Super Useful Travel Links 5.18.12

It’s that time again. I’ve been collecting some interesting links while posting and reviewing like mad this week. I hope you’ve been entering some of the contests that are happening in conjunction with REVIEWapalooza. Early next week I’ll be reviewing the new Travelon Anti-theft Urban Tour Bag and also giving one away. I think this bag is going to be very appealing to the male readers and travelers, though it’s also a great bag for the ladies that don’t like a traditional day bag that looks like a purse. Eric will be doing some modeling as well this time, so you can see how well it works for everyone.

I’ve not see a ton of amazing things out there in the last few weeks. Mostly, the same story from AAA saying that Memorial Weekend trips are up and Summer vacationing is iffy, because of the economy and travelers worried about personal finances and job security. Obviously, more travelers will be road-tripping it over Memorial Weekend, myself included, which makes it a little more affordable, so while the stats are interesting, they are totally surprising and I definitely didn’t need 400 links to the study. In between deleting another email telling me of this revelation, I found some stuff that isn’t common knowledge to share with you.

You all know I love travel gadgets. Travel gadgets that make your life easier are always the best, especially when it can help you get through airport security faster and with less hassle. If you are a frequent traveler, then CLEAR might be something you want to check out. Right now it’s only available in Orlando (MCO) and Denver (DEN) airports – which is great if either of those are your home airport – but can speed you through the security process, so you don’t have to wait in long lines.  For $179/year (or $50 more to upgrade to the family plan, children under 18 are free with your subscription), you get a special CLEARcard, that has all your information on it and you are verified by fingerprint and iris at the fancy CLEARcube kiosk at participating airports.

Other airports will be joining the program, so you can sign up to be notified of new ones when they are available. Know someone who travels and uses MCO or DEN as their home airport? You can buy them 6 months of CLEAR for just $79. Of course, you could probably by yourself 6 months at that price and if you like it, then buy an annual subscription. It only saves you $11, but that’s still a savings!

Do you love travel so much you want to take it home with you? I’m not talking about turning your house into Fiji, though that would be super cool, but having an airline seat as a chair in your guest bedroom, or a drink cart for parties. Travel + Leisure has discovered that you can buy parts of retired commercial airplanes from a company that sells on eBay. Father’s Day is coming up and maybe your dad is a plane fanatic. Buy him something truly unique, like his own airplane lavatory! (Loving that idea for a tiny guest house in your backyard. Not sure how the plumbing would work, but it’s a great space saver.)

So, you all know by now that I am a guest contributor on FareCompare. Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare and airfare expert, has some fantastic travel tips, especially regarding summer travel and when you should book your flights and what prices you can expect to pay. I love that he gives actual numbers for you to work from when trying to find a deal on summer airfare. Not only that, he gives some practical tips for those that need a dose of reality when it comes to finding low prices. The long and short of it is that you probably will find very few deals from now on, but if you’re lucky enough to spot one, you’ll know to jump on it.

For those of you in the majority that are taking a long weekend away for Memorial Day, Techlicious gives you some tips on saving money on gas. While most has been covered before – speeding will burn more fuel, try the most direct route, keep your car up-to-date on maintenance like oil changes – there are still some new ones, like using apps to find the best deals on your way and to avoid crap traffic getting to your destination.  

I’ve covered frequent flyer miles several times before, but even for me it can still be a mystery. Conde Nast Traveler’s Daily Traveler covers 6 Starter Tips for Stockpiling Frequent Flyer Miles and Points for those that are still clueless and need help just figuring out where to start. There are many things you can do to accrue miles and earning them can really help you save on your trips, especially when you have enough to trade in for a free ticket, as airfare is one of the most expensive parts of almost any trip.

In case you missed it, Ebates is celebrating their 13th birthday and, as a gift to everyone else, over 130 online merchants are offering 13% cash back. If you need any travel gear – clothing, carry-on bags, toiletries – make sure you head over and make some purchases. If you aren’t yet an Ebates member, it’s super easy to join and totally free. Actually, they pay YOU to sign up. Get $5 or a $10 gift card of your choice of three available. They have hundreds of online merchants to choose from and you can earn up to 25% cash back, more if a merchant is a daily double.

Want to earn points you can trade in for gift cards you can use to buy travel items or use on vacation? Sign up for Swagbucks. It’s free and easy and you can earn points by just doing an internet search each day from their site. I earn enough for a gift card each month and hardly do anything. Who can’t use a $5 credit for Amazon? You can also turn in your points for Paypal cash, prizes and restaurant gift cards. Get extra Swagbucks points for finding secret codes, too! Here’s a special celebration to entice you more into signing up:

The Swagbucks Carnival has started, and it gives you an opportunity to earn bonus Swag Bucks each day just for earning the way you normally would. Check the meter on your homepage and you'll see you daily goal and how close you are to hitting it. Every day you hit the goal, you add to your bonus! As if that wasn't enough, you'll get additional bonuses based on how many days of the Carnival you're able to hit your goal! To top it all, Swagbucks is having a Swag Code extravaganza on Monday - that means lots of codes, lots of Swag Bucks and lots of fun! Don't miss it!

Got any good travel links you want to hook us up with? Post 'em in a comment!

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Budget Theme Parks 5.16.12

There are giveaways galore happening right now. Enter them all with this round-up and cross your fingers! Everything you’ll need for summer travel is up for grabs!

Summer is fast approaching and that means summer vacation. A good percentage of folks plan to hit up the theme parks in the next 3 months, which is why the parks are super crowded and hotel prices can be twice as much as usual. People will pay it and gripe about the long lines, but it won’t keep them from planning to come back another time of year. Instead they will stand in line for hours to get on 5 rides all day and drag around tired kids at 10:30 in the evening and wonder why they are crabby and hate everything.

My first tip will help you make the most of your tickets and enjoy yourselves more, which is always a plus for any vacation - The parks are open for 14 hours a day. You can’t expect your kids to go without a nap and endure so much stimulation and not get cranky and cry at some point each day. You get tired and you are a grown up and not used to naps, so take a couple hours out of the day for some downtime. The parks will still be there. I promise. Think of how refreshed you will all be when you go back!

Want to get the most experience for you money? Then after you’ve scheduled a nap or relaxation time for each day of your trip, start planning all these other things around that.

 Purchase a park-hopper ticket. These can save you money over buying individual day tickets and you can use the same one over the course of your visit. They just scan your fingerprint now, instead of the old school way they did it before where you needed to sign the back of the ticket and present ID each day. Much quicker. You still need your ticket for them to swipe and also to be able to use the FastPASS machines.

Save time by buying your tickets ahead of time. Don’t waste time in the ticket queue, when you can go straight to the gate queue! Like you really want to wait in one more line anyway. You can save money by buying your tickets online at various locations. Search online for promo codes, too. I prefer to buy my tickets through the local AAA travel store, because I find they have the best deals, but you can also get Disneyland park hopper tickets through Costco and many credit unions sell discounted ones as well. If you’ll be purchasing a vacation package, check out BookIt.com and add your park tickets on that way and save big. Besides AAA, they have the lowest prices on Disney tickets out there.

Use FastPASS. This can also save you much time and get you on more rides. We generally get one for Big Thunder Railroad, Peter Pan, California Screamin’, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, Rock’n Roller Coaster, Midway Mania or Buzz Lightyear. These are the big rides that always have a line. Go first thing when you enter the park and get a FastPASS, even if there isn’t a line, for any of these attractions (I recommend Midway Mania or Space Mountain, because the FastPASSes go quickly). If there isn’t a line, get on the ride, go do some other rides and then come back at your designated FastPASS time and do it again. If there IS a long line, go off and do some less packed stuff and then come back. This works awesome with rides like Big Thunder Railroad in the middle of the day, because even though the line isn’t humungous, there are a bunch of other rides to do that normally have shorter lines, and you can get to three other ones, come back and get right onto BTR and then head to another part of the park.

Get to the parks thirty minutes before opening. What’s the point? Well, there won’t be hoards of people waiting to get in yet and you’ll get first pick of the big rides when the gates open, freeing you up to do less popular rides in the middle of the day.

Make food reservations. While this won’t save you any money, it WILL save you time waiting in line somewhere. Disney has a designated dining reservation number for each park (or you can do it online) to book a table anywhere that has waited tables. You can book up to 90 days in advance. This is especially important if you are dying to eat a specific restaurant, because reserved tables get served before walk-ins, which means if you want to eat at Blue Bayou without waiting 45-50 minutes (when you could be doing other park activities), it’s best to make a reservation ahead of time. Try to book your dining a little earlier than regular dining times, like lunch between 11am-12pm and dinner between 5-6pm. This will help you avoid the crowds, both while waiting to be seated and when you finish dining, because everyone will have realized they are hungry, too, and flee to a dining establishment. Woohoo! Shorter lines for you!

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Carry snacks. You know I always recommend bringing snacks everywhere you go. Disney doesn’t mind. As long as whatever you bring isn’t in a glass container or alcohol, it’s okay by them. Bring in your own bottled water, too, and save $9 by not having to buy their souvenir cups.

Use public transportation. Obviously, I mean for Disneyland only. Their shuttle busses are great and are much cheaper than the $12-14 it now costs to park in the Disney parking lot. Unless you have four or more people in your group, save the cash and gas. The shuttles leave every 15 minutes throughout the day until at least an hour before the park closes. There’s also the option of just walking, since there are so many hotels right across the street from the parks and main gate.

Avoid “Extra Magic Hour”. In Orlando, guests staying at a Disney resort are entitled to the EMH each day at different designated parks. They get in an hour before the park officially opens to the public or get to stay and extra hour after the park closes to the public. With a bit of planning, you can avoid these days and go to other parks instead and avoid the massive crowds at the EMH parks. This worked wonderful for us and we found that each park we hit up that day was almost empty until around noon time. I don’t know how that will work in the on-peak season, but in the fall, it was spectacular and we barely waited in line for anything for the first four hours we were in each park. You can find the EMH parks listed on the online Disney schedules or invest in a membership to TourGuideMike, which will give you all these tips and more well ahead of the actual online schedule.

Go in the middle of the week. There will be fewer parades and you'll have to schedule your day around things like Fantasmic, that only play on certain weekday nights, but Disney will certainly be less crowded during the week than on the weekends and you'll have shorter lines and be able to do more.

Bring your own souvenirs. Yes, I know this sounds weird, but if you have little ones, they are going to want toys and shirts and balloons and candy. You can try to evade some of these costs by stopping at one of the grocery or discount stores around Disney and stock up on some inexpensive souvenirs (many of which you will find at the parks for much more) and dole out a bit each day before you leave. Or keep them in your bag until the kids are getting restless and cranky. You're sure to make some happy faces. My best friend, and mom of four, has some fantastic tips for doing Disney as a family on the cheap (or as cheap as you can get without compromising the fun).

Next up: How NOT To Do Disney. Believe it or not, there is a right way and a really wrong way, especially if you’re going in the summer and have to make the most out of every minute.

What are some of your tips for doing theme parks cheaper or better?