gift cards - good idea?

[tremaine16]

Hi everyone My trip is going to be the first week of August, with three of my friends (a long way off, I know). But I'm trying to figure out what the best way for me to pay for things in the park would be. I'm 17, so I don't use credit cards, atm cards, checks, what have you. But I don't like the idea of carrying around enough cash for me to buy 2 meals and some souvenirs every day.

So I was thinking about buying two Disney gift cards...each for $200. I'd use one for food and one for everything else. I figure $200 is enough for food for one week (pre-bought breakfast in our hotel rooms, two counter service meals a day, maybe a snack).

It seems simpler than handling all that cash, figuring out how much to bring into the parks, etc. Does this sound like a good idea? Anyone ever used a gift card in the parks before?

 

[JonJor]

we bought them for my sons for our visit last week. the one card never had a problem. the other one....well...half the time it would not scan....once it said there was no balance (there was ) and sometimes it would work.

 

[KJ Luvs Pluto]

We used gift cards and loved them. It was nice to have them pre-paid and they worked great. We used them everywhere - at the food carts, gift shops, you can even use any money that's left over on them to pay off the room balance. We did take a very small amount of cash to use in case one of the kiosks didn't have the card swipers or if the computers were down at the time we wanted to use them - but I think we only used our cash once for a 1 or 2 dollar expenditure.

 

[dawnbu40]

We used gift cards for our last trip and loved it! We purchased 100$ cards for each day and kept the rest locked in the room safe. We never had any problem using them but we kept cash on hand for incidentals. Have fun planning your trip!

 

[disneyag]

Gift cards would work quite well. Also, if you are sure you'd eat 2 counter service meals per day, you can pre-pay for the Quick Service Dining Plan. Then, 2 meals and 2 snacks are paid for before you even arrive at WDW. Enjoy your trip!

 

[Wendy_in_Wonderland]

I'm thinking of doing Gift cards too. I figure that it will be far easier than carrying around cash and more practical for staying within budget then using a credit card or debit.

My birthday is a week before we leave and I'm asking for gift cards for my birthday and mother's day this year instead of gifts!

 

[tremaine16]

great! thanks everyone!

 

[bettyann29]

I think giftcards are a wonderful idea! Thats usually what I do when we go to WDW.. I actually get one for each of the kids with their souvenir money on them.. I write their first name on the card with a sharpie so I can keep straight who's is who's and then I also buy one for me for the extras..

I especially like them because after each use, the balance prints on the bottom of the receipt each time you use it..

 

[paulabarber]

Just to clarify,
where do you buy your gift cards?

 

[natenapril]

Just to clarify,
where do you buy your gift cards?

You can get disney ones at disneyshopping.com. But we also buy regular visa/mastercard gc at places like walmart or target.

 

[bettyann29]

Just to clarify,
where do you buy your gift cards?

I buy mine at my local disney store.. not sure if you have one by you though..

also you can always put money on a giftcard when you get to WDW.. they have the giftcards in the stores.. I assume all of the souvenir stores.. perhaps use bank card to put the $ on the card and then just carry the giftcard rather than the bank card.. just a thought

 

[KJ Luvs Pluto]

You can also buy them at the Disneyland website. But to find them, I had to enterr "gift cards" in the search box. At the time I bought mine they had a nice variety of pictures on the front. Much better than the disney shopping dot com site. But that was a year ago so maybe things have changed. Even though it was the Disneyland site, they worked fine at Disneyworld. I liked having all the choices of pictures to choose from. If you have several members in your family it would be easier to keep track of which card belongs to which person unless you write their name on it with a sharpie.

 

[hearts8701]

great stocking stuffers too

 

[kristinlynn]

If your looking to purchase gift cards, I posted this a couple weeks ago: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1965352

Right now you can still get 5% off Disney gift cards through incentone (note there is a $2.95 processing fee). We ended up ordering about $1k in gift cards so 5% is a small, but nice discount. It took about one week to recieve our cards.

The directions of how to order are in the thread. Let me know if you have any questions.