Before our summer trip to Universal and Walt Disney World, we started thinking about converting our Disney tickets to annual passes. In order to justify the cost, we needed to see if we could add some additional trips in throughout the year. 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. Thus was born the Jacksonville Special.
Once we started to collect miles and points for free travel, we needed a way to keep track of them. After looking into several websites, we finally settled on AwardWallet.com. AwardWallet is a web site that allows you to track your accumulated points and miles across lots of different award programs. This is a huge time saver since you don’t have to log into all these different websites to see your points totals, you can access them in one place.
You’ve made your travel plans, picked the perfect days to visit the parks, and gotten your tickets. You’ve even planned out your outfits for the park. What’s left to do? Dining, of course! One of the fantastic benefits of choosing a Disney vacation is the multitude of dining options they offer in the parks and resorts. Disney World accepts advanced dining reservations for most of the table service dining locations up to 180 days in advance. The most popular ones may book up before the day of your visit. So, how can you get a reservation to make sure you have the best dining experience possible?
One of our favorite ways to get to Walt Disney World is Amtrak’s Auto Train. The Auto Train runs between Lorton, VA (outside of Washington, DC and close to our home) and Sanford, FL (very close to Orlando). The train accommodates passengers and their vehicles to make the trip up or down the I-95 corridor. So, not only do you get to and from Disney World without having to drive, but your car goes along on the ride as well. This allows you to load up luggage in your vehicle, keeping only what you need for the overnight trip with you. One train runs in each direction (one northbound, one southbound) each day.
