I get that the facilities are limited time and expensive, but at least write a thank you note!! We tend to receive thank you notes about a third of the time.
I had to come here and share my exciting news!!!!
I just booked the Waldorf Astoria Maldives for dd's spring break next April. Without churning this would never be possible.
I had to purchase 112,000 points, but Hilton has the point match right now so I purchased 56,000 for $560.00 and got 112,000 points. I used my CIP since the purchase is through points dot com, which apparently codes as travel on the CIP (let's hope). Oh yeah, the MSR for CIP #2 is now complete!
Now for the super exciting part!! The room would've cost us $2,884.00 per night. Yup, that's right, per night. Can I just say no way would I ever pay that price to go to the Maldives (for a few reasons, not the least of which is I am not a sun person -- to me pale is the new tan {I spent too much time in the sun in my younger days}, but dd really wanted to go).
The base room (which is what I booked) is a king beach villa that is 2,518 square feet with its' own pool (on the beach).
Now I need some expertise from the folks here.
How do I get a free night with my awards certificate for the 6th night I'll need? I'm afraid if I wait until my December renewal there won't be a reward night available (if I recall there has to be a reward night available to book a night with the certificate). I suppose if we had to we could spend a night in Male if the night isn't available ('cuz I'm not paying $2,884 for an extra night, that's for sure!). I wish I could use my reward certificate for this year, but I do believe it expires. First world problems.
@calypso726 any recommendations?
My father hates those things but got an offer worth almost $700 last time the fam went to HI. Mom said he told the presenter Marriott had promised to be done in X amount of time and set his phone timer in front of the first sales person and said something like when that was done he was done
(Despite being passed to a few different people they said Marriott stayed fairly close to their promised time limit.)
The ironic thing about this particular party is that it IS a house party and is 4.5 hours longI agree! I started seeing it more when kids had their parties outside the house, like BounceU or Chuck E Cheese type places, so you didn't waste paid time and possible lose a gift in the clean up. But it's totally weird going back to the house and the kid is opening a million gifts by themselves with Mom (or whoever) keeping a list of who sent what for thank you cards. I see it at house parties too now sometimes, where there's a table of gifts and everyone leaves with their goody bags and the gifts are all still wrapped up on the table. I remember that used to be part of the fun, watching the guest of honor opening everyone's gifts and looking at what new stuff we all could play with later!
so there would be plenty of time to open and then play with the gifts.
Oh HECK no! No one could guilt me into funding their 6 year old's savings account, that's the purview of grandparents and such! (Like a 6 year old who is having a birthday party hosted needs cash?
) Also- kinda feel like that is gonna be the main topic of adult conversation at that bday whenever the kid's parents aren't within earshot lol!
Now I get it- you just got the wrong invite! They sell a little something on the side and this is how they keep it under the radar
That I find ok. I actually like it when a cash fund is available on a bridal registry for some future dream. It feels like investing in a good cause to me.
I think 5 year old me would have started a riot if every gift was filled with boring cash!
Would be interested in a reportThink we've solidified trip details now.
Flight down: DEN-MCO for 9k RRs + CP
Night 1: Pop via Hotels.com $211 - GC stash = $30ish OOP (plus portals, plus free night credit, etc gets me ~$30 back)
Still considering: I think I found Coronado Springs on Priceline for $166 total (cover with Arrival Plus?)
Nights 2-3: Dolphin, $500 room + $89 annual fee from upgrade - $380 AMEX credits = $209 net
Nights 4-6 options: Pop, $566 rack rate (will cover with Arrival Plus)
Flight home: Early morning flight United through UR portal 26k URs total - the price went up a bit and I realized that was basic economy so I booked regular economy so DH doesn't get anxious about not having seats together
I need to call and add DME for each way still. And I'll probably keep looking at Priceline to see if anything interesting comes up, and also checking to see if a discount comes up from Disney for the nights at Pop. If we end up staying booked through Disney I want to put X amount on DHs Arrival Plus to use up the remaining credit, then the rest on mine.
We also ended up buying tickets for the Orlando Informer Meetup at UniversalIt went towards my Brilliant upgrade MSR? I'm excited now (I balked at the price, I won't lie) because I've heard good things and I think it would be interesting to consider instead of normal park tickets for Universal in the future... It was $372 for both of us with tax, it gets you into the parks at 5pm and runs until 1:30am, and they close to the public at 7pm or 9pm depending on the park. I know one day Uni tickets are killer, but as a comparison 1 day Park to Park tickets for the same day would run us $405 with tax, for park hours being 9am to 7pm (Islands) or 9pm (Studios). Unlimited food and beverage after regular park close, and they are giving everyone a QS dining plan card to use before the parks close, which is a QS meal & beverage, a snack, and an additional beverage.
So $405 for 1 day P2P tickets, 10/12hrs in the parks, no food/EPs/etc... or $372 for 8.5hrs in the park, special event with supposedly extremely low lines, includes unlimited food/drink (including snacks like Butterbeer and the ice cream parlor in WWoHP), and 2 QS dining plans which would cost $51 if purchased separately... I can report back on this if anyone is interested. Depending on what we think I could see considering a future event for a trip with the ILs vs doing 1-2 day tickets and an EP hotel.
Thanks for the listing of "hidden details." I just got one of these offers & I knew it sounded scammy in some way.I think I received that one within the past year, and that price of $798 sounds close to the same as the one I got for the Westin (although I also got one for the Sheraton so I might be getting those confused). I think one was $599 and one was $799.
There are hidden details in these timeshare offers that are not immediately apparent. I'll list them IME:
I did one about 5 years ago to the Big Island at the Hilton Waikoloa (5 nights/6 days $599 with car rental). I thought it was a good deal, especially since I snagged airfare on points. I had to pull DD out of school to get those flights (since you homeschool that's not an issue!
- You pay the nonrefundable $798 upfront and they try to get you to commit to travel dates then.
- You can change travel dates afterwards, but there may be a penalty fee for doing so.
- You may not be able to get the travel dates you want (probably depends on popularity of the season you want to visit).
- It's possible you aren't staying in the condo section of the property; you may be in the hotel section (subject to occupancy limits - I mention since you have a >4 family size) but they'll show you the really nice condo section for the timeshare presentation [I'm sure this is on purpose so that you feel like who wants to stay in the hotel section like a peasant when you can buy into this timeshare and stay in this awesome space.]
ETA: You have 3 days to rescind a timeshare purchase. I really should stay away from these timeshare presentations, because I have rescinded several purchases over the years (I don't like being a peasant! but then reality sets in).
We have a stay coming up with a $2.3K/night cash rate. I find that hilarious. As the thread says, "I love credit cards so much!"I had to come here and share my exciting news!!!!
I just booked the Waldorf Astoria Maldives for dd's spring break next April
I had to purchase 112,000 points, but Hilton has the point match right now so I purchased 56,000 for $560.00 and got 112,000 points. I used my CIP since the purchase is through points dot com, which apparently codes as travel on the CIP (let's hope). Oh yeah, the MSR for CIP #2 is now complete!
Now for the super exciting part!! The room would've cost us $2,884.00 per night. Yup, that's right, per night. Can I just say no way would I ever pay that price to go to the Maldives (for a few reasons, not the least of which is I am not a sun person -- to me pale is the new tan {I spent too much time in the sun in my younger days}, but dd really wanted to go).
The base room (which is what I booked) is a king beach villa that is 2,518 square feet with its' own pool (on the beach).
Now I need some expertise from the folks here.
How do I get a free night with my awards certificate for the 6th night I'll need? I'm afraid if I wait until my December renewal there won't be a reward night available (if I recall there has to be a reward night available to book a night with the certificate). I suppose if we had to we could spend a night in Male if the night isn't available ('cuz I'm not paying $2,884 for an extra night, that's for sure!). I wish I could use my reward certificate for this year, but I do believe it expires
@calypso726 any recommendations?
For real. That would have been on par with not getting an icing rose, intact, on my piece of cake. (Are icing roses still a thing?) Completely unacceptable. As is asking for cash! Wow!
Totally my mom and BIL. When we were kids, my mom (with my sister and I in the car) dropped Dad off at O’Hare and got lost getting home. To this day I have no idea what road we were on but it was a toll road...and we are 15 miles from there and don’t usually take an expressway let alone a tollway. My BIL can get lost going around the block. Even with GPS. When he was dating my sister he drove west from Chicago to the burbs to get to my sister’s house. The only way he could get anywhere was to retrace his route. So if my sister sent him out for food that was someplace west, he had to go back east, to find where he turned off and start from there.
Yes. Don’t forget to check resort fees though. They would be covered as well. We stayed at Swan recently and charged dinner at Fountain, snacks from Fuel plus the resort fees to our room, all credited. Also bought coffee from Java Bar which I didn’t charge to room but credited anyway. At Springhill Suites, junk food from their little “store”also credited.
Our flights are still showing and looking okay. I’m crossing my fingers that it stays that way
