Disney gift card vs. Disney dollars

[cmesq61]

Does anyone have any thoughts on whether one is better/more convenient/easier than the other? Specifically for 2 teenagers. And can we buy Disney Dollars at the resort when we check in or only at certain places? Thanks.

 

[danceintherain]

I've never had Disney Dollars, but my parents got us all $50 Disney Gift Cards for Christmas, and they were awesome. Also, you can call and have a gift card frozen if it's lost, whereas I doubt you'd be able to do that for Disney Dollars.
My little sister lost her whole backpack at Disney, and we were able to replace everything that was in it relatively easily. (you have to have the original receipt to replace the gift card though)

Also, if your teenagers don't have credit cards, it might be fun for them to have to "sign" for their purchases. We had to with ours... they even made my 10 year old brother "sign" He was so cute about it.

 

[lovetoscrap]

A downside to the gift cards would be that a few of the snack stands don't have a machine to process cards and are cash only.

 

[vanillarum]

I don't believe you can purchase Disney dollars at WDW. That said, on our last trip in Aug,our 2 kids (11, 16) both asked for Disney gift cards for birthdays, etc., leading up to our trip. Most places in the world accept them, but there are some small vendors that do not. We didn't come across any that did not accept them. Good luck !!

 

[mjy]

I don't believe you can purchase Disney dollars at WDW. That said, on our last trip in Aug,our 2 kids (11, 16) both asked for Disney gift cards for birthdays, etc., leading up to our trip. Most places in the world accept them, but there are some small vendors that do not. We didn't come across any that did not accept them. Good luck !!

You have been able to buy them at the Disney store in Downtown Disney. However, it is cash only. They do not allow you to purchase them with a credit card.

 

[cmesq61]

You have been able to buy them at the Disney store in Downtown Disney. However, it is cash only. They do not allow you to purchase them with a credit card.

Thanks to all for the info and suggestions.

 

[RFrank9504]

Disney dollars only come in 1s, 5s and 10s-I think for teens a gift card is easier. We use disney dollars all the time its fun for our kids-they are small DD6, DS3 they save their allowance and we go every few weeks to the disney store to cash it in. My DH & I started a few years ago cashing in our change and singles and we saved like $800 for our trip in 2006 and i must admit when you're carrying about $500 worth of Disney Dollars in 1s, 5s, & 10s it gets to be a little annoying. We now give the kids each $100 in disney dollars and the rest is on a gift card-since we're APs we book room only ressies-so we dont have the DDP-our saved change pays for our meals...