The Miles and Points Birthday Staycation That Got 2020ed

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Yes, I’m using 2020 as a verb, not a swear word. For this article, the 2020 verb means canceled due to the pandemic.

Earlier this year, I had a great idea for my daughter’s 10th birthday this fall. She’s always wanted a sleepover party, but we’ve never had one for her at our house. She has two older brothers, our house isn’t all that big and I wanted to wait until she was older. So this year, I hatched up the perfect plan to use miles and points to help.

The plan was to have her birthday sleepover at a local hotel and combo it with a fun daytime activity. Late last year, a new attraction called KidZania opened near us. It’s basically a small city run by kids with jobs, money and shops. My two younger kids visited in December, and I wrote a review here.

I could use hotel points to stay at a hotel near KidZania for her small birthday sleepover. We could visit KidZania during the day, splash in the hotel pool at night and hopefully have a few exhausted girls by nighttime.

Right next to KidZania, Hyatt Regency Frisco recently opened. Perfect! I had Hyatt points I could use. The property costs 12,000 points for a room/24,000 points for a suite.

But 2020….

Of course, over the summer the Covid cases in Texas skyrocketed. KidZania was closed for several months. It did re-open, but honestly it’s the last place I want to be during the pandemic. It’s all indoors, and everything is a “hands-on” attraction. It’s the perfect breeding ground for the virus.

My family has played it rather safe during the pandemic, and my daughter’s friends have as well. Even if we went ahead with the hotel sleepover, I’m pretty sure none of her friends would have gone due to Covid.

I am thankful that I never told my daughter of this party plan. She would have LOVED it! But this way, she’s not disappointed and doesn’t know what she’s missing out on.

What We Did Instead

Last week on her birthday, my daughter had an outdoor play date with her best friend. I ordered pizza, and they had ice cream cake.

Then, we rented out a movie theatre for just our family. Where I live, we can rent out a theatre for just $49 during the week. My daughter picked the movie (Sonic the Hedgehog). It was a lot of fun!

Next year, I plan to pull my daughter out of school for a short birthday trip. It’s her last year of elementary school and the last time I feel like I can have her miss school with few consequences. But, maybe in the future I’ll go back to my hotel points stash to plan a small birthday party getaway with her friends.

Have you used hotel points for a kid’s birthday celebration?

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Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.