paying at restaurants with a Disney gift card?

[lissiesmum]

I was thinking of putting money on a disney gift card at our local disney store so that I could use that to pay for my meals while at WDW. I was wondering if all restaurants accept this as payment, and can you deduct tips off the card as well, or do you have to pay cash for tips? Thanks if you can help!

 

[madalex]

Virtually all restaurants at the parks and the resorts will accept the gift card as payment. The only exceptions I know of are the restaurants at the Swan and Dolphin (since those are not Disney resorts). You can pay the tips with the gift card and do not have to pay tips in cash.

 

[Vickis3js]

thats how we saved for our trip in Dec. I estimated what I thought each meal would cost by looking at the menus then I just would buy a GC for that amount so I would just carry one GC per restaurant. My estimates were pretty spot on too most of the time we were under.

 

[lissiesmum]

great news, thank you! My Disney Visa has taken a beating lately and I will not be bringing it along this time, and I don't really like cash or traveler's checks, so I thought this might be a good alternative!

 

[pwcarlson]

We used a gift card for all of our food/drink purchases we did not want to put on our dining credits or charge to the room. That way our check out was less surprising. Hate to see all those soft drinks charges add up to YIKES!! We had no problems using it and they give you your running balance on the card with each reciept. Plan on doing the same thing in March. Have fun.

 

[TwistofCate]

Is it possible to use the gift card at the snack stands also? This is a great idea.

 

[Alztybrn]

Yea...You can use the gift card essentially anywhere you can use a credit card. And that includes the smaller food carts as well.

My biggest caution...if you put all your money on there, be VERY careful. If you lose it, you have lost all your vacation funds. At least a credit card is replaceable if you lose it.

 

[pwcarlson]

If you are worried about losing the gift card, you could have more than one gift card and keep other ones in the safe in your room or reload the gift card every so often when you are getting low. We prefer to reload the card once during our 5 day stay. So if it was lost we were not out a whole lot. You can decide how much you are willing to lose if you did lose the card. I find the gift card is very, very, easy to use and can be used for anything you need at disney. I used what was left on souvenirs that we wanted on the last day. I bet you could use it at the airport at the gift shop there.

 

[ozziewags]

What about a Visa gift card that is not a disney gift card? Will they take that at restaurants? We were planning to use it for our meals. I assumed if they took Visa credit cards they would take the Visa gift cards too?