URGENT Help Needed Final Payment for Cruise

[DisneyCrazMom]

I think I really messed up - we waited late to book our cruise, I put it on hold and we have been collecting disney gift cards to pay for it. Well I started applying them last night and tonight the final payment is due but the system won't let me split the payment any longer. So I can't finish paying for it now. Anyone know a way around this? Is there any hope that Disney will work with me tomorrow morning and my cruise won't get canceled and I will be out thousands of dollars? HELP

 

[ForMyBoys]

Hi, Did you try consolidating your gift cards first? You can put $500 on each one on the Disney Gift Card website.

 

[DisneyCrazMom]

Yes we thought we had that figured out, but I have about $1200 left and it will only let me put up to $1000 on one card.

 

[MelissaE1]

I'm not even certain this is possible because I've never used gift cards toward payment, but just an idea. If the gc's don't end up working for a portion of the cruise, is there any way you could put it on a credit card and then call in the morning and see if they will apply the gift cards in lieu?

Hope you figure out a solution!

 

[DisneyCrazMom]

I'm not even certain this is possible because I've never used gift cards toward payment, but just an idea. If the gc's don't end up working for a portion of the cruise, is there any way you could put it on a credit card and then call in the morning and see if they will apply the gift cards in lieu?

Hope you figure out a solution!

We thought about it but it makes me very nervous, I wish I knew someone with experience doing that. YIKES this is stressing me out. 30 minutes and counting.

 

[Keyser]

OK, just one thing to keep in mind - if you will be booking excursions (which can add up in cost fast...), you may be able to use up those Disney Gift Cards for the tips/onboard expenses/excursions that you pay for later. So, you might not in fact be out all that money (I don't know the length of your trip, or whether you will do those other things). So, if you can afford to do so, you might just pay it all now, and then you can add the gift cards to your onboard account, that you will use to pay for excursions and so on.

Another option (assuming you can do so) is to pay with a CC now, and call Disney first thing tomorrow to see if they can issue a refund to the card and let you pay with the gift cards instead...

 

[ForMyBoys]

Will you be spending money on the cruise anyway such that you will get use out of the GC if they can't switch it?

 

[FigmentSpark]

I don't know your financial situation, but if it were me, and I had room on my credit card, I would use that tonight rather than lose thousands of dollars.

I assume it's too late to call? Also, have your tried doing $200 on the card first and then apply the last thousand on the gift card?

 

[DisneyCrazMom]

I don't know your financial situation, but if it were me, and I had room on my credit card, I would use that tonight rather than lose thousands of dollars.

I assume it's too late to call? Also, have your tried doing $200 on the card first and then apply the last thousand on the gift card?

Yesterday I was able to enter 40 different gc, but tonight it no longer will give me the option to split it up. I think i really messed this one up.

 

[CamColt]

Oh no! I'm sorry you are running into this glitch. I don't have any advice but wanted to send good thoughts your way. Please let us know how it turned out.

 

[DWillowBay]

Call DCL?

 

[AngelDisney]

Sending you pixie dust! Hoping everything will work out for you!!

 

[Dug720]

I do hope you got it worked out.

But this is definitely a cautionary tale for everyone who wants to wait until the last minute to pay. Things happen, and unless it is DCL’s website being 100% down, I doubt they will listen to excuses (and even then, while they might listen and give exceptions, they would have the right not to). That is part of the reason some travel agencies give an earlier date so there is time in case something goes wrong. It is all well and good to not want to give the Mouse your money one moment early...until there is something that happens that last minute that prevents you from paying and the cruise is cancelled.

In terms of gift cards, yes there is a limit of $1000/card, but it would be better to have say 8 cards with $1000 on each card than the piles and piles of the small cards that made up the $1000 cards.

 

[NancyIL]

I hope you were able to find a solution last night. Had it been me - I would've paid the balance with a credit card (after using as many gift cards for payment as possible), and saved the remaining gift cards for onboard expenses and future Disney spending.

 

[smmco]

I think I really messed up - we waited late to book our cruise, I put it on hold and we have been collecting disney gift cards to pay for it. Well I started applying them last night and tonight the final payment is due but the system won't let me split the payment any longer. So I can't finish paying for it now. Anyone know a way around this? Is there any hope that Disney will work with me tomorrow morning and my cruise won't get canceled and I will be out thousands of dollars? HELP

Was this a nonrefudabe rate? If not the most you would be out is the deposit. I would expect since its a website problem and not your fault they will resolve it for you.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

SO...what happened?

 

[DisneyCrazMom]

Thank you everyone for your advice and pixie dust. So for those of you that wanted to know why I waited until the last minute to pay, I didn't to be clear. I literally booked the cruise this weekend, put it on hold while I gathered all of our gift cards. Not thinking things 100% through, I started entering the gift cards a couple hours after putting the cruise on hold. I had about $1206 more to enter but you know life happens and so I just figured I would come back to it on Sunday. Sunday rolls around I get ready to finish entering the cards and the option to split the payments is not longer there and is was 8:06 EST so DCL was closed. We tried combining them but with it being $1206 you can't combine up to the amount, so the cruise was in fact canceled. Confirmed I was going to be out about $800 "deposit" for the cruise.

Got on the phone with DCL first thing Monday morning, they were great! They could see where I had tried to finish paying for it, took them about an hour but they got everything reversed and I gave them my final two gift cards and we are set to sail May 13! While it worked out great, I will never do that again. I should have just taken the extra time to finish it off on Saturday. I will say I didn't know you could combine the cards before and I will do that from now on. Saturday I entered over 40 individual gc, I could have saved my self some time on the DCL side if I would have combined them, plus now I get to keep those for 6 plus months to be sure nothing gets credited back to one of them or several of the.

 

[FigmentSpark]

So glad to hear things worked out for you!

 

[cgolf]

Glad it worked out

Have a great trip!

 

[MelissaE1]

Phew! Glad it came out Ok, have an awesome time!