Disney Rewards $

[Disney-Brat]

Has anyone booked their shore excursions and then bought Disney Gift cards using their Disney Visa to buy the gift cards and then use the gift cards to pay the excursions with? If so when do you turn in the gift cards to get the credit applied to the onboard account credit?

Thanks tons everyone!

 

[mmouse37]

Has anyone booked their shore excursions and then bought Disney Gift cards using their Disney Visa to buy the gift cards and then use the gift cards to pay the excursions with? If so when do you turn in the gift cards to get the credit applied to the onboard account credit?

Thanks tons everyone!

Excursions do not get charged to you until you are onboard. The way the Disney Rewards work is you earn the reward dollars by using your Disney Visa card. AFter you have earned rewards (over $10.00) you then transfer them to a Disney Rewards card. You bring that card to Guest Services on the cruise and put the amount on the card toward your ship board account. You can specify if you want the whole amount on the card or a portion of it. We know we are using the whole amount so put the whole amount toward our onboard account.

Then as you purchase things onboard or when your excursions show up on your account the amount you put on your account is deducted to pay for those things....sort of like a declining balance.

You don't specifically say I want x amount of dollars to pay for this excursion. Your onboard credit/Disney Reward dollars are used up first and then any charge amounts you still have can be paid off with a credit card, check, or cash at the end of the cruise.

The ship is a cashless system meaning everything you purchase get put on your onboard account via your KTTW (Key to the World Card) which acts as your form of payment onboard and your room key and a type of ID. You don't actually pay for things at point of purchase. Your KTTW card gets swiped each time you purchase something and you get a receipt. You can check your total charges at any time by going to Guest Services and asking for a print out.

Now, just to clarify.....you can purchase Disney Gift cards and put any amount on it and then apply that amount to your onboard account or you can use your Disney Reward Dollars to apply an amount to your onboard account...but they are two different cards and not the same thing. You can also just call up DCL and put any amount on your onboard account ahead of time using a credit card. That way there is money waiting for your use already in your onboard account....and actually your can do this with your Disney Gift Cards and Disney Rewards cards ahead of time as well.

MJ

 

[mammacaryn]

and actually your can do this with your Disney Gift Cards and Disney Rewards cards ahead of time as well.

MJ

As of March, this is different. You have to have a balance due of at least what your disney reward dollars OR gift card is(we use both). They will use up OBC first, then you can put the gift cards down-only after you have charged at least the amount on the card. Don't know why they changed it, the people working the desk thought it was kind of a pain too. Buying a shutters package right at the beginning helped a bit (we had an OBC as well) but we did have to make a few trips to use up the gift cards. Hopefully they go back to the old practice of just letting you put them all down at the beginning as money on the account. I just went to the desk after dinner every night and applied a card or two (most of ours were in $25 amounts since we got them as gifts from people)

 

[mmouse37]

As of March, this is different. You have to have a balance due of at least what your disney reward dollars OR gift card is(we use both). They will use up OBC first, then you can put the gift cards down-only after you have charged at least the amount on the card. Don't know why they changed it, the people working the desk thought it was kind of a pain too. Buying a shutters package right at the beginning helped a bit (we had an OBC as well) but we did have to make a few trips to use up the gift cards. Hopefully they go back to the old practice of just letting you put them all down at the beginning as money on the account. I just went to the desk after dinner every night and applied a card or two (most of ours were in $25 amounts since we got them as gifts from people)

Thanks for that info.

MJ

 

[ibouncetoo]

Also, if you are using a Chase Disney Visa to buy the gift cards...it would be better to just buy (pre pay) OBCs with your Disney Visa (directly with DCL or through your travel agent) as that amount then qualifies for the zero percent interest for six months. Any money you don't use (like that ever happens) gets refunded to your Disney Visa. No need to mess with the gift cards.

I've also bought an OBC for friends this way (usually because I owe them money for other travel arrangements they have made...not because I'm all that generous!)

.

 

[itutorfortravel]

Also, if you are using a Chase Disney Visa to buy the gift cards...it would be better to just buy (pre pay) OBCs with your Disney Visa (directly with DCL or through your travel agent) as that amount then qualifies for the zero percent interest for six months. Any money you don't use (like that ever happens) gets refunded to your Disney Visa. No need to mess with the gift cards.


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Can I ask you how you do that if you booked directly with Disney? And does it show up as "DCL reservations" on your cc statement? The reason I am asking is b/c I have another cc that I earned travel credits on and I can apply those credits to any travel I charge, including cruises. So I am thinking if I were to put the pre-paid OBC on that card I could then use my travel credits to reduce the amount I actually owe. The only thing is I would want to know that it shows up charged as a "DCL reservation" rather than some miscellaneous charge that may or may not be thought of as "legitimate travel"...thanks!

 

[Disney-Brat]

Thanks everyone-- good info

 

[ibouncetoo]

Can I ask you how you do that if you booked directly with Disney? And does it show up as "DCL reservations" on your cc statement? The reason I am asking is b/c I have another cc that I earned travel credits on and I can apply those credits to any travel I charge, including cruises. So I am thinking if I were to put the pre-paid OBC on that card I could then use my travel credits to reduce the amount I actually owe. The only thing is I would want to know that it shows up charged as a "DCL reservation" rather than some miscellaneous charge that may or may not be thought of as "legitimate travel"...thanks!

If you booked directly with DCL you would just call them and say you want to add on for an OBC (or to pre-pay your tips)...just like you would call them if you were wanting to make a payment on your cruise balance. I'll look at my statements, but I'm pretty sure the Chase Visa just says Disney Cruise Lines.

I can't really address the issue of your other card and how those 'travel credits' work. And if you haven't already done so, I'd call and make SURE they can apply to DCL cruises (I'd call DCL and ask the same question).

Don't forget, pre paying with your Chase Visa earns you rewards you can transfer to your rewards card and use on the cruise. That's why I'm always careful to by the OBC and time it so that will show up on my statement with the billing cycle right before I leave on my cruise...so I can grab those rewards for the cruise too.

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