online check-in with gift card

[markpenske]

We are arriving on Friday Dec 22.
I imagine the lobby will be very crowed, so we are planning on using the online check-in and I have a couple questions. We have a room only reservation.
1. If we use online check in, will we get a text with our room number and that our room is ready? If so, do we go directly to our room and bypass the lobby?
2. We made our deposit with a credit card.
We want to pay the balance with gift cards. I don't want them to charge our credit card for the balance.
My plan was to call Disney the morning of check-in and give them the gift card numbers. I hope they dont say "it's too late, we already charged your credit card.
I dont really want to call before check-in day because we are traveling a long distance by car and sometime things happen ( car break down for example).
Thank you in advance for your feedback.
Mark

 

[karen4546]

You need to call today to pay the balance if you are using a gift card.
You can go to guest services each night to pay any charges that are on your account.

If something happens, you get a refund back to your payment.

If you wait until the day of, ymmv but ime your payment will have already been charged to your payment on file.

 

[titojackson84]

If you did the online checkin, they send a notification when your room is ready and you just go right there. I’m pretty sure there is a set number of days before your check in where the reservation must be paid in full. I’m not sure if you don’t manually pay the remaining balance if they will cancel the reservation or charge your card.

Edit: you pay the balance when you arrive.
found this:
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/f... you have a room,in to view your reservations.

 

[starry_solo]

You can't do online check in with a gift card only. You need to put a credit card in there for online check in.

Pay the balance down now, before you check in. You may have to call (it's been a while since I've had a room only reservation), but if you can pay online, then consolidate the gift cards to $1000 cards and then input the card number into the online system.

 

[nw6675]

They will charge you card super early in the morning (5 AM ish) so as others said, do it in advance. Unless you don't have a card to use or were gifted the cards, I wouldn't recommend the GC hassle, but that's just me.

 

[fla4fun]

I was just at WDW the beginning of December on a room only reservation. They will require you to have a cc on file for incidentals, but (and I went back to my folio and cc bill to double check) they don’t charge your card for the balance until check out day (they do put a hold for incidentals that will drop off). You will have time on check in day wait until the desk isn’t busy to deal with the gift cards.

So if I were you, I would do online check in so you can go straight to your room. Later in the day, when the front desk is less busy, go down and pay the balance using your gift cards. I would do this on your first day, as the desk will just get busier as the week goes on. The front desk is open 24 hours a day, so even if you are coming back from a park late you can still stop and take care of it.

Have a great trip!

 

[SL6827]

I always pay off mine before we go. Will do so here in a couple weeks.

 

[bighuskermav]

You can (and should) pay off the balance with gift cards before you arrive. But don’t wait - do it now. You will have to call, and you need to do it before you do online check-in. As someone else said, consolidate into $1,000 gift cards using disneygiftcards dot com Then, call it in.

At the automated phone prompt, say “make a payment.” You won’t even need to talk to a human if you enter it right.

We just did this. Bought a bunch of discounted gift cards with sales/credit card deals and saved over 10% off our hotel. Absolutely worth it.

I didn’t want to deal with this at check-in (or before check out).

 

[gmi3804]

They charged my card once on check-in day, but I stopped by the desk where they credited the charge and used the GCs for the payment. Unless there’s some reason you don’t want the charge/credit, you can do this too.

 

[LoveDaisy]

Speaking from experience they charge your CC just after midnight on check in day. I suggest if you want to avoid standing in line, asking them to reverse the CC charges (which may take up to a week to go through depending on your CC) that you prepay with your gift cards.

I was traveling for work and they charged my person CC on file and due to my work policy I had to have them switch the charges to my company CC. This was at the Grand Floridian and it too about 40 minutes to resolve at the front desk.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I was just at WDW the beginning of December on a room only reservation. They will require you to have a cc on file for incidentals, but (and I went back to my folio and cc bill to double check) they don’t charge your card for the balance until check out day (they do put a hold for incidentals that will drop off).

This is incorrect. You were not aware but your card was at least pre-authorized (so that much credit limit became unavailable) the entire amount of your remaining balance due + the incidental charge early check-in morning as a pending charge. You would not see this in your folio and would only be aware if you had alerts from your credit card company set up for all charges and those alerts were working. The final charge on your folio and credit card will show check out date because that is when they finalize the actual amount with the cc company.

OP wishes to avoid the initial charge from happening and do online check-in. Their only choice is to call Disney (and I’d do it like now) and pay the GC balance. They will still need a cc on file that will be charged/pre-authorized (so the credit limit will be unavailable) for incidentals.

 

[DizneyFamof4]

I have been paying our trips with discounted GCs for years and it has never been a hassle, I enjoy saving at least 5% on our trips. I also always payoff the balance before check-in day because I do not want to take a chance that they do charge my CC on file, it is more of a hassle to have them reverse the charges and then pay with GCs when you check-in. Now, in the past they would charge the CC on file as soon as their computer turns over for that day around 3AM. Me personally, I would not want to take that chance and would pay it off before check-in day. I would also combine your GCs so when you do pay it off you have less GCs to keep track of, in case something does goes wrong and you need a refund. Also remember that they usually do put a $100 hold on your CC starting day 1. Below is from WDW site.

• An authorization hold for the remainder of any balance due on the reservation and an additional $100 for estimated incidental expenses will be placed on the card on the scheduled arrival date. Additional authorization holds will be placed on the card, through and until the end of check-out day, as incidental expenditures exceed the amount previously authorized on the card.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Pay it now and KEEP THE GIFT CARDS. If Disney needs to refund you for some reason they will refund it back to the gift card you paid with.

If your plan is not to even buy the gc until right before you need them don’t pay with gc at all. Gc’s can take a day for delivering or can have activation issues that cause days of back and forth with the issuer and your trip could be wrapped before you finally get your non-refundable gc.

If you are worried your cc being charged will mean you can’t pay the amount with gc’s don’t worry. I always swing by the front desk on check in day and they refund my cc and take the gc, it’s easy for them to do these days and not a hassle at all. It can take up to a week to get the refund on my cc, while that doesn’t matter to me I know for those running on debit cards or low limit cc that could be a problem so they need to pay it off before arrival day.

 

[DizneyFamof4]

Pay it now and KEEP THE GIFT CARDS. If Disney needs to refund you for some reason they will refund it back to the gift card you paid with.

If your plan is not to even buy the gc until right before you need them don’t pay with gc at all. Gc’s can take a day for delivering or can have activation issues that cause days of back and forth with the issuer and your trip could be wrapped before you finally get your non-refundable gc.

If you are worried your cc being charged will mean you can’t pay the amount with gc’s don’t worry. I always swing by the front desk on check in day and they refund my cc and take the gc, it’s easy for them to do these days and not a hassle at all. It can take up to a week to get the refund on my cc, while that doesn’t matter to me I know for those running on debit cards or low limit cc that could be a problem so they need to pay it off before arrival day.

The 1 time I did not pay in advance, it was a hassle to do the reverse for the CM I had, the manager actually had to get involved. I'm sure it was just a fluke, but now I am gun shy and always make sure I pay it before. LOL

 

[fla4fun]

This is incorrect. You were not aware but your card was at least pre-authorized (so that much credit limit became unavailable) the entire amount of your remaining balance due + the incidental charge early check-in morning as a pending charge. You would not see this in your folio and would only be aware if you had alerts from your credit card company set up for all charges and those alerts were working. The final charge on your folio and credit card will show check out date because that is when they finalize the actual amount with the cc company.

OP wishes to avoid the initial charge from happening and do online check-in. Their only choice is to call Disney (and I’d do it like now) and pay the GC balance. They will still need a cc on file that will be charged/pre-authorized (so the credit limit will be unavailable) for incidentals.

I do have alerts set up and I am aware of the pre-authorization. However, a pre-authorization is not a charge, and the guest paying the balance on the first day of their trip with the GC would prevent it becoming one. I monitor my credit card very closely while on vacation, not just my folio, so I know when the actual charge hit my account. If I paid by any other means during my stay, such as cash or gift cards, there would have been no balance to bill to the card at check out.

Of course the OP can pay with their gift cards over the phone if they prefer and if they are going to do so, they can do that any time. But they can also do so when they arrive without incurring a charge to their credit card.

 

[weather_lady]

We did this just a few months ago: we paid for our entire room balance, as well as all of our dining, souvenirs, and a couple of days' worth of Genie+, with Disney gift cards we purchased at a discount. As others said, call in advance (now) and pay your room-only balance with your gift card(s) over the phone, to avoid them charging your credit card.

Be sure to take note of which gift cards you used, and whether there's any remaining balance. If I have cards with money on them that I'm taking on vacation with me, I just put a blank label sticker on the back of each one (below the magnetic strip), and jot down a running tally of the remaining balance every time I use the card. (It will be listed on your receipt every time you use the card for something). It's old-fashioned, but it lets me see instantly how much is left.

For any cards you use up completely, hold on to them until you get home, just in case any money gets refunded to them for some reason -- e.g., if you had to cut your hotel stay short, or return something you purchased with a gift card.

 

[robinb]

They will charge you card super early in the morning (5 AM ish) so as others said, do it in advance. Unless you don't have a card to use or were gifted the cards, I wouldn't recommend the GC hassle, but that's just me.

For me, it's not really a hassle at all to use gift cards at WDW. I always put a credit card down on the room and then I go to the front desk the night before check-out and pay off my portfolio. Sometimes they have to refund a credit card charge, but that's easy too.

I admit that it *can* be a bit of work buying the gift cards at a good discount (over 10% IMO), but it's super easy to get 5% buying them from Target. I'm perfectly happy to put that $50 per $1000 into my own pocket for the cost of a few minutes online and 10 minutes at the front desk.

 

[robinb]

We did this just a few months ago: we paid for our entire room balance, as well as all of our dining, souvenirs, and a couple of days' worth of Genie+, with Disney gift cards we purchased at a discount. As others said, call in advance (now) and pay your room-only balance with your gift card(s) over the phone, to avoid them charging your credit card.

Be sure to take note of which gift cards you used, and whether there's any remaining balance. If I have cards with money on them that I'm taking on vacation with me, I just put a blank label sticker on the back of each one (below the magnetic strip), and jot down a running tally of the remaining balance every time I use the card. (It will be listed on your receipt every time you use the card for something). It's old-fashioned, but it lets me see instantly how much is left.

For any cards you use up completely, hold on to them until you get home, just in case any money gets refunded to them for some reason -- e.g., if you had to cut your hotel stay short, or return something you purchased with a gift card.

I also use my gift cards for everything at WDW, including Genie+ and mobile ordering. I keep a note in my phone with my "Main" gift card number. I copy and paste the number when buying G+ or mobile ordering.

I also save that gift card over on https://www.disneygiftcard.com/ so I can check the balance. I know some people don't leave their card there in case it gets hacked, but they have implemented two factor authorization so I feel better about it now.

Great point about keeping your gift cards! I keep mine in a ziplock bag for each trip and then check the values one more time about a month after I come back before I throw them out.

 

[Tom_E_D]

I realize the OP has a credit card and so the replies that say you need to list a credit card for incidentals may apply to his/her situation. However, I will point out that you can use a major debit card (such as Visa or Mastercard) instead of a credit card.

I remember one trip when upon arrival I looked to see if I had a text with my room number. I didn't (and didn't get one later) but was able to find my room number listed under the Resort Hotel section of the MDE app. There was another trip where I got my room number by text, went directly to the room, and it wouldn't open with my magicband. I had to stop at the front desk to get it to work. Just because something should work doesn't always mean it will work when Disney is involved.

 

[DizneyFamof4]

I also use our GCs during our whole trip. During the trip I much rather have my family use their MB's to charge everything since it is PIN protected, because if you lose a GC anyone who finds it can use it I also never want to take a chance and hit their room charge max where they will charge the CC on file, so I will go down to the front desk every few days and payoff our room charge balance using a GC.. But I like the idea of taking a pic of the GC that robinb mentioned It is so nice after a trip to see hardly anything charged to a CC.