Gift cards?

tinkerone · Feb 6, 2019

cdnSpinalTap said:
I just did this recently. You can no longer consolidate them on the US site, but the value of the card is locked in on the day you enter the individual cards on the site. For example, I had $50 CDN gift cards that I added to the site on January 3rd. The value on the gift card site after I added them was $37.20 USD and it stayed that way day after day, even when the exchange rate fluctuated. When I applied the cards to my room on Feb 2, the credited amount to the room was still $37.20 USD - the rate I locked in on January 3rd.

I don't think that's accurate. The rate does fluctuate but maybe you just checked on dates when the rates have been the same. A coincidence for sure but mine are fluctuating. For this very reason I stopped purchasing them. If I can't lock in a rate I don't want them. To much possibility of things going wrong.

ilovetotravel1977 · Feb 6, 2019

I'm not going to activate mine until my next trip. I'm going to have to pay one way or the other. This way I won't have the foreign exchange fees on my credit card.

TinknPink · Apr 22, 2019

What are some of the retailers in Ontario that sell the Disney Gift Cards?

pigletto · Apr 22, 2019

TinknPink said:
What are some of the retailers in Ontario that sell the Disney Gift Cards?

I get mine at Shoppers Drug Mart.

Donald - my hero · Apr 22, 2019

TinknPink said:
What are some of the retailers in Ontario that sell the Disney Gift Cards?

I've seen them at

Rexall
Shoppers
Metro
Sobeys
Canadian Tire
Giant Tiger
Staples
Shell
Esso

Basically *most* stores that have those big gift card displays. Some stores also have them hiding on little "end caps" at certain times of the year (don't ask me WHAT those times are though, seem no rhyme or reason!)

dis_guy · Apr 22, 2019

Maybe I can help a little here. We went to WDW from January 20 to January 26, 2019. We took 3 Disney gift cards (from the Disney Store in West Edmonton Mall), each worth $500 CAN. During our stay and on 3 different days, I put one gift card towards our hotel account balance. Each time the US amount was exactly the same $377.07. On each of these days I checked a currency app and found that the rate Disney was giving us was a tiny bit better than the daily bank rate by about $2 US or so. Maybe during our stay they were using the same rate for the whole week? Who knows? Oh, we were staying at CBR if that matters, and please remember that not all CMs know that you have to enter the number on the card manually rather than swipe the magnetic strip. I found it very easy to do and on one occasion a CM in the lobby did my transaction on her iPad without me even needing to go to the counter.

youngdeb12 · Apr 23, 2019

dis_guy said:
Maybe I can help a little here. We went to WDW from January 20 to January 26, 2019. We took 3 Disney gift cards (from the Disney Store in West Edmonton Mall), each worth $500 CAN. During our stay and on 3 different days, I put one gift card towards our hotel account balance. Each time the US amount was exactly the same $377.07. On each of these days I checked a currency app and found that the rate Disney was giving us was a tiny bit better than the daily bank rate by about $2 US or so. Maybe during our stay they were using the same rate for the whole week? Who knows? Oh, we were staying at CBR if that matters, and please remember that not all CMs know that you have to enter the number on the card manually rather than swipe the magnetic strip. I found it very easy to do and on one occasion a CM in the lobby did my transaction on her iPad without me even needing to go to the counter.

The fx rate should fluctuate daily, unless they don't update their rates each day. If you did the transactions Friday, Saturday and Sunday then that would make sense since the fx likely wouldn't change over the weekend.

dis_guy · Apr 24, 2019

youngdeb12 said:
The fx rate should fluctuate daily, unless they don't update their rates each day. If you did the transactions Friday, Saturday and Sunday then that would make sense since the fx likely wouldn't change over the weekend.

January 17th, 19th, and the 21st. Thursday, Saturday, and Monday.

Pkltm · Apr 24, 2019

kuhltiffany said:
Depends on what you do with it. Some of us buy them, then consolidate them on the Disney Gift Card site, you then lock in the rate/amount when you load the card on the site. If you just hang on to them and use them when at WDW, it will be the conversion rate at that time.

cdnSpinalTap said:
I just did this recently. You can no longer consolidate them on the US site, but the value of the card is locked in on the day you enter the individual cards on the site. For example, I had $50 CDN gift cards that I added to the site on January 3rd. The value on the gift card site after I added them was $37.20 USD and it stayed that way day after day, even when the exchange rate fluctuated. When I applied the cards to my room on Feb 2, the credited amount to the room was still $37.20 USD - the rate I locked in on January 3rd.

Okay we just returned last week from a 19 day trip including land and sea. I can confirm that for us, we combined gift cards on the US site and we used them almost exclusively and they did fluctuate as per the daily rate. You pay the rate of the close the day before as long as disney updates their rates. I kept track of what we were spending and checked on our gift cards fairly often, The only issue we had with them were cast members not looking at the card and realizing they had to scan and we could not swipe them, a couple were actually rude.

ilovetotravel1977 · Apr 24, 2019

Yea, I'm pretty sure you can't "lock in" a rate. It's the previous day's closing rate that you use.

Love2Cruise2015 · Apr 25, 2019

TinknPink said:
What are some of the retailers in Ontario that sell the Disney Gift Cards?

I have seen them at Walmart as well.
I have a question: I have only seen the gift cards in, $25, $50 and $100 where I am, are you still able to combine cards up to the $1000 amount on these cards or is it only for the amount shown on the card ie $50 gift card can only have $50 added, and if so what cards can you buy that will allow you to have a maximum of $1000 per card?

JenluvsDisney · Apr 25, 2019

Love2Cruise2015 said:
I have a question: I have only seen the gift cards in, $25, $50 and $100 where I am, are you still able to combine cards up to the $1000 amount on these cards or is it only for the amount shown on the card ie $50 gift card can only have $50 added, and if so what cards can you buy that will allow you to have a maximum of $1000 per card?

You can most definitely add up to $1000 on the gift cards that have a pre-existing amount already assigned. Once you buy the card and remove it from the paper cover, you'll see that there's no denomination printed on the gift card itself. I just bought six $50 cards at our local grocery store and combined them all onto one card with no issue at all.

Love2Cruise2015 · Apr 25, 2019

JenluvsDisney said:
You can most definitely add up to $1000 on the gift cards that have a pre-existing amount already assigned. Once you buy the card and remove it from the paper cover, you'll see that there's no denomination printed on the gift card itself. I just bought six $50 cards at our local grocery store and combined them all onto one card with no issue at all.

Thank you JenluvsDisney for clarifying

youngdeb12 · Apr 25, 2019

JenluvsDisney said:
You can most definitely add up to $1000 on the gift cards that have a pre-existing amount already assigned. Once you buy the card and remove it from the paper cover, you'll see that there's no denomination printed on the gift card itself. I just bought six $50 cards at our local grocery store and combined them all onto one card with no issue at all.

I do the same thing! I keep one card that I keep transferring the balance to since the store that I get them from only has the $50 cards in stock.

cisco911 · Apr 26, 2019

Hey Guys,
I'm trying to see where on my disney experience I can use a gift card to pay down my reservation. I am trying to pay it off with gift cards before we go so that I can avoid the US exchange fee on my credit card. I don't see anywhere on my disney experience to even view the balance, let alone pay it. Am I missing something?

22Tink · Apr 26, 2019

cisco911 said:
Hey Guys,
I'm trying to see where on my disney experience I can use a gift card to pay down my reservation. I am trying to pay it off with gift cards before we go so that I can avoid the US exchange fee on my credit card. I don't see anywhere on my disney experience to even view the balance, let alone pay it. Am I missing something?

I can see my balance in the app. If you tap on the ‘my resort’ link in the app it should take you to your booking and there should be a ‘view charges’ option. I see my balance there. If it’s a room only booking you will have to call but I’ve heard that packages can be paid down online. I’ve only had room only bookings but it’s really easy to do over the phone.

hdrolfe · Apr 26, 2019

cisco911 said:
Hey Guys,
I'm trying to see where on my disney experience I can use a gift card to pay down my reservation. I am trying to pay it off with gift cards before we go so that I can avoid the US exchange fee on my credit card. I don't see anywhere on my disney experience to even view the balance, let alone pay it. Am I missing something?

Not sure how to do it on the app. My reservation is a bit messed up on there (changed it a couple days ago and it still lists both resorts... ) I have a package and have put payments down on the website. First I check on the disneycard website to see how much my card is worth in USD. Then I go to the Disney website and choose My Plans. Sign in. Then scroll down a bit and beside my reservation there is a Make A Payment in blue. I have trouble on Chrome but am able to do it on Edge and Explorer.

cisco911 · Apr 26, 2019

I think I figures it out. i think since i booked through Disney travel agent it gets setup differently and I cant pay online.

hdrolfe · Apr 26, 2019

cisco911 said:
I think I figures it out. i think since i booked through Disney travel agent it gets setup differently and I cant pay online.

Oh yeah, if you booked through an agent you will need to give them the gift card numbers and they can make the payment for you! I did that for my trip last year

I actually just kept adding gift cards to the one number so I didn't have to send new ones all the time.

AdamsMum · Apr 28, 2019

ilovetotravel1977 said:
Yes, that's what I thought as well. It's fluctuates day to day. It's not a set in stone rate.

I have some cards on the site, and you are right. There is no lock in of the exchange rate. If the CAD tanks, so does your value, if CAD goes up your value goes up. It's a good savings vehicle just to save the forex fees but nothing else.

I use it because my maintenance fees on DVC are due every January right after Christmas and I don't have a US bank acct.

Gift cards?

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