Best way to get Disney World Gift Cards? Anyone try through Memories by Betsy?

[Zombie]

Hi,

I'm thinking about following up on a suggestion of putting money that would be spent on the DDP on a Disney World Gift Card ahead of time instead.

I know it might sound like weird logic. But there's a memory of the party that really is committed to the 'convienence' of the DDP and really has a mental block about having to 'pay' for our meals, etc. I'm pretty concerned that we won't get true value out of the DDP. We had it 'free' last time and we weren't even able to use all our credits then so I'm loath to actually add it to our package -- then it's an even more jarring waste of money than before.

So it was suggested by some that might want to put the value on a gift card. That then the gift card can also be used for alcoholic beverages and tips -- as well as any surplus (and I fully expect there to be surplus) can be used on souvenirs or a ticket for a day at one of the water parks, etc.

Sounds good to me. I know it's not much different then putting it on our Magic Bands and charging it back to our room and dealing with it at the front desk. But again ... there seems to be another mental block about it being charged to our credit cards while on vacation. *sigh*

So ... this gift card thing sounds like a potential compromise.

Anyone tried that method before?

Problem for Canadians ... it's hard to get a gift card here and the ones the the stores only work at the Canadian Disney Stores. We don't want that -- we want one that works in the U.S. -- and specifically at the Disney World complex.

Anyone have any suggestions on where how to get them?

We aren't likely to be across the border before the trip and we don't have family or friends in the states to buy one for us.

I've contacted Betsy at Memories by Betsy and she's willing to buy the card and put our amount on it and either deliver us solely the card at a fee or deliver us the card as part of a gift basket -- obviously also at a more extensive fee. Has anyone used her to either get a gift card? Or even for her gift baskets? What are her gift baskets like? I understand she won't put any snacks in them -- which would really be the only thing we'd be that interested in. We'd prefer to let everyone els pick out their own souvenirs rather than us randomly picking things. But a 'welcome basket' might be kind of cute but seems sort of unnecessary. Anyone who got them like them? Or anyone who just got a gift card through her happy with her service?

I suppose in a worst-case scenario, I'll pick one up when we get to the resort. But I'd sort of like to have it sorted and to hit the ground-running when we start our vacation with it already in hand. On less thing to worry about.

 

[amw]

It was quite awhile ago.... I know you can't order gift cards from the wdw website to Canada, however in 2011, I ordered gift cards from the Disneyland website and they were able to ship to Canada for a fee. If you are willing to pay Betsy extra for the service -- you might as well check if this is still possible. Go to the Disneyland website, search gift cards. It might be less expensive and less hassle.

 

[kuhltiffany]

I'd wait and buy it when you get there…

I'm curious though, we never had an issue using all of our credits. When arriving back at the hotel at night we would pick up fruit, etc. using our snack credits and have it for breakfast the next day. We used our sit down meal credits for characters or the nicer buffets to get the best use of them...

 

[Zombie]

We did fine with the snack credits and the table service credits. But we had LOTS of our QS credits left over.

I think we had a few things going on with that:
1. We were there in late-August and it was historic-record setting highs even for that time of year. So most of the time when we didn't really want the kind of heavy-greasey meals that dominant QS in our bellies. We were mostly just looking for something cold and light.
2. We weren't really going over to the parks until mid-afternoon. We were enjoying quiet mornings and pool times at the resort. So that meant we were generally eating lunch on the resort -- but we really disliked the food court options at our resort.
3. We have a health issue and dietary restriction in our party. Though, Disney is fairly good at accommodating that even at QS, we did find it a bit of a hassle in terms of finding a spot that had reasonable options and then the wait time to get the dedicated meal. Not to mention. most of the options weren't that appealing to the individual given the heat/weather unfortunately.
4. We'd done Garden Grocery delivery to our room to help accommodate the health issue and dietary restriction and to have breakfast items available. But we'd likely ordered a bit more than we needed to -- so we were always eating breakfast in our room (not using the QS credit when it likely would've made sense to try it out at breakfast in the food court) and we always had lots of light healthy snacks on hand to nibble on in our room or to have in our park packs -- so that also deterred appetites and the requests for the QS-type meals.

So, yeah, we'd likely do it a bit differently this time. It was our first on-site Disney vacation and it was our first time with DDP (and it was the 'free' promo). But we also didn't use ADR -- and it's really hard for us to do ADR because of the health issue in our party we really aren't able to plan that much ahead. We really kind of have to go with the flow and see how everyone is doing on a particular day. Basically -- we don't know when we'll head over to the parks, how long we'll stay at the parks, what park we'll be in on a particular day and after we leave the parks and go back to the resort, we likely aren't going to be going off the resort again for the rest of that day. It's just the way it's gotta be. So we really flew by the seat of our pants. We lucked out in not having any problems getting a table for our TS credits -- but it was likely the restaurants we were going to and the time (Rainforest Cafe at AK, T-REX Cafe at DTD -- at lunch, Maya Grill x2 on our seemingly unpopular resort, Las Ventias -- for breakfast -- on our resort). So we actually did have 1 TS credit each left too. Yikes. I think we only used about 4 QS credits -- in the WHOLE PARTY, not each.

So if we get it 'free' again, I won't put up a huge fuss -- even though I still think that we could get a better discount elsewhere. Though, debatable. To me it looks like the 30% off rack is still less of a savings than the cost of the DDP. But if we aren't effectively using the DDP?

But I definitely feel like it'd be a poor idea for us to invest in actually visibly/mentally paying for DDP this time -- which looks like we'll likely be doing since the desire is to stay on POR this time, which apparently rarely has Free Dining, and Free Dining hasn't even released yet anyways.

But maybe since we know what our errors were last time we'd do better this time? But I'm not so sure. Hence the card possibility being explored. Because at least then the money could be spent on other things Disney and vacation related if we don't end up eating $61 US each in food each day.

But I'm also not sure how much we'd change. Maybe ordering less from Garden Grocery to have in the room -- at least breakfast stuff and trying to use the food court more for breakfast with our QS credits. That might resolve the issue. Not sure.

If anyone has any further thoughts on that. Or how they dealt with DDP particularly if they had a health issue and dietary restriction in their party that made too much advanced planning difficult (but planning necessary because of the health issue and dietary restrictions too! Too much of a paradox!), that'd be appreciated as well.

 

[kuhltiffany]

We have multiple allergies (both DS and DH), which make it hard to use the DP too. It sounds like it would be better for you to not get it and hope for a room sale instead…

 

[Zombie]

What do you find are some of the best spots for eating when you've got multiple allergies/dietary restrictions to deal with? Last year was our first year doing Disney with the health issue in the party.

We found the sit-down restaurants were pretty decent at accommodating and understanding but we're quite as impressed with QS or even tracking down snack options (beyond the obvious -- fruit, veg). If you have any suggestions on particularly accommodating QS (or ones with good variety of options), it'd be much appreciated. But even if you have an shining TS experiences or snack revelations, it'd be appreciated.

It's an anti-inflammatory dietary plan. So it's pretty restrictive. The condition also places restrictions on how we plan our days and how long we're out and about-- or even if we venture into the parks on a particular day. But we loved the resort experience so much that we're still looking at making a repeat trip this summer. Though, we're likely going to get fewer days in the park to start and just add days to our ticket as we go instead.

If you have had any shining experience with a TS and QS on a resort too -- that'd be great because since we do spend a lot of time on the resort, we certainly would like to have a place that has good food and accommodating/flexible service when dealing with diet restrictions. We'd give our previous resort mixed views in that regard (CSR). But we loved the pools and the room and the uncrowded busing so much that might still be where we go back. We're also considering the other moderates and there's a possibility we might splurge for a cabin at WL or a suite at AOA ... or perhaps 'downgrade' to a suite at AS Music or just a room at POP. But I stayed on a 'value' resort (AS Movies) years and years and years ago and after seeing moderate, I'm not sure I could go back to a value -- and my concern is mounted since they just have the food courts too and not a TS.

Of course, we'll be having groceries delivered and taking our own snacks into the park to bulk up our access and options and to ensure there's always something available and accessible to eat.

 

[lizabu]

Literally every resort has a gift shop. It will take you all of five minutes to buy the gift card when you get there

 

[Zombie]

Has anyone actually used the gift card method and found it useful and easy?