I love credit cards so much! v2.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[Alexle2007]

Thanks for telling me about Magens Bay. That was actually one of the excursions on my list. I added a note that it might not be one we want to do. When you do an excursion through Disney do you usually get picked up right from where you get off the ship? A lot of them have "open air safaris" and I'm wondering if we need our own transportation to get there.

We went over to St. John’s through a Disney excursion. It was awesome! I have been to St. Thomas for work and the downtown is really just a bunch of shops. I don’t know if the Marriott Frenchman’s Reef does day passes but it is nice. (That’s where I stayed.)

 

[PolyRob]

If/When people see Chase support links go pending for the week, please report that here. I'm personally looking for one that seems a week late but I hate to keep checking myself over and over again and not knowing if they've already posted, lol! That could happen this evening BUT we've also seen it happen on Thursdays a couple of times recently too.

CIP support bonus just posted!

My 15,000 UR CSP referral is also pending!

My statement closes next month, but I think I am safe to PC the card to a CF now. I am actually waiting on a Staples offer to post to the CSP. Think I should wait to PC it until the 10% offer posts?

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

My 16th bday was Thanksgiving so I couldn’t get my permit on time and then due to the delay my license day (6 months later) fell on Memorial Day and I had to wait for my license. I was not amused haha

My first car was a bright orange Jeep.

Also I did concert and jazz band (clarinet for concert and saxophone for jazz) but all band members were included in marching band for one large trip- we performed in Ireland, Wales, and London. Pretty cool. My husband played trombone in the marching band all four years. I played hockey in the fall which is why I never actually did the marching band real season.

The first car I actually drove was a bright orange VW Rabbit (1974?). My sister got into an accident while driving it while I was away at college, and our youngest sister was so upset she actually peeled off my college's sticker from the back window She was only 9 at the time, so maybe she thought we couldn't buy another one.

Our hs marching band never went to any cool places

 

[Haley R]

On St. Thomas we did a day trip on the “Silent Lady”, I’m not sure the official name of the excursion. You go snorkel and see turtles, then over to a lunch in a bay on the beach. We all loved it. We’ve also hired a taxi and gone over to Magen’s Bay and another trip did the ferry over to St John. All great.
Tortola got hit hard by Irma. I’d recommend a day trip. We did the Baths which is a cool and popular thing to do. There might be a trip to Jost Van Dyke to White Bay(not sure if that’s correct) where the Soggy Dollar Bar is.
Since this is your first trip, I’d stick with the Disney excursions to take the newbie factor out of things.

Thanks! I do think we’ll just book through Disney. Nothing I looked at looked ridiculous in terms of price. Nothing was over like $120/person and I don’t think that’s bad for 3-6 hours of stuff

 

[Haley R]

My recommendation is only book one of the Castaway packages. We like to share a mat instead of a tube to hang on. You can do the bike rental separately and the snorkel separately. You could even bring your own snorkel stuff,especially since you don’t have to fly.

I was looking at the getaway package which is $46/person for tubes, snorkeling, and biking. Do you think that’s too much? I didn’t even think to bring our own snorkel stuff

 

[bernina]

Today was a good bank bonus day! My $300 bonus from BoA (real direct deposit unfortunately) posted and I got $150 from SoFi for opening an Investment account and supporting P2 to open one was well. That makes $300 in bonus/support from SoFi between the two of us with no DD required and no fees. And they offer 2% APY which isn’t bad these days.

 

[nickle831]

Starting to plan for May 2020 6 night stay. Anyone have an opinion on best credit card sign up bonuses for hotels in Disney World area?

I guess I am thinking Hilton, Marriot, or the Holiday Inn chains are my target. Looking for opinions on low point possibilities near the parks. Not picky about brands or anything. Just looking for best deals for 4 people in a room.

Can you list out what Credit Cards you have and their age, so the recommendations can be better tailored to your amount of credit. If you go to the first page of the thread it will explain how to list your cards out.

 

[orangecuse]

My DS turns 16 on October 1 and he won’t be finished getting his driving hours with an instructor so he’s not happy he won’t be getting his license on his birthday! My first car was the cutest red convertible Cabriolet. I loved it so much. I was really hoping to pass down my minivan to my DS, but my DH decided we need a truck and I would rather keep driving the mini van so now DS gets to drive the truck.

If you look at page 1 and the first post you’ll find a list of questions. If you can answer those (more specifically your CC stats) then we can give the best advice!

VERY generally speaking-
Hilton points are relatively easy to obtain because they have a large suite of cards with Amex (a buisness card and three personal cards). You can also typically get the personal card bonus multiple times through various methods. Hilton cards also come with nice perks like elite status and various credits (perks increase with higher annual fee). They also do 5th night free on rewards bookings. Hilton has 2 nice hotels in the DS area that come with the FP+ benefit. They also have a swath of other Orlando area hotels that are lower point values and have larger suite like rooms.

Marriott seems to be shooting themselves in the foot with making their reward program more difficult and they’ve started institing rulws so you can only obtain one of their cards vs Hiltons 4+. I don’t fully understand the logistics because I don’t have my PhD in Bonvoy but Dr. Bonbon himself @Lain has a nice post somewhere with all that info. Marriot is the Swan/Dolphin hotel brand if that appeals to you though.

Literally no clue on Holiday Inn.


HOWEVER- based on your card stats and preference you may be better off with a general rewards program like Chase URs that can be used at a variety of chains and for flights and misc, instead of a hotel branded card. Certain cards also offer extra redemption value when booking through the Chase portal. This is probably your best bet if you are flexible on hotel and don’t care about elite status with a chain. I don’t think you can book Swan/Dolphin this way and I know the Disney hotels are not in the Chase portal. However, you can claim Chase URs as a statement credit on your CC to go toward a Disney package or whatever charge you wanted if you wanted to go onsite.
@SouthFayetteFan can also add you to the reddit group for more info!

 

[PolyRob]

Anyone get automatically upgraded to a Target MC? I got the letter that they were changing my card and I figured no big deal. I’ve had my Redcard forever and my dh was an AUer from when I opened the card. But this morning he got a Credit Karma email that he’d been added as an AUer to a Target account Kinda freaking out that this just ate up a 5/24 spot!!!

Oh wow! I haven’t seen anything yet and I’ve had a Red card for about 6/7 years.

Did you have just a Target Red card or a Red card Visa? I wonder if they’re changing the Visas to MCs?

I would hope it doesn’t take a 5/24 slot because the account changed. You didn’t open a new one. I assume it will retain the old date on your credit report. It reminds me of the Costco Amex going to Citi.

 

[ten6mom]

Yay for so many band people!!! Band was MY LIFE in high school so I am very happy to see other band folks here!

Anyone do college marching band? If so, where? I was at Arizona State for 5 seasons.

My first car was a hand me down 76 Camaro.

 

[Lain]

Literally no clue on Holiday Inn.

Holiday Inn is part of IHG, which has a card with Chase and they’re offering a best ever SUB of 125,000 IHG points + $50 statement credit on the Chase IHG Premier card, now with an expiration date of 10/31/19.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/i...t-page-for-addl-details.3729982/post-61068805

 

[cdurham1]

Can you list out what Credit Cards you have and their age, so the recommendations can be better tailored to your amount of credit. If you go to the first page of the thread it will explain how to list your cards out.

Wells Fargo Propel AMEX - oct 2018
Target - aug 2018
Comenity Bank Caesar's Rewards - aug 2015
Chase Disney - july 2014
Wells Fargo Visa - sept 2012
AMEX Hilton Honors - 2007 - I get little pop up notices to upgrade this and get some points.

Do I need to list closed ones?

 

[Psychodisney]

I was looking at the getaway package which is $46/person for tubes, snorkeling, and biking. Do you think that’s too much? I didn’t even think to bring our own snorkel stuff

Only you can decide if it’s too much for you. We all got packages one year. We decided we liked the mats vs the tubes and could share those. We prefer our own snorkel gear (before airlines started charging for bags). The only thing we needed for each of us was the bikes.
Definitely check out Serenity Bay but if you’re young at heart, which I think you are, you might enjoy being at the family beaches enjoying the slides! The water at serenity bay gets pretty shallow depending on the tides. We like the deeper water and some fun!

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Wells Fargo Propel AMEX - oct 2018
Target - aug 2018
Comenity Bank Caesar's Rewards - aug 2015
Chase Disney - july 2014
Wells Fargo Visa - sept 2012
AMEX Hilton Honors - 2007 - I get little pop up notices to upgrade this and get some points.

Do I need to list closed ones?

Only if they have been opened in the past 2 years then closed

 

[Limes96]

I played flute and then piccolo in marching band, and my first car was a 1984 Ford Escort. Biggest waste of $1600 ever!

 

[cdurham1]

Only if they have been opened in the past 2 years then closed

Ok, none that are closed now were opened in the last 24 months.

 

[Haley R]

Trunk Bay was beautiful. The town right near the ferry was cute too. Wish we'd stayed a few nights. Hiking is supposed to be good too since most of the island is part of the National Park.

I do see an excursion for Trunk Bay so I'll look into that one. Quite a few of the excursions are sold out already.

 

[Haley R]

@SouthFayetteFan flute

I'm guessing it's no surprise I was in percussion? I played snare all 4 years in marching band.

 

[Haley R]

OMG I fell down the rabbit hole of the Excursionist perk and I can’t stop thinking about it. Now to see how United does out of MIA or FLL.


I have a reservation first weekend in Dec. for a Pirate room at CBR but now my kids have a concert the Saturday night and I would have to leave 2 of them. I’m thinking of just going to MVMCP on Friday and heading home Saturday. What is this about internal buses? It might end up being just me and my 7 year old and not sure I want to do bus transfers after midnight and the party. I’ve never been to one of the parties.

Two of my kids are in concert band, does that count? One plays the trumpet, the other the violin. Neither are virtuosos (or particularly talented ) but their Music program is great and I’m so appreciative it doesn’t cost me anything above school tuition.

I didn't check to see if someone already answered, but an internal bus is when there's more than one bus stop at your resort. So at Pop there's one giant bus stop at the front of the resort. At CBR, there are multiple stops around the resort. If you get a room near the end of that loop you might have a long wait to get off the bus (and vice versa waiting to get on the bus)

ETA: I was wrong, don't listen to me lol.

 

[Haley R]

All this talk of teens driving has me wondering what everyone’s first car was???

Mine was ‘91 Chrysler Lebaron convertible. I’m also 5 feet tall and love to do unauthorized investigative work, so I’m basically Veronica Mars.

Mine was a 1999 Oldsmobile Cutlass