Book with travel agent (Costco) / Pay with Disney Gift Card?

[bruin89]

Hi folks,

Long time lurker here. Have enjoyed so much invaluable knowledge on Disboards over all aspects of Disney.

We just returned from the repo cruise on the Wonder a couple weeks back. Our first DCL trip and no surprise, we're hooked. So we booked a "placeholder" cruise for the onboard booking discount and had them add Costco as our travel agent since we booked our first one through them.

After trolling the boards I've seen how we could apply the Target "trick" and save 5% by purchasing gift cards on the RedCard. We want to go that route, but assumed if you paid with a Disney gift card you'd need to book directly from Disney to pay them with the gift cards. I called Costco Travel to have them "release" the booking back to DCL, but I was told that I could keep my reservation with Costco, pay *Costco* with the Disney GC's, and even get a Costco cash card on top of that.

They said as the travel agent they basically were the middle man and passed the Disney GC payment directly on to DCL. However, on the Costco website the only payment option is via Amex/Visa/MC. I assume if you wanted to use the Disney GC you'd have to call them and give them the GC numbers.

Can anyone confirm this? Thanks in advance!

 

[Jetsetter42]

We have always paid for our cruises booked directly with DCL on our Disney Visa. This time I booked through Costco travel and they just passed our credit card info to DCL, which is proven by the fact that the charge comes up on our credit card identically to when it came up paying directly to DCL. I'm sure if Costco told you that they can pass the Disney GC though to DCL they can.

 

[su_A_ve]

Since Costco seems to be simply relaying the information over to DCL, they should be able to take Disney GC as well as the Disney Rewards card.

Only experience has been with AAA and Dreams Unlimited. I've used both GCs and Disney Rewards.

 

[ocspartan]

Hi folks, Long time lurker here. Have enjoyed so much invaluable knowledge on Disboards over all aspects of Disney. We just returned from the repo cruise on the Wonder a couple weeks back. Our first DCL trip and no surprise, we're hooked. So we booked a "placeholder" cruise for the onboard booking discount and had them add Costco as our travel agent since we booked our first one through them. After trolling the boards I've seen how we could apply the Target "trick" and save 5% by purchasing gift cards on the RedCard. We want to go that route, but assumed if you paid with a Disney gift card you'd need to book directly from Disney to pay them with the gift cards. I called Costco Travel to have them "release" the booking back to DCL, but I was told that I could keep my reservation with Costco, pay *Costco* with the Disney GC's, and even get a Costco cash card on top of that. They said as the travel agent they basically were the middle man and passed the Disney GC payment directly on to DCL. However, on the Costco website the only payment option is via Amex/Visa/MC. I assume if you wanted to use the Disney GC you'd have to call them and give them the GC numbers. Can anyone confirm this? Thanks in advance!

I'm just like you. Started by Lurking on board for a while and learned of this trick. Now have done just what you are describing a number of times. Most definitely Yes, you can purchase disney gift cards at target or other retailers that offer incentives, and apply those cards towards a disney cruise when using Costco as your TA. And yes you will still get 100% of your Costco cash card this way regardless if you booked through disney direct or through Costco.

The process is really easy, you are correct you can not process them online you need to call in, explain what you are doing, they know the drill, tell them the number of gift cards you have, if it's a small amount they will take down the numbers from you and then call disney and relay the information, often times they will conference you in with the disney agents directly and you will just read off the card numbers directly to dcl. Either way at the end of the call you will get an email with Costco with your updated cruise doc showing you how much you have paid and any remaining balance. It is a really simple and you save quite a bit when added in with the cash card.

 

[bruin89]

Thanks for the responses! Sounds like we can't lose this way!

 

[lisa3635]

I paid for our cruise through costco travel with disney gift cards, no problem

 

[birdmom]

Does someone have a link to where Disney gift cards are sold discounted? I never knew about this trick and any discount helps!

 

[chirodoc78]

Does someone have a link to where Disney gift cards are sold discounted? I never knew about this trick and any discount helps!

Search the disboards for Disney gift cards and there's a 100+ page thread with all kinds of ways to get disney gift cards discounted.

 

[birdmom]

thanks

 

[ScubaMama]

Since this thread has been bumped, I wanted to share that I booked our next cruise with Costco Travel and paid with a Disney Vacation Savings Account. The deposit was needed quickly so I put that amount into the DVSA instantly with my credit card. Then once my Target red card came in,I bought the gift cards at Target and entered them into my DVSA. To pay Costco just put me on three way with Disney and I gave the rep my account number and how much to withdraw from the account. After 120 days of the DVSA being open I can request $20 Disney gift card for every $1000 ( so 2%) . It'll arrive after the cruise but I'll spend it at the local Disney store on PJs or possibly save it for the next cruise.

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

Since this thread has been bumped, I wanted to share that I booked our next cruise with Costco Travel and paid with a Disney Vacation Savings Account. The deposit was needed quickly so I put that amount into the DVSA instantly with my credit card. Then once my Target red card came in,I bought the gift cards at Target and entered them into my DVSA. To pay Costco just put me on three way with Disney and I gave the rep my account number and how much to withdraw from the account. After 120 days of the DVSA being open I can request $20 Disney gift card for every $1000 ( so 2%) . It'll arrive after the cruise but I'll spend it at the local Disney store on PJs or possibly save it for the next cruise.

^^^ This is exactly what I do I buy my Disney gift cards at Target with my Red card to earn 5%, then fund into my Disney Savings account and then transfer to Costco as needed. Also - DCL is very strict on you not giving your account number to anyone so as mentioned you'll either need to do a two way call with Costco - or easier - just call DCL directly and tell them you need to use your DV account funds for a payment and it's quick and easy. It's nice to earn an additional 2% ($20 gift card for every $1000 funded and used) and it saves so much time to consolidate online in one place, then give DCL the one account number to apply.

Heather