How can you use Disney gift cards?

[lttlmc3]

Can you use them towards a whole Disney trip? Can you use them to pay for park tickets, rooms, dining etc?

 

[mikelan6]

Can you use them towards a whole Disney trip? Can you use them to pay for park tickets, rooms, dining etc?

Yes on all the above. What I have done in the past is put the gift cards on the hotel bill as a credit when I check in, then use the resort ID for everything.

 

[lttlmc3]

Do they ever expire? I'm wanting to use them for a trip in late 2011.

 

[JenniBB]

We're giving them to the kids for their spending money. Each child has been earning "disney dollars" doing extra chores, summer reading, etc. We have 33 more days til our trip...and around the 15th of Aug I will head over to our local Disney Store and purchase a card for each child with what they've earned on it. They can spend it however they wish! I would expect they will each have earned around $75/$100 each (I'm a slave driver!)
One DD is a baby sitter and may have extra $ from that (though I am trying to convince her to save that sitter money for school clothes....).

 

[Cheshire Figment]

There is one problem with using Disney Gift Cards for purchasing tickets at a Park ticket window or Guest Relations Office. The Automated Ticketing System will only allow three payment types per transaction. Each separate Gift, Credit, or Debit Card is considered a separate payment type.

Let's say you were buying a ticket that was $219. If you had three $100 gift cards that would not be a problem. However, if you had $50 Gift Cards thye transaction could not be properly processed.

The Resorts have no problem, as each separate Gift Card is just another credit line on the folio and there is no limit to the number of lines.

 

[dalt01]

Yes on all the above. What I have done in the past is put the gift cards on the hotel bill as a credit when I check in, then use the resort ID for everything.

that is an extremely cool idea. thank you very much for that.

 

[serene56]

ooo wow- I did not know that.

I have been accumulating gift cards since 2005. Every birthday we gave a 50 gift card, same with christmas. Grand daughter has 250.00 towards spending in Disney.

Then my honey has 2 gift cards totaling 150. and I have 2 that total the same amount.

Thats not even counting the 2 DisneyVisa Gift cards which total 250.00

How do i do this now?

I was hoping to use them by spending in the park on my key card--- and just place the cards on my account.

Would it be better if I just used the gift cards for spending where I spend?

 

[omghidanielle]

I used them to pay down my balance! I love them!

 

[mom2knk]

ooo wow- I did not know that.

I have been accumulating gift cards since 2005. Every birthday we gave a 50 gift card, same with christmas. Grand daughter has 250.00 towards spending in Disney.

Then my honey has 2 gift cards totaling 150. and I have 2 that total the same amount.

Thats not even counting the 2 DisneyVisa Gift cards which total 250.00

How do i do this now?

I was hoping to use them by spending in the park on my key card--- and just place the cards on my account.

Would it be better if I just used the gift cards for spending where I spend?

The Resorts have no problem, as each separate Gift Card is just another credit line on the folio and there is no limit to the number of lines.

As Cheshire said, you won't have a problem using multiple cards at your resort. During our last trip, we used our key card for all our daily expenses and simply went to the desk every couple of days and paid down our balance using our gift cards. We felt much better leaving the multiple gift cards in our room safe rather than risk losing them in the parks...

 

[exwdwcm]

ooo wow- I did not know that.

I have been accumulating gift cards since 2005. Every birthday we gave a 50 gift card, same with christmas. Grand daughter has 250.00 towards spending in Disney.

Then my honey has 2 gift cards totaling 150. and I have 2 that total the same amount.

Thats not even counting the 2 DisneyVisa Gift cards which total 250.00

How do i do this now?

I was hoping to use them by spending in the park on my key card--- and just place the cards on my account.

Would it be better if I just used the gift cards for spending where I spend?

you can put them towards your key to the world card, so that way, you just carry the one card (KTTK) and charge back all purchases on that to your room. then you can go down nightly (or whenever) and check the balance and apply any cards to it. Or just put them all on their at check in as a credit. I think they let you do it either way. we earned a $100 gift card from doing the DVC tour (which we bought later!) and applied that toward our account and used the money on our KTTK card. so much easier- only problem is ensuring you are keeping up with the balance and purchases, so you don't go overboard.

 

[lttlmc3]

bumping this because Kevin talked about this today!

 

[mikelan6]

I was thinking about this while I was listening to the podcast. Couldn't you "buy" one large gift card using three or more smaller gift cards ... then you'd be able to effectively use all the gift cards for your ticket purchase.

For example, lets say you have four $25 gift cards. Couldn't you "buy" one $100.00 gift card and use THAT towards the ticket purchase?

 

[Cheshire Figment]

No. You cannot buy a gift card using gift cards.

 

[WaltD4Me]

Yes on all the above. What I have done in the past is put the gift cards on the hotel bill as a credit when I check in, then use the resort ID for everything.

You can put cash on KTTW card too, I've done that before, but for me, it's so hard to keep track of. I'm always worried I'll go pay the dinner check and there wouldn't be enough left on the card. Do you also put a credit card as a back up on the KTTW card?

 

[dalt01]

You can put cash on KTTW card too,

another great idea i was not aware of.

 

[kaligal]

I buy gift cards throughout the year. Now they have so many kinds, it is a dorky pleasure to collect them. They're cute!

I feel really badly for people who get screwed buying them, though. If they're staying offsite and saved up for tickets by buying those things and then get told, "Oh, sorry, you can't actually pay with them"...that stinks.

I'm sure that eventually, if they talked to enough people, they'd be able to use the cards for tickets or return the cards and use that money...but it would be a bunch of time, aggravation and hoops.

I told a friend to start saving by buying those cards in the grocery store. Better tell her not to, lol.