Honeymoon Registry question.. ugh.. help please!!

[gingerfeathers]

Hey everyone! I need your help because I'm SO frustrated.

I'm getting married two weeks from tomorrow, and two weeks from Sunday we're going to WDW, followed by a cruise on the Wonder. Anyway, we have a honeymoon registry, and we've had a few people purchase off it so far.

Well tonight I call to try to book a special tour at Epcot, and I'm told I can't use a gift card! I can only book it using a credit card. I'm frustrated, but whatever. At least I should be able to go online and book Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party with the gift card. Right?

WRONG. I even call guest services (this being after my payment page online popped up and there was only a place to enter a credit card), and they say the same thing: No gift card.

I sent in a question to the honeymoon registry people, but I'm impatient and don't want to wait until Tuesday for my answer! So I'm asking you all: How on earth do you get around this? I don't see why they would include those tours and parties on the registry if they cannot be purchased using the gift card. I just had no idea it would be this tough.

Please let me know! We're REALLY wanting to do both of these, and I'd really rather not have to pay out of pocket for these when people purchased them for us on our registry.

Thanks in advance!

 

[PixyDusted]

That seems a bit ridiculous. It's a substitute for cash and is swiped with the magnetic strip just like a credit card. I think you should wait until you arrive and then see what the deal is. It just seems odd.

 

[ElleBren]

If you don't have to pay for the tour until you actually get to Disney you can use your gift card to pay. What you do is use your charging room card & then when you check out you use your gift card to go toward the balance.

At least this is what I was told about places that won't take the gift card.

 

[Risnsun]

I was also told that the registry basically just accumulates money for you and doesn't actually "purchase" those items for you. As Ellebren said, charge the itmes you want to your room and use the card to pay off the purchase.

 

[tinkerlisa]

Does it do this for everything they offer on the registry? Sounds like a pain in the butt! The reason I ask is because we don't want any special tours or anything but were hoping to do a nice dinner. I hope it doesn't interfere with that! I haven't signed up for the registry yet.
Also, my fiance and I only have about 12 people coming to our wedding. Do you think it would be tacky to do a registry? And if not, Should I send it out to just the 12 people or everyone that knows about our wedding? Thanks!

 

[jodeeluvsdisney]

When I booked the Segway tour in Epcot, my credit card was charged within a couple of days...

We did use our Honeymoon Registry card for lots of nice dinners though, except, again Cinderella's Royal Table, which had to be paid with a CC card in advance!

They really shouldn't put items like the tours on the Honeymoon Registry, unless you don't mind paying in advance and then using your gift card towards other things you would have normally paid cash for or wouldn't pay for until you arrived...

 

[tinkerlisa]

When I booked the Segway tour in Epcot, my credit card was charged within a couple of days...

We did use our Honeymoon Registry card for lots of nice dinners though, except, again Cinderella's Royal Table, which had to be paid with a CC card in advance!

They really shouldn't put items like the tours on the Honeymoon Registry, unless you don't mind paying in advance and then using your gift card towards other things you would have normally paid cash for or wouldn't pay for until you arrived...

Jodee- I love your wedding date! When my fiance and I heard about all the people that got married on 8/8/08 we decided to do 9/9/09! lol 9 happens to be my favorite number!!!!

 

[Tink_Kel]

I had a problem with my registry when I changed reservations, and ended up calling the Honeymoon Registry people for help. I'd call and ask for Cambria (sp?), let me tell you, she was so helpful, polite, and friendly. She even called me back when she said she would. That may sound like a no-brainer, but believe me, sometimes even getting a call-back seems impossible!

Also, on the registry, when you go to the item, there's a button you can choose for "details", which has tabs on it. You might check that out to see if it gives any special instructions.

 

[lurkyloo]

I second that idea. I have spoken to the someone several times by calling the honeymoon registry's phone number and she was always VERY friendly and helpful!

 

[gingerfeathers]

Thanks everyone, I'll wait for their answer Tuesday (or I'll call them Tuesday, depending on my patience level that day). It's just really frustrating that they have these things on there, but then when it comes down to booking them, you have to use a CC. It's very shady in my opinion, which is strange because Disney is usually SO not like that. Frankly, I don't want to have to buy the $200 tour and then have to use my gift card to buy $200 worth of Mickey t-shirts.

By the way, the tab thing that gives more information.. they just give you the phone number to book tours, which is the one I called that said I had to use a credit card. So that was no help at all.

I'll let you all know how this works out. I may be taking some stuff off my registry though.

 

[Alec'sPrincess]

We have already gotten money towards our honeymoon registry. What if we decide that we don't want to do one of the things on our registry that someone has gotten for us?

I have heard that the registry is pretty much just a gift card with x amount of dollars on it to use towards whatever you want . I just want to make sure this is true before we go down there! Thanks for the help!!!

 

[lurkyloo]

That is correct - you don't actually have to use the money to buy the things on your registry - you can use it as a giftcard and buy 600 Mickey Bars if you want.

However, as the OP discovered, you can't always use it to buy the things they let you put on your registry, which is pretty crummy, if you ask me.

 

[gingerfeathers]

Okay, so I got an e-mail back from Amber with the Honeymoon Registry people. She called the tours people, spoke with someone, and they are saying they DO take the gift card--apparently I just had the bad luck of speaking with the new guy or something.

So I'll try booking it later again today. I'll let you all know how things work out.

 

[gingerfeathers]

Okay, so I said I would update again.. so here it goes:

I called the tours people this afternoon to book the Epcot Seas Aqua Tour. I told the woman on the line that I had a Honeymoon Gift Card, and I wanted to pay with that. She said she knew it could be done, but she wasn't sure how.

After doing some research while I was on hold, she discovered the problem: The tours people's computers had not yet been updated with software that would allow them to input a gift card. So as of now, there are two options for us gift card people:

1. Pay using a credit card, and when you get to guest services, ask them to take the charge off the credit card and put it on your gift card.

2. Use a voucher--meaning they take your credit card number as a hold, but don't actually charge it. That way when you get to the tour, you can go to guest services and just hand them your gift card without your credit card ever being charged (unless you don't show up or something).

We did option #2 today. I got the impression that you couldn't do a voucher for everything though, so it's not always an option.

Anyway, there you go. It's a pain, and I hope they fix it soon. The woman who booked my tour for me said she'd be e-mailing the higher ups as soon as she got off the phone with me to let them know that this is a serious problem that needs fixing. Hopefully it will catch someone's attention, and these problems will get fixed soon!

 

[lurkyloo]

So glad this was sorted out for you - thanks for updating us on how it turned out!

 

[Beep]

Thanks for all the info - very useful to know. We have our reservation numbers for next year and have the link to set up the registry but we haven't done it yet.

I have included a line in our newsletter to the people we have invited about the registry. It says something like: 'We are not having a gift list with any store but we do have a honeymoon registry here (link). If you would like to make our honeymoon even more magical we would be most grateful but it certainly isn't expected.' All our guests apart from one are from the UK so it will cost them a few pennies to get to our wedding in the first place!

We're only sending it to the people we are inviting.