Perks of Traveling With A Disney Rewards Visa--Two Character Meet and Greets at the Walt Disney World Resort!

With Disney Rewards Visa in hand, we took advantage of two character meet and greet locations at the Walt Disney World Resort.  One of the benefits of having a Disney Rewards Visa is access to character meet and greet locations exclusive to guests with a Disney Rewards Visa card.

EPCOT is the home of one of the Disney Rewards Visa private card member character meet and greets.  Located in Innoventions West, we easily found the location and enjoyed the short wait—1-2 families ahead of us.  We took advantage of this meet and greet twice during our vacation.  Card members are allowed one visit per day.  The hours are 1:00-7:00 pm daily.  Photos are taken and guests are given a card for free downloads of those photos.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios is the park with the Star Wars meet and greet location offered 11:00 am to 4:00 pm daily in the Star Wars Launch Bay.  Ask a Cast Member at the entrance for the best way to find this meet and greet location. 

We found the waits a bit longer at this location, but nothing extraordinary.  Again, photos were taken which could be downloaded for free.

Since we had Memory Maker, the photos taken at these locations were automatically linked to our Memory Maker so we did not need the card with the free download information.

Disney Rewards Visa does not guarantee certain characters and the characters can change at any time. 

Card Members just need to show their Disney Rewards Visa to the Cast Member handling the queue.  The name is written down, but no other information is gathered.

We felt the advantage of shorter wait times and plan to utilize this Card Member vacation perk again!

Click here to read about Disney Reward Visa meet and greet at Disneyland.

Are There Coupons For Disneyland?

“Are there coupons for Disneyland?” was the question that came after inquiring about our summer vacation plans.  An innocent question given my penchant for saving money.  The short answer:  “No.”  The longer answer—there are many ways we have already saved money on our vacation.

AAA--Being a member allowed us to get a great price for our Disneyland package along with perks.  We also earned AAA Explore More Rewards for using AAA’s service to book our trip.

AAA also allows for additional savings while at Legoland, similar to the 10% savings on food and merchandise at Universal Resorts.

Speaking of Legoland, we got a great price—and great savings-- on the resort hotel by purchasing our stay in advance.  Because we are staying at the Legoland Resort, we get early access to the parks and free breakfast at Bricks, the buffet restaurant at the resort.  And, by purchasing our Legoland Park tickets on-line we were able to snag a buy one day get one day free deal.  We are also have a Lego VIP card which will allow for us to earn points on any Lego purchases and then redeem those points for free merchandise.

Food can be a big expense during a vacation.  We are saving money buy purchasing character dining vouchers as a part of our vacation package (and earning rewards).  These vouchers include tip and gratuity which is big savings.  Our Disney Rewards Visa also allows us to have 10% savings at select Disneyland dining locations.  We also used our Target Red Debit Card to purchase Disney Gift Cards.  A $50 Disney Gift Card costs $47.50 when I use our Target Red Card.  We’ve been stocking up on Disney Gift Cards since January—2 per month—and will be using those to pay for out of pocket meals.  We’ll also have $25 towards a meal at Rainforest Café due to Landry’s Select Club annual gift to members.

Because I pre-ordered Disney Photopass +  product, I saved $30 over purchasing the product once we arrived at the Disneyland Resort.  Click here to read more.

By making purchases ahead of time, I also saved money on trading pins--click here to read more, and Lego minifugres for trading--click here to read more.

 

The Disney Rewards Visa also allows us to earn reward points that can be spent on Disney products or services.  We also got a 20% discount on the Walt in Walt’s Footsteps Tour that we booked for our Disneyland vacation. 

While we used the Visa to pay off our trip and if we hadn’t then paid the balance in full, zero percent interest for 6 months would have been ours for using the Visa to pay for a Disney vacation.  But we earned reward points for the entire amount!  So, yes, we booked the vacation through AAA and earned Explore More Rewards, then paid using our Disney Rewards Visa and earned rewards!  Loyalty does pay!

A Disney vacation can be an investment in both time and money.  We’ve found the investment to be worth it.  And, we have found that savings can be had!