Paying for meals with Disney gift card

[Captainkidd76]

Hi all. I was thinking this morning - I have $1,000 in Disney gift cards I plan on using for some of our pricier meals. Let's just say you have $100 gift card. Your meal comes to $60. Can you leave the tip on your gift card, or does it need to be paid seperately? When you pay restaurant bills with your credit card, it doesn't add the gratuity on right away. How does it work with gift cards?

 

[starry_solo]

Hi all. I was thinking this morning - I have $1,000 in Disney gift cards I plan on using for some of our pricier meals. Let's just say you have $100 gift card. Your meal comes to $60. Can you leave the tip on your gift card, or does it need to be paid seperately? When you pay restaurant bills with your credit card, it doesn't add the gratuity on right away. How does it work with gift cards?

Pay with the gift card. They will give you a receipt that shows that you paid with it and have a line for a gratuity (like if you paid with a credit card). Write on that receipt the gratuity (on their copy since they will give you two) and return. Write on the second copy for your records and keep with gift card. I like to make sure that they took that amount off before discarding the card.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Also, if you're staying on site, you can pay off room charges with the gift card. We charged everything to the room and then I went down to the front desk at the end of the day every couple of days to pay things off using our gift cards.

 

[Pmlocke]

A gift card is like cash, it's just stored on the card. At my age (65) all I ever request for gifts on my birthday or christmas are disney gift cards. We use them every year to pay for our meals and my annual tshirt and watch. Yes, you can pay the tip out of the card. A little suggestion, keep the receipt to keep track of what amount is left on the card.

 

[nllmncsu]

We always use gift cards for our meals at Disney instead of purchasing the dining plan. I do take cash and use it for the tips instead of adding tips on the gift cards because it's easier keeping track of what's left on the card.

 

[Tigger's ally]

We too charge everything to the room. Just so easy with the magic band. Then, one morning/evening while passing through the lobby I just plop down all my gift cards and pay down the bill. I only had about $600 worth of gift cards last trip and my bill was something like $800 at the time (we pay tix and hotel up front) so after I used the gift cards, I still had $200 on the bill carrying over with the rest of our charges for the week. To me, this saved me having to worry about how much was left on each card or using two cards at one meal. It also kept me from reaching any limit on my bill at the resort that would make them charge the card more than once. I ended up with just one charge of about $1200 for our food and other stuff the last night. Works great.

 

[Captainkidd76]

We always use gift cards for our meals at Disney instead of purchasing the dining plan. I do take cash and use it for the tips instead of adding tips on the gift cards because it's easier keeping track of what's left on the card.

That's exactly what I'm thinking.

 

[momtwoboys]

That's exactly what I'm thinking.

same we pay the bill with the gift card and then I write CASH TIP on the Tip line and leave cash at each TS we have.

 

[shocker]

Hi all. I was thinking this morning - I have $1,000 in Disney gift cards I plan on using for some of our pricier meals. Let's just say you have $100 gift card. Your meal comes to $60. Can you leave the tip on your gift card, or does it need to be paid seperately? When you pay restaurant bills with your credit card, it doesn't add the gratuity on right away. How does it work with gift cards?

Works the same as a credit card does, the tip will be taken off the GC after you sign & leave a receipt (only caveat is having sufficient funds on the GC to cover).

My take is, if there is sufficient benefit to someone to use a GC in the first place, then why leave that benefit behind by paying $100's of $$$ in tip money in cash? Depends on how many are eating, what your meal totals look like, & how long your stay is, & how many TS you plan, but tips could add up fast. I would add them back to the GC...I use them too.

 

[agavegirl1]

On my last trip (to be honest it was in 2014) , we used nothing but Disney gift cards and my Disney rewards card for all meals except Shula's which does not accept them. I had no problems. I could add tips, get receipts showing the balance on the gift card etc. There was a little preparation in advance... I brought about twenty $50 cards and numbered them with a sharpie. I then had $600 on my rewards card as well. This year, I used the gift cards to pay for my resort stay and will use the rewards card for meals.

 

[BorderTenny]

We too charge everything to the room. Just so easy with the magic band. Then, one morning/evening while passing through the lobby I just plop down all my gift cards and pay down the bill. I only had about $600 worth of gift cards last trip and my bill was something like $800 at the time (we pay tix and hotel up front) so after I used the gift cards, I still had $200 on the bill carrying over with the rest of our charges for the week. To me, this saved me having to worry about how much was left on each card or using two cards at one meal. It also kept me from reaching any limit on my bill at the resort that would make them charge the card more than once. I ended up with just one charge of about $1200 for our food and other stuff the last night. Works great.

Instead of paying down with a bunch of gift cards, why not combine them at disneygiftcard.com? That's much quicker for you and the CM (and anyone who may be waiting behind you).

 

[LoriWV]

Is there any need to plan for "holds" on the gift cards? I guess more of an issue if you have several smaller ones, but trying to think ahead.

 

[Simba's Mom]

same we pay the bill with the gift card and then I write CASH TIP on the Tip line and leave cash at each TS we have.

Great idea! I've always paid for the meal with a gift card, and left a tip in cash. But I've just drawn a line through the tip line on the receipt. It would be better to write "Cash Tip", especially since I always fear someone coming along and taking the money off the table. This way the server knows that money was left.

 

[CraigInPA]

Is there any need to plan for "holds" on the gift cards? I guess more of an issue if you have several smaller ones, but trying to think ahead.

I didn't experience any holds when my wife and I used over $1400 in gift cards during our last trip for dining. In fact, we'd leave the tip on the card, and by the time we got back to our room, the new balance was already showing on the card site. We started with 2 $500 cards and 4 $100 cards, and just kept adding the unused balances to whatever card was left as the amount on the card became too small to pay for a meal.

 

[Nebraska_Disney]

I usually go to Sam's club prior to a trip and buy a boat load of gift cards and get the small discount Sam's offers on them and to also get my 2% cash back on my credit card. This way, I can pay down my Disney reservation using gift cards and get the discount too. What I like about Sam's is they have $500 gift cards and I think the last time I bought 12 of them for my trip. I paid off my reservation and I had about $1200 left on 3 cards for meals/shopping during the week. What I saved and got back in points paid for our dinner (4 adults) at Ohana. If we split up to eat, I'd give my wife a $500 card and we spent them down during the week. What ever was left, we used for souvenirs. It was summer and hot, so we only did 3 table service meals on our week there.

 

[Tigger's ally]

Instead of paying down with a bunch of gift cards, why not combine them at disneygiftcard.com? That's much quicker for you and the CM (and anyone who may be waiting behind you).

I could, but there is never anybody "waiting behind me" when I pay down my bill after closing down the Gurgling Suitcase. And the CM is usually bored out of their skull.