Using Visa Giftcards in park and on tickets?

[AC7179]

My friend is traveling to Disneyland this month. She is so excited but is Type A and about to work herself into a stroke.

She wanted to be budget conscious and so, in an attempt to keep track of her spending money, went to her bank and purchased a Visa Gift Card, which she was assured would work JUST LIKE A VISA.

She went home and the cards do not work on the Disney Website to buy tickets.

She calls Disney and says she talked to someone that wasn't very nice that said that just happens sometimes. She asked if she would be able to use them to buy tickets at the gate and the lady told her she didn't know. :-/


She has a call in to her bank to see if they will just take the card back. If not, I've told her to go to HEB and buy the Disney Resort gift card and use that to buy tickets---hoping that will work.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Can she use it over the phone, vs online? I can't use my rewards cards on their website to order tickets, but I could on the phone? I'd try it again and see if she gets someone else?

 

[MermaidMommy]

She could also try ordering the tickets somewhere besides Disney. Other retailers might take the Visa gift card, plus their tickets are cheaper than buying through Disney, so it would help if she's concerned about pricing. I know I've used a Visa gift card on Orbitz before, and their ticket prices are lower than Disney's.

 

[AC7179]

Thank you both! Fabulous help! She should be able to use the Visa cards in the parks, right?

 

[luulu1999]

I am curious about using them in parks, my kiddos have $150 each saved and I thought the best way to handle their money is getting each of them something like that.

 

[AmberStar]

Maybe go to target or somewhere and buy disney giftcards with the visa?

Also try a 3rd party site to buy the tickets. Way.com, Ares travel, Velocity, get away today. All valid options.

I have a 200 dollar gift card and a few 25 dollar ones. Each card is labeled so I know what is budgeted for inside the park.

I totally understand her budgeting as I'm doing the same thing right now. I even have cash inside sealed envelopes labeled for things like Gas or Food outside of Disney.

 

[pharmjenn]

A problem with using Visa gift cards for online purchases is that they want a billing address. Obviously you don't have a billing address with a prepaid card. That is probably the problem she is having trying to purchase tickets online
She should have no problem using the gift card credit card at the ticket booth or to purchase something at a store

 

[jenpace]

This past January we purchased a park hopper for my husband with VISA GCs at the gate.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

I am curious about using them in parks, my kiddos have $150 each saved and I thought the best way to handle their money is getting each of them something like that.

I saw a disney merch card being used by a youngster at EP. Maybe DLR has something like that.

 

[AmberStar]

Giftcards can be used at all the stores inside the parks. I would do a bunch fo 50 dollar giftcards for your kids. Write their name in sharpie on each one. They give them each a 50 dollar one when you need to. I'd not like my kid to have a 150 buck giftcard on them in case it was to be lost or stolen. Smaller amounts make it easier.

Each of my kids will have gift cards for spending in the parks. 50 dollars each for gift shops. two 25 dollar gift cards. I am ordering them from disneygiftcard.com so I can select the actual card. One kid will have toy story another will have peter pan and a third princess'. Easy to differentiate. I also ordered myself lady and the tramp for my silhouette shop money and Mickey Mouse for our in park food money.

 

[DharmaLou]

I've never used a Visa GC to buy park tickets, but I've used plenty of them to pay for merchandise inside the park. I often get payment for work done in the form of Visa GCs so I had well over $500 in them I used on our trip in Nov '12, and $250 of them for my Jan '14 trip.

 

[ColeyOley]

This may have already been pointed out, but the only drawback to using a VISA gift card is when you are trying to spend more money than what is left on your card. They don't work like regular gift cards - you have to keep track of the exact amount on there and let them know to charge only that much. So say you have $47.13 left on there and you want to buy something for $50, it won't go through. You have to tell them to charge $47.13 on the card and pay the rest in cash, credit, debit card, etc.

Whenever we get VISA gift cards, I take them to the Disney store and buy Disney gift cards with them. Some stores can't/won't let you buy a gift card with a gift card, but the Disney Store isn't one of them.