Earlier this month, my family was able to take a quick trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando. Understanding that the magic of Disney may fade as my six-year-old and two-year-old grow older, my aim is to turn our Disney visit into an annual tradition. The last time we visited was in 2022.
With that said, the cost of a trip to Walt Disney World isn’t cheap, so planning an itinerary for three days works best for us. We also utilize reward points to take advantage of free flights and hotels. At the end of this post, I am going to outline how we saved over $2,000 by utilizing JetBlue, Delta, and Hyatt reward points.
Challenges Upon Arriving
Our JetBlue flight departed from Boston on Thursday at 6 p.m., after school and work hours. I was able to use JetBlue TrueBlue points for three tickets and JetBlue credits from a canceled flight for the fourth ticket. The flight arrived in Orlando at around 9 p.m.; however, we did experience some complications upon landing. First, JetBlue notified me mid-flight that a piece of our luggage didn’t make it onto the flight, and it would be sent to Orlando on a flight later that evening. Fortunately, it wasn’t luggage; otherwise, someone in our family would have been left without fresh clothes the next morning for our early departure to the Magic Kingdom. The missing piece of “luggage” turned out to be the booster car seat for our six-year-old. JetBlue customer service, located near the luggage carousel, provided us with a brand-new booster seat and arranged for our original booster seat to be couriered to the hotel the following day. Great service recovery! The second obstacle involved the rental car. I had reserved an SUV with Dollar Rental. However, when I arrived at the counter, the manager informed me that they had run out of cars, were closing, and instructed me to take a shuttle to another terminal to pick up my vehicle. This would have been a major inconvenience because we were traveling with young children, and it was well past their bedtime. We attempted to find the shuttle but couldn’t locate it, so I returned to the Dollar Rental counter to ask for directions. However, I noticed that more people had joined the line in the time I had been away. When I questioned the manager, he let me into the line. WTF? After experiencing these delays with luggage and the car rental, we checked into the Hyatt House Orlando Airport much later than anticipated. What made this situation frustrating was knowing that the following day would be the only rain-free forecast of our three-day stay. This meant having to wake up early for a long day at the Magic Kingdom with minimal sleep.
We used 9,000 Hyatt points for this stay. It is a new hotel that is modern and clean. Our suite included a bedroom, kitchen, and living room. Great size for a family of four. The hotel also offered a complimentary breakfast buffet. I packed a box of Three Wishes cereal in my luggage, anticipating that the breakfast buffet would not be suitable for my celiac disease. The cereal and some fruit gave me good energy to start the day. Everyone else in my family enjoyed the complimentary breakfast. And with that, we headed to The Magic Kingdom!
DAY 1: The Magic Kingdom
In a perfect world, we would have waited until day 2 to visit the Magic Kingdom, considering our late arrival in Orlando. However, the forecast for day 2 and day 3 predicted complete rainouts. Therefore, we decided to push through and visit the Magic Kingdom on day 1. I booked our tickets the night before for $184 per person plus tax, as well as Lightning Lane access for an additional $27 per person plus tax. It’s not cheap, but the good news is that we only had to pay for three tickets since Isla, who is two years old, was free. In case you’re wondering, Lightning Lane is 1000% worth the investment. In the end, we couldn’t have asked for a better day at the Magic Kingdom. We arrived around 10 a.m., the weather was perfect, and the girls had so much fun! Click here to read more about our trip to the Magic Kingdom and my 9 tips to get the most out of your visit.
Eating Gluten-Free Inside The Magic Kingdom
The Magic Kingdom allows guests to bring food into the park, so we packed a variety of snacks to save money. This is especially beneficial for those of us with a gluten allergy. Grazing on our own snacks and purchasing some Mickey bars and other snacks in the park held us over until our 5:30 p.m. dinner reservation at Be Our Guest Restaurant.
Be Our Guest offers a 3-course meal where you select an appetizer, entrée, and dessert. It is pricey at $70 per adult and $41 per child (Isla was free). The appetizer and dessert were subpar, but the filet mignon was very tender and flavorful! Quite frankly, I was surprised at how good it was, considering that they seem to be mass-produced. It is worth mentioning that, despite explaining my celiac condition, I experienced stomach pains for about 45 minutes after eating here. It doesn’t necessarily mean I was glutened, but something didn’t sit right. This meal aside, my experience with Disney has been very positive regarding their gluten-free safety protocols, which I will discuss later in the post.
Be Our Guest is located in Beast’s castle, and the Beast himself makes several appearances. The three dining areas include:
The Rose Gallery is the third dining room, lined with artwork “personally selected by Belle”, telling the story of their romance. This is where we were seated, and it was our favorite of the three dining areas.
The Grand Ballroom is the main dining room and replicates the grand ballroom featured in the movie.
The West Wing. We walked in here to check it out. It was cool to see the “enchanted rose”, but we were glad that we weren’t seated there because there are regularly occurring thunder effects that were too loud for Emerson.
So, is it worth it? That’s debatable. I’m glad we went, but I’m not sure I need to do it again. At Be Our Guest, you are paying for the food and the experience.
Here Comes the Rain
After leaving the Magic Kingdom on Friday night, we headed to the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort, where we stayed for the remaining three nights of the trip. We selected this Hyatt because of its close proximity to Walt Disney World and the pool area, which unfortunately we were unable to enjoy due to two days of rain. We were able to book one night with a Hyatt anniversary night and two nights using points (18,000 points per night). We love utilizing points at hotels that impose resort fees, like this property, because the points also cover those fees. The rooms at this hotel are quite standard. The Hyatt House at the airport felt newer and more updated. However, it’s the grounds, and, more specifically, the pool, that sets this property apart. If the weather looks nice when you’re in Orlando, this property is a great choice to book. If it doesn’t look like pool weather, I wouldn’t recommended booking this hotel unless you’re getting a great deal.
Our original plans for the next two days were to enjoy a pool day and visit SeaWorld (thanks to some free passes that my sister gave us). However, for the next two days, the rain was nonstop. Not really knowing what to do, we read a blog that mentioned you could view live animals at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. We headed over to the property, and the lobby was bustling with children’s activities. Emerson and Isla danced, played with hula hoops, colored, watched TV, and got to see some animals during rare breaks in the rain. The hotel was also promoting a children’s activity where they could “earn” pendants for a yarn necklace by attending a series of 15-minute educational sessions about African culture. Emerson was really enthusiastic about collecting all the pendants. So, for a few hours over the next two days, we hung out at the Animal Kingdom Lodge as if we were guests while Emerson learned about African culture and collected all the pendants! It was a fun (and free) activity that kept her occupied and entertained while it rained.
Gluten-Free Dining at Walt Disney World
As I mentioned earlier, my overall experience dining at Walt Disney World as a person with celiac disease has been positive. Since I already covered Day 1, I will detail the remainder of my dining experiences below.
Day 2: Gluten-Free Dining
We dined at 'Ohana for breakfast, which is located in Disney’s Polynesian Resort. Reservations are required to access their parking lot, and they are quite difficult to obtain. However, I managed to secure them a few days before our visit, all thanks to MouseWatcher, which I detail more in this post.
‘Ohana is a Hawaiian-themed restaurant with strict safety protocols for individuals with celiac disease or those following a gluten-free diet. Our waitress mentioned that there is a dedicated allergen chef who would be preparing my gluten-free meal. ‘Ohana’s menu consists of unlimited servings of coffee and juice, along with a cast iron pan filled with scrambled eggs, pork sausage, Hawaiian-style ham with pineapple compote, fried breakfast potatoes, gluten-free cinnamon doughnuts, and gluten-free Mickey-shaped waffles. This is also a character dining experience featuring Mickey, Pluto, Lilo, and my daughter’s favorite character, Stitch! The cost is $49 per adult and $30 per child (ages 3-9). Considering the safety, quality, and quantity of food, as well as interactions with the characters, the price is well worth it in my opinion. After breakfast, we headed downstairs to the Pineapple Lanai to grab some DOLE Whip®, which is pineapple or vanilla soft-serve ice cream (gluten free).
For dinner, we dined at Frontera Cocina in Disney Springs. Reservations were hard to come by on the My Disney Experience app, but I was able to secure them through OpenTable. Frontera Cocina serves delicious contemporary Mexican cuisine by Chef Rick Bayless, a 7-time James Beard Foundation Award winner! Almost the entire menu is gluten-free, and they score a perfect 5-star rating on the Find Me Gluten Free app. The service was excellent, and the waiter was knowledgeable about celiac disease and safety protocols. We ordered chips with guacamole and salsa, tortilla soup, and chipotle chicken flautas to start. All dishes were exceptional, with the flautas being the MVP. For the mains, Megan ordered creamy chicken enchiladas suiza, and I ordered carne asada tacos, which were presented more like fajitas. The food here is delicious, the service is excellent, the atmosphere is fantastic, and the safety is top-notch. A+ all around.
Day 3: Gluten-Free Dining
For our last full day, we started with breakfast at Chef Mickey's, located in the Contemporary Resort. This is another character dining experience, featuring Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, and Donald Duck. It is an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet priced at $54 per adult and $34 per child (ages 3-9). Due to my celiac disease, the waitress provided a card that detailed the gluten-free options at the buffet. However, if you are concerned about cross-contamination at a buffet, as I am, the chef will come to your table, personally take your order, and prepare it safely in the kitchen. This protocol appears to be quite standard, as the waitress offered to have the chef come to our table before I showed any signs of being concerned about cross-contamination. The chef was extremely accommodating and prepared a meal for me that included fresh watermelon, miniature veggie omelets with cheese, bacon, sausage, cheesy potatoes, gluten-free Mickey waffles, a gluten-free cinnamon doughnut, and a gluten-free blueberry muffin! The cheesy potatoes were the MVP here. Similar to ‘Ohana, I feel that the price of Chef Mickey’s is well worth it considering the safety, quality, and quantity of food, as well as the interactions with characters.
Gluten-Free Dinner in Orlando (Outside of Walt Disney)
For dinner, we headed down International Drive to Mellow Mushroom for some pizza. This is a chain pizzeria with a great reputation for its gluten-free safety protocols. They market their pizza as "certified gluten-free" using certified gluten-free safe procedures. The pizza was delicious and I felt great afterwards.
Departure
We woke up early the following morning to catch our 7 a.m. flight back to Boston. I booked two tickets for Emerson and I using Delta SkyMiles (8,500 miles each) and paid $118 per ticket for Megan and Isla.
Saving $2,200
So how did our family of four save $2,200 on our flights and hotel? Gere is the breakdown:
4 tickets on JetBlue from Boston to Orlando: 55,890 True Blue points + $170
1 night at Hyatt House: 9,000 Hyatt points
3 nights at Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort: one free anniversary night + 18,000 Hyatt points
4 tickets on Delta from Orlando to Boston: 17,000 points + $236
Total out-of-pocket cost for flights and hotels for our family of four: $416
* Please note that this would have increased an additional $200 more out of pocket if I didn’t have JetBlue credit from a previous trip that was cancelled.
Estimated savings: = $2,239
Based on savings of $753 for JetBlue flights (3 tickets), $1,250 on Hyatt rooms (4 nights), and $236 for Delta flights (2 tickets).
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