Best way to utilize gift cards?

[monkeybug]

We are planning to buy the discounted Sam's club gift cards on Black Friday, but we're staying at SOG so I'm not sure how to utilize the e-cards? Is there a way to load them on the My Disney Experience app to pay for individual Lightning Lanes? Or add them to an Apple Wallet or something and use them for dining? Putting them on a physical card makes me nervous because that's a lot of money lost if they are misplaced.

 

[jennyq87]

I'm not aware of a strategy like that. When I have a bunch of gift card $, I consolidate everything using disneygiftcard.com. You can load all of your cards on there (physical and electronic) and transfer balances back and forth, check balances, etc. (Kind of like the starbucks app works, if you're familiar with that). That way if you lose one (and notice before someone else can use the $), you can just transfer the balance from the lost card to another one. Or you can transfer all of your balances to one card, use your magic band for expenses during the week, and go by the front desk and put the gift card balances toward your overall bill.

 

[monkeybug]

I'm not aware of a strategy like that. When I have a bunch of gift card $, I consolidate everything using disneygiftcard.com. You can load all of your cards on there (physical and electronic) and transfer balances back and forth, check balances, etc. (Kind of like the starbucks app works, if you're familiar with that). That way if you lose one (and notice before someone else can use the $), you can just transfer the balance from the lost card to another one. Or you can transfer all of your balances to one card, use your magic band for expenses during the week, and go by the front desk and put the gift card balances toward your overall bill.

Thanks! I didn't realize you could move the balances around like that and that makes me feel better about putting them on physical cards.

Unfortunately we can't charge to the room while at Shades of Green so that will only be an option if Disney releases military room rates and we can switch to a deluxe.

 

[bsmcneil]

FWIW, there's not really a good way to add them onto Apple Wallet. You can use the app Gyft but it doesn't update the balance regularly, etc. I just found it to not be that helpful

 

[elgerber]

We are planning to buy the discounted Sam's club gift cards on Black Friday, but we're staying at SOG so I'm not sure how to utilize the e-cards? Is there a way to load them on the My Disney Experience app to pay for individual Lightning Lanes? Or add them to an Apple Wallet or something and use them for dining? Putting them on a physical card makes me nervous because that's a lot of money lost if they are misplaced.

yes you can use them for Genie and dining, for mobile ordering. You cannot store the cards in your MDE, but you can use them. You just have to type in the number each time. I texted myself the number then copied and pasted it every time I needed it.
as far as sit down, you would have to load them onto a physical gift card for that.

 

[lockets]

I use the Target gift cards (5% off with Red Card). Purchase online. They are emailed to me electronically. Once I have them up on my screen I'm able to see the card number, pin number, and there's a UPC code too. I screenshot it at that point. Anytime I want to pay for something with the gift card I bring up the photo and have a CM scan it. Anywhere credit cards are used in the parks these screenshotted cards can be used. I purchase in bulk and combine them on the disney gift card site. When I'm at the parks if i don't want to access my photos I just go back to the Target link, bring up the "main" card (the one that i transferred most of the money to using the disney gift card site) and I leave one internet window on my phone on that link all day because they can scan from that too without me looking through photos. I also use it at end of stay to pay for room. I use it online to purchase memory maker. I use it to make reservations online for dining and room. I use it for everything! I've never owned a physical gift card. Hope that helps! Feel free to ask me more questions if there's anything i can clarify.