Have you been debating purchasing Disney Gift Cards to pay for your Disney Vacation? Maybe you’ve been wondering exactly how using a Disney Gift Card to pay off your Disney Reservation works. As a frequent visitor to Walt Disney World I’ve come to love the ease of using Disney Gift Cards not only to pay off my resort package reservation but also for all of my spending while on vacation.
Disney Gift Cards can be used to pay for your entire vacation reservation as long as you are staying on Disney property, purchasing your tickets through Disney and completing your booking through Disney (or a Disney Travel Agent). They can even be used to pay your vacation package deposit.
There are a few things to remember, however. If you are booking online, you can only use 2 Disney Gift Cards to complete your transaction. You can, however, call Disney and have as many Disney Gift Cards as you like applied to your reservation. Even better yet, allow me, a Travel Magician with World of Magic Travel, the preferred agency of Chip & Co. to book your magical Disney vacation for you and I’ll make sure every gift card you have gets applied to your account!
It doesn’t stop there, however. You can use Disney Gift Cards for most everything in the parks and at the resorts including meals, tips on meal, merchandise and spa services. The only thing you cannot use a Disney Gift Card for are those items that are cash only, including specials balloons from balloon vendors or vendors that sell light up toys before the parades.
When my family visits Walt Disney World I bring all of our spending money in the form of Disney Gift Cards. I use my MagicBand to charge any purchases back to our room and then head down to the front desk every evening and have gift cards applied to cover those charges. This keeps my husband and I from having to carry several credit cards or large amounts of cash with us into the park. We can also leave our gift cards locked securely in our room so we don’t have to worry about losing them. Keep in mind, however, that in order to add charging privileges to your MagicBand you will need to have a credit card attached to your resort reservation. That card will not be charged until checkout unless your total charges reach $500. This is why I pay off my balance each evening with my Disney Gift Cards.
Using a Disney Gift Card to pay for a Disney Vacation has an even bigger appeal than just convenience, however. It can be used to save you money! Using your Target Red Card you can purchase Disney Gift Cards either in stores or online and save 5%. Discounts are also available on Disney Gift Cards at Warehouse Stores, such as Sam’s Club. On a $3,000 vacation a 5% savings is $150! I don’t know about you, but my family can find a lot of things to spend that extra money on.
Have you use Disney GiftCards to pay for your Disney Vacation? Do you use them for spending money while on vacation? We’d love to hear how you use gift cards during your visits to the Disney Parks. Share your stories in the comments!
My name is Alissa and I am a Writer for Chip and Company. I’m also an Independent Consultant with World of Magic Travel, the preferred agency of Chip and the Disney Addicts. Email me today at alissa@worldofmagictravel.com to book your next “Magical” vacation to your favorite destination.
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For our family, we often buy our cards at one of the grocery stores. They normally offer 10 cents off a gallon of gas for every $50 spent, but if you are willing to wait until they have a special they offer 20 cents off a gallon for ever $50 spent. It may not sound like much, but if you get all 30 gallons, that comes out to $12 off the gas for 30 gallons for every $100 in gift cards you buy. To use the same figures you gave, on a $3000 vacation, that would be $360 off on gas. We will let the savings off per gallon add up and then buy gas when we have at least $2.00 off a gallon, which adds up to saving $60 off the price of gas, so it if is $3.00 per gallon, we are only paying $1.00 per gallon.
I ran across that on Disney Cruise Line, but not at the resorts. It is good to know for future visits. Thanks for the advice!
Steve, as far as the $500 is concerned, technically that is policy across the board, however, it’s one of those things that doesn’t seem to be enforced that strictly. That said, I mentioned it because it can happen and would hate for anyone to be surprised if it did! – Alissa
I typically do what you mentioned with the gift cards. I buy them at Target with my red card and save 5%. Also, at Target, if you get prescriptions filled there, you can get 10% passes which can be used with gift cards to save even more. I have never run into a time when I have had my credit card charged once I hit $500 though. I usually just head to the front desk the last night we are there and have them apply the gift cards. Is the $500 resort specific? We are DVC members and have not run into that.
You can open/have a Disney Vacation Savings account, At no cost to me, I not only draft continuously from my personal bank account, whenever I have some extra money I grab gift cards from Target and Sams and immediately apply them to my disney Vacation account. Disney also rewards you with Gift cards for dollars saved with their account! Any changes made to the reservation just work in and out of that account, you don’t need each individual gift card to able to refund/rebook, etc…