Cruising at Christmas

[IamgoingtoDisney]

Hi Everyone,

We are coming from Australia to celebrate Christmas Disney Style this year.

We have been keeping this a secret for over a year now from our kids 12 & 10. The trip will be their surprise gift from us as I have spent a lot of money on this trip but as we will be on the ship on Christmas day I thought it would be nice for Santa to leave possibly a tshirt & a gift card? I think this will be their last Christmas believing so I want to have something either in our room or delivered on Christmas Day.

Is this something I can buy & have Disney deliver to our room or should I just sneak off on Christmas Eve & buy a couple of things from the gift shop? Do they sell Disney gift cards on the ship? I was thinking they will want to buy something anyway so a disney gift card would be a good option for them to choose something themselves. We will be going to DW as well after the cruise.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

 

[IamgoingtoDisney]

anyone?

 

[WanderlustNZ]

You could prepurchase some online gift cards.

We will be buying one for my son this Xmas and he can pick what he wants from WDW.

 

[jeepnjudy]

I would buy smaller gifts you can travel with PRIOR to the cruise and bring them with you...typically better options in stores rather than on the ship.

 

[IamgoingtoDisney]

So can you buy gift cards on the ship?

 

[Dug720]

So can you buy gift cards on the ship?

You used to be able to, but after an "issue" with a former crew member, I believe that they no longer sell them on board.

 

[IamgoingtoDisney]

Bummer. If I buy online will it just be a gift card I print out? Where could I purchase these? We will be arriving in Orlando the day before we leave on the cruise. Not sure if they will nail to Australia

 

[Dug720]

Bummer. If I buy online will it just be a gift card I print out? Where could I purchase these? We will be arriving in Orlando the day before we leave on the cruise. Not sure if they will nail to Australia

When I've bought them online from Disney (you can from disneygiftcard.com though it goes through the online Disney Store) I get a physical card in the mail - you select the card you want. Other than the "gift card for no housekeeping" at some of the WDW resorts, I've not seen Disney e-gift cards.

 

[dprincessmom]

Bummer. If I buy online will it just be a gift card I print out? Where could I purchase these? We will be arriving in Orlando the day before we leave on the cruise. Not sure if they will nail to Australia

Disney gift cards are available at most grocery stores, Target, Walmart and Walgreens or CVS. You likely won't have a hard time finding them at all. You could ask your room attendant to set out for the kids if you would like or just "Forget" something in the room and have to run back for a quick second. We were on the Merry Time sailing over Christmas last year and loved it. Santa and Mickey left an invitation in our room for some special things happening on Christmas morning in the atrium. There was also a table outside the main dining rooms Christmas Eve with cookies and milk to take back to your room to leave for Santa.

This was our first cruise and we loved it. Going on a Merry Time for a week this year and can't wait. Please let me know if you have any Merry Time questions and I will try to answer for you. Have a wonderful time.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

We've traveled overseas over Christmas a few times and I simply bought a few very small things for my DS, wrapped them (none of them were electronic, so I never had an issue with luggage) and put them out when he fell asleep on Christmas Eve. I even bought a very, small, collapsible Disney tabletop tree and brought it one year to put in the room. If you would rather get things when you get on the ship, they will have a ton of merchandise on the ship and you can even order stateroom gifts to be delivered to your room. They should have Christmas items listed that you can order prior to your cruise (I see the Halloween gifts available now). If you can't get your hands on a gift card, perhaps simply give them a handmade "gift certificate" letting them know they have x amount of $$ to use in the gift shops. You could then give them charging privileges on their key card and they could simply go shopping in the stores and pick out something they would like.

 

[Sunshine2U]

Your children will not be able to use the gift cards on the ship. You can only charge to the room account. Wanted to be sure you knew that.

 

[Dug720]

Your children will not be able to use the gift cards on the ship. You can only charge to the room account. Wanted to be sure you knew that.

When did the gift shop stop taking gift cards? I know they stopped selling them, but I thought they still took them,

 

[Sunshine2U]

When did the gift shop stop taking gift cards? I know they stopped selling them, but I thought they still took them,

Hi Beth, I had always been under the impression you cannot use gift cards on the ships. If I am mistaken, I apologize. I thought you have to apply gift cards to your account at Guest Services and use your kttw to charge.

 

[Dug720]

Hi Beth, I had always been under the impression you cannot use gift cards on the ships. If I am mistaken, I apologize. I thought you have to apply gift cards to your account at Guest Services and use your kttw to charge.

I'm not 100%, but I thought that the gift shops were the one exception for being able to use your gift cards. I'm pretty sure that some parents have talked about that's how they allowed their kids to buy their own souvenirs without activating charging privileges. I would also be wrong though.

I've always applied mine (either at guest services or by calling ahead and purchasing OBC) because they've been covering things like excursions, Palo, etc. and not usually gift shop purchases.

 

[dprincessmom]

Hi Beth, I had always been under the impression you cannot use gift cards on the ships. If I am mistaken, I apologize. I thought you have to apply gift cards to your account at Guest Services and use your kttw to charge.

Last December on the Dream my daughter was able to use her gift cards in the store. The "fancy" high end store didn't have the right equipment but our CM went to the general gift store and ran the cards there.

 

[aggiedog]

We did a Christmas cruise 2 yrs ago. I brought stockings and filled them with small gifts. The main gift was the cruise itself, so nothing was very expensive. A few items were stand ins/"certificates" for what I had waiting at home - a new leotard for ballet dd, things like that. Youngest ds still believed in Santa, so we hid the stockings and put them out after he fell asleep.

 

[cmash95]

Hi Beth, I had always been under the impression you cannot use gift cards on the ships. If I am mistaken, I apologize. I thought you have to apply gift cards to your account at Guest Services and use your kttw to charge.

you can add them to your onboard account and if they arent spent they will add what is left back onto the card

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Bummer. If I buy online will it just be a gift card I print out? Where could I purchase these? We will be arriving in Orlando the day before we leave on the cruise. Not sure if they will nail to Australia

About 7 years ago you used to be able to get physical cards sent down our way, but no longer.
We can buy the E-gift cards though and they are emailed through as a paper document. They might not be as pretty as a small plastic card, but they do the same job and could easily be ‘dressed up’ by sticking them into a greeting card etc.

I like that buying them online I get Visa exchange rates which are better than cash coversion rates over the counter at the bank or the rates on my Cash Passport. It’s why I’ve been prepurchasing most of my Disney spending money by buying egift cards.

 

[IamgoingtoDisney]

Thank you so much for all of your responses. We will have 9 nights at DisneyWorld so plenty of time to spend gift cards if we cant on the ship.

Im glad to know that the gift cards are available at Target, Walmart etc. We are staying at Cocoa Beach the night we arrive in Orlando & I noticed there are some stores nearby our hotel so I can sneak off. I will bring my own printed version just in case as a backup so good idea. I will get a tshirt each from our shops here. I love the idea of the small tree. I think I might forget something in my room & set it up quickly on Christmas Eve. How cute that they give you milk & cookies. I am beyond excited & all you lovely people have been so helpful in organising our dream holiday.

Thank you

 

[rawdata]

We are on the 22 Dec MerryTime this year! Looking forward to it! We are planning to do something similar - giftcards for the kids. If you are on the same one and can't seem to get away, happy to help coordinate picking up some for you!