How to Pay for Disney World Hotels with Card Sign-up Bonuses

Orlando has a ton of outstanding non-Disney resorts and hotels near Disney World that can be booked with points, which is one of the reasons why we often suggest that vacationers consider staying off-property at places like the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress. We dedicated an entire page on how to pay for most, if not all of your Disney World vacation package with credit card sign-up bonus points and cash back bonuses. In our experience, off-property stays have been every bit as amazing as our stays at official Walt Disney World properties. Still, there’s no denying that, for many families, staying at an official Disney hotel is one of the things they look forward to most. Unfortunately, while there are many valuable credit card rewards programs out there, very few allow you to use points or miles to book stays at official Disney properties.

Capital One’s Travel Rewards program is the exception to the rule. Capital One lets you use miles to “erase” travel expenses after making a purchase, rather than requiring you to use points or miles to make the purchase in the first place. This means that you can use an eligible Capital One credit card to book a stay at your preferred Disney hotel directly through Disney and then use your miles to erase the charges from your credit card statement. There are no limitations or award-availability blackout dates to worry about. If you have your heart set on staying at an official Disney resort during your Disney vacation, you can save a ton of money with Capital One travel rewards. You can combine Capital One’s travel and cash back credit cards, to easily accumulate anywhere from $830 to $2,400 in miles and cash back to put toward a Disney vacation package for your family. Maximizing this card combination does take some strategy and planning so we want to share the approach we recommend.

A Note on Two-Person Mode: 

The term “two-person mode” (sometimes called “two-player mode”) refers to the ability of two people to partner together to earn multiple sign-up and referral bonuses that can be pooled together. In general, the strategies discussed in this article will work, regardless of whether you’re an individual or are working as two cardholders to earn points. The referral bonuses discussed will only apply to people working in two-person mode. For the purposes of this article, we will assume that readers are working in two-person mode, live in the same household, and plan to travel to Disney World together.

Quick Guide for Using Credit Card Rewards for a Disney Hotel Stay:

Step 1: Person 1 opens a Venture Rewards card and Person 2 opens a SavorOne card.

Step 2: Person 1 and Person 2 refer their respective cards to the other person.

Step 3: Person 1 opens a SavorOne card and Person 2 opens a Venture Rewards card using the referral links.

More details about this strategy are discussed below.

Capital One’s lineup of travel credit cards is comprised of the Company’s three Venture-branded cards, all of which earn miles that can be used for travel.  These “sibling” cards have similar names that can sometimes cause confusion.

• Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card ($0 annual fee)
• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card ($95 annual fee)
• Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card ($395 annual fee) 

Of the three cards, we think the mid-tier Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card offers the most value for casual travelers. The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card does have a $95 annual fee, but it also offers a sign-up bonus of 75,000 miles after spending $4,000 in the first three month, earns an unlimited 2x miles on every dollar spent plus 5x miles per dollar on hotels booked through the Capital One travel portal, and offers a number of additional travel-related perks.

Capital One miles can be redeemed to erase travel purchases made in the last 90 days at the rate of one cent per mile. Once you spend $4,000 in the first three months, you will receive the 75,000-mile sign-up bonus. You’ll also receive another 8,000 miles on the initial $4,000 because the Venture Rewards card earns 2x miles on every dollar spent. The sign-up bonus plus the earned miles comes to 83,000 miles, which is worth $830 that you can use to erase travel charges from your account.

Two Person Mode:

Person One (P1) can receive a referral bonus of at least 10,000 miles when Person Two (P2) opens a Venture Rewards credit card using a referral link from P1.  This means that if you refer the Venture Rewards card to another member of your family, you will get the referral bonus plus another sign-up bonus of 75,000 miles after spending $4,000 on the second card.  The combined total of the two sign-up bonuses with the miles earned through meeting the minimum spend requirements and referral bonus comes to at least 176,000 miles, or $1,760. Capital One makes referrals easy by using their refer-a-friend site.

That’s a great deal. However, it gets even better when the Venture Rewards card is used in combination with the Capital One SavorOne Credit Card.

The Capital One SavorOne Credit Card has been a surprisingly useful work horse in our credit card rewards strategy. The SavorOne offers great earning rates and a slew of additional benefits that are hard to beat in a no-annual fee credit card. The SavorOne earns an unlimited 3% cash back on dining, entertainment, popular streaming services and at grocery stores, 10% cash back on purchases with Uber and Uber Eats, plus 1% cash back on all other purchases. Card holders also receive a one-time cash bonus of $200 after spending $500 in the first 3 months of account opening.

Capital One markets the SavorOne card as a cash back credit card, rather than a travel rewards credit card, but SavorOne cash rewards can be transferred to Venture rewards miles at the rate of 1 cent to 1 mile.

Two Person Mode:

Once Person One (P1) reaches the $500 minimum spend, P1 can refer Person Two (P2) to the SavorOne and receive a $150 referral bonus. Once your family spends another $500 on P2’s SavorOne, you’ll receive another $200 bonus. The combined total of the two sign-up bonuses and the referral bonus comes to $550 back on $1,000 spent.

If you know anyone else that may be interested in the SavorOne you can also refer them for more $150 cash bonuses for each person that gets approved (up to $500 per year). Don’t forget to tell your friends and family to use your exact link from the refer-a-friend site.

Disney World categorizes their official resorts into four different categories: Value Resorts, Moderate Resorts, Deluxe Resorts, and Deluxe Villas. Deluxe Villas are available through Disney’s timeshare program called Disney Vacation Club.  Staying at a DVC resort can be a great deal and we plan to discuss how to save money on a DVC in an upcoming post soon. In this article, however, we will briefly discuss the differences in the Value, Moderate, and Deluxe resort categories.

Guests at all official Disney properties, regardless of category, receive early park entry, the ability to make earlier dining reservations and earlier Individual Lightning Lane Reservations. All resorts offer various forms of free transportation to take guests to the parks. Plus, Disney does not charge any resort fees.

Disney’s Value Resorts include: Art of Animation, Pop Century, All-Star Sports, All-Star Movies, and All-Star Music. Of the three resort categories, the value resorts tend to be furthest from Disney’s theme parks and the rooms are generally smaller. All value resorts have a pool or pools and quick-service food court style dining options available. Depending on the time of year when you visit, value resorts range in price from $145 to $330 per night.

Disney’s Moderate Resorts include: Coronado Springs, Caribbean Beach Resort, Port Orleans Riverside, and Port Orleans French Quarter. The rooms at moderate resorts are larger than the rooms at value resorts. Except for Port Orleans French Quarter, all the moderate resorts offer a sit-down dining option, in addition to food courts. Depending on the time of year when you visit, moderate resorts range in price from $250 to $475 per night.

Disney’s Deluxe Resorts include: The Contemporary, Grand Floridian, Polynesian Village, Beach Club, Boardwalk Inn, Yacht Club, Animal Kingdom Lodge and Wilderness Lodge. Deluxe resorts offer the biggest rooms of the three categories. They also offer multiple sit-down dining, as well quick-service options. Depending on the time of year when you visit, deluxe resorts range in price from $525 to $1,000+ per night.

Right now, a sampling of the cost for a 5-night stay from April 14 – 18, 2024 in a standard room shows the following:

• Disney’s All-Star Music Resort (Value) averages $158.50 per night with the total cost of $719.61 after tax
• Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort (Moderate) averages $294.00 per night with the total cost of $1,323.00 after tax
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge (Deluxe) averages $519.50 per night with the total cost of $2,337.75 after tax

As you can see, the category of resort you choose greatly impacts how far your credit card rewards will go. In these scenarios, a family of 4 that opened two Capita One Venture Rewards cards and two Capital One SavorOne cards can stay five nights at a value resort and still have a significant amount of money left over to put toward airfare, park tickets, or dining expenses. Alternatively, the same family can choose to stay five nights at one of Disney’s deluxe resorts but still pay for their entire stay at one of these more expensive resorts by using their rewards.

Check the Capital One Travel Portal for additional savings

Capital One’s travel portal is one of the few portals where cardholders can book stays at official Disney hotels directly through the portal. This can be valuable because cardholders earn an extra 5x miles per dollar on hotels booked through Capital One’s travel portal. Hotel prices in Capital One’s portal tend to be the same or even a little bit less than the prices available on Disney’s website. It’s always worth checking Capital One’s portal to see if your desired hotel has availability through Capital One. 

Ideally, you will want to start the process of opening your Capital One credit cards at least 12 months prior to your planned vacation. As a general rule of thumb, Capital One appears to limit the number of personal credit cards an individual can open to one card every six months. There are some anecdotal accounts of being approved for multiple cards in as little as 90 days from each other, but it is best to assume that the six-month rule will apply and plan accordingly.

At least 12 months before trip:

• Person 1 opens a Capital One Venture Rewards card.
• Person 2 opens a Capital One SavorOne card.

6 months later:

• Person 1 and Person 2 refer their respective cards to each other.
• Person 1 opens a Capital One SavorOne card.
• Person 2 opens a Capital One Venture Rewards card.

If you follow these steps, you will receive a minimum of 176,000 Capital One miles (worth $1,760) from the two Venture Rewards card sign-up bonuses and P1’s referral bonus.  Plus, you will receive $550 in cash back and statement credits for the SavorOne Cards (two $200 cash bonuses plus P2’s $150 referral bonus).

As you can see, combining the Venture Rewards and SavorOne cards is an easy way to help pay for your Disney World hotel stay. Your dream vacation doesn’t have to remain a dream Now that you know how far the sign-up and referral bonuses of these two cards can go, you just need to decide which Disney hotel is ideal for you and your family!