How to Stay At Disney Hotels with Points

For a lot of families, saving up for a Disney vacation is a big deal! And staying at Disney Hotels can make that vacation even more magical. There are lots of hotel options that allow you to stay near Disneyland in California, Disney World in Orlando, or Disneyland Paris on points. But here are some ways you can use your points to stay at a Disney Hotel. Or check out my post all about Disneyland Paris.

Throughout the post, I will use screenshots I took from different portals searching June 1-4, 2022. These aren’t necessarily the best value dates — I’m just using these as a point of comparison.

Rent Disney Vacation Club Points to Stay at Disney Hotels

How it Works

Essentially Disney has timeshare owners that buy into the Disney Vacation Club (DVC) that have points that allow them to book stays at Disney Hotels and Resorts.

DVC rooms are called villas and vary in size and how many people they can accommodate. Studio Villas sleep 4-5, 2 bedroom villas sleep 8-9 or 3 bedroom Grand Villas sleep 12.

You can rent points from a DVC owner who is not using all of their points that year. My friend Kim has a very detailed post on this process on her blog — so definitely read that if you are interested in this method!

How to Use Points

If you want to pay with points, you’ll need to book using an online broker that accepts credit cards — and it will have to code as a travel expense. Based on Kim’s experience, using David’s Vacation Club Rentals works for that.

Cards like the Capital One Venture and Venture X allow you to “erase” travel purchases that you make with points. If you have 100,000 points, you can erase a $1,000 travel purchase.

What It Costs

In my sample search for June 1-5, 2022, these are the rates for 4 night stay at the cheapest option.

Disney World

Disneyland

Best Credit Cards for This Method

My two favorite cards for using this method would be the Capital One Venture and Venture X. You can read my full post on the Venture X and see the other benefits I love on this card.

Even better — you and your spouse could both get the cards and combine your points to offset your travel purchase — and save even more!

Capital One does offer you the option to refer a friend (or spouse) but will only award you referral points if that person has never had any account of any kind with Capital One before.

Stay at Marriott’s Swan or Dolphin Properties at Disney World

How it Works

Marriott has two properties at Disney World that are actually on the Disney Property — the Swan and the Dolphin.

Both hotels offers free resort shuttles to and from the parks plus special Disney benefits like free parking at the resort. Certain benefits such as FastPass+, on-site character dining and Extra Magic Hours are currently suspended. You can read about all the benefits here.  

How to Use Marriott Bonvoy Points

Both hotels cost between 40,000 and 60,000 points per night, depending on the dates and whether they are considered standard, peak, or off-peak. In March, Marriott is switching to variable pricing, so prices may be less predictable. With Marriott, if you stay 5 nights with points, your lowest cost night will be free.

You will still pay a $35 per night resort fee.

The easiest way to see availability and prices is to use the Flexible Dates calendar when you are booking. You can see in May 2022 there is a lot of availability with prices all over the place.

Best Credit Cards for This Method

There are 4 different credit cards you could open to earn a bonus with Marriott points. Two are issued by Chase and two are issued by American Express. You cannot open the Marriott cards from Chase if you have the ones from American Express and vice versa. The card I’d recommend would depend on current offers. I’d suggest waiting till you see an offer of at least 100,000 points per night.

Offset Disney Hotels with Capital One Venture Miles

How it Works

Just like if you are buying Vacation Club points — you will need to book using an online service that accepts credit cards — and it will have to code as a travel expense.

Cards like the Capital One Venture and Venture X allow you to “erase” travel purchases that you make with points. If you have 100,000 points, you can erase a $1,000 travel purchase.

What it Costs

Disneyland

Disney World

Disneyland Paris

How to use Points

My two favorite cards for using this method would be the Capital One Venture and Venture X. You can read my full post on the Venture X and see the other benefits I love on this card.

Even better — you and your spouse could both get the cards and combine your points to offset your travel purchase — and save even more!

Capital One does offer you the option to refer a friend (or spouse) but will only award you referral points if that person has never had any account of any kind with Capital One before.

Book Disney Hotels Through Bank Portals

Many banks have portals that allow you to book travel directly through them and use your points — or earn bonus points. These portals operate similar to Expedia and are powered by different search engines.

How it Works

When you book through the Chase, Citi, or Capital One portals, you will be able to use your points to cover all or part of your purchase.

Rates can vary widely by bank portal and the value for your points will fluctuate based on the credit card you hold with that bank. I did these searches for a Chase Sapphire Preferred, a Citi Premier, and a Capital One Venture X.

What it Costs

Disneyland

You might find some dates where the Citi portal for Thank You points includes options to book Disneyland Anaheim hotels, but on the dates I was searching it wasn’t available.

Disney World

Disneyland Paris

How to use Points

The best card option for using this method would be the Capital One Venture, Capital One Venture X, or Citi Premier. You can read my full post on the Venture X and see the other benefits I love on this card.

Even better — you and your spouse could both get the cards and combine your points to offset your travel purchase — and save even more!

Book Disney Hotels on Hotwire

Disney Resort hotels are sometimes listed on Hotwire, especially closer in.

How it Works

When you book with Hotwire, it automatically codes as a travel expense.

Cards like the Capital One Venture and Venture X allow you to “erase” travel purchases that you make with points. If you have 100,000 points, you can erase a $1,000 travel purchase.

How to use Points

My two favorite cards for using this method would be the Capital One Venture and Venture X. You can read my full post on the Venture X and see the other benefits I love on this card.

Even better — you and your spouse could both get the cards and combine your points to offset your travel purchase — and save even more!

Capital One does offer you the option to refer a friend (or spouse) but will only award you referral points if that person has never had any account of any kind with Capital One before.

Earn Swagbucks to offset your Disney Hotels cost

This method won’t get your Disney hotel paid for directly, but it is a great way to earn some extra cash that you can mentally earmark for your Disney stay.

How it Works

First you’ll sign up for Swagbucks. Swagbucks has different ways to complete deals to earn “Swagbucks.” Here is their description from their website.

If you’re new to Swagbucks — I so appreciate if you use my referral link when opening an account.

Then you complete various offers to earn “Swagbucks.” 1000 Swagbucks is worth about $10. Some offers allow you to earn 25,000 Swagbucks ($250!)

You can then redeem those Swagbucks for gift cards to a number of places or just transfer them straight to your PayPal account.

How to Find Worthwhile Offers

Doctor of Credit regularly posts deals from Swagbucks that are money makers.

I’m starting a Swagbucks challenge on March 1 to help people earn $500 in 1 month on Swagbucks. Join my private Facebook group for all the info and to join the challenge!

Buy Disney Tickets with Thank You Points

If you hold a Citi Premier® Card you can purchase Disney tickets directly with your points. You can redeem at a rate of 1 cent per point. So the current 80,000 point sign up bonus would give you $800 towards Disney tickets.

To do this, you have to call in to Connexions, which is a third-party travel agency that Citi uses.

Here is the general process when you call:

1. Call 800-842-6596.
2. Select “Redeem ThankYou points.”
3. Enter the last four digits of your card.
4. Select “Travel rewards.”
5. Press 3 for “Cruises and tours.”

You’ll essentially need to find your way to the cruises and tour department in order to book your Disney tickets.

The prices the Connexions Travel phone agents quote should be the same as the Disney website.

You should be able to use your ticket number to link to your My Disney Experience account.

Questions? Comments? Let me know!