Cruises don’t usually pop up in the same way flights and hotels do when you’re looking for award travel. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use points—or cashback—to make one way more affordable.

We haven’t taken the kids to Walt Disney World yet, but my kids are huge Harry Potter fans, so when Universal announced the opening of Epic Universe, we knew we were headed back to Florida. And since we were already flying across the country, I figured—it’s time. Let’s finally do Disney World.

It started with a moment of sticker shock. I was pricing out a Universal Orlando vacation for our family of six—and when I saw the total, I actually laughed out loud. Not the fun, theme-park kind of laugh. The “surely this is a mistake” kind.

When we first started using points, I remember staring at our balance of 100,000 and wondering: how far can this actually take a family of six?

I had seen people use that many points for one first-class flight or two nights at a luxury hotel. But I knew there had to be a better way—especially if I wanted to stretch those points into real family vacations. And the good news? There absolutely is! We’ve used 100k points for a full week of hotel stays, roundtrip flights for four, or two rooms at a resort where my husband and I got our own room. That’s the magic of smart redemptions.

I used to believe a dream trip to Kauai with our family of six would stay just that—a dream. Between flights, hotels, and food, we were staring at a price tag at around $15,000. Not exactly in the budget for a family of six. But once I discovered how to stack travel rewards, everything changed.

I used to think taking my entire family of six on a tropical vacation in the middle of winter would cost us $10,000 or more. Flights alone felt out of reach, especially when I started adding in food and two hotel rooms. But then I started using points the way they were meant to be used—intentionally, with a clear plan for each trip.