Paying for dining with gift card?

[sjv919]

Is it just a regular Disney gift card you use to pay for dining? Can you add more to those gift cards as you go, like throughout the year leading up to the trip to make sure you have enough if you opt not to do the dining plan? Also...I was reading about it and it said at most places at the Walt Disney World Resort, are there any restaurants or places at WDW that don't accept the gift card?

Whew! Sorry about so many questions!

 

[PictureJumpr]

Yes, you can pay dining tabs with a Disney gift card at most restaurants at WDW.

Notable exceptions include, but are not limited to, most of the table-service restaurants at Downtown Disney.

A good rule of thumb is, if it's on the list of places that take the DDP, then it's going to also take Disney gift cards. There are actually a few places that don't do DDP which might take the gift cards, but the DDP list is a good starting place.

Not sure about adding value to cards once they are purchased, but there's nothing stopping you from buying another $25, $50, or $100 card periodically and using them at WDW (one after the other until they're used up).

As for non-dining use, they are valid in most places in the parks (some places in Epcot don't take them, for example) for merchandise, and they are valid at the resorts for shops, dining, and for paying on the charged balance on your room key. At Downtown Disney they are valid in some places, but mostly on the Marketplace side.

 

[sjv919]

Thanks so much! That answered all my questions

 

[daryle330]

You can add funds to the cards by going to the Disney Stores.

 

[sjv919]

You can add funds to the cards by going to the Disney Stores.

Good to hear! That'll probably be more convenient than my plan of just buying tons of gift cards Thank you

 

[Halle]

I don't know if you are staying on site but we charge the meals to the room and then I go to the front desk and use multiple Visa rewards cards to pay the bill. The limit is $1500 charged at WDW front desk and then they charge you CC. If that occurs they will credit your CC when you present the gift cards.

 

[Fire14]

I don't know if you are staying on site but we charge the meals to the room and then I go to the front desk and use multiple Visa rewards cards to pay the bill. The limit is $1500 charged at WDW front desk and then they charge you CC. If that occurs they will credit your CC when you present the gift cards.

THe room charge limits vary by resort level.
Value is 500
moderate 750 or 1000 i can't recall
deluxe 1500

 

[tinkerbella16]

I purchased a Disney giftcard for this very reason 2 months ago.. to mainly use for tips since I'll be on the DDP. Yes, you can definitely keep adding more money on it leading up to the trip. Every week I go my local Disney Store and add $10 to mine. By the time I go in September, I will have plenty of money on there for tipping and most likely more for some things I want to buy while I am there.

 

[Jetta8300]

This has worked really well for us! We purchased a $500 gift card online at disneygiftcard.com before our last 2 trips to prepay for our food. Everywhere we went accepted the gift card, both CS and TS locations. There are very few places in downtown Disney that do not accept gift cards, most of them do at this point but you can always call ahead to make sure.

 

[amberpi]

I don't believe you can use them at some shops in Epcot, DTD or S/D resort. I'm a big believer in just having the money available in cash/credit, so if you're putting $10 a week on to your card, just pull out a $10 and put it away. If you lose it, do you lose all of it? Anyway, just having the cash or credit available always works (although god knows we've never reached our max, I would KILL DH) and since we pay our cc off in full every month, we get tons of free rooms and flights (especially bundled with my serious amounts of work travel). Just a thought!

 

[sjv919]

Thanks for all the tips, guys! I've definitely decided after the most frequent card I ordered gets here, I'll just start adding money to that one - the Disney store is only 5-10 minutes tops form where I work and it'll be convenient enough

I don't believe you can use them at some shops in Epcot, DTD or S/D resort. I'm a big believer in just having the money available in cash/credit, so if you're putting $10 a week on to your card, just pull out a $10 and put it away. If you lose it, do you lose all of it? Anyway, just having the cash or credit available always works (although god knows we've never reached our max, I would KILL DH) and since we pay our cc off in full every month, we get tons of free rooms and flights (especially bundled with my serious amounts of work travel). Just a thought!

You do bring up a good point...and I did stop and consider that for a moment...but I have this nasty habit of grabbing the cash for something I just absolutely "need" telling myself I'll pay it back and never touch it again, but I never do Much better for me if it's on a Disney gift card, then I have very few options of where I can go blow it in advance!

 

[Donnainnj]

I will have a bunch of gift cards. I buy them at Target with my Red card and get 5% off. It isn't a lot off but, it adds up.
Donna

 

[natter]

You also have the option of calling and having additional funds added to a Disney GC. I didn't want to carry around 10-15 gift cards then try to figure out all the balances, plus we don't have a Disney Store close (1hr) so I just called and added money to a GC I already had. 800-362-4533

 

[sjv919]

You also have the option of calling and having additional funds added to a Disney GC. I didn't want to carry around 10-15 gift cards then try to figure out all the balances, plus we don't have a Disney Store close (1hr) so I just called and added money to a GC I already had. 800-362-4533

Even better! Thank you!

 

[Wanna be Ariel]

Check out the Budget Board. There is a thread about getting deals on Disney Gift Cards. Worth looking into if this is something you are thinking about doing

 

[ready2vacation]

We're going to pay for our meals using a GC because we can get 4X Kroger Fuel rewards at Shell by purchasing a gift card.

Anyhoo, just to make sure - there is no issue "charging" our tip to the gift card as well as well as the meal itself? I didn't think so based on what I have read, but wanted to double check. TIA

 

[mickey24]

Just wanted to add our experience. We received a $500 gift card as part of a promotion two years ago when we went and every single place on property (resort, parks, restaurants) took the card. In addition, every place we went in DTD took the gift card (TRex which at the time wasn't on the dining plan even took it and even some non-disney places in DTD. We were pleasantly surprised. Good luck!

 

[christianweecare]

You also have the option of calling and having additional funds added to a Disney GC. I didn't want to carry around 10-15 gift cards then try to figure out all the balances, plus we don't have a Disney Store close (1hr) so I just called and added money to a GC I already had. 800-362-4533

Good to know!