Disney Dollars vs Disney Gift Cards

[Minnesota]

Hi all,
long time no see! Darn college getting in the way of my vacationing again! Anywho I am attempting to plan yet another years trip (the one where we are the most broke we have ever been while trying to see if we can get enough "play money" to go) which leads me to our first question for you all for this trip

According to disneyshopping.com disney gift cards can be used at "Participating locations" in WDW. From what I remember Disney Dollars can be used anywhere in WDW. First, is this much correct? Second, can Disney dollars be purchased online or only at WDW and Disney Stores? and third what "participating locations" participate at WDW?

The reason I am asking will guide your answers. My best friend and I are again living in two states, My nearest disney store is about 45 miles away and hers is about 140 miles away (She lives in CO now) we are looking for a way to "lock in" some spending money for our trip. Visa gift cards would work okay but we were hoping for something Disney to keep the spirit going until we can finally go back to WDW.
Thanks,
Minnesota

 

[bradk]

you can confirm with this where your nearest disney store is: http://img.dsi.go.com/content/global/guest_services/locator.html

disney dollars can be purchased on site, at the disney store or via mail order (fax) - although the last option has a limit.

the gift card can be purchased on site, at the disney store or through disneyshopping.com

i believe there are no differences as to where each can be accepted (i think there initially was an issue with the universal gift card at the resort, but that's resolved by now). most locations inside the park should accept both (some ODVs might not be able due to the nature). and i'm sure some non-disney locations in DTD accept them as well (or at least the disney dollars).. this is not really my area.

one key difference is disney dollars are same as cash. you lose them, you lose them. the gift card can be reported lost and frozen and the remaining balance re-issued

 

[aimeeg]

We have been buying Disney Dollars. We saved $500, had an emergency and guess what . . . The Mickey Money was gone! Buying DD has been great because we cannot spend them! I am pretty sure you can buy them online. You just have to pay for shipping. Also, I think you can cash in leftover dollars.

 

[Msslaydbug]

For this trip we are loading our Disney Gift Card every month. I like the idea of keeping it in wallet with the rest of my credit cards.

 

[PrincessCM]

I've been told that the Gift Card can be used at most locations that have credit card scanning capabilities. If you can't use a credit card there, you wouldn't be able to use the gift card either.

 

[themudd4]

Gift cards are the safe way to go...
If you buy DD's and lose them...they are gone forever just like cash!
Gift card's worked great for us in the parks back in March...and if you lose the gift card all you have to do is show your oringinal reciept of purchase and it will be refunded/replaced free of charge. You can get them online at disneystore.com, and think they even have free shipping!

 

[daandcb]

What exactly is the Disney Dollars?? Where can I find infor about it?? Thank you!!! Can I just say that I love these boards as I am finding so much valuable info!!!

 

[DiRTyBuNNy]

I like Disney Dollars because they remind me of being a kid and having them as a souvenir of my trip (because I never spent all of my money).

--Mr. DB

 

[mkycrzy1971]

I wanted to get cards ahead of time for each of my children (did not think charging privleges were a good idea with teens!) I called my local Disney Store and was told that I should not buy a card at the store because the Disney Stores are now not actually owned by Disney and the cards from the store will not work in WDW??!! The CM that I spoke with said to wait until we get to the parks and buy a gift card there--a pain, but I guess I do not want to take a chance of their card not being accepted.

 

[bradk]

that is not true. the current gift cards are universal and work at the disney store, disney world, disneyland, disney cruise lines and disneyshopping.com

they look like this:

with mickey's ear extending from the card.

they used to all have separate gift cards but it changed a while back.

 

[Navywife508]

I was going to ask this same question. We have a chart set up where our DD can earn money to spend while we are there. We have been debating how to do it and I think the Disney gift card will work the best.

 

[Minnesota]

Thanks for all the replies! We were thinking the hardest about the gift cards but wanted to make sure we wouldn't be "stuck" with them. We didn't want to have $500 in giftcards then find out we could only use them in a handful of places so in essence we would have "all this money" and still go home with no souvinears.

Is it true that they can work anywhere a credit card is accepted? it makes sense but I am OCPD enough to want to triple check my double check. I know the visa rewards works pretty much everywhere in WDW would gift cards be the same?

Thanks again, all you helpful people are the reason I keep coming back to the same boards trip after trip. No matter how many trips you take you always come up with more questions you haven't figured out for yourself yet!
Minnesota

 

[binkyj826]

Can you apply the Disney Gift Card to your room charges?

 

[Tinkerbelle's Mom]

I agree that the disney gift cards are the way to go but in my case for my dd since she is young we are still using the diseny dollars. I hoping that by our next trip her subtraction skills will be better so we can use the card!

 

[kalmin]

I will have to put my two cents in, I love Disney Dollars, had a family reunion last year and gave everybody Disney Dollars. The kids loved them and spent some and kept some as souvenirs. No one asked for extra money it was wonderful to have something for everyone. However Gift Cards are easy to use and not as easy to lose or and a lot easier to recover if lost or stolen.

 

[MomofKatie]

We used a combination of DDs and GC this January. We found that we only had a problem using the GC twice- once at a cart selling Mickey bars, and once at a kiosk selling pretzels (because the CM couldn't figure out how to scan the card). For those things, we used DDs.

As others have said, the GC can be replaced if lost as long as you have the recieipt. DDs are just like cash- if you lose them, you are out of luck. The other thing is that DDs are no longer sold in larger denominations, so if you want to carry more than about $100 or so, you'll end up with a pretty large wad of "cash" to carry around. The GC is the same size as a CC- much easier to carry around.

There are a couple of places that DON'T take the GC, but they are few and far between. I think the McDonald's at DTD, maybe one or 2 other restaurants at DTD, and maybe the Tower records don't take it, but every place inside the parks that accepts room key cards or ccs also accepts the GC.

 

[mkycrzy1971]

that is not true. the current gift cards are universal and work at the disney store, disney world, disneyland, disney cruise lines and disneyshopping.com

they look like this:

with mickey's ear extending from the card.

they used to all have separate gift cards but it changed a while back.

Thank you for clearing this up---I think I was speaking to a very new CM (or at least one that did not know her job very well!) because after I seen others say that you can indeed use these cards at WDW I decided to search online to see if I could find some more info myself....sure enough when I went to the FAQ section for Disney Gift Cards it says you can use them at participating locations in WDW. Sorry for all of the confusion...and thanks again! Now I can go get these cards for my daughters without wasting my "magical time" at WDW looking for them. FOUR MORE DAYS UNTIL WE LEAVE!!

 

[GLSIII]

I started loading a gift card today because of this thread.

 

[jfeasel]

Another benefit of the gift card is that if your school or church participates in a gift card program (sometimes called SCRIP) then you can buy your gift cards from them and they earn a portion of your sale, which through my school's program is 7 percent. Every pay I've been buying $100 worth of gift cards so each time I do, my school's booster club is earning $7.