sixt, and Fox car rental companies. I have not personally have had any experience with these companies but I have read enough stories of other bad experiences to make me leary. I realize that probably most of the time these companies are great but I am not willing to try them out.

On to the subject of today’s post:

Now, we rent almost exclusively through Costco. I feel very comfortable with the reputation of the companies that sell through Costco. And, I just LOVE all things Costco!

Car rentals are booked through Costco Travel. Anyone is able to research prices. But, to book you have to log in and have a Costco membership. The thing I really like about booking rentals through Costco is that I don’t have to pay anything to make a reservation. Another Costco benefit is that a second driver is included–no extra fees,

Evidence of Saving on Car Rentals at Costco vs. Budget directly

The chart below is the cost (at the time of posting) to rent a car from May 12-18, 2019 at Orlando International Airport.

Since Budget seems to be the least expensive, I wanted to compare Costco prices with the prices on the Budget website.

At first it looks like going directly through Budget.com is a much cheaper option. So, I proceeded to the next step. On the next page I discovered that the price initially quoted does not include taxes and fees. That inexpensive $150 economy car that I could pay at the counter for suddenly becomes $221. If I want to take the gamble of paying ahead the $118 sure looks good. But again, clicking through to the next page the price jumps to $182.

$182? That looks familiar. The Costco price for an economy car that I pay at the counter for is $182. And, when I click on to the next page, it is still $182 including taxes and fees. So, with Costco I reserve at the same low pay now price as the Budget.com website and I don’t have to pay until I actually use the car. SCORE!

Okay, now for my super HOT TIP! We have used Costco quite a few times over the last couple of years. I have learned to book a reservation early (or as soon as I book airline tickets). Then I keep checking back on the Costco website to see if the prices have dropped. Most of the times we have made reservations sure enough, the prices dropped. Then I make a new reservation and cancel the more expensive one. For example, on our recent trip to California. We reserved a 12-passenger van for 11 days for $890. I kept checking back and eventually the price dropped to $750. Yippee!

So, what tips to you have to get good deals on car rentals? Share your secrets in the comments below!

Happy travels to you…until we meet again!

Other posts to save money you might be interested in: