Month: October 2013

Disney Junior Pirates & Princesses

To Be, or Not to Be A Princess or A Pirate

Leave a comment

Disney Junior Pirates & Princesses

This past weekend our family was invited for a road trip out to Youngstown, Ohio for a viewing of Disney Junior Live On Tour! Pirate & Princess Adventure. I, as a Mom of three boys, was excited for any kind of activity with slight mention of princesses! It’s been about a year since I, wife of Mr. InACents, has graced you with my lovely and captivating presence as a writer. I have been in pregnancy and new Mama fog. As you can imagine I enjoy a good activity that gets all five of us out of the house and keeps us busy on a Saturday afternoon (leading to a looong nap), so this Disney extravaganza was a perfect plan.

In events such as these where we are going to bring our five month old, we, of course pack bottles, and diapers. I also always pack my own snacks for the big boys and for Daddy and I, to save money (sorry Disney). I packed two juice boxes per kid, leftover candy, and goldfish crackers. I figured if I did not pack candy, I would still hear whining for junk food from the older boys. They only asked once or twice for popcorn and snow cones, which was countered with snacks from the mom-bag. They know we never buy souvenirs so they never ask for light-up spinners or any other 30-40 dollar nonsense.

We bought a couple of light up spinners in Disneyland a few years back for 12 bucks each and we bring them to anything dark where junk will be for sale. I HIGHLY recommend this! It covers a wide variety of events; fourth of July, Disney trips, ice shows, circus, and basically any place they are going to sell you breakable plastic with LED lights inside. I have, with my own two eyes, seen the SAME Mickey spinners that we bought for 12 bucks at Disneyland, for sale at Disney on ice for 30 bucks. Curse the Disney monopoly that I have a love/hate relationship.

So we see the show, it starts off with a Doc McStuffins opening act, which was cute and followed a “get your pre-show wiggles out” theme. Then the real show started with an introduction by M.C. Mickey Mouse with his date Minnie Mouse singing and dancing to a number written just for the show about why Pirates and Princesses are wonderful…and why they go together. Pirates and princesses came out on stage to pirouette around a bit with Minnie.

Next the crowd went wild for the introduction of Sophia The First. It was evident a lot of the audience was pro-princess. Sophia’s show was a 30 min segment with pre-recorded charactor voices and a flat screen scenery about giving a gift for the friendship festival. Although it does not sound very good, it was actually very age appropriate and cute. There were some new and old musical numbers from the Sophia show in each scene and some cute special effects. Cinderella made a cameo appearance to shrieks from the surprised audience. My favorite part was the end where Sophia’s dress rose off the ground and made her 20 feet tall and glittery.

There was a short intermission, another cute intro with Mickey and Minnie, and then it was time for Jake and The Neverland Pirates. Jake’s 30 min show was about finding a secret hidden volcano that spewed gold doubloons. It was similar in set up to the Sophia show in that it has both old and new songs from the series, and some cute special effects. It had a surprise cameo appearance of Peter Pan. My boys were positively glued to this show and their favorite part was the sword fighting. In fact it inspired a night time viewing of Peter Pan as a family too once we returned home.

All in all it was a great afternoon with a pretty good show that was very appropriate for the Disney Junior age range. I would imagine a boy or girl of 18 Months to age seven would really get their moneys worth. The best part of the experience is that we own enough pirate themed halloween costumes, toys, and dress-up clothing that the five of us were all able to dress (and talk) like pirates for the day….Arrrggh Matey!

Save Money, Travel More!

Source: InACents

Our family was provided tickets to Disney Junior Live On Tour! Pirate & Princess Adventure, but all opinions are those of the authors.

Six Flags Read to Succeed 2013-2014 Program Open

7 Comments

Six Flags Read to Succeed

PLEASE NOTE: Lots of people have been contacting us this year with problems associated with the Six Flags Read to Succeed program, as they appear to be having lots of issues. We have no affiliation with the Six Flags Read to Succeed program other than posting the information. If you are having problems, please contact them directly via the Contact Us page.

Details for the 2013-2014 Six Flags Read to Succeed program have been released. This is the third year we have helped promote the program, which rewards students for reading during the school year, and in return they get free Six Flags tickets to their local park. Students are required to spend time and logging six (6) or more hours of reading to qualify for the program. Once the log of your required reading has been submitted, tickets will be mailed in the spring (early May).

This year the program website has advanced quite a bit to access the information.

1) After visiting the Six Flags Read to Succeed website, guests need to register to access the program.

Read to Succeed Register

2) The next step requires you to identify whether you are registering under a public/private school or if you are a home school student.

Read to Succeed Schooling

This is where the program gets lengthy. It used to be you could at least see the details of the program; however, this year the Read to Succeed program requires a lengthy registration process. We attempted to tap into the system by registering as a private/public school, but the program wanted us to become the coordinator for that selected school.

So we elected to go the home school route, just for the purpose of being able to see the details of this years program.

Legitimate students and parents of a qualifying school should have no problem registering with their participating school.

3) This years participating Six Flags amusement park locations in the Read to Succeed program include the following:

  • Six Flags Over Texas (Arlington)
  • Six Flags Over Georgia (Atlanta)
  • Six Flags St. Louis (St. Louis)
  • Six Flags Great Adventure (Jackson, NJ)
  • Six Flags Magic Mountain (Los Angeles)
  • Six Flags Great America (Chicago)
  • Six Flags Fiesta Texas (San Antonio, TX)
  • Six Flags America (Washington DC/Baltimore)
  • Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (San Francisco/Sacramento)
  • Six Flags New England (Springfield, MA)
  • Great Escape (Lake George, NY)

4) After finally getting through the website registration process, you will be directed to page that will allow you to then register students, manage your reading logs, select or change the park you want tickets to, and get to the real meat of the program, the terms.

It really bothers me that rather than Six Flags putting the details of the program on the front end, they elect to hide everything behind a registration process and give it to you at the very end. Poor, poor execution!

Here are important program guidelines for you to know:

  • Only schools with students in grades K through 6 are eligible to participate.
  • Student Reading Logs and Parent Letters are available in your online account under “Documents.”
  • Students must complete six hours, or 360 minutes, of recreational reading to earn one FREE Six Flags ticket.
  • Students can read books, magazines, newspapers, eBooks or comic books. Reading for homework or a class assignment does NOT count.
  • The Student Reading Log and Parent Letter will have a fill-in-the-blank area for you to write the date you want the students to return the Reading Log back to you. You will need to remind your students and parents to return the
    Reading Logs back to you on time. Late entries will NOT be accepted.
  • Each school will need one registered Coordinator. The Coordinator will earn a FREE Teacher Ticket for facilitating the program at their school. The coordinator can be a teacher or school employee, such as the librarian or media specialist or even a parent volunteer.
  • Educators who teach grades K though 6 can register. Teachers who have at least one student who completes the program can earn a FREE Teacher Ticket by entering their student information in their online account.
  • There are two parts to the program, the handwritten part and the online part. Both need to be completed to earn tickets.
    1. The Student Reading Logs are handwritten by the students/parents as they log their minutes from reading. Students need to turn the logs into their teacher. Starting this year, teachers will NOT have to mail the Student Reading Logs in. However, we do ask that teachers save the completed Student Reading Logs for future reference. We may also conduct periodic reviews of Student Reading Logs, so please keep the Student Reading Logs in your files.
    2. Educators will need to register online if they did not participate last year. Once you are registered, you will have an online account. You will need to enter your students’ names and total hours they have read in your online account. If your school coordinator enters the students’ names and hours in their online account, you WILL NOT get the credit for having your students complete the program, and you will NOT earn a FREE Teacher Ticket. YOU will need to enter your own students in YOUR online account to earn a FREE Teacher Ticket.
  • Begin the program as soon as registration opens in the fall to give your students plenty of time to read the required six hours.
  • Give yourself enough time to complete the online submission well before the deadline.

Additional info on tickets:

  • The Student and Teacher Tickets are valid for admission on select dates only during the 2014 season. The valid dates will be included on the tickets.
  • Tickets are valid for students in grades K-6 only, and are not valid for anyone over the age of 13. No exceptions.
  • Each ticket is valid for one free admission only.
  • Tickets cannot be used for group events, school trips, field trips or school outings.
  • Tickets are not for resale and are nontransferable.
  • They cannot be replaced if lost, stolen or damaged.

The deadline for registration is March 3, 2014 at 5pm Central Standard Time.

While the details of this years program are slim, you can also see our information from the 2012-2013 Read to Succeed program to get a better understanding and possible additional details, should they carry forward to this year.

In Conclusion

I really like the Read to Succeed program and think the more kids read, the better their chances are of advancing mentally in school. This programs gives our younger generation the chance to understand the benefits of reading, and in return, they will be able to get out and experience a little fun.

Teach your children to read InACents, and the more they learn, the faster they will be experiencing all kinds of great activities that cost way less than what the masses pay.

Save Money, Travel More!

Source: InACents

US Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards Updates

Leave a comment

US Bank FlexPerks Cards

Over the weekend I decided to check into my US Bank FlexPerks program since I have not used the card in some time. The following are some updates related to the program.

Deal Details

1) The best offer for the US Bank FlexPerks card remains 20,000 points after $3,500 in spend within 4 months. It used to be you had to go into a US Bank branch to get the offer; however, the same best offer can currently be obtained online directly from US Bank. The normal offer is only 17,500 points.

The beauty of the FlexPerks programs is that each point is worth $0.02 in value, making your 20,000 point bonus = $400 in travel. By meeting the minimum spend, you will have 23,500 points, enough for $400 in travel and the second year annual fee.

You just need to know that the points can only be redeemed in increments.

    20,000 points = $400
    30,000 points = $600
    40,000 points = $800
    50,000 points = $1,000
    70,000 points = $1,400
    100,000 points = $2,000
    150,000 points = $3,000
    225,000 points = $4,500
    350,000 points = $7,000
    500,000 points = $10,000
    625,000 points = $12,500
    750,000 points = $15,000
    875,000 points = $17,500
    1,000,000 points = $20,000

Note, to redeem US Bank FlexPerks, you need to book through Travelocity. The key to using your FlexPerks is to make sure you do not go into the next threshold. For example, if you find a flight for $400.01, you automatically kick up into the next tier, requiring 30,000 points instead of 20,000.

I have argued in the past that I think it is better to go for the 17,500 FlexPerks offer, which previously had a lower spend requirement, but netted you the same 20,000 tier. To get this offer, you need to be referred by a current card holder. If interested, please contact me for a referral.

2) As a reminder, the Daily Feats program is associated with the FlexPerks program, and allows you to perform simple tasks to earn Daily Feats points. Then, as part of the reward program, you can redeem your points for FlexPerks.

Oct 2013 Daily Feats Redemptions

Currently, you can redeem 50 Daily Feats points for 250 FlexPerks or 90 Daily Feats points for 500 FlexPerks. However, redemptions are limited to once every 90 days.

I, unfortunately, had not redeemed any points since February, so I missed out on getting another round of free points within the 90 day limit.

3) This may be a targeted promotion, but if you visit the US Bank FlexPerks promotions page, I was selected to earn 2,000 bonus FlexPerks after using my card between November 1 and December 31, 2013 on $1,000 in purchases.

4) I was also targeted to earn 250 free FlexPerks points if I register with e-Rewards and complete my first survey within 90 days. I currently belong to e-Rewards with several other programs. Besides logging in and taking part in a survey or two about once a month, I do not use the program too much because often times I do not qualify for the selected surveys based on my answers. Earning points with the program takes some time, and really lost some of the allure when US Airways stopped doing to Grand Slam promotion.

I also do not like having to create a new e-Rewards account for every partner. It becomes cumbersome to always use a new email, and while I know there are ways around that by using Gmail, the time commitment required to get anywhere in the program is not necessarily worth the results.

In Conclusion

While the sign-up bonus of the US Bank FlexPerks card may not seem the most lucrative, it has some excellent benefits when you consider the points are worth two cents per point. In addition, there are some excellent opportunities right now to earn additional free points with very little effort.

I happen to carry the personal version of the card, but have yet to really find an ideal opportunity to maximize my value. I ideally would love to take advantage of a $200 fare somewhere, thereby allowing our family to use our 40,000+ points for $800 in value, assuming 4 seats.

Save Money, Travel More!

Source: InACents