Mid Winter Break : Carlsbad CA

It has come up fast, this Wednesday we will be heading to Carlsbad, via San Diego. 
We leave Wed night, for 3 nights in Carlsbad and Thursday/Friday will be spent at Legoland Park.  Saturday we will head to Sea World for the day spending the night near the airport and heading out bright and early Sunday.  I think 2 days at the Legoland is just right.  Though if anyone has been there, any suggestions or tips are appreciated!

Some know that I work at my company as a rate analyst. What I do as a rate analyst is maintain rates in our systems and negotiate for the best rates possible.

 At home, I am always looking for the best quality, and the lowest rate as well. 
Please do not confuse that with a "saver" that is my husband's department.  I am a SPENDER.  A spender that uses my tools to buy more with the little I have. 

Example:

Tickets from Seattle to San Diego nonstop are about
600+ tax RT per person.  NO KIDDING (!!!?!!).. That is a total of $2,050 for 3.
(Outrageous!!)

In October there were some killer Alaska Airlines stealdeals for airfares.  I received and e-mail of Wickedly low fares from Alaska Airlines and it listed Seattle to San Diego*40 /*89.
 
No way, I had to check it out.
The REAL DEAL, and this is because we prefer NON-STOP with a child, ended up being about $80 per person Each way, so $160 per person, for a total for all 3 of us Seattle to San Diego, $499

Folks, that is a $1570 savings. !!!!

The catch, there is one, the flight out is super early @ 6:30am.  Totally doable, as the last night, is one night at a hotel closer to the airport, and closer to Seaworld, with free shuttle to the airport.  So we will roll out of bed and sleepily be driven to the airport minutes away to arrive home before noon, cool actually. 

So I then looked online at hotels, and saw that I could upgrade the room to a Villa (timeshare luxury suite) that has a King bedroom, full kitchen, dining area etc, from just a 2 queen room for only $34 per day more!  And we are talking the closest hotel to the Legoland park, the property actually backs up against it.

Sometimes if you book 3 or more nights, you will get a discount on the rate.   With this discount, the overall costs of 3 nights is only $102 more than a regular room, not per night, total.
Since I have the savings of the airfares, $34 per day extra on the room, and we also save having no car, to have a King bed and privacy, priceless my friends.

I have always had a knack of planning vacation on the thrift, but having them be large.
I love vacation so much!!!   I thought several times about being a travel agent.  You never know..

Other tips:
Suggestions if you travel to Hawaii, contact a consolidator
agent on Hawaii directly as they work directly with the renters and can communicate deals instead of prepackaged accommodation specials.  When you deal with an online agent, or agent in that is NON island, you are not getting the best deal.  You can do this by googling rental agent and the island name.

We met Aug 12, 2006.
We travelled to Kauai April, 2007 and were engaged on the Wailea river April 29th.
We were married Aug 30, 2008.

So we have not returned to Hawaii since.  I would love to celebrate our 5th anniversary and also take Conrad to see another island, perhaps Maui next year.  I think Scott would be happy if we went on our 10th! 

Scott is not a guy that can easily look ahead and plan.  He keeps his head down on the grindstone and that works for him.  Me, I am the one with my head looking out over the horizon to the next wonderful memory!

I will have TONS of photos from LegoLand after the weekend I expect.
Have a great weekend as well.