ANY way to pay for dining before arrival

[timandlesley]

We are going for our first DVC stay in June (YEAH!!!). Is there ANY way to pay for our dining plan ahead of time or is the only way to pay at check in??
Lesley

 

[princessfionasmom]

I think you have to pay at checkin but if I'm wrong someone will come along and correct me. If you want to feel like you've already paid, you can buy yourself a Disney gift card and use that to pay for it. I plan on ordering a $1000 gift card from my kids school that way the PTO also gets some $ from money I'm going to spend anyway.

 

[TDC Nala]

You have to pay at check-in. Member Services is not set up to take payment for it.

 

[oakmanner]

You can also get Disney Gift Cards @ The Disney Store.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I have seen this question asked often. I guess I don't understand the issue. What is the reason for thinking it's necessary to pay ahead of time? Sorry, not meant to be snarky, I just need to understand the issue.

 

[WelovMickey!]

I have seen this question asked often. I guess I don't understand the issue. What is the reason for thinking it's necessary to pay ahead of time? Sorry, not meant to be snarky, I just need to understand the issue.

I think for me I would like to pay it. If I had it, so it doesn't get spent on something else. Something always comes up.

 

[timandlesley]

For me it is a major issue becuse we will be there for 18 days, that is close to 3,000 in dining money. I don't have a credit card with a balance that high and I don't want to carry that kind of cash with me for our trip. I guess I will be getting travelers checks. (sigh).

 

[Crystal_27]

I have seen this question asked often. I guess I don't understand the issue. What is the reason for thinking it's necessary to pay ahead of time? Sorry, not meant to be snarky, I just need to understand the issue.

For me, it's just a mental thing. My little mind only takes into account money actually spent on vacation as the "real" output of money. I love prepaying for our trips, and love even more getting an invoice at the end of the trip with a zero balance. We did *really* well in March. We prepaid everything (including the DDP) and put the tips, shopping, etc. on our Disney Rewards card, so our invoice at the end of the trip was a mere $9.95 for one day's worth of Internet access (which we wouldn't have even needed but DH had to do some business stuff one day). It's more of a "how little can I really spend on vacation" competition with myself. I know it all comes from the same place, but let me tell you: it was fabulous to have only spent $9.95 plus about $200 in gas for a week's vacation at Disney. Also, since we have a Disney Visa, we also get 6 months no interest on Disney vacations, which means that by the time the vacation actually rolls around, it's all been paid for anyway.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Okay, I guess I understand now, but it seems to me that is more of a CRO attitude than a timeshare owner's one. We tend to put money aside for vacations and where DVC is concerned, food budget is about the only non-prepaid expense.

BTW, for the one who talked about internet expense....Don't forget that DVC members get free internet at DVC resorts.

 

[LSchrow]

i agee with using disney GCs.
we put $20-$50 every so often, which pays for most of our food & drinks, as well as incidentals.

i love coming home to less than $300 on the charge card (rental car & groceries).

 

[Hopefully]

Another person here who likes to prepay as much as possible. That way we are paying for our vacation in "installments" and not all at once when we actually travel.
I am going to buy 2 $500 Disney Gift Cards for this trip. I will use a Credit Card to pay for them and that credit card will be paid in full when we travel.
Just another way to look at it.

 

[bumbershoot]

Definitely go with the giftcards.

You can also order giftcards from disneyland.com!

 

[Brian Noble]

Rather than let Disney hold that money for you, you might consider making regular deposits to something like an Orange savings account, where at least you can earn a few pennies' interest. It's still "out of sight out of mind" money, but working for you instead of The Rat.

 

[kid-at-heart]

I am another one who likes to pay ahead of time, esp for "play". Bills paid = less stress. For me paying ahead of time is a way of de-stressing my life.

 

[javaj]

We had a slightly different situation - we were bringing family members as a treat, and we were paying for their dining plan. So we didn't want to pay for the dining plan when they checked in, seemed kinda tacky.

We were able to fax in our payment (via Credit Card) to SSR the morning of our arrival. I think they said fax it in after 6 am, or something like that. Member Services set it up for us, and I called SSR to verify. Worked fine, when we arrived, they had all 3 rooms pre-checked in and all the room keys were ready.

 

[La2kw]

Another person here who likes to prepay as much as possible. That way we are paying for our vacation in "installments" and not all at once when we actually travel.
I am going to buy 2 $500 Disney Gift Cards for this trip. I will use a Credit Card to pay for them and that credit card will be paid in full when we travel.
Just another way to look at it.

I don't understand your reasoning. If you are going to use your credit card anyway, why not just use the card at Disney and pay the card off after the charge is put on your card? I wouldn't want to take the chance of losing two $500 gift cards, not to mention letting Disney make the interest of my money. I could have that money sitting in the bank making interest for me instead.

 

[bumbershoot]

Keep the receipt for the gift card and a copy of the number on the back, and if it's lost you have recourse.

 

[timandlesley]

Here is my reasoning. I have the money in savings right now, it is earning interest. I am staying away from credit cards right now and paying off the one we have. I have a check card as a credit card but the bank has a max on it per day for charging so the 2,000 plus needed at check in for dining wouldn't work on that card so I'll end up doing travelers checks I guess, that way it is insured.
Lesley

 

[dolfinjuls]

We put all of the money on a disney gift card to cover the dining plan so we can just pay with that. I like having it paid for before hand and not needing to use a cc later.

 

[rpk1951]

You can always prepay your credit card before you go. Then when you use it at Disney it will just balance back to zero. That way you can hold the money for interest until before you leave. You get the interest and the piece of mind that you prepaid.