Does anyone pay for resort & food with Disney Dollars ?

[pooh2001]

Do you pay for your resort bill and/or food with your Visa Disney Reward dollars turned into Disney Gift Cards ?

We have enough Disney Gift Cards (purchased with our Visa reward dollars) to pay for our moderate resort for 10 nights.
Now we are trying to pay for our food with Disney Gift Cards.
So far we have $500 saved.

Can you pay at CS with Disney Gift Cards ?
Can you use Disney Gift Cards at your resort gift shop ?

We have been saving our Visa Disney Reward dollars since our last trip back in 2007. (I was laid off from my job back then and have been living on DH's salary since). We want to go back to WDW in 2012 - maybe 2013, depending on how much money we have saved.

Thank you for your response !

 

[CarolAnnB]

Yes, I have used Disney Reward Dollars to pay for my resort. You can use them at CS and gift shops, usually any place with a card reader. I just put mine all on my room account as a credit and charged to the room so I only had to carry my room key card around.

 

[Marionnette]

Do you pay for your resort bill and/or food with your Visa Disney Reward dollars turned into Disney Gift Cards ?

We have enough Disney Gift Cards (purchased with our Visa reward dollars) to pay for our moderate resort for 10 nights.
Now we are trying to pay for our food with Disney Gift Cards.
So far we have $500 saved.

Can you pay at CS with Disney Gift Cards ?
Can you use Disney Gift Cards at your resort gift shop ?

We have been saving our Visa Disney Reward dollars since our last trip back in 2007. (I was laid off from my job back then and have been living on DH's salary since). We want to go back to WDW in 2012 - maybe 2013, depending on how much money we have saved.

Thank you for your response !

Yes, you can use yuor rewards card and/or gift cards to pay for your room, tickets, tours, food, etc. The only place on property that you cannot use them would be at restaurants and merchants that are not owned by Disney. Just make sure to hold onto the used gift cards until after your trip is over. Any refunds that need to be made will be refunded back to the gift card it came from.

 

[cglaura]

We paid for our trip last year doing this (but from rewards programs like Sunshine Rewards). I took me about 2 years to have all the money though. I can't remember exactly, but out of a 15 day trip, the only out of pocket I spent was around $200.

Whenever I received a gift card, I called and applied it to my room only reservation.

Some things I did a "money swap" type of deal. I wanted tickets from Mousesavers/Undercovertourist. So instead of a WDW gift card I cashed out for a Walmart/CVS/Walgreens, etc card. Then my grocery money I didn't have to spend that month went to the tickets.

We had no issues using our cards anywhere.

 

[MissBritt]

We used DRDs to buy our dining plan for our last trip.

 

[pooh2001]

Thank you for all the suggestions.

I did not know to keep the unused gift cards for purchase returns.
Great tip !

I also liked the charge back to room and they pay the total bill with the gift cards. We could keep the gift cards in the resort room safe to keep them away from unwanted hands - and then do the resort total bill paying.
Another great tip !


We plan on saving some food money with bringing our own water bottles.
Doing breakfast in our room - cereal, granola bars, fruit.
I am thinking of doing one dinner - maybe the day we arrive, since we may be tired from tarveling, tuna from a can (pack a can opener) with crackers and fruit. That could save us $80 to $100 in food.

We use a towncar service from MCO - so we could do a food store stop and pick up our arrival dinner (tuna) and the water bottles.

 

[elcodfish]

Sometimes the smaller carts that just have popcorn, soda and ice cream cannot take the gift cards.

 

[Marionnette]

Thank you for all the suggestions.

I did not know to keep the unused gift cards for purchase returns.
Great tip !

I also liked the charge back to room and they pay the total bill with the gift cards. We could keep the gift cards in the resort room safe to keep them away from unwanted hands - and then do the resort total bill paying.
Another great tip !


We plan on saving some food money with bringing our own water bottles.
Doing breakfast in our room - cereal, granola bars, fruit.
I am thinking of doing one dinner - maybe the day we arrive, since we may be tired from tarveling, tuna from a can (pack a can opener) with crackers and fruit. That could save us $80 to $100 in food.

We use a towncar service from MCO - so we could do a food store stop and pick up our arrival dinner (tuna) and the water bottles.

Get the tuna in a pouch and skip the can opener.

 

[gigi1313]

We could keep the gift cards in the resort room safe to keep them away from unwanted hands - and then do the resort total bill paying.

instead of keeping them in the safe and worrying about them, if you know you have $500 in cards and plan to spend at least that much, put them on your account at check in (still keeping the cards as sugg'd above) so you have a credit balance on your room account... that way they cannot go astray!

 

[Dacky619]

instead of keeping them in the safe and worrying about them, if you know you have $500 in cards and plan to spend at least that much, put them on your account at check in (still keeping the cards as sugg'd above) so you have a credit balance on your room account... that way they cannot go astray!

That is what we do, it has worked out great so far.