3. Sprinkle your savings with some pixie dust

While it can be tempting to just hide your vacation fund in a shoebox, it’s not an ideal way to save for a vacation. If you want to turn time into an advantage, you’ll want your savings to do the work for you, and that means gaining interest through the magic of a good savings account.

If you want to get the most out of your hard-earned savings, you won’t want just any savings account—you’ll want the highest interest yield possible. In general, that’s going to mean thinking outside of the box when it comes to banks. Your average savings account with Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, or even a local credit union isn’t going to be able to compete with some of the newer online banks that have become popular in recent years.

There are a lot of options for high-yield savings, and I definitely recommend perusing resources like NerdWallet to get the highest returns with the fewest strings attached. We’ve had particularly good luck with Barclays, a UK-based bank who offers online savings account with some of the highest yields around for US customers (about .8% APY at the time of writing).  American Express also offers a very attractive personal savings account with an average of 1% APY. Nationwide is another well-known option with around .9% APY. All of these options will build your savings over time faster than a normal checking or savings account, and they will also keep your trip fund set apart enough to discourage you from spending it before you get to that long awaited vacation.

4. Build credit card points strategically

Credit cards can be something of a mixed bag for upgrading vacations. On one hand, credit card rewards can seem an easy way to get trip upgrades. Aren’t points like getting free money? What’s the downside? Well, it is of course that credit card companies are businesses out to make money—their goal is to get you in debt and keep you there. Nothing sours a vacation like financial stress, and the risks of debt are often not worth the points in the end if you get stuck paying interest on a pile of debt.

If you choose to use credit cards, the trick is to use them prudently. If you tend to throw things on a card and never pay it off, it’s best to avoid credit cards as a strategy for upgrading your trip. If you have a good track record for paying off your card every time you use it, then you might be able to score some nice upgrades by using credit card points and new member offers.

It’s a good idea to do as much research as possible before applying for any new card—some cards are a better value for Disney vacations than others. The Disney Chase Visa is the most obvious choice but usually isn’t the best value. While it is the only card that directly produces Disney-specific rewards for your trip (and the cards look crazy cool), it doesn’t stack up quite as well as more versatile cashback cards like the Citi Double Cash card. We finally caved and got one to take advantage of a $200 new cardholder bonus to put towards our annual passes, but the rewards and perks are so-so, particularly for Passholders. If you’re looking for general cash to spend on your trip, a reliable cashback card like Chase Freedom Unlimited will be the best way to go.

Airfare is one of the biggest areas where guests can save big by building up credit card points-- how much really depends on the card and the rewards program. Some airlines are better than others, and a lot of the big name airlines have complicated limitations on rewards that make getting flights to Orlando frustrating. We’ve been happy with the Southwest Rapid Rewards Visa since Southwest’s points can be applied to pretty much all of their flights and come with a decent value. If you already have points with another airline like United, American, and Delta, they all offer card options with benefits to consider. Alternatively, if you really like having a versatile card to apply points with, Chase Sapphire Preferred is a popular option with good rewards, as is the Capital One Venture Card.

For upgrading your resort, you’ll have to get a little creative. If your heart is set on staying at a Disney-owned resort, your best bet will be a mixed-rewards card (like Capital One Venture) that gives credit towards travel purchases you put on the card. This is a nice option because you don’t have to pay for your whole stay with points—if you don’t have enough, you can cover the remaining balance with cash.

In the past, the best way to stay on Disney property for cheap has been to build up Starwood points to stay at the Swan and Dolphin. A blogger famously took his family to Walt Disney World for almost nothing by doing this. Unfortunately, after Marriot bought out Starwood, the Marriot Bonvoy rewards program really tanked in value. While you certainly could get a Marriot Bonvoy credit card and build up points, you’ll probably get a better value using a mixed-rewards card like CapitalOne, VentureOne or the standard Venture card. We do still highly recommend the Swan and Dolphin—they’re two of the best resorts on property for getting deluxe amenities at moderate prices.

5. Wait for the right deal

We are seeing some truly unprecedented travel deals during this strange season, but when Disney parks open back up without the current restrictions, it seems likely that some pretty amazing deals will present themselves. If you aren’t in a hurry to get back to Disney parks, this could give you a lot of freedom to wait for the best deal possible.

I don’t just mean sales from Disney (though these are pretty significant right now, particularly for Florida locals). If you’re willing to sit and wait, you could take advantage of better choices in things like Disney Vacation Club point rentals (a tactic which can get you into a deluxe resort for significant discounts), massive airfare discounts, and lucrative credit card reward promotions. Play your hand right, and it could result in a nicely upgraded trip… Oh, and we’ve just been talking about Disneyland and Walt Disney World. If you include other parks and attractions that Orlando and Anaheim have to offer, that gives even more room for taking advantage of unforeseen bargains!

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