Using Disney Vacation Account to purchase Annual Passes

[klepton]

I just wanted to share my experience tonight trying to purchase Annual Passes using money in my Disney Vacation Account. People use DVA for different reasons, mine was to eek out some extra points from credit card transactions. If you want to read more about DVA, look here:

https://disneyvacationaccount.disney.go.com/

So DW and I loaded up $2500 from 74 gift cards tonight, and I set out to purchase three premium annual passes for my family (about $2320). According to the DVA website, you're supposed to be able to use your account number as a gift card number for online purchases. This didn't work for me online, the website kept telling me the gift card was invalid.

I tried online chat, where the agent kept asking me to restate my question. I don't think she had ever heard of DVA. She eventually gave me the main customer support number to call.

I called, went through the automated prompts and ended up with a ticket agent. I told him what I was trying to do, but he had no clue what I was talking about. He finally transferred me to an agent for website help.

This agent seemed confused at first, but when I restated my question he sounded like he was familiar with DVA. He said he'd been briefed on it, but hadn't personally helped anyone with anything related to it yet. He asked me to sit tight while he did some research. About 45 seconds later he read to me (from something, not sure what) that you weren't able to purchase tickets online with your DVA account, and that I must do it over the phone. I asked if he could help me. He said no, but he'd get me to someone who could.

He transferred me to a ticket agent, but she somehow understood that I wanted to purchase annual passes as a DVC member. I informed her that I'm not a DVC member, I have a DVA account that I want to use to pay for my tickets. She then said that she can't do that because she can only accept one form of payment. I informed her I had enough in my account to cover the entire amount. She said she didn't think I could pay with my DVA account, and I responded that the website help agent just said I could. She offered to give it a try.

It worked!

So the moral of the story: the Disney agents mostly don't know anything about DVA. But press hard enough and it is possible. Hope this info helps someone. I had searched during my ordeal but didn't find anyone else who reported success purchasing annual passes.

Next I'm going to try paying for my resort stay with DVA...

 

[pepperandchips]

Thanks so much for the helpful information! I had been wondering about this, and with the $500 cap on Disney gift card payout from DVA I did not want to end up requesting refunds to 74 individual Disney cards that had been loaded onto DVA.

Any idea what the final department you got transferred to was called? Would love to be able to call once and get a knowledgeable CM on the phone from the get-go. Thanks again!

 

[klepton]

Thanks so much for the helpful information! I had been wondering about this, and with the $500 cap on Disney gift card payout from DVA I did not want to end up requesting refunds to 74 individual Disney cards that had been loaded onto DVA.

Any idea what the final department you got transferred to was called? Would love to be able to call once and get a knowledgeable CM on the phone from the get-go. Thanks again!

I'm pretty sure it was a normal ticket agent, she just didn't know much about DVA.

I've since paid off the balance of a Wilderness Lodge stay from my DVA, as well as added DCL onboard credit from the same account. In each instance, the phone reps were aware of DVA, but had to look up (or talk to a supervisor) to figure out how to process the transaction.

I definitely get the impression that it's becoming more common knowledge.

 

[misstdiana]

I just wanted to share my experience tonight trying to purchase Annual Passes using money in my Disney Vacation Account. People use DVA for different reasons, mine was to eek out some extra points from credit card transactions. If you want to read more about DVA, look here:

https://disneyvacationaccount.disney.go.com/

So DW and I loaded up $2500 from 74 gift cards tonight, and I set out to purchase three premium annual passes for my family (about $2320). According to the DVA website, you're supposed to be able to use your account number as a gift card number for online purchases. This didn't work for me online, the website kept telling me the gift card was invalid.

I tried online chat, where the agent kept asking me to restate my question. I don't think she had ever heard of DVA. She eventually gave me the main customer support number to call.

I called, went through the automated prompts and ended up with a ticket agent. I told him what I was trying to do, but he had no clue what I was talking about. He finally transferred me to an agent for website help.

This agent seemed confused at first, but when I restated my question he sounded like he was familiar with DVA. He said he'd been briefed on it, but hadn't personally helped anyone with anything related to it yet. He asked me to sit tight while he did some research. About 45 seconds later he read to me (from something, not sure what) that you weren't able to purchase tickets online with your DVA account, and that I must do it over the phone. I asked if he could help me. He said no, but he'd get me to someone who could.

He transferred me to a ticket agent, but she somehow understood that I wanted to purchase annual passes as a DVC member. I informed her that I'm not a DVC member, I have a DVA account that I want to use to pay for my tickets. She then said that she can't do that because she can only accept one form of payment. I informed her I had enough in my account to cover the entire amount. She said she didn't think I could pay with my DVA account, and I responded that the website help agent just said I could. She offered to give it a try.

It worked!

So the moral of the story: the Disney agents mostly don't know anything about DVA. But press hard enough and it is possible. Hope this info helps someone. I had searched during my ordeal but didn't find anyone else who reported success purchasing annual passes.

Next I'm going to try paying for my resort stay with DVA...

I loaded a bunch of gc's on the DVA site as well. I found that site to be EXTREMELY glitchy! I did however make a AP purchase with the money i had loaded onto that site so that was one plus and when I linked it to my package the CM removed our tickets from our package so now I need 2 more tickets for my kids. Now I am trying to decide if I should buy them now and then upgrade or just buy the AP's to add to my account. That all worked great and I could see all the discounts etc...loved that.

 

[misstdiana]

I'm pretty sure it was a normal ticket agent, she just didn't know much about DVA.

I've since paid off the balance of a Wilderness Lodge stay from my DVA, as well as added DCL onboard credit from the same account. In each instance, the phone reps were aware of DVA, but had to look up (or talk to a supervisor) to figure out how to process the transaction.

I definitely get the impression that it's becoming more common knowledge.

we are staying at WL too, first time.

 

[Wendybird55]

This is first I've heard of DVA and I just did a quick look at the link posted.
This may be a silly question but....what's the benefit (if any) of saving with DVA? How is this any different then saving directly to a bank account then using the $ when you need it? Or purchasing Disney gift cards (if you get them at Target and use your target gift card you get 5% savings)?
What happens if you can't take your trip...do you get the money back? Once in DVA can the money only be used for Disney? Can you use DVA for in-park purchases?

Now, I an all for saving for and paying off a trip before I leave. I always book very early and use the time from booking to actual trip to save and pay off. There are many wasy to save and pay for trips before you leave...just curious from those who use DVA what are the benefits that make you use DVA instead of a savings account?

Thanks...

 

[klepton]

I loaded a bunch of gc's on the DVA site as well. I found that site to be EXTREMELY glitchy! I did however make a AP purchase with the money i had loaded onto that site so that was one plus and when I linked it to my package the CM removed our tickets from our package so now I need 2 more tickets for my kids. Now I am trying to decide if I should buy them now and then upgrade or just buy the AP's to add to my account. That all worked great and I could see all the discounts etc...loved that.

The past few days (at least) the DVA site has been very glitchy... Sometimes it would tell me the amount wasn't correct, even though it was. Other times it would error saying it couldn't get the gift card balance from SVDot. I loaded a bunch of gift cards yesterday, and here's what I'd recommend to someone having these issues:

1) Disable javascript in your browser. Most of the issues on the site were related to javascript. There wasn't actually anything wrong, but the javascript thought there was. The DVA site works without javascript, so disabling got me past the incorrect amount issue.
2) If you get the error about unable to get the card balance from SVDot, just keep trying again. You don't need to put all the info in again, just keep clicking the "Continue" button. Usually after 3-4 attempts it would go through.

Hopefully Disney gets this fixed soon, but if not maybe this will help a few people.

 

[pepperandchips]

what's the benefit (if any) of saving with DVA? How is this any different then saving directly to a bank account then using the $ when you need it? Or purchasing Disney gift cards (if you get them at Target and use your target gift card you get 5% savings)?
What happens if you can't take your trip...do you get the money back? Once in DVA can the money only be used for Disney? Can you use DVA for in-park purchases?

The only real benefit for my family is the ability to load individual gift cards into one "master" account - as you mentioned, the 5% target savings is nothing to sneeze at, but I think I personally would find it more convenient to load them all on my DVA at home rather than presenting a CM with 20 individual $50 gift cards. From what I understand, the account is refundable. If you use gift cards, you must keep those gift cards in the event you request a refund. Many of my questions about the account were resolved here - DVA FAQs.

The only real perk I saw that's different from saving in my credit union's savings account is the "bonus" Disney gift card program (direct from the FAQs):
You'll be eligible for a $20 Disney Gift Card for every $1000 you spend on qualified vacation purchases with your Disney Vacation Account prior to December 31, 2015 (date subject to extension), up to a total maximum of $500 in Disney Gift Card(s) per household. Your Disney Vacation Account must be active for a minimum of 120 days at the time of spending in order to receive this Bonus. All accounts registered to the same address are considered part of the same household.

Qualified vacation purchases include vacation packages for the Walt Disney World Resort or the Disneyland Resort, theme park tickets, room stays, cruise fare, and vacations by Adventures By Disney. Purchases of Disney Gift Cards are not qualified vacation purchases for purposes of this Bonus program.

Request your Disney Gift Card(s) 4 to 6 weeks in advance of your vacation date to allow time for delivery to your mailing address.

Hope that helps a little! I'm no expert.

 

[klepton]

The only real benefit for my family is the ability to load individual gift cards into one "master" account - as you mentioned, the 5% target savings is nothing to sneeze at, but I think I personally would find it more convenient to load them all on my DVA at home rather than presenting a CM with 20 individual $50 gift cards. From what I understand, the account is refundable. If you use gift cards, you must keep those gift cards in the event you request a refund. Many of my questions about the account were resolved here - DVA FAQs.

The only real perk I saw that's different from saving in my credit union's savings account is the "bonus" Disney gift card program (direct from the FAQs):
You'll be eligible for a $20 Disney Gift Card for every $1000 you spend on qualified vacation purchases with your Disney Vacation Account prior to December 31, 2015 (date subject to extension), up to a total maximum of $500 in Disney Gift Card(s) per household. Your Disney Vacation Account must be active for a minimum of 120 days at the time of spending in order to receive this Bonus. All accounts registered to the same address are considered part of the same household.

Qualified vacation purchases include vacation packages for the Walt Disney World Resort or the Disneyland Resort, theme park tickets, room stays, cruise fare, and vacations by Adventures By Disney. Purchases of Disney Gift Cards are not qualified vacation purchases for purposes of this Bonus program.

Request your Disney Gift Card(s) 4 to 6 weeks in advance of your vacation date to allow time for delivery to your mailing address.

Hope that helps a little! I'm no expert.

This is basically the same for us. We acquire gift cards in a variety of ways for additional savings (5% at Target, 5x points office supply stores, etc) and it's nice to load them into one account rather than spending a lot of time on the phone to use them.

I'm currently trying to figure out if I can load funds from DVA to my resort balance to pay for MB purchases. I'll report back when I figure that out one way or another.

 

[TimothyG]

This is first I've heard of DVA and I just did a quick look at the link posted.
This may be a silly question but....what's the benefit (if any) of saving with DVA? How is this any different then saving directly to a bank account then using the $ when you need it? Or purchasing Disney gift cards (if you get them at Target and use your target gift card you get 5% savings)?
What happens if you can't take your trip...do you get the money back? Once in DVA can the money only be used for Disney? Can you use DVA for in-park purchases?

Now, I an all for saving for and paying off a trip before I leave. I always book very early and use the time from booking to actual trip to save and pay off. There are many wasy to save and pay for trips before you leave...just curious from those who use DVA what are the benefits that make you use DVA instead of a savings account?

Thanks...

I'm not really familiar with this program, but it looks like you can actually double dip with the gift card points. The site says that it accepts Disney gift cards to fund your account and then you get the $20 gift card for every $1000 spent, up to $500. This makes me think that you could buy your gift cards at Target for 5% off then link them to your DVA and get another set of gift cards.

 

[Wendybird55]

Thanks for the info...I need to look into this...basically our 2 planned trips are already paid for...We purchased APs, we rented and paid for points for our Aug. trip and booked POP for our Sept. MNSSHP trip and paid balance in full. We still need to purchase MNSSHP tickets..

We are now planning on saving spending $ for meals and such plus our booked Fishing trip and Illuminations cruise. I was thinking of purchasing gift cards at Target, but that's an awful lot of $50 gift cards to carry around. If I can create a DVA account to consolidate our spending $ for upcoming trips that might be helpful plus we should get at least $40 in extra gift cards as we are planning in setting aside at least $2,000 for meals, excursions, etc.

As you said..it's easier to put all our gift cards into one account and I think gift cards are a good way to put aside spending money...well I guess I have some research to do tomorrow.

 

[acc82]

I will add that I use the DVA and had NO PROBLEM AT ALL using it to buy my annual passes with my DVC discount via the phone. The first time, the rep knew exactly what I was referring to. I was bracing myself for trouble after reading everything on the boards, but I was pleasantly surprised. I will keep using it!!

Benefits? They will give you money in the form of gift cards when you deposit certain amounts.

also - this is dedicated 'disney' money weather its from your bank account or a gift card. you can't pull the money out for anything else besides disney

It allows you to consolidate all those target disney gift cards into one!

 

[karab0803]

I will add that I use the DVA and had NO PROBLEM AT ALL using it to buy my annual passes with my DVC discount via the phone. The first time, the rep knew exactly what I was referring to. I was bracing myself for trouble after reading everything on the boards, but I was pleasantly surprised. I will keep using it!! Benefits? They will give you money in the form of gift cards when you deposit certain amounts. also - this is dedicated 'disney' money weather its from your bank account or a gift card. you can't pull the money out for anything else besides disney It allows you to consolidate all those target disney gift cards into one!

So if I use this account I can purchase annual pass with it?

 

[lustergirl]

I just opened a Disney savings account as well. The site has been acting wacky and once a couple of days ago I received a message that the site was down for maintenance when I tried to log on.

If you don't use all the money to purchase something you can leave it in there for your next vacation, that is a nice added feature.

 

[misstdiana]

I loaded more GC's thinking I could convert them to a combined gift card but now I see I have had to have the account for 120 days to do so. Not happy. I suppose I could save it but I was hoping to use those funds to upgrade 2 MYW 6 day tickets to AP's for my kids. Now what to do what to do.....

 

[klepton]

I loaded more GC's thinking I could convert them to a combined gift card but now I see I have had to have the account for 120 days to do so. Not happy. I suppose I could save it but I was hoping to use those funds to upgrade 2 MYW 6 day tickets to AP's for my kids. Now what to do what to do.....

I'm pretty sure you can do this directly form your DVA. Just call the ticketing number to upgrade tickets, then give your DVA number for payment.