{"id":805,"date":"2016-03-01T07:00:02","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T12:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/?p=805"},"modified":"2016-02-29T19:50:07","modified_gmt":"2016-03-01T00:50:07","slug":"updated-jacksonville-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/updated-jacksonville-special\/","title":{"rendered":"Updated Jacksonville Special"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/fp-2-signed-in.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-403\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"403\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/making-fastpass-reservations-with-disneys-website\/fp-2-signed-in\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/fp-2-signed-in.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1264,873\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"fp-2-signed-in\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/fp-2-signed-in-1024x707.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-403\" src=\"http:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/fp-2-signed-in-1024x707.jpg\" alt=\"fp-2-signed-in\" width=\"628\" height=\"434\" srcset=\"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/fp-2-signed-in-1024x707.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/fp-2-signed-in-300x207.jpg 300w, https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/fp-2-signed-in.jpg 1264w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 628px) 100vw, 628px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Before our summer trip to Universal and Walt Disney World, we started thinking about converting our Disney tickets to annual passes.\u00a0 In order to justify the cost, we needed to see if we could add some additional trips in throughout the year.\u00a0 One way we could keep the cost down for these additional trips was to look at alternate flying locations around Orlando that might be cheaper than flying to Orlando.\u00a0 Thus was born the <a href=\"http:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/jacksonville-special\/\">Jacksonville Special<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>We had identified two separate occasions where we could fly into Jacksonville instead of Orlando and save a significant amount of money.\u00a0 The math worked out as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Upgrade Tickets to Annual Passes: $800<\/li>\n<li>Flights: $1100<\/li>\n<li>Rental Car: $287 (might go lower)<\/li>\n<li>Hotel: $196<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Total Cost (Minus food and gas) = ~$2383<\/p>\n<p>So, how did the trips go?<\/p>\n<p>Trip 1<\/p>\n<p>Our flight ended up leaving Dulles three hours late, so what should have been an easy drive at 6 pm from Jacksonville to Orlando ended up taking place at 9 pm.\u00a0 That put us at our hotel at about midnight.\u00a0 Not horrible, but not the best.\u00a0 We took this trip over the Halloween weekend and managed to work in a visit to the Mickey&#8217;s Not So Scary Halloween party.\u00a0 We absolutely loved this trip.\u00a0 We got to see the Disney parks at Halloween, which we had never done, and we enjoyed the party as well. \u00a0 We also attended the Epcot Food and Wine Festival, eating ourselves stupid around the world.\u00a0 We will have another post related specifically to this trip.<\/p>\n<p>The costs for this trip ended up being pretty much what we anticipated:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Upgrade Tickets to Annual Passes: $800 (this was a one time expense that we paid in the summer)<\/li>\n<li>Flights: $540<\/li>\n<li>Rental Car: $117<\/li>\n<li>Hotel: $0 (We used <a href=\"http:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/hilton-loyalty-program\/\">Hilton HHonors points<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We did end up adding in tickets for the Mickey&#8217;s Not So Scary Halloween Party at $70 per person.\u00a0 We also spent a good amount of money for food at the parks, dining in some of our favorite places, and eating at Epcot.<\/p>\n<p>Trip 1.5<\/p>\n<p>After looking at our holiday plans, we decided to do something we had always kind of avoided.\u00a0 We were going to go to Disney World for the week between Christmas and New Year&#8217;s, which is one of the most crowded and expensive times to visit the parks.\u00a0 We really wanted to see the Christmas decorations at the parks.\u00a0 We fully understood that what we were getting ourselves into with the large crowds.\u00a0 We will have a separate post about this trip as well, but overall, it was fantastic.\u00a0 We took things at a slow pace and tried to concentrate on doing new things we hadn&#8217;t done before.<\/p>\n<p>The costs for this trip were really low.\u00a0 We couldn&#8217;t find cheap airline tickets near Christmas, so we decided just to drive our own car.\u00a0 Fuel costs have dropped through the floor, so we didn&#8217;t spend more than $200 to drive round trip.\u00a0 We probably did spend money eating on the road going down and coming back, but it was certainly cheaper than any meal we had while we were in the parks.\u00a0 We found a Hilton Garden Inn near Sea World that didn&#8217;t require a ton of Hilton points, so we were able to get the room for free!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Upgrade Tickets to Annual Passes: $0 (We upgraded them in the summer)<\/li>\n<li>Flights: $0<\/li>\n<li>Gas: $200<\/li>\n<li>Rental Car: $0<\/li>\n<li>Hotel: $0 (We used <a href=\"http:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/hilton-loyalty-program\/\">Hilton HHonors points<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We spent additional money in the parks eating at various places.<\/p>\n<p>Trip 2<\/p>\n<p>This was supposed to be our second trip during the early February time frame.\u00a0 While we were at Disney in the summer, I received a notification from United Airlines that our flight times had changed for this flight.\u00a0 It was going to arrive 6 hours later into Jacksonville than we had planned and then leave from Jacksonville three hours earlier.\u00a0 We were going to lose valuable park time due to an airline schedule change.\u00a0 I called United to see what we could work out.\u00a0 After spending 30 minutes on the phone with a representative (and their supervisor), I was able to get our flights back to their original time &#8212; but flying into Orlando, rather than Jacksonville!\u00a0 This change in itinerary would save us from needing to travel back and forth to Jacksonville.\u00a0 I was pretty excited about this.\u00a0 I did have to get a rental car at the Orlando airport, which was a bit more expensive.<\/p>\n<p>We had originally booked the hotel room and used Hilton points.\u00a0 We were short some of the points we needed for all the nights, so we spent $196 to get enough points to cover the 5 nights for this trip.\u00a0 It turns out we didn&#8217;t need the points because we earned more later, but since we spent the money, we will count it as an expense on this trip.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Upgrade Tickets to Annual Passes: $0 (We upgrade them in the summer)<\/li>\n<li>Flights: $540<\/li>\n<li>Rental Car: $207<\/li>\n<li>Hotel: $196 (We used <a href=\"http:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/hilton-loyalty-program\/\">Hilton HHonors points<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We used the same hotel we used during the Halloween trip, since it was very close to Disney World.\u00a0 There wasn&#8217;t anything new going on during this trip, but we got to visit all the parks and had a great time.<\/p>\n<p>Summary<\/p>\n<p>So, here is the total cost for the 17 days we spent in the parks, not including the 8 days or so we did during the summer:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Tickets: $800<\/li>\n<li>Flights: $1100<\/li>\n<li>Rental Car: $324<\/li>\n<li>Gas: $200<\/li>\n<li>Hotel: $196 (We spent this amount to buy some Hilton Points)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Total Cost (Minus food and rental car gas) = ~$2,620<\/p>\n<p>I think spending $154 ($2,620\/17 days) per day for the entire family in the parks, including transportation (flights\/rental cars), park tickets and hotels, is a great savings.\u00a0 We did spend more money in food costs and shopping while at the parks, so that wasn&#8217;t our total costs.\u00a0 Also, if these trips has been combined into a single trip, the costs could have been lower as well (we would have paid for a single set of tickets instead of two).<\/p>\n<p>Have you found a great way to save money while visiting Walt Disney World?\u00a0 Let us know!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before our summer trip to Universal and Walt Disney World, we started thinking about converting our Disney tickets to annual <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/updated-jacksonville-special\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,15,7,14,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disney-parks","category-flight-cost","category-hotel-cost","category-planning","category-travel-cost","no-post-thumbnail","no-read-more-tag","no-sticky","use-excerpt","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":135,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/jacksonville-special\/","url_meta":{"origin":805,"position":0},"title":"Jacksonville Special","author":"Joseph","date":"August 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the tricks I've described before is to look at alternate travel arrangements.\u00a0 When considering whether to upgrade our tickets this summer to annual passes, I looked for economical travel\/lodging arrangements for other possible trips.\u00a0 We had several school breaks to consider, including a Halloween-based trip (which includes some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Disney Parks&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Disney Parks","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/disney-parks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/disney-world-costs\/","url_meta":{"origin":805,"position":1},"title":"Disney World Costs","author":"Joseph","date":"April 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"When we plan a Disney World trip, we break the trip into 5 basic components. Transportation This is the cost to get you and your family to Disney World.\u00a0 Transportation costs vary based upon the way you choose to arrive in Orlando, the distance involved, and the level of luxury\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Food Cost&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Food Cost","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/food-cost\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IMG_4492-1024x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IMG_4492-1024x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IMG_4492-1024x1024.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":22,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/cheap-flight-options-disneyworld\/","url_meta":{"origin":805,"position":2},"title":"Cheap Flight Options (DisneyWorld)","author":"Joseph","date":"May 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Flying is a quick and easy way to get to see the mouse.\u00a0 Flying into Orlando airport is the most common approach. Most major hubs have daily flights into Orlando (MCO) and the prices tend to be competitive with so many choices. Since we live in the Washington DC area,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Flight Cost&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Flight Cost","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/travel-cost\/flight-cost\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4482,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/christmas-2017-trip-part-1-planning\/","url_meta":{"origin":805,"position":3},"title":"Christmas 2017 Trip &#8211; Part 1 Planning","author":"Joseph","date":"April 9, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Planning The end of the school year is dangerous for us, mainly because it has us thinking about vacations.\u00a0 Such was the case in May of 2016.\u00a0 We were still a month or so away from our great Hawaiian vacation and Disney Cruise Line had just announced the fall\/winter sailings\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Disney Cruise&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Disney Cruise","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/disney-cruise\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_4641-1024x683.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_4641-1024x683.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_4641-1024x683.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4596,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/last-minute-trip-planning\/","url_meta":{"origin":805,"position":4},"title":"Last Minute Trip &#8211; Part 1 Planning","author":"Joseph","date":"October 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Planning | Travel | Animal Kingdom | Epcot | Magic Kingdom | Hollywood Studios | Summary We usually take a family trip each summer.\u00a0 For various reasons this past summer, we hadn't planned anything and the days were beginning to wear on us.\u00a0 So, with less than 7 days notice,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Disney Parks&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Disney Parks","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/disney-parks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/map2.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/map2.gif?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/map2.gif?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4484,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/march-23-2018-spring-break-cruise-part-1-planning\/","url_meta":{"origin":805,"position":5},"title":"March 23, 2018 Spring Break Cruise, Part 1: Planning","author":"Joseph","date":"October 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 The Disney Cruise Line Spring 2018 itineraries were released near the end of October 2016.\u00a0 We started scanning them as soon as they came out because we knew our Spring break trip for that year would be a DCL cruise.\u00a0 We eventually decided to go back on the Magic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Disney Cruise&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Disney Cruise","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/disney-cruise\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_8145-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_8145-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_8145-1024x768.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peu3ZL-cZ","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":915,"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions\/915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}