Paying off cruise (DV and gift cards)

[Elizakapeka]

I used my disney visa to make my deposit. I was thinking of using my disney visa to purchase disney gift cards at sams club. I read somewhere that I cant pay for my cruise with gift cards if I used my disney visa for deposit. can anyone speak from experience?

 

[Jwhittin]

I'm pretty sure Disney will take your money no matter how you wish to give it to them

 

[woodynjessiesmomma]

If you wany the $50 OBC for drinks you have to pay all with your Disney Visa. You can pay with gift cards, but it's recommended you save the GCs because if you cancel any refunds will go onto those same cards (from what I've been told by the TA).

 

[shelbell77]

My deposit for my next cruise went on my Disney Visa and all the rest was paid with Disney Gift Cards. There's no reason you must finish paying with your disney visa. You can pay it off with any form of payment they accept.

 

[MeliMel702]

I paid half of my deposit with my Disney Visa and the rest with Disney Gift Cards. The only issue is that I have to call to have them add the credit. It doesn't let me make payments on my tablet.

 

[Elizakapeka]

thanks guys. anyone know if you can buy the disney gift cards from sams club with the disney visa?

 

[Sparky47]

Found this on the Sam's Club website:
Payment methods accepted in Sam's Club

·Sam's Club Credit (PLCC) ·Walmart and Sam's Club shopping Cards ·Cash or Check ·Debit Card · American Express ·MasterCard ·Walmart Credit ·SNAP · Discover · Visa Credit Card (as of Feb. 1, 2016)

 

[bigtony777]

You may have to combine the gift cards together. They used to have you fax or call in each card number, but now you can combine Disney gift cards together online up to $1000 on a single gift card. I think I would do this even if they took unlimited number of cards. I had issues in the past and with a long list of cards it is sometimes difficult to figure out which one is the problem.

 

[Frwinkley]

Where do you add gift cards online?

 

[bigtony777]

Go to disneygiftcard.com and on the site you can manage your cards. You can only have 5 cards in your account at a time so you will need to
1 - add up to 5 cards in your account
2 - move the balance of 4 of the cards to 1 single card
3 - delete the zero balance cards
4 - add another 4 cards and move the balances over to the single card that has the large balance
5 - If you need more than $4000, you can delete a card with a balance from your account. It will only remove it from the online account, but the balance will remain on the card.

 

[LaceC]

Go to disneygiftcard.com and on the site you can manage your cards. You can only have 5 cards in your account at a time so you will need to
1 - add up to 5 cards in your account
2 - move the balance of 4 of the cards to 1 single card
3 - delete the zero balance cards
4 - add another 4 cards and move the balances over to the single card that has the large balance
5 - If you need more than $4000, you can delete a card with a balance from your account. It will only remove it from the online account, but the balance will remain on the card.

You don't have to add the cards to the account to combine them, you only have to have one saved and can transfer the other balances onto it without putting them into the "my cards" section. Much easier so you don't have to keep deleting cards.

 

[mom4fun]

Sam's now has $500 gift cards so really no need to combine.

 

[Elizakapeka]

with disneygiftcard.com is $1000 per card so if you can only have 5 cards then that's only $5000. Was I misinformed?

 

[MSPeeler]

What is the advantage of buying gift cards to pay for a cruise vs your debit/credit card? I'm missing something...

 

[hanscarlet]

What is the advantage of buying gift cards to pay for a cruise vs your debit/credit card? I'm missing something...

I put my cards in the disney vacation savings account. When I purchase the gift cards with my disney visa i get the points on the disney visa and then I load my gift cards to the disney vacation account and pay the cruise with the DVA...
so for me the math works like the following:

$10 rewards points for purchase for $1000 in gift cards
$20 per $1000 from DVA when using DVA to pay cruise

So that's $30 which is still less than the $50 OBC.... however if you have a cruise that is $4k then it's
$40 in rewards points for purchase of $4000 in gift cards
$80 for using the DVA to pay the cruise

so in the end the OBC of $50 is only good if you pay your whole cruise using the disney visa directly I believe.... you get more benefits using GCs and DVA... and people who have placeholders or TAs or booked on the ship usually have a better OBCs than $50 anyways

 

[Ravenne]

I paid our deposit with the Disney Visa (not the best planning ahead on my part.) I paid the rest of it with DVA, funded by Disney gift cards. I didn't get the $50 drinks credit on my onboard account, but I saved a lot more than $50, so I was ok with that.

What is the advantage of buying gift cards to pay for a cruise vs your debit/credit card? I'm missing something...

The advantage is savings. Disney gift cards are available at a discount. One example is grocery store perks like Kroger when they run their 4x fuel points promo. Buy a gift card, get 4x the fuel points which equates to $$ off at the pump.

 

[melwill530]

If you purchase your gift cards at Sam's or Target you also get a discount of about 5% for both so that should be added to the savings of the reward points and the DVA. I am doing the 5% off at Target, using my Disney Visa for food purchases until my trip, and consolidating my gift cards with the Disney Vacation Account to get the extra gift cards that come with that. Every bit helps.

 

[mom4fun]

What is the advantage of buying gift cards to pay for a cruise vs your debit/credit card? I'm missing something...

At Sam's you pay $474.98 for a $500 Disney gift card.