Disney Gift Card Deals

[bsusanmb]

Thanks for the great info, Jodie!

I just received the GCs I purchased from Target's site & have no experience with this bc I've always bought the GCs in the store already activated. I was under the impression that cards that are purchased online are never activated but after reading some of the comments on here, I guess it could go either way. At least now I know who to call to get them activated before my upcoming trip the end of this month!

I started to enter mine on disneygiftcard dot com to make sure that they were activated after this happened to me. You can combine them or just leave them as is and delete them. The money is still on the card even when you delete them. You can only have 5 cards on at a time. I use a sharpie and write on the front of mine to keep track of what was done and what amount is on them.

 

[ksromack]

I started to enter mine on disneygiftcard dot com to make sure that they were activated after this happened to me. You can combine them or just leave them as is and delete them. The money is still on the card even when you delete them. You can only have 5 cards on at a time. I use a sharpie and write on the front of mine to keep track of what was done and what amount is on them.

I would recommend everyone do this upon receiving their Disney GCs. Can you imagine how confusing it would be to wait and find out months later that your cards were not activated? It just makes sense anyway......combine to $1000 at least when you are paying off your trip. Obviously I wouldn't want to walk around with a $1000 gift card in my purse. I would be too worried to lose it! I like the idea of charging to my room account using my magic band then paying off the charges every couple of days using the larger gift card.

 

[Stefecatzz]

I started to enter mine on disneygiftcard dot com to make sure that they were activated after this happened to me. You can combine them or just leave them as is and delete them. The money is still on the card even when you delete them. You can only have 5 cards on at a time. I use a sharpie and write on the front of mine to keep track of what was done and what amount is on them.

I never knew about that site or that you could manage them like that! I always just bought them at Target the morning of my trip & drive up there w/the ones I had & would have the CM throw it out for me when there was nothing left on it.

It's really nice to be able to transfer the balance onto just one card. I'm gonna hang onto the other card & take it with me in case something happens to the one w/the balance so I can quickly transfer the $ to the one I still have if that's the case & cancel the other.

I would recommend everyone do this upon receiving their Disney GCs. Can you imagine how confusing it would be to wait and find out months later that your cards were not activated? It just makes sense anyway......combine to $1000 at least when you are paying off your trip. Obviously I wouldn't want to walk around with a $1000 gift card in my purse. I would be too worried to lose it! I like the idea of charging to my room account using my magic band then paying off the charges every couple of days using the larger gift card.

I agree, it is nice to charge on your MB in the parks & go to the front desk w/the GC to pay it off when you can. I know you are only able to do this up until 2 nights before your check out date (if I remember correctly) bc after that, they begin the process of creating your folio to charge the CC you put on file on your check out date w/the remaining balance.

How can you tell though if the GC is activated? Do you just assume it's activated when you add it onto your account & it shows you the balance? I can't find out how to see if it is or not on the site.

 

[Marionnette]

I never knew about that site or that you could manage them like that! I always just bought them at Target the morning of my trip & drive up there w/the ones I had & would have the CM throw it out for me when there was nothing left on it.

It's really nice to be able to transfer the balance onto just one card. I'm gonna hang onto the other card & take it with me in case something happens to the one w/the balance so I can quickly transfer the $ to the one I still have if that's the case & cancel the other.

I plan to carry a couple of Disney GCs with $0 balances with me and then I'll transfer balances from other GCs in my account to the physical GC that I have with me.

I agree, it is nice to charge on your MB in the parks & go to the front desk w/the GC to pay it off when you can. I know you are only able to do this up until 2 nights before your check out date (if I remember correctly) bc after that, they begin the process of creating your folio to charge the CC you put on file on your check out date w/the remaining balance.

They will charge the CC on file when you reach a preset threshold. This threshold varies, depending on the level of resort that you are staying at and Disney will charge your card before your balance reaches that limit if you are coming close to that amount. I think it's just as easy to pay with a GC as it is to tap your MB and enter your PIN code.

How can you tell though if the GC is activated? Do you just assume it's activated when you add it onto your account & it shows you the balance? I can't find out how to see if it is or not on the site.

If you enter the numbers for a GC that has not been activated, you will see an error code instead of the card being added to your account.

 

[bound4wdw]

So looking at cardpool and what they do made me think of something I'm sure someone has tried before.
Can you go to target and buy gift cards with your red card and save %5, then turn around online, using redcard and recently bought %5 off target gift cards and buy Disney Gift cards and get another 5% off? 10% total

 

[Marionnette]

So looking at cardpool and what they do made me think of something I'm sure someone has tried before.
Can you go to target and buy gift cards with your red card and save %5, then turn around online, using redcard and recently bought %5 off target gift cards and buy Disney Gift cards and get another 5% off? 10% total

You can't get 5% off of the purchase of Target GCs using the REDCard.

 

[Stefecatzz]

Thank you, Marionnette!

I also agree that it's just as easy to pay in the parks w/a gift card. My little system I began doing to keep track of the balance is wrapping the last receipt around the card & w/each new receipt, throwing out the previous one so I wouldn't get confused. I wouldn't throw it out if it was a merch purchase but for food & drink, it doesn't matter.

I guess I can assume that mine are all activated then since it allowed me to add them onto the site.

 

[kmchisholm]

I've been told (by a friend who's a cast member in hospitality) that you can use a GC on your account up to midnight the day before you check out. But, she always recommends double checking.

I like to use MB as I have a Venture card and anything I charge and don't wipe off with a gift card, will hit the card as travel. I can then wipe off any or all of the charge up to 90 days later.

 

[disneedee]

Paying with Disney gift card? Why don't you just apply the gift cards to your reservation as you get them instead of bringing them all with you to the hotel?

 

[CMNJ]

Paying with Disney gift card? Why don't you just apply the gift cards to your reservation as you get them instead of bringing them all with you to the hotel?

I'm not sure which post this was in regard to but some people use them to pay off room charges (for food, souvenirs, etc) which can't be prepaid. Also people who have a room only reservation don't pay for their whole room cost 45 days prior the way people with a package do. They can cancel up to 5 days prior with out penalty and the only deposit required is 1 night's stay. Not sure if you can prepay a room only stay if you want to.

 

[Mr. lncredible]

When my family and I went down in May I was able to have the CM at check in load my gift cards onto our room so that we had a credit and when we charged something to the room it just came off the credit. Saved me the hassle and worry about when they would charge my credit card.

 

[Mr. lncredible]

I was also able to go to the desk and get a print off of things that had been charged and the remaining credit multiple times throughout the trip to help keep track of what we had left our final days.

 

[ksromack]

Paying with Disney gift card? Why don't you just apply the gift cards to your reservation as you get them instead of bringing them all with you to the hotel?

This is the option with packages but not with room only charges. This explains why we had to pay upon arrival when we went to Disneyland too. It was a room only so we only paid the one night deposit. I wish I could have combined gift cards for that trip! Poor CM at the counter had to do each one separately. Of course, I paid it all off at 6 am when I was sure I wasn't holding anybody up at the counter!

 

[momto4obkids]

I'm not sure which post this was in regard to but some people use them to pay off room charges (for food, souvenirs, etc) which can't be prepaid. Also people who have a room only reservation don't pay for their whole room cost 45 days prior the way people with a package do. They can cancel up to 5 days prior with out penalty and the only deposit required is 1 night's stay. Not sure if you can prepay a room only stay if you want to.

I had a room only reservation in June. I called in and paid my balance off before arriving with my DVA. So, some people do pay room only's in advance.

 

[CMNJ]

Good to know you can prepay the room cost if you want to (so you can use the dva). I wasn't sure because there have been lots of reports by others of trying to have gift cards applied to their room to have a credit they deduct from every time they make a room charge with their magic band but being told no and that they have to come back after the charges are made to pay them off. However I see someone else posted they were able to do exactly that in May-so it appears it may depend on the cast member/resort rather than being a set Disney policy.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I went in April and brought about $350 in gift cards with me. We stayed at AKL and I was not able to load them to my room to "prepay" for charges from my Magic Band. They told me the reason at the time, and I remember thinking it made sense, but I can't remember exactly what it was. I had no issues going down and paying down my balance with the gift cards though. Took less than 5 minutes and I had multiple gift cards.

 

[Mr. lncredible]

I went in April and brought about $350 in gift cards with me. We stayed at AKL and I was not able to load them to my room to "prepay" for charges from my Magic Band. They told me the reason at the time, and I remember thinking it made sense, but I can't remember exactly what it was. I had no issues going down and paying down my balance with the gift cards though. Took less than 5 minutes and I had multiple gift cards.

Maybe it does depend on the CM you get but it's definitely possible to do. I find it interesting that I was staying at an All Star resort and you at AKL, you'd think the service at the more expensive resort would be more accommodating.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Maybe it does depend on the CM you get but it's definitely possible to do. I find it interesting that I was staying at an All Star resort and you at AKL, you'd think the service at the more expensive resort would be more accommodating.

Good point. Maybe they'll have a uniform system by the time I go back. I think it was something along the lines of if we returned something, there wasn't a set way to put that money back on the gift card, or they wouldn't be able to tell which gift card it came off of? Don't quote me on that though.

 

[Stefecatzz]

Maybe it does depend on the CM you get but it's definitely possible to do. I find it interesting that I was staying at an All Star resort and you at AKL, you'd think the service at the more expensive resort would be more accommodating.

I tried to have them give me a credit using GCs last year while I was at POP & was told that was not possible. So I did the same thing as the PP & went to the front desk each night w/them to rectify the account. But now I will ask again to see if they could give me the credit when I check in for my upcoming trip. Maybe it does depend on the CM. I was also told by a CM over the phone that they could not do this last year.

Either way, it really doesn't seem to be any easier swiping the MB or handing a GC to pay so I'll be fine.

 

[Stefecatzz]

Paying with Disney gift card? Why don't you just apply the gift cards to your reservation as you get them instead of bringing them all with you to the hotel?

I can't speak for others but for me personally, I am on a budget so I like using a GC to pay as I go in the parks to see what my balance is & when it runs out, it's out. It's a better system for me.