I love credit cards so much! v2.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[amalone1013]

Centurion Lounge:

I like this

Accompanied by photo of meat loaf, strawberry shortcake, and a Fountain Coke which is apparently superior to canned

 

[Haley R]

Practicing what?

I PM’d you

 

[Haley R]

For those of you who like the swolphin, what have been your good rates there? Do most of you use Marriott points? We’ve never done Marriott stuff but I’m highly considering since we no longer have to get from the airport to the hotel. I know we’ll be staying for f&w multiple times this fall and I’d love to be close to Epcot with a lower price tag

 

[Lain]

Centurion Lounge:

I like this

Accompanied by photo of meat loaf, strawberry shortcake, and a Fountain Coke which is apparently superior to canned

LAS now?

 

[amalone1013]

For those of you who like the swolphin, what have been your good rates there? Do most of you use Marriott points? We’ve never done Marriott stuff but I’m highly considering since we no longer have to get from the airport to the hotel. I know we’ll be staying for f&w multiple times this fall and I’d love to be close to Epcot with a lower price tag

I havent done points since it went to Marriott points and they jacked the prices. Our last minute Friday night was $160 something before taxes and resort fees, AAA rate. Do you have AAA? It was probably $20 less than the Marriott member rate... could be worth a membership depending on how often. I bet @disneymagicgirl has a better idea of good rates.

 

[Haley R]

Centurion Lounge:

I like this

Accompanied by photo of meat loaf, strawberry shortcake, and a Fountain Coke which is apparently superior to canned

Fountain is always better than canned

 

[Haley R]

I havent done points since it went to Marriott points and they jacked the prices. Our last minute Friday night was $160 something before taxes and resort fees, AAA rate. Do you have AAA? It was probably $20 less than the Marriott member rate... could be worth a membership depending on how often. I bet @disneymagicgirl has a better idea of good rates.

I would say $160 is a pretty darn good rate considering the values have been getting close to that lately. We’ve paid $170 for pop before and it was a standard room. We are actually AAA under my FIL’s account but Dh was just saying he was gonna get rid of it because we get roadside assistance with our new insurance. Are they on the chase portal? I’m assuming no

 

[MrPTato]

Fountain is always better than canned
View attachment 416860

Always!!

 

[snugglebug]

Um...View attachment 416681

I don't know, for some reason I just had a feeling those cards were going to show up

 

[mmmears]

Happy to report that I successfully liquidated two Happy Guy cards (bought directly from the Happy Cards site using the Amex Offer) for Disney Gift Cards at two Home Depots today.

The Amex Offer just expired last week.
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/amex-offers-happycards-com-15-or-1500-points-with-100-purchase/It was an effective ~15% savings on $100. Happy Cards come in many varieties (e.g., Guy, Lady, Bride, Teen, Student, Dining, etc.), and are good at the select merchants listed on each of these cards (the idea being these merchants should interest a Guy, Lady, Teen, etc.).

Thing is Happy Cards run as a credit card at these merchants. Happy Guy GCs include Home Depot. While Home Depot doesn’t allow their GCs to be used to buy third-party GCs, a Happy Guy GC swipes as if it were a credit card and you can use a credit card to buy GCs. Home Depot’s card readers also have their swipe aligned perpendicularly, so you can take the Happy Guy GC out of your wallet, with the magnetic stripe already facing down and the plain backside of the card facing left, so the cashier doesn’t even notice the front of the card when you swipe. Swipe and the register automatically processes the payment as credit and spits out a receipt.

The other popular brands of Happy Cards to buy are Happy Lady and Happy Bride because they include Bed Bath & Beyond, which sells Disney GCs. I haven’t tested these personally, but the folks over at the Disney Gift Cards Deals thread have and it works but YMMV if you get an overzealous cashier who will deny you.

The potential problem is Happy Cards recently included new fine print that excludes purchases of GCs. I didn’t notice this language on my Happy Guy cards. I think my DP comports with other recent DPs from the Disney GC Deals thread that the new terms aren’t being enforced (yet?).
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/happy-gift-card-terms-now-exclude-gift-card-purchases/
DoC (and the Disney GC Deals thread) keeps good tabs on Happy Card deals. Office Depot/Max, Staples, Safeway, etc. seem to have occasional sales on Happy Cards, but the most recent Staples deal specifically excludes Happy Guy cards:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/stap...staples-giftcard-7-7-7-13-happy-guy-excluded/
So this deal may be getting harder to do...

Thank you so much for the info. Of course as soon as I think about doing something it's shut down... I guess I need to work harder at this stuff.

 

[amalone1013]

LAS now?

Yup. I'm never gonna get the Platinum away from him...

I'd just rather fly, land and then sleep than fly, land and then try to keep myself awake for hours and trying to do fun stuff while I'm dying inside from lack of sleep.

Me too... plus if I fly in the morning I always feel like I'm wasting vacation time since I have the day off work anyways. It's also why most of the time we push to get to Disney that night (except the last crazy land at 1:30am flight where we did the airport hyatt) because I'd rather sleep a hair longer in the morning and be there already (even tho I'm cheating myself on the front end of the night, staying up to get there... it all evens out lol)

 

[amalone1013]

Fountain is always better than canned
View attachment 416860

Maybe if I drank it I would know that..

I would say $160 is a pretty darn good rate considering the values have been getting close to that lately. We’ve paid $170 for pop before and it was a standard room. We are actually AAA under my FIL’s account but Dh was just saying he was gonna get rid of it because we get roadside assistance with our new insurance. Are they on the chase portal? I’m assuming no

No because they are jerks. They were before, but went away with all the Disney hotels

 

[amalone1013]

Andddddddddd now you may lose me for the night because Outlander became available from my library hold and I started reading it at lunch...

 

[Lain]

Fountain is always better than canned
View attachment 416860

Always!!

No way! Canned tastes perfectly according to spec. Fountain is always hit or missed based on the mix of syrup and carbonation. And you don’t even know what funky stuff is growing inside the tubing, gaskets, and machinery.

 

[wendow]

I love my Galveston but if you really want a vacation with soft sand and pretty water I am sad to say the island does not offer that. The beaches that are not on the seawall are better. You could definitely have a fun trip if you are open to some non-beach activities like Moody Gardens, the Strand, or a harbor tour.

As for not-scorching destinations for the summer....maybe Asheville? Go see the Biltmore, go hiking, explore downtown with all the unique shops? Or, it might be on the swampy and muggy side in August but DC could be fun. Most of the highlights are free which is a nice bonus. Can you get to Portland, Maine with your Delta gift cards? That would definitely have nicer weather. Or fly into Boston and drive up the coast to one of the small towns with nicer beaches.

We were in Galveston last Nov and caught the ‘blue water’ phenomenon. Simply beautiful and so not normal in Galveston.

 

[Lain]

View attachment 416860

Were you even alive when Full House originally ran on TV?

 

[afan]

No way! Canned tastes perfectly according to spec. Fountain is always hit or missed based on the mix of syrup and carbonation. And you don’t even know what funky stuff is growing inside the tubing, gaskets, and machinery.

McDonald's fountain superior to canned. Freestyle machine's below everything. Bottled better than canned, especially glass but plastic too.

 

[Haley R]

Always!!

When I drink canned pop at home it has to be in a cup with ice and usually a straw lol

 

[afan]

Were you even alive when Full House originally ran on TV?

The recently 21 yo intern where I'm working didn't know who pinky and the brain are and hasn't never seen alf. I don't get it. When I was growing up we'd see repeats of older stuff, I've seen ton's of happy days, lavern & shirley, wkrp etc but I guess they just don't replay stuff from the 80's as much.

 

[Haley R]

Maybe if I drank it I would know that..

No because they are jerks. They were before, but went away with all the Disney hotels

You don’t drink fountain pop? Or you don’t drink pop at all? Dh and I don’t ever drink pop that has sugar in it. We stick to Pepsi and Coke Zero

Hmm I wonder what the best way is to stay at the Swolphin. I’d hate to pay out of pocket for it