Disney Gift Cards

[ColtCheeto]

Hi all! Amateur cruiser here. Can Disney gift cards be purchased beforehand & then used on board towards drinks/excursions/gratuities/souvenirs/stuff? Is it worth it to buy cards at Best Buy (or another place that offers rewards points) for money I know I'm going to spend on board anyway? Or if I somehow find cheaper than face value DGCs?

 

[squirk]

Hi all! Amateur cruiser here. Can Disney gift cards be purchased beforehand & then used on board towards drinks/excursions/gratuities/souvenirs/stuff? Is it worth it to buy cards at Best Buy (or another place that offers rewards points) for money I know I'm going to spend on board anyway? Or if I somehow find cheaper than face value DGCs?

Yes, you can add gift cards to your onboard folio, but make sure you hold onto the cards. If you don’t spend all of the funds, I believe the difference can only be refunded back to the original gift card. No cash back; no crediting back to credit/debit cards.

The Budget Board here has all kinds of tips on scoring Disney gift cards at a discount. The usual three ways are to:

a.) buy gift cards off a place like Raise.com;
b.) buy them at Target with your Target Red Card for a 5% discount; or
c.) use a credit card that is generous with points or cash back to buy gift cards at a warehouse club like Sam’s or Costco, who usually sell the cards at a 4-5% discount. That discount, plus whatever rewards the credit card gives you, can give you an “all-in” discount of anywhere from 6-12%.​

Good luck.

 

[Mommb]

You cannot use Disney Gift Cards directly for purchases on the ship, except possibly at the shops. You can, as squirk said, apply gift cards to your onboard account.

You will just need to go to Guest Services and say that you want to pay with the card(s). If you have placed a credit card on your account, it is best to present the gift card as soon as you know enough expenses have been charged to cover it (which you can check by asking for an account printout from Guest Services) because once your account reaches a certain dollar amount, the credit card will be charged even if the cruise isn’t over. I think that’s around $500, but I’m not sure.

You can even “pay” more than you currently owe (if, for example, you know you will taking excursions that haven’t been charged yet), with any excess at the end of the cruise refunded to the card.

So, the short answer is, if you can buy gift cards at a discount, you can save money by using them to pay expenses on your cruise.

 

[gary in florida]

You can not use on the ship nor on Castaway Cay. You can contact Disney ahead of time and have them apply to your on board account. Like mentioned hold onto the original gift cards. It's very easy to contact Disney by phone and have the apply to your account, better than standing in line on the ship.

 

[anricat]

You can not use on the ship nor on Castaway Cay. You can contact Disney ahead of time and have them apply to your on board account.

Well, sort of. You can use them in the gift shops onboard or you go directly to Guest Services to apply them to your onboard account. There's no need to contact Disney ahead of time.

 

[Quellman]

Yes, you can add gift cards to your onboard folio, but make sure you hold onto the cards. If you don’t spend all of the funds, I believe the difference can only be refunded back to the original gift card. No cash back; no crediting back to credit/debit cards.

The Budget Board here has all kinds of tips on scoring Disney gift cards at a discount. The usual three ways are to:

a.) buy gift cards off a place like Raise.com;
b.) buy them at Target with your Target Red Card for a 5% discount; or
c.) use a credit card that is generous with points or cash back to buy gift cards at a warehouse club like Sam’s or Costco, who usually sell the cards at a 4-5% discount. That discount, plus whatever rewards the credit card gives you, can give you an “all-in” discount of anywhere from 6-12%.​

Good luck.

In May, unused gift cards added to my account were refunded to my credit card on file. Just a point of reference.

 

[gary in florida]

Well, sort of. You can use them in the gift shops onboard or you go directly to Guest Services to apply them to your onboard account. There's no need to contact Disney ahead of time.

Well, the must have changed, because at one point I was told you could not use them on board except for your account. Yes. if you want to stand in line at guest services then be my guest, otherwise you can just sit at home in your living room and talk to a cm and have them added to your account.

 

[Dug720]

If you have multiple cards, the absolute best thing you can do is go to disneygiftcard.com and combine them onto as few as possible. You can have up to $1000 on each card.

Not only is that fewer cards to hold onto in case of a refund, you will be the favorite person of the agent you speak with to buy the onboard credit only having one or two cards for her/him to put in rather than a zillion.

 

[anricat]

if you want to stand in line at guest services then be my guest, otherwise you can just sit at home in your living room and talk to a cm and have them added to your account.

I've walked straight up to the desk at Guest Services on many occasions. If I see that there is no wait, I just pop over there. It only takes a few seconds as opposed to finding the number for DCL, going through the phone tree, sitting on hold for an agent, explaining what I want to do, looking up the reservation, reading out the numbers. Honestly, I think the former is easier.

 

[ColtCheeto]

Beautiful! Thanks all!

 

[Mitura]

What I do is I purchase them thru my church and the discount gets applied towards my child's schooling. I think it saved me probably 25% off of the tuition. Also the empty gift cards work wonderfully in keeping the lights on. No need to use your stateroom card.

 

[squirk]

In May, unused gift cards added to my account were refunded to my credit card on file. Just a point of reference.

Interesting. I had been told by GS (maybe three years ago) that that was not possible, and they could only refund to the original form of payment. I stand corrected.

 

[Quellman]

Interesting. I had been told by GS (maybe three years ago) that that was not possible, and they could only refund to the original form of payment. I stand corrected.

As I mentioned. It is just a data point, may not be an operational change.

I figure DCL is sending it back to the credit card on file when they can because it is one single transaction to refund $200 to a credit card, vs refunding $25 to 8 different gift cards (that people probably already threw away). Obviously it is different if you have a cash account.

To further complicate things, At the Resorts, they won't allow you to have a credit on your account. At least in my experience last year at the Polynesian and at Bay Lake Tower. You could come pay down your balance, but you couldn't pay down some balance, and then have a credit sitting on your account. I suspect it is a result of processing fees. So if you want to pay down your account, you need to ask them to remove express checkout (where the system charges your card on file at like 3am) so you can go finish paying with a gift card the last morning.

 

[1hourtoDisney]

Not exactly the same question, but it has to do with gift cards. I was planning on giving my 10 year old daughter a $50 gift card for spending $ on cruise- either souvenirs or specialty snacks. Is this not going to work?

 

[Geomom]

Not exactly the same question, but it has to do with gift cards. I was planning on giving my 10 year old daughter a $50 gift card for spending $ on cruise- either souvenirs or specialty snacks. Is this not going to work?

She can only use it in the shops, nowhere else.

 

[squirk]

I figure DCL is sending it back to the credit card on file when they can because it is one single transaction to refund $200 to a credit card, vs refunding $25 to 8 different gift cards (that people probably already threw away). Obviously it is different if you have a cash account.

Right. I was wondering if they did exactly that - used the actual gift cards up, and refunded the value of the used gift cards back to your CC. A clever workaround.

 

[BartmanLA]

Not exactly the same question, but it has to do with gift cards. I was planning on giving my 10 year old daughter a $50 gift card for spending $ on cruise- either souvenirs or specialty snacks. Is this not going to work?

You can give her the card, but when you get on board just take her to Guest Services and apply it to you onboard stateroom account. Then she can use her KTTW to make any purchases with it. That way she won't have to keep track of the gift card.

As a side note to purchasing, you can buy discounted Disney Gift Cards from Sam's Club (4-5% off) and use them to not only pay for your cruise but also for on board purchases. To get the most out of your purchase, buy the gift cards with a rewards credit card such as a Chase Disney Visa card, where you accumulate Disney Reward Dollars so you get 2 benefits in 1 transaction, combine your gift cards on DisneyGiftCard.com. Just before your cruise, Redeem your Disney Reward Dollars from Chase and get a Redemption card you can use to apply to your onboard account.

 

[Beth D]

Not exactly the same question, but it has to do with gift cards. I was planning on giving my 10 year old daughter a $50 gift card for spending $ on cruise- either souvenirs or specialty snacks. Is this not going to work?

Also, you will need to allow charging priveleges on her card: We typically don’t give charging priveleges to our sons card...

 

[dad of 3 addicted to DCL]

We've used gift cards for our on board booking; handed them to the CM and she entered the codes right there.

 

[1hourtoDisney]

I guess this is why I thought I would do the gift card, so I didn’t give her charging privileges on the KTTW card. This way she would be limited to the $50. ($25 of which is hers, and I’m matching)