Learn how hotel points work and compare Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton, and IHG. A beginner-friendly guide to staying in hotels for less using points.

Disney World is different from any other vacation. You enter a new world where all you have to worry about is magic. Magic for your kids, magic for you, and magic for your vacation. From the restaurants, to the character meet-ups, to the customer service, it’s all exemplary. I’m really starting to understand why people go to Disney year after year.
So let’s learn how to save on Disney World!

I have so many friends that tell me they really want to take their kids to Disney before they age out. But Disney anything, Disneyland, Disney World, or Disney Cruise, can feel unattainable because it’s not affordable.

But then I learned the secret:

There are actually three major ways to save on Disney.

Those points are Capital One points.

Let me be clear: Disney itself does not accept Capital One points, but if you book through a travel agency, they do.

Once you understand that one detail, Disney stops feeling impossible, and starts feeling doable.

If you already understand how Hyatt free night awards work and how to use them, the fun part is deciding where to use them.

Hyatt recently limited free night awards to hotels in Categories 1–4. At first glance that can feel restrictive, but in practice there are still tons of great options if you know where to look. From family-friendly resorts to easy city bases and international gems, you can stretch these certificates much further than most people realize.

When you’re traveling with kids that often means multiple rooms, more flights to find, and school break pricing. It can feel like points disappear fast.

Somewhere along the way, something shifted. I realized I wasn’t worrying about running out of points anymore. Not because we suddenly had endless balances, but because we built a system that keeps points flowing in consistently.