Disney Vacation Account

[$4Disney]

I'm wondering if you think that by putting money over time into the DVA if this would lessen your chances of receiving special promotional deals from Disney? We went to Disney World Oct. of 2014, and I had put money in our DVA to pay for most of the trip. We never received any promotional/savings for that trip -we paid full retail prices. 4 years before when we went, I received a huge savings deal by mail. I am once again receiving special codes in the mail or email, but I am afraid of putting money into the account in that they might know we're "serious" about coming back and not offer us deals, lol.

 

[BP Roo]

Having a DVA shouldn't lessen your chances of a discount at all. I have been putting money into a DVA since July of 2014 and have still received postcards and e-mails with unique offer codes. I got them pretty regularly for the past year. In fact, I just booked a week at POFQ for December at 30% off from a postcard with a uoc. I'm not sure there is any rhyme or reason to determine how and when Disney sends out these offers. I did make sure to request the DVD and price out packages on the WDW website every now and then.

 

[$4Disney]

Thanks so much! That is exactly what I was hoping to hear!

 

[danceintherain]

Wow. I didn't even know that was an option. Maybe we'll do it for our next trip.

 

[$4Disney]

Wow. I didn't even know that was an option. Maybe we'll do it for our next trip.

I like the account. I know some people argue you'd be better to put it in a savings account locally where you could get interest, and access to your money quicker...but it worked well for us last time & I'm going to do it again. There are lots of details you want to pay attention to... They have a promotion (through 12/31/17) that when you spend $1000 from your account on a qualified Disney vacation, you earn a $20 Disney gift card. Last time we paid a good portion of the vacation with the account & received $120 in gift cards. The main thing to be careful with is that if you needed to request a refund, I heard it takes a bit & the money goes back on the the cards/account/gift card that you made the deposit with. One person said she had used a debit card from a bank account that she closed & had problems. I'm not going to request a refund, we love going to Disney, so I'm all set.

 

[danceintherain]

I like the account. I know some people argue you'd be better to put it in a savings account locally where you could get interest, and access to your money quicker...but it worked well for us last time & I'm going to do it again. There are lots of details you want to pay attention to... They have a promotion (through 12/31/17) that when you spend $1000 from your account on a qualified Disney vacation, you earn a $20 Disney gift card. Last time we paid a good portion of the vacation with the account & received $120 in gift cards. The main thing to be careful with is that if you needed to request a refund, I heard it takes a bit & the money goes back on the the cards/account/gift card that you made the deposit with. One person said she had used a debit card from a bank account that she closed & had problems. I'm not going to request a refund, we love going to Disney, so I'm all set.

We get terrible interest through our bank at the moment. I'm planning on changing that, but we'll see how quickly that happens (DH gets attached to certain things). I think I would definitely want the gift card incentive to consider utilizing the service though. It wouldn't really be worth it for us otherwise. That said, we're committed enough to Disney that we go every few years, so I doubt I would ever have the problem of wanting to get the money out. Eventually we always end up going back. We also have a pretty well rounded budget, so it's not likely I would end up putting money in there that we would end up needing for something else.

It's definitely something to consider in the future. Sadly, our last few trips have been planned with very little notice though, so we'll see what I decide after our next one.

 

[BP Roo]

We get terrible interest through our bank at the moment. I'm planning on changing that, but we'll see how quickly that happens (DH gets attached to certain things). I think I would definitely want the gift card incentive to consider utilizing the service though. It wouldn't really be worth it for us otherwise. That said, we're committed enough to Disney that we go every few years, so I doubt I would ever have the problem of wanting to get the money out. Eventually we always end up going back. We also have a pretty well rounded budget, so it's not likely I would end up putting money in there that we would end up needing for something else.

It's definitely something to consider in the future. Sadly, our last few trips have been planned with very little notice though, so we'll see what I decide after our next one.

I think what you said is really the key to if DVA works for you or not: being committed to a Disney vacation. We've been treating it like the poor person's DVC. Although, once you're committed to that Disney vacation the account is pretty flexible, moreso than buying into or renting DVC points. Plans have changed due to our graduate school schedules (we're at different universities) and our vacation date has moved from May 2016 to Jan 2016 and now to Dec 2015. We've used the account to pay for our room-only reservation, park hoppers, and MVMCP tix. I've already put in for our bonus gift card which should arrive 4 weeks before our trip.

 

[Ava]

I didn't know about the DVA in time to use it for this trip, but I plan to open an account to save up for the next one. I figure if nothing else it will be a good place to combine funds from Disney GCs I get through rewards sites or Target. I'd love to take an Adventures by Disney trip in a few years when my younger DD is old enough, so that will probably be my savings goal.

 

[Marionnette]

I didn't know about the DVA in time to use it for this trip, but I plan to open an account to save up for the next one. I figure if nothing else it will be a good place to combine funds from Disney GCs I get through rewards sites or Target. I'd love to take an Adventures by Disney trip in a few years when my younger DD is old enough, so that will probably be my savings goal.

You can combine your Disney GCs on disneygiftcard .com There's no need to open a DVA in order to do it. The extra $20 GC when you spend $1K on qualifying purchases is nice, if you can actually get Disney to send it. I'm still waiting on one that should have arrived earlier this month.

 

[Narnia_girl]

You can combine your Disney GCs on disneygiftcard .com There's no need to open a DVA in order to do it. The extra $20 GC when you spend $1K on qualifying purchases is nice, if you can actually get Disney to send it. I'm still waiting on one that should have arrived earlier this month.

Just curious if they finally sent that to you? I'm thinking about wading back in the DVA waters for our Dec. 2016 trip.

 

[Marionnette]

Just curious if they finally sent that to you? I'm thinking about wading back in the DVA waters for our Dec. 2016 trip.

It finally came at the end of August. I had told them that my trip was mid-Sept.

 

[Carrie Gruber]

I requested my bonus gift card a little over 7 weeks ago (submitted online) when I paid off my trip and as of yesterday, it still had not arrived. So I made a call to the number listed on the website and was connected with a very nice cast member who checked to see that the request had gone through. Well, apparently it hadn’t, she couldn’t find it in their system so she said she’d put in an inquiry and that I’d be hearing back from them by today, since I made it clear that we are leaving for our vacation later today. I’m planning to call them back on my lunch break to see if they know what’s going on. My trip isn’t hinging on getting this gift card, but the extra $$ would be very nice, especially since that’s the whole reason why I chose to use the DVA. I’m HOPING that at the least, they would be able to calculate how much I should be getting ($140) and somehow have the gift card waiting for me at AoA front desk when I check in tomorrow. Going to suggest this over the phone, I’m never nasty with customer service reps so I’m hoping they can work some Disney magic and help me out. Has anyone else had this same experience?