Disney World is a must-see destination… but it’s very expensive for families!
Découvrez ces astuces pour économiser à Disneyworld sur l’hébergement grâce aux points des programmes de fidélité !
Table of contents
Foreword
Parents of two young children (2 and 4 years old), Disney World will be one of our next family vacation destinations.
With this goal in mind, we have set our credit card applications strategy for the year.
The goal is to save money at Disney World on the main expenses of the trip:
- Hotels or other accommodations (Marriott Bonvoy / Best Western / travel credits for Airbnb)
- Amusement parks entrances (AIR MILES)
- Expenses in amusement parks (AIR MILES)
- Airfares tickets (AIR MILES / Aeroplan / travel credits)
- Car rentals (AIR MILES / travel points)
In this first article, we’ll show you our strategy to save money at Disney World on the hotel with Marriott Bonvoy points! A future article will show you the hotels accessible with Best Western Rewards… and even airbnb accommodations accessible with points!
Save money on hotel at Disney World with Marriott Bonvoy points
The Orlando area is well stocked with Marriott Bonvoy hotels.

Marriott Bonvoy utilise une grille tarifaire de 8 catégories pour distinguer ses 7,000+ hôtels.
Category | Off-Peak | Standard | Peak Season |
1 | 5,000 | 7,500 | 10,000 |
2 | 10,000 | 12,500 | 15,000 |
3 | 15,000 | 17,500 | 20,000 |
4 | 20,000 | 25,000 | 30,000 |
5 | 30,000 | 35,000 | 40,000 |
6 | 40,000 | 50,000 | 60,000 |
7 | 50,000 | 60,000 | 70,000 |
8 | 70,000 | 85,000 | 100,000 |
Ainsi, il en coûtera entre 5,000 points et 100 000 points pour vous offrir une nuit gratuite dans l’un des 7,000+ hôtels appartenant à Marriott Bonvoy.
Low/high-season pricing will come into effect in 2019. This will be based on hotels and not generalized throughout the portfolio.
There are Marriott Bonvoy hotels in ALL price ranges.
The points cost of Marriott Bonvoy hotels at Disney World
When looking close to the amusement parks:
- Epcot
- Magic Kingdom
- Animal Kingdom
- Hollywood Studios
- Seaworld
… we find that hotels cost between 17,500 and 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night.

The big advantage of the Marriott Bonvoy program is to offer the fifth night when the first 4 nights were paid withpoints, which saves 20% in points!

Thus, for a 5-night stay, the cost per night will be between 14,000 and 40,000 points depending on the hotel!
The list of Marriott Bonvoy hotels around Disney World
Here is the full list of Marriott Bonvoy hotels around the main amusement parks and points of interest:
- Disney World/Lake Buena Vista
- Animal Kingdom
- Seaworld
- Universal Studios
- Orlando MCO Airport
- Downtown Orlando
The best Marriott Bonvoy hotels at Disney World
For a family who wants to save money at Disney World, it’s important to choose their hotel! Some Marriott Bonvoy hotels offer:
- real apartments with a kitchen, a very important aspect with children. This is the case for those brands:
- Residence Inn
- TownePlace Suites
- Free breakfast for all, regardless of Marriott Bonvoy status. This is the case for those brands:
- Residence Inn
- TownePlace Suites
- Fairfield Inn and Suites
- Springhill and Suites
So if you really want to save on hotel at Disney world and on food, you’ll have to choose a Residence Inn or a TownePlace Suites.
For us, the hotels that have the best value around Disney World are these:
TownePlace Suites
TownePlace Suites Orlando Theme Parks/Lake Buena Vista hotel is conveniently located in Lake Buena Vista, just outside Disneyworld.

It is also across the street from Orlando Vineland Premium Outlets stores.
Pour faire votre épicerie dans les supermarchés Winn-Dixie et Publix qui sont à proximité, n’oubliez pas d’utiliser une carte de crédit sans frais de conversion en devises étrangères afin de sauver 2.5% sur chaque transaction:
The hotel has “studio rooms with 2 bed queens and kitchen” or suites.
The cost per night is 25,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.
For 5 nights, it will cost you 100,000 points (with the fifth night free)with no additional fees!

Our second choice would be the TownePlace Suites Orlando at SeaWorld® hotel which costs the same points, but is on the SeaWorld side.

Marriott Hotels WITHIN Disney World
If you have more Marriott Bonvoy points in your account, you could treat yourself and stay at one of the two Marriott Bonvoy hotels in Disney World:

These two hotels are Category 6 and therefore cost 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night.
For 5 nights, it will cost you 200,000 points (fifth night free)! However, a “resort” fee of 33.75 USD/night is added to the total.
As official Disney World hotels, you get many advantages by staying at one of these 2 hotels including:
- Extra Magic Hours
- Fast Pass + / My Magic +
- Complimentary transportation to parks
- Free parking within the parks (but not at the hotel)

Our strategy with Marriott Bonvoy credit cards
Now that we have a “points goal”, from 70,000 to 200,000 Marriott Bonvoy points for a 5-night stay at Disney World, let’s set the strategy to earn those points !
In Canada, there are 2 Marriott Bonvoy credit cards:
Application for Bonvoy Cards
For one person, it is possible to apply for both cards on the same day: consumer card and small business card.
But it is of course possible to spread out the application over time, in order to carry the required purchases ($1500) during the first 3 months after application in order to unlock the welcome bonus of 50,000 points.
Within a couple, like Audrey and I, we each applied for the 2 cards (consumer and small business cards), which allows us to each earn:
- 50 000 points pour la souscription à la Carte Marriott Bonvoyᵐᶜ American ExpressMD
- 50,000 points for application to Marriott Bonvoy™ Business American Express® Card
- 6,000 points for minimum purchases on the 2 cards (2 x $1,500)
- That’s 106,000 points per person!
Our couple will have accumulated 212,000 Marriott Bonvoy points by subscribing to the 4 cards, for only $540 in dues!
So a stay at Disney World would be fully paid thanks to the points (it costs only between 70,000 and 200,000 points for 5 nights). You might even have points left to offer you other free nights or a longer stay!
Transferring points to a single Marriott Bonvoy account
Now that you’re each at the head of a Marriott Bonvoy points capital, you’ll need to merge them together in one account to book 5 nights (or more) in a row!
Marriott Bonvoy allows all members of its loyalty program to transfer points to another member, free of charge, up to 100,000 points per year by calling 1 801 468 4000.

Conclusion
As you probably know, staying close to Disney World/SeaWorld/Universal Studios amusement parks is usually expensive! Here, for a few credit card applications and a budget of $120 to $570, you could save a lot of money on your stay at Disney World and Orlando!
- How to Get Free Airport Lounge Access?
- Save money on your foreign currency transactions
- How to save money on Airbnb with points?
- Save money on hotels with points
- How to save money on flights with points?
- Économiser sur l’hôtel à Walt Disney World
- Save money on Walt Disney World entrances and purchases
- The points hunter’s strategy for Disney
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