Having to Pay for Room Only Reservation at Check-in (Lots of Gift Cards)

[AlabamaBound]

I read in an earlier post that rooms only reservations require you to pay for your room in full at time of check in. I don’t have any issue with paying up front, but I will be paying for part of the room with almost $1000 in gift cards. The gift cards that I have access to only come in $50 denominations, which translates into about 20 cards (give or take a few). As someone who works front desk at a hotel, I know that redeeming gift cards can be somewhat time consuming, but regardless of which system they use, 20 cards is a lot. My original plan was to go down each night, and have them redeem 3 or 4 cards at a time (so that I’m not tying anyone up for an extended period of time), and then just pay the remaining balance at check out. However, if I’m required to pay at check in, that plan is obviously not going to work.

Does anyone know if I can call in advance and have them apply my gift cards to my room reservation over the phone prior to my arrival? And is there is a limit to the number of cards they will redeem at one time? If that is not an option, my other plan is to let them charge my credit card at check-in, then go down with my gift cards each night as planned, and just have them reverse the difference back to my credit card. I just really do not want to end up being *that* person in line at check in, holding everyone else up

 

[dansdad]

Does anyone know if I can call in advance and have them apply my gift cards to my room reservation over the phone prior to my arrival?

You sure can.

And is there is a limit to the number of cards they will redeem at one time?

Not that I know of. On multiple occasions I have applied 20+ gift cards to my balance in one phone call.

 

[Bob NC]

Last year we gave my daughter $500 in $50 increments of Disney gift cards for Christmas.

When calling to make her reservation and use these 10 gift cards it really only took a couple minutes to use these over the phone.

I'm sure it won't take as much time as you think and it would be no problem to redeem them all at once.

 

[mickeynut1]

I read in an earlier post that rooms only reservations require you to pay for your room in full at time of check in. I don’t have any issue with paying up front, but I will be paying for part of the room with almost $1000 in gift cards. The gift cards that I have access to only come in $50 denominations, which translates into about 20 cards (give or take a few). As someone who works front desk at a hotel, I know that redeeming gift cards can be somewhat time consuming, but regardless of which system they use, 20 cards is a lot. My original plan was to go down each night, and have them redeem 3 or 4 cards at a time (so that I’m not tying anyone up for an extended period of time), and then just pay the remaining balance at check out. However, if I’m required to pay at check in, that plan is obviously not going to work.

Does anyone know if I can call in advance and have them apply my gift cards to my room reservation over the phone prior to my arrival? And is there is a limit to the number of cards they will redeem at one time? If that is not an option, my other plan is to let them charge my credit card at check-in, then go down with my gift cards each night as planned, and just have them reverse the difference back to my credit card. I just really do not want to end up being *that* person in line at check in, holding everyone else up

As the pp's said, it shouldn't take that long to use all of the gift cards and you can pay ahead of time over the phone . There are a lot of people who use gift cards, so most of the CMs are familiar with them. Also, whenever I have called to make a payment, everything has been automated so I hardly ever speak to a CM .

 

[Dis703]

We had a $2700 balance for a room only this past May and paid for it with $50 gift cards. The CM told us to go ahead to the parks and she took care of applying them without making us wait.

 

[AlabamaBound]

Brilliant!!! Thank you so much for your replies! It is especially helpful knowing that I can do it all over the phone prior to my arrival. Now I don't have to worry about losing them either

(I mentioned it in my introductory post, but I'm a Canadian woman who is moving down to Alabama to live with my fiance. We're actually going to be getting married at Disney and doing our honeymoon there as well. There is so much to do between now and the time that I move, that anything I can cross of my list of "Things to Do/Worry About " is super helpful. So, thank you again! )

 

[Minnie121]

I paid for my reservation over the phone with about 12 or so gift cards. I had no problem. The cast member said their was no limit to the amount of cards that could be used at one time.

 

[2manypets]

I have nothing to add, just wanted to congratulate you on your upcoming move and marriage!

 

[CarrieR]

Just to throw another opinion in the fire - it really is no problem to pay for a r/o reservation at checkin. It's actually faster, because they just click and swipe, instead of having to type in each little number, peel of the strip, do the security code, etc.

I always feel bad when we've had to call and read off twenty-zillion gift card numbers. It's so much easier just to hand the stack over at checkin, when they can use the mag stripe and no one has to type that string!

YMMV though

 

[Crazy Hakim]

Just want to add one more point.
If you have Gift Cards, or you want to pay your balance in cash when your checking out, do this the evening before your check out date.
Disney will take your final payment after midnight of the evening before you check out. This way if there is any problem with your balance, it can be addressed prior to you leaving Disney property.
So, if you wait until the morning of your check out, your balance will already be zero. Yes, they can make an adjustment to your charges, but it will then be a credit to your account, and Disney cannot control when your credit card company will apply this credit.
Just to be safe, remember to make all adjustments or changes the evening before checkout.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

Just want to add one more point.
If you have Gift Cards, or you want to pay your balance in cash when your checking out, do this the evening before your check out date.
Disney will take your final payment after midnight of the evening before you check out. This way if there is any problem with your balance, it can be addressed prior to you leaving Disney property.
So, if you wait until the morning of your check out, your balance will already be zero. Yes, they can make an adjustment to your charges, but it will then be a credit to your account, and Disney cannot control when your credit card company will apply this credit.
Just to be safe, remember to make all adjustments or changes the evening before checkout.

You HAVE to pay the balance of your reservation at check in, you can't wait to do that part. Now, you can deal with the balance of any room charges at check out or the evening before.

 

[Crazy Hakim]

You HAVE to pay the balance of your reservation at check in.........

I realize that, I was just adding more valuable information for other situations.

 

[Chelley00]

I paid for our reservation in increments of $50 gift cards. I just called and did them with the automated system while I was folding laundry or doing dishes. Then I didn't have to worry about carting them on the trip and something getting lost or stolen and everything was taken care of in advance.

 

[tinkerbell615]

We used a bunch of them (all in $50 increments) last year upon arrival and check in. We had no problem at all.

Congrats on your upcoming wedding!

 

[pens4821]

I've seen a couple people talk about doing it with an automated system over the phone and a couple mention CM's. Are there different numbers (I've never had to call Disney)? Easier automated I would think.

I'm also thinking of just paying off my balance beforehand. Any reason not to do this? will just keep the gift cards in case an issue.

 

[AlabamaBound]

Thank you everyone for your congratulations and awesome responses to my question! I also want to give you an update as to what I have done so far.

I have booked a stay at CSR in the business class building, and my deposit was due by September 10th. When I called the Disney number to make the payment, it was all automated. My original plan had been to put it on my credit card, but then I found myself wondering if I could use my gift cards instead. Turns out I could, which was awesome! Let me tell you - with planning a wedding EVERYBODY wants my money, so having one less to put on my credit was definitely appreciated!

The amount due for my deposit was just under $300, so I decided to just use 6 cards ($50 each) so that I did not have one card with a small balance left on it. I was able to redeem all of them without issue. Once my deposit had been paid, I was given an updated balance which was accurate. Now that I know how easy it is, I think I'm going to take Chelley00's approach, and just call to redeem a few cards at a time while I'm doing other things. However, if I end up redeeming some of them at time of check-in, it's good to know that it won't be a problem! The hotel that I work at requires us to open a different program, manually enter the 16 digit number on the back of the card, then enter how many nights the guest stayed at the hotel, and then type in how much of the gift card the guest wants to redeem. Tedious to say the least. But, being that it is Disney, I should have known that they would have a far more effective system!

Pens4821 - I called the Disney Resort Hotel Reservations number. There are several different numbers, depending on what you need (i.e. Resorts, Tickets, Dining, etc) You can find them all on the Walt Disney World website under the "Help" tab - "Contact Us". When you redeem them over the phone, the message at the end specifically tells you to make sure that you keep the cards because if, for any reason, they have to return the payment, it will be refunded back to the original card.