Disney Vacation Account and On Board Credit

[BerardFam]

I am sailing on the Fantasy in 3 weeks, I have money in my DVA and I have the telephone number to transfer the funds onto my on board credit account. What happens if at the end of the trip, I have money remaining in my on board credit account? Does it get credited back to my DVA account? For example, say I transfer $1,000 to my on board credit account, but I only use $900. How do I get the $100 refunded to me?

Or what if I only transfer $500 from my DVA to my on board credit account and need to access the other $500, can I do that on the cruise? I tried researching for the answers but I keep getting confused

Thank you!

 

[Yooperroo]

I wasn't aware you could have a balance transferred from your DVA to an onboard credit. According to their website, the funds can only be used to pay for the actual price of a vacation. Any left over funds can then be requested in the form of a gift card, which you could then add to your onboard account:
"If you have a remaining balance in your Disney Vacation Account after you've paid for your vacation, you can, subject to certain limitations, use the remaining balance—between $5 and $1,000 every 90 days— to purchase a Disney Gift Card for use during your trip wherever Disney Gift Cards are accepted. Get details.
You can then use a Disney Gift Card to pay for incidental charges made to your stateroom folio on a Disney cruise or for incidental charges made to your room account at select Walt Disney World Resort hotels and select Disneyland Resort hotels that accept Disney Gift Cards. Disney Gift Cards are also accepted at many other locations throughout Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland Resort, Disney Cruise Line and Aulani. See where Disney Gift Cards can be used ."

So I read that as the only way to use your funds for other purposes such as onboard credits, you need to request a gift card in advance then add the gift card to your onboard account. If you then don't use the full amount from your onboard account, the balance would be credited back to the gift card.

 

[BSOGfam]

I am not sure what would happen to the remaining balance. Sorry I can't help with this. But I was able to transfer my remaining balance to my On board account. I just called DCL last week and gave them my account number. The only issue I ran in to is that you can't transfer change. I'm stuck with 89 cents.

 

[Yooperroo]

But I was able to transfer my remaining balance to my On board account.

Good to know! My guess is they are transferring it in the form of a gift card the same way you can call to have your DV points transfered to your onboard account. If that's the case, I imagine any unused funds would be refunded in gift card form.
Interested to hear if others have experience doing this!

 

[mmouse37]

There was another thread a few weeks ago where posters said they definitely were able to add extra DVA fund to use for their onboard account before the cruise.

Edited to add I just found the other thread and it has good info in it:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/di...-adding-credit-to-my-onboard-account.3357432/

 

[Yooperroo]

There was another thread a few weeks ago where posters said they definitely were able to add extra DVA fund to use for their onboard account before the cruise.

Edited to add I just found the other thread and it has good info in it:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/di...-adding-credit-to-my-onboard-account.3357432/

Thank you!

 

[Yooperroo]

I wanted to point out that on that thread linked above, they said you cannot use a TA and a DVA account, which is not true. I have a TA with Small World and a DVA account. It says right in the FAQ you can use a TA with a DVA, you just have to call yourself to make the final payment rather than having your TA do it (and they give a phone number). Just wanted to clarify for newcomers because this was confusing to read.

 

[mmouse37]

I wanted to point out that on that thread linked above, they said you cannot use a TA and a DVA account, which is not true. I have a TA with Small World and a DVA account. It says right in the FAQ you can use a TA with a DVA, you just have to call yourself to make the final payment rather than having your TA do it (and they give a phone number). Just wanted to clarify for newcomers because this was confusing to read.

I think as the DVA is so new there is a lot of confusion surrounding how to use it. The thread was started in Dec, 2014. I thought I read that someone corrected the poster that said you couldn't use a TA as they said they did indeed use a TA with the DVA. As you stated you can't use directly to the TA, you have to call the special DVA Disney Cruise Line number as you can't give out your DVA number to a third party.

MJ

 

[JenPinks]

What would be the benefit of using DVA vs. buying giftcards from raise.com and paying for it that way?

 

[jtba]

for every $1,000 you spend on a Disney vacation via the DVA, you receive a $20 Disney gift card. so that's another 2% savings, on top of the money you save from Raise.com.

 

[jtba]

I think as the DVA is so new there is a lot of confusion surrounding how to use it. The thread was started in Dec, 2014. I thought I read that someone corrected the poster that said you couldn't use a TA as they said they did indeed use a TA with the DVA. As you stated you can't use directly to the TA, you have to call the special DVA Disney Cruise Line number as you can't give out your DVA number to a third party.

i have a TA, but was able to pay for my cruise directly using my DVA by calling DVA's 800 # myself. this is the only instance where DCL will talk financial matters with you even if you booked your cruise thru a TA, because as @mmouse37 said you're not supposed to give your DVA # to someone else, per the language of the program when you sign up for the account.

 

[CM Dad]

I am sailing on the Fantasy in 3 weeks, I have money in my DVA and I have the telephone number to transfer the funds onto my on board credit account. What happens if at the end of the trip, I have money remaining in my on board credit account? Does it get credited back to my DVA account? For example, say I transfer $1,000 to my on board credit account, but I only use $900. How do I get the $100 refunded to me?

Or what if I only transfer $500 from my DVA to my on board credit account and need to access the other $500, can I do that on the cruise? I tried researching for the answers but I keep getting confused

Thank you!

I have used my DVA account to pay for the cruise, prepay gratuities and add money to my stateroom account. On our last cruise we had reserved 2 cabanas on Castaway Cay for my wife's 60th birthday and had included enough stateroom credit to cover those (plus an excursion on Grand Cayman). Unfortunately, the Wonder was unable to dock, so I ended up with left over money in our account. I was credited back the the DVA, so you would get $100 refunded to your account. I suppose you could then request a refund from the DVA to whatever payment method you had used to fund it (or maybe request a gift card for the balance, up to I think $500), but I'm just using that balance to help pay for our next cruise.

I can't answer your question about adding more funds from the DVA while onboard.

This was done on a cruise booked through a TA. I was able to do this using the 800 # for Disney cruise.