Year: 2012

Audience Rewards Trivia Update for Free Delta Skymiles (2-26-12)

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This morning the Delta Audience Rewards questions were updated to earn you free miles.

Now, without further ado, we proudly present this week’s trivia questions.

  • Which of the following shows has Tom Hewitt not been in on Broadway? Follies
  • True or False? The original first act of The Phantom of the Opera was presented at Andrew Lloyd Webber’s home. True
  • In which country did a production of The Lion King open in June 2007 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Broadway show? South Africa
  • The finale song in Rock of Ages is a song by what band? Journey
  • Where does Newsies take place? New York City

As a reminder, for all things Audience Rewards, including all the latest free points and miles from the Points Play trivia questions, see my Audience Rewards page.

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Royal Plaza Hotel (Walt Disney World) 2-Night Deal via Groupon

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I occasionally go through the large selection of Groupon Getaways to see if there is anything of value. Most times, I find something pretty valuable, in my opinion, yet we are not in a position to always take advantage of the promotion. As I woke up this morning, all groggy, I decided to log into my Groupon page and see what was available, and I was surprised to see an offer for the Royal Plaza at Walt Disney World.

Groupon 2-24-12 Royal Plaza

For $239, up to four guests can reserve a Deluxe room for two nights. Here are some specifics on the offer:

  • Must book by 5/28/12
  • Must travel by 5/30/12
  • Not valid 3/2-3/3, 3/9-3/10, or 4/1-4/8
  • Limit 2 per visit
  • 3 day cancellation notice by 4PM prior to arrival required or fee up to Groupon price applies
  • Subject to availability
  • Must be 21 or older to check in
  • Credit card required at booking
  • Must have valid ID
  • Valid only for deluxe room
  • Not valid with reward points
  • 12.5% occupancy tax not included

We stayed at the Royal Plaza for our honeymoon back in 2008, and absolutely loved it! One of the specific things we love about the hotels surrounding the Royal Plaza is they are located on Disney property, and have their own independent shuttles that guest can use to get around the Walt Disney World complex. The transportation meant shorter lines, and I like to think faster service since there were less people and hotels that they needed to stop at going to and from the parks.

So I absolutely can recommend the Royal Plaza based on past experience. The question is, will this offer save people money?

Historically, when ever I have searched for the best offers at the Royal Plaza, it has been using the Mousesavers discount, which offers 40% off rack rates. I randomly selected days valid through this offer for four guests in a Deluxe room, and the rooms were $141/night. The Groupon rate works out to under $120/night. Keep in mind these rates do not include taxes and the $8/night resort fee. For reference, the rack rate for the same periods are $209/night. However, compared to staying in a Disney owned resort, there can be substantial savings for a family when all you are doing is sleeping in the room.

If you are headed to Walt Disney World, and looking for accommodations over the dates of this offer, consider staying at the Royal Plaza as the deal is worthy of your time.

1972 Walt Disney World Parking Tickets

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I need to give my wife credit for what I believe are some of our most interesting articles and ideas. Recently, she reminded me that my grandparents have bags of tickets, brochures, old postcards, and all kinds of invaluable travel documents that they acquired from all of their travels. I always knew my grandma held onto everything from traveling, but it was not until my wife mentioned I should gather the documents, start scanning them, and researching them to find out their story, did I really start appreciating that my grandma held on to this stuff all these years.

My grandma showed up with bag #1 with various different Disney World tickets and documents, as well as various other cool travel documents. I will slowly be scanning them in and trying to document some more of the history behind the pieces. I think I have found some very interesting pieces of history. Several of the items I believe to be so rare, I have not been able to find very much, if any information on. If anyone has any additional history behind some of the items, please feel free to share.

To start off, we have two 1972 parking tickets from Walt Disney World. What I find most amazing was that my grandparents decided to head down to Florida for Disney World the year after it opened, and to top it off, they took along my mom and her two sisters. My grandma reminded me that the vehicles did not have air conditioning back then, and they traveled with the windows down because of the heat. My grandparents fondly remembered my mom and her sisters hanging their feet out the windows waiving at passer-byres. I now know where I get the desire to travel with my kids everywhere, as my grandparents always took their three daughters, and my parents always took my sister and I everywhere. So I now consider it a family tradition and upbringing.

1972 Walt Disney World Parking Pass Front

1972 Walt Disney World Parking Pass Front

Ticket prices for parking in 1972 were $0.50 with $0.48 going to Disney and $0.02 in State tax. Can you imagine paying only $0.50 to park when it now will cost you $14 in 2012? Believe it or not, tickets to the Magic Kingdom were only $3.75 in 1972. What we all would do for such affordable admission prices now.

In 1972, you also only had the Magic Kingdom as Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and the Animal Kingdom were yet to be constructed. Think of it this way though, 40 years from now, we will be looking back at 2012 prices and wishing we could pay them.

1972 Walt Disney World Parking Pass Rear

1972 Walt Disney World Parking Pass Rear

What I like about the rear of the tickets is that they had a map of the Magic Kingdom parking sections, and one could write where they parked for easy finding your vehicle at the end of the day. An interesting fact is that the sections remained classic character names up until late 2011, when they were switched over to a Hero’s and Villain’s arrangement. The transformation is suppose to provide helpful visual clues to guests (somehow the previous ones must not have worked well after almost 40 years) as well as help divide the parking lots into two distinct sections with corresponding trams.

So there you have it, classic 1972 WDW parking tickets. While it may seem trivial and worthless, I find it charming that my grandparents held onto these tickets for 40 years. In addition, I feel they tell their own history of the park, that from my research, I have not been able to find anywhere else on the internet.

If you have some old travel tickets, brochures, or anything else that you feel is interesting, please feel free to send me a high quality scan as well as any history you may have, and we will get it posted. Thanks! Save Money, Travel More.