Hyatt House Across from Universal Orlando | 365 Magical Days of Travel

22 Mar 2019

Booking Hyatt Award Stays

Saving Money, Travel

176/365 Hyatt is my favorite hotel brand to book award rooms, just like Southwest is my favorite airline for booking award airfare. Rooms start at just 5,000 points for a category 1 hotel and top out at 40,000 points for the high end category 8 properties. (Let's face it—I have absolutely no interest in those hotels!) Exploring Hotel Charts Comparable…

20 Mar 2019

By Debra Baca

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Date Night in Downtown PHX

Travel

174/365 Earlier this month, Bryan and I headed downtown to meet up with friends and see Billy Joel in concert. We aren't getting any younger, and heading home after an 8:00pm concert didn't sound appealing, so we decided to get a room nearby for the night. Expiring Free Night Back in January, I had decided to change up our Universal…

28 Feb 2019

By Debra Baca

1 Comment

Universal Orlando DOs and DON’Ts

Feature Articles, Saving Money, Travel

154/365 Since this was our first trip to Universal Orlando, I feel like I learned a lot, both in things I did right, and things I'd do differently next time. DOs Go in the off-season for lower crowds, cheaper rooms, and better weather.Book early! Check your room and airline (Southwest) often to see if the price has dropped and you…

24 Feb 2019

By Debra Baca

3 Comments

Trip Report: Universal Orlando, (Part 2) Day 2

Travel

150/365 In yesterday's post, I wrote about the rocky start that our trip to Universal Orlando got off to. Today, we try to get back on track by going to the parks for the first time. You can also read about our budget and deals in this post. Late-ish Start In the morning, I figured that the kids would need…

23 Feb 2019

By Debra Baca

5 Comments

Trip Report: Universal Orlando, (Part 2) Day 1

Travel

149/365 I usually don't break my trip reports into more than two posts. Most times, Part 1 is all about the deal and the budget, and Part 2 is all about the itinerary. However, this trip is more complicated to write about than I anticipated, so I'm going to break the itinerary portion of my report into daily segments, starting…

22 Feb 2019

By Debra Baca

7 Comments

Trip Report: Universal Orlando (Part 1)

Saving Money, Travel

148/365 My kids LOVE Harry Potter. I read all of the books to them a few years ago. Now, the audio books are playing on our Echo device most days, and the movies are frequently chosen for family movie night. They both have wizard robes and wands, and know their Hogwarts House and Patronus. In 2017, we bought cheap annual…