World of Hyatt Explorist | 365 Magical Days of Travel

10 Aug 2019

Trip Report: Six Flags Part 2

Saving Money, Travel

317/365 As one last hurrah before school started, I decided to take the kids to Six Flags Magic Mountain for a few days of amusement park fun. Yesterday, I laid out the budget, and today I will include our itinerary, detailing each day. Day 1 Getting an Early-ish Start While we didn't get as early a start as I had…

09 Aug 2019

By Debra Baca

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Trip Report: Six Flags Part 1

Saving Money, Travel

316/365 I wanted to squeeze one more trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain in before school started, so we headed over to Valencia at the end of July to celebrate the end of summer! Today I'll share our budget and savings, and tomorrow I'll share our itinerary and what we did each day. Let's go! Entertainment As I shared in…

08 Apr 2019

By Debra Baca

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Trip Report: Spring Break 2019, Part 3

Feature Articles, Travel

193/365 Yesterday, I shared about using our Season Passes at Six Flags for Spring Break. Without the kids knowing, I planned a stop at Knott's Berry Farm that extended our trip another day. You can read Part 1 about our budget here, and Part 2 about the first half of our trip here. Thursday Keeping a Secret I have a…

06 Apr 2019

By Debra Baca

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Trip Report: Spring Break 2019, Part 1

Feature Articles, Saving Money, Travel

191/365 For Spring Break this year, we headed West to put our Six Flags annual passes to good use. In this part, I'll go over the budget, while the next part will include our itinerary and other fun stuff! If you click here, you can follow along on my trip budget spreadsheet as I go through each category. Entertainment I…

22 Mar 2019

By Debra Baca

8 Comments

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…

23 Jan 2019

By Debra Baca

2 Comments

Trip Report: San Francisco & the Bay Area, Part 1

Disney, Travel

118/365 Over the summer, we had a family party to attend in the East Bay, so we decided to tack on a trip into the city of San Francisco. We had done a similar trip a few years ago, but it was a bit of a stressful flop. All of us wanted a redo. Transportation It's a good 13 hour…

28 Oct 2018

By Debra Baca

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Trip Report: 2018 Staycation

Feature Articles, Saving Money, Travel

Day 31/365 2018-2019 Since Phoenix is a resort town, we have lots of choices when we want a "staycation," especially in the summer when their occupancies drop and they lower their rates. A friend had recommended the Hyatt Regency at Gainey Ranch because she knew we could book on points and get a Club Lounge upgrade with our Hyatt Explorist…