second guessing gift card buying...

[karasmom]

I have, largely inspired by people mentioning it on these boards, started to buy Disney Gift Cards for our upcoming trip in September.

Planning to use them for anything we will want/need at the hotel and parks as well as some extra ADR's not covered by out dining plan. To me, it is so much easier to grab a $50 gift card at Target than to put $50 into a separate account...

I am starting to wonder if anyone had issues with any gift cards before?
(I keep my receipts just in case)
Have you not been able to use it at a certain place? Did CM's become annoyed when you handed them 3 $50 Disney Gift Cards when paying for your breakfast?

Anything negative you can thing of / have gone through?

Appreciate your input.

 

[Princess_Nikki]

I have not had any issues with any of the Disney gift cards I have purchased. However, I would highly suggest keeping the receipts for each card you buy. I usually get them while I'm grocery shopping ,too, so I'll wrap the receipt around the gc then keep that just in case. I have a Wells Fargo bank bag I keep them all in.

No CM has seemed bothered by my using them. I love the gift card idea. It's, also, much easier for me to buy gc's here and there than to put aside $$$ for certain trip plans.

 

[mommyrosa2]

I haven't had any issues with the GC's either but will say that instead of lugging cards around the parks with me, I charge everything I can to our room and each day I go down to the front desk and pay my charges off using the cards. I plan to do the same thing for our upcoming trip in August .

 

[MichelleVW]

I haven't had any issues with the GC's either but will say that instead of lugging cards around the parks with me, I charge everything I can to our room and each day I go down to the front desk and pay my charges off using the cards. I plan to do the same thing for our upcoming trip in August .

That's what I do....it's so easy!

 

[tyniknate]

That's our plan for this November. Not having to carry any cash/credit cards will enable me to not have to carry a purse or backpack. WOO HOO!

 

[dfherrera]

We always split out our vacation money between gift cards and some cash. We try to have a couple hundred in cash (tipping and such) for my wife and I and the rest on Gift Cards. The only difference is that we buy Visa Gift Cards that can be used anywhere. We always seem to pick up one or two Disney Gift Cards but it is nice knowing that if we wind up with any leftover balance, we can use it anywhere we go or when we come home.

 

[Kimi313]

I have used giftcards for the past 2 trips for food, snack, or other things in the parks and the CM have never been annoyed at me. I just slide them like a credit card and if I owed more they were very nice and tell me my new balance then I would swipe my next card. The thing I love the most about gift cards is at the end of the trip I do not have a ton of change! Also we use a sharpie to number our cards so I use all of #1 before #2 that way you don't end up with 3 cards with a bit on each.

 

[KSL]

Joining in with the other PPs who suggest charging everything to your room and then paying with the GCs at the front desk.

• I have never had an issue with doing this at the front desk, and in fact I think they are quite used to it. That said, I do try to go at "slow" times when there is not a line of people checking in. (I usually go in the late afternoon or evening).
• I go down every few days to reduce the balance, and they will then print an itemized receipt that shows all charges up to that minute (including the credits for the GCs so I can finally toss the receipts!) which is great for me to keep a handle on what we are spending.
• Be sure to do this NLT the evening prior to departure or else they will automatically charge through to whatever credit card you have on file sometime overnight. (do not wait until the morning of your departure)
• This eliminates the need to carry (and potentially misplace) the GCs around with you -- keep them locked in the room safe! Also nice because you can apply the whole GC and not worry that there's a small remaining balance (like might happen if you are using it to pay for a meal or gifts, etc.) to then keep track of and apply at another purchase.
• The Target near me only sells $25 and $50 GCs for Disney, but our BJs has $100 ones (also with discount), which I find a little more convenient. Just FYI in case you belong to BJs.

Have a great trip!!

 

[MomForFrozenAddicts]

I did that with all my daughters' GC from birthdays and holidays. All crew members are very nice about it. Few even took out a sharpie and wrote my balance on the card for me.

 

[MomForFrozenAddicts]

Just want to add, I had a few technical issues at outside carts. Crew members didn't mind to try the GC again and again. It was me getting annoyed and paid cash.

 

[sb682]

Done this for 4 trips now and need to go buy some for our trip in 2 weeks. Never had a problem and no CMs ever acted bothered by them. The only caveat is they rarely work when I swipe them and the CM usually ends up having to swipe at the register. It is worth the savings for us, especially if I have an extra 5% off from prescription rewards. There is a very handy iPhone app that will track your GC balances for you, too.

 

[DisGirl819]

I always do that and have never had an issue doing that. Every trip I hand them a GC and say "I know I don't have much on this one, but I have two (or three) more I can use too" and they don't bat an eye. They just ring up each card.

 

[ToyStory3]

We pay off our entire trip with gift cards because we save a ton in gas perks. We by $500 gift cards at a time and pay the balance. But, you have to save them until the trip is over just in case. They can't refund you in any way except for putting it back on the gift card if you would ever need to.

And, we use our magic bands in the parks and just go to the front desk and pay our account down with the gift cards. I don't like trying to pay in lines or in restaurants with gift cards. It turns into gift card roulette. One of them has no balance, one has $5, and one has $20....etc. So, we just put everything on our magic bands. But, it still works great for us!

 

[Meriweather]

We used them last week a lot.
They do have issues with being swiped at the stores, but the CMs seem used it to. After 2 tries they take it and do it themselves.
I take a sharpie with me and write on them what I have left and occasionally go online to check the balances.
I do buy mine from the Disney store online, so get $100 cards and get them in a lot of different designs

 

[thinkerbell]

Done this for 4 trips now and need to go buy some for our trip in 2 weeks. Never had a problem and no CMs ever acted bothered by them. The only caveat is they rarely work when I swipe them and the CM usually ends up having to swipe at the register. It is worth the savings for us, especially if I have an extra 5% off from prescription rewards. There is a very handy iPhone app that will track your GC balances for you, too.

What is the app called? We just bought a bunch from Sams to pay for our room and for park use. Would love to be able to use the app to keep up with them.
Thanks!

 

[maybeecatlady]

What is the app called? We just bought a bunch from Sams to pay for our room and for park use. Would love to be able to use the app to keep up with them.
Thanks!

Just looked at my phone and I believe the app is just called "Disney Gift Card".

I have never used the disney gift cards before but bought some from Target (with 5% discount) based on suggestions from people here. I already used 3 (with $1 balance left) to pay for our Memory Maker. I'm using the app to track balances. I also have numbered them with a sharpie so I can use one all up before moving on to the next. Excited to be trying this in 11 days!!!!!

 

[Alicatt]

There is also a website where you can check your balance. I did this to all my cards before the trip to make sure they were really activated. The receipt might not do you any good if you're no where near the store you bought it from. You can also use it to check your balance during your trip.

https://www.disneygiftcard.com/manage/

 

[nalajms]

The 10+ CMs we've had over the last few years, I only remember 2 laughing when I took out a stack of GC to pay for room charges. They still put the GC through, so I didn't care. It was both at Beach Club, different trips. Sometimes when you go late at night, they have trainees at the front desk that need help.

If you pay at TS using GC, they kind of have to separate the charges. For example a bill for $105 dollars paid with 3 $50 GC will be 3 separate receipts, one for each GC.

And carry a the sharpie with you! You can often get them for 49 cents at Walgreens.

 

[FeralCatRogue]

I had issues during food and wine with gift cards at the kiosks, they had to run them multiple times and sometimes they wouldn't work at all. Animal Kingdom had some issues with them as well, the Yak and Yeti store will not accept them nor magic bands. Otherwise they were great to use.

 

[shadeauxe]

I gave $2000 (40 cards) to the person at the hotel desk and she didn't even bat an eye or seem annoyed at all.

I've had issues with using them on the little ATM looking machines, but then the CM would swipe them using the register instead and they worked fine.

For the most part, I tried to charge everything to the room and then use the gift cards at the hotel desk instead.