Combining Deals...What's the Best?

[volfan1978]

Cruise noob here...we're looking at a 4 night family cruise in October 2017, and while I wait for dates to be released I'm trying to understand how to get the best bang for my buck. I already know what dates we'll be available (kids' fall break), and so I don't have any flexibility there. It will be two adults and three children (ages 10, 8, and 3).

Some of the discounts I've seen are shipboard credit through Disney Visa (I have one), shipboard credits through travel agents, cash cards through Costco, etc. So I'm trying to get my ducks in a row so that when the dates are released I'm ready to pull the trigger and I already know what to do. I know that each situation is different...but in general, suggestions from the more seasoned?

 

[woodynjessiesmomma]

I'm new to this too, but the best deal I've found was a OBC + the Disney visa promo. Using a TA for my first cruise was okay with me as I am a bit overwhelmed with all the details involved (I've never used a TA for a our park adventures). The only caveat of the Visa credit is all payments must be made with your Disney visa, no gift cards/etc. Hopefully someone with experience can let us know if there are better deals out there.

 

[jrabbit]

5 people equals one of the way more expensive rooms. You might look at getting 2 connecting rooms instead.

as far as discounts go, stacking them is difficult. You might be able to do something with the Disney Visa and Travel Agent. Don't know.

and there's the Disney Gift Card route (seems like a lot of work to me). Someplaces like Target will sell them at a discount. But paying for your cruise $100 at a time seems like a lot of data entry into the online payment system. (it's not the fastest website in the world).

 

[Maggie'sMom]

Depending on the cost of the cruise, you may come out ahead by not using your Disney Visa to get the $50 credit towards beverages. I pay for my cruises using Disney gift cards. I buy them at grocery stores that are offering fuel points. Then I apply them to my Disney Vacation Account, which gives me $20 for each $1000 spent out of the account. I can get 20 cents off per gallon of gas for each $50 I spend. If I go on a 3 night cruise and get a fare of $1,200, I buy $1,200 in gift cards at the grocery. That gives me $4.80 in fuel perks. At today's gas prices, that gives me about 2 full tanks of gas free. If I fill up my car with 15 gallons, I've saved $72. Plus I get another $20 Disney gift card from my Disney Vacation Account. So already I'm at $92 in savings versus the $50 from the Disney Visa onboard credit. And most cruises are a lot more than $1,200 so the savings is quite a bit higher than the $50 Disney Visa credit.

There is a more elaborate way to save additional money using a Target Red card, Target gift cards, raise.com, etc., but I don't want to put that much time into it.

 

[melwill530]

You can use Dreams Unlimited and the gift cards and the Disney Vacation Account. Dreams Unlimited will give you an OBC depending on the room booked. You can save by getting the Disney gift cards at a discount or working the grocery store route Then you can apply the gift cards on the Disney Vacation Account and for every $1000 get a $20 gift card.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Don't forget to check Costco, but remember the price they quote you is higher than you actually pay (software glitch or something) They give cash back.

 

[TrySomethingNew]

One caveat with gift cards to be aware of: if you get refunded, the money goes back to the original form of payment, the gift card.

Caveat with Disney Vacation Account: you get bonus after acct is open for 120 days. You can use your funds before 120 days, but you won't get bonus on whatever amount was used before 120 days. However, always read the fine print as things can change.

Additionally, some credit cards give larger rebates for travel expenses. So, paying Costco travel, or DCL, or Disney vacation account, etc. gets the travel rewards of whatever amount. You may want a cc for travel anyway for no FTE, if your current card(s) charge FTE.

Don't forget travel insurance: through Disney, independent policy, or attached to the credit card you used (call to understand what level of insurance- if any- your cc will cover).

 

[DLM1980]

I'm just now going the Gift Card to pay off my Disney World trip (I went Dreams Unlimited/Disney Visa rout for DCL, but now that I used an OBB I may go gift card route since the OBB and Disney Visa credit don't work together I'm told)

Anyways....
use the DisneyGiftCard.com website and combine all your gift cards onto 1 gift card, then pay your account balance with that one card, that way should you cancel you don't need to hold on to every gift card (in my current count 12), just hold on to the one your transferring everything on to.

 

[TrySomethingNew]

Don't forget to check Costco, but remember the price they quote you is higher than you actually pay (software glitch or something) They give cash back.

I think it is a Costco cash card -useable at Costco or Costco dot com. You get the cash card after the cruise is completed. Read the fine print for details. Given the 8-9 pct back it is a good deal.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

I'm just now going the Gift Card to pay off my Disney World trip (I went Dreams Unlimited/Disney Visa rout for DCL, but now that I used an OBB I may go gift card route since the OBB and Disney Visa credit don't work together I'm told)

Anyways....
use the DisneyGiftCard.com website and combine all your gift cards onto 1 gift card, then pay your account balance with that one card, that way should you cancel you don't need to hold on to every gift card (in my current count 12), just hold on to the one your transferring everything on to.

You are correct that you can't get the Disney Visa OBC and use the OBB discount.

With the disneygiftcard.com site, you can only have up to $1,000 on any one card so most people would have to have more than one gift card.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Right. I should have said Costco gift card back, not just cash back.

 

[DLM1980]

You are correct that you can't get the Disney Visa OBC and use the OBB discount.

With the disdneygiftcard.com site, you can only have up to $1,000 on any one card so most people would have to have more than one gift card.

But what happens when u make that value zero with a payment. Can you not transfer new cards on to that one again

If u need a refund would not everything go back to it then?

 

[Maggie'sMom]

But what happens when u make that value zero with a payment. Can you not transfer new cards on to that one again

If u need a refund would not everything go back to it then?

Yes, you could refill it, I presume, but I'm not sure what happens if you need to have everything refunded.

 

[cruisehopeful]

If you normally shop at Costco, your best rebate will come from them. All travel agents that give on board credit, do it out of their sales commission. Costco gives the highest amount.

I have a mastercard through PayPal/Synchrony Bank. One of the rewards it offers is Disney gift cards. I don't use them for the cost of the cruise, but use it for my on board account. I managed to get $170. in Disney gift cards by charging on it a lot the past 6 months.

 

[volfan1978]

Ok, so I went through the exercise of putting a bunch of the techniques you guys mentioned to the test on a hypothetical scenario...4 night cruise from Port Canaveral, 2 adults and 3 kids. I randomly picked 9/18/2017 as the test case.

One Room vs Two: For our party, a family verandah room is $4,068. Two connecting verandahs are $4,492. I'm actually inclined to spend the extra $400 and get two rooms if the cost differential is that small. I've heard that you can have the room host open the divider between adjacent verandahs...that would be cool if true.

Target Gift Cards/Disney Vacation Account: Using the red card, we'd save 5%. So for a $4,492 pair of rooms, that's $220 off just by going through the gymnastics of using red card, combining gift cards, etc. Plus if going through the Disney Vacation Account, that's another $80 in Disney gift cards for the kids to spend on the ship. Net price of $4,192.

Costco: Priced out the identical pair of rooms as above on Costco.com, and the price was somewhat higher ($4,889 versus $4,492). Combined cash card bonus for the two rooms was $355. So, net price of $4,534. In this case Costco doesn't work out for me, but it may vary from situation to situation. I don't have a Costco credit card, but I think there's additional cash back for travel (maybe 3%) if you go that route. Even so, the inflated Costco price doesn't justify the bonuses.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

Ok, so I went through the exercise of putting a bunch of the techniques you guys mentioned to the test on a hypothetical scenario...4 night cruise from Port Canaveral, 2 adults and 3 kids. I randomly picked 9/18/2017 as the test case.

One Room vs Two: For our party, a family verandah room is $4,068. Two connecting verandahs are $4,492. I'm actually inclined to spend the extra $400 and get two rooms if the cost differential is that small. I've heard that you can have the room host open the divider between adjacent verandahs...that would be cool if true.

Target Gift Cards/Disney Vacation Account: Using the red card, we'd save 5%. So for a $4,492 pair of rooms, that's $220 off just by going through the gymnastics of using red card, combining gift cards, etc. Plus if going through the Disney Vacation Account, that's another $80 in Disney gift cards for the kids to spend on the ship. Net price of $4,192.

Costco: Priced out the identical pair of rooms as above on Costco.com, and the price was somewhat higher ($4,889 versus $4,492). Combined cash card bonus for the two rooms was $355. So, net price of $4,534. In this case Costco doesn't work out for me, but it may vary from situation to situation. I don't have a Costco credit card, but I think there's additional cash back for travel (maybe 3%) if you go that route. Even so, the inflated Costco price doesn't justify the bonuses.

There is a glitch in the Costco system that gives a higher price to start, but at the end, the cost will be the same as through DCL's website. And you can use the gift card/Disney Vacation Account combo with Costco.

On the Dream, most verandah rooms can have the divider opened between verandahs. There are a limited number of rooms that have dividers that can't open because they are actually part of the structure of the ship.

 

[volfan1978]

There is a glitch in the Costco system that gives a higher price to start, but at the end, the cost will be the same as through DCL's website. And you can use the gift card/Disney Vacation Account combo with Costco.

On the Dream, most verandah rooms can have the divider opened between verandahs. There are a limited number of rooms that have dividers that can't open because they are actually part of the structure of the ship.

Thanks for the clarification...I'll check it out about the Costco price glitch, I didn't go very far into the process and so I probably didn't see the final price.

 

[mdgineok]

5 people equals one of the way more expensive rooms. You might look at getting 2 connecting rooms instead.

as far as discounts go, stacking them is difficult. You might be able to do something with the Disney Visa and Travel Agent. Don't know.

and there's the Disney Gift Card route (seems like a lot of work to me). Someplaces like Target will sell them at a discount. But paying for your cruise $100 at a time seems like a lot of data entry into the online payment system. (it's not the fastest website in the world).

I do the 5% of Disney GC thing at Target. The DCL website won't accept Disney gift cards as payments (it says it does but it always tells me my cards don't have valid numbers). So I transfer the $100 gift cards using the Disney gift card management website and call them when I have a card with $1000 on it. They apply it no problem. You can have up to $1000 on a Disney gift card. The CM's always remind me that I need to save the gift card because if we cancel the payments go back to the original form of payment. So I mark them to keep track which ones I used to pay for the cruise. I will only need 4 cards to cover our March 2017 cruise. YMMV

Mark in MN

 

[volfan1978]

Note...I followed up on checking Costco, and if you go all the way to the end of the process the price was identical to the DCL website price. So when Costco goes live with October 2017 booking I'll book my rooms there and get the Costco cash cards ($355 in savings), pay the deposit, and then pay the rest of the vacation with Disney gift cards bought from Target with red card and funneled through a Disney Vacation Account. So I should be looking at saving about $195 with the Target cards and $60 worth of Disney gift cards back from DVA. Total savings of $610...sweet!

 

[jenc842]

5 people equals one of the way more expensive rooms. You might look at getting 2 connecting rooms instead.

as far as discounts go, stacking them is difficult. You might be able to do something with the Disney Visa and Travel Agent. Don't know.

and there's the Disney Gift Card route (seems like a lot of work to me). Someplaces like Target will sell them at a discount. But paying for your cruise $100 at a time seems like a lot of data entry into the online payment system. (it's not the fastest website in the world).

You can actually use the disney gift card website to combine all of your $100 cards. It's still manual input, but at least you can simplify it into one or two cards to make those big payments and only bring those cards on the ship.