Disney Gift Card Deals

[ChrisJG]

Hi, I am very interested in charging to the room and getting discounted gift cards to pay it off. Does it have to be a credit card or does a bank card with the Visa or MasterCard log work for charging privileges?

To Disney that will be a credit card if it has a Visa or MasterCard logo, so yes.

 

[Isatricia]

I am collecting Disney gift cards to pay for meals and souvenirs. Is there any advantage to combining them into a DVA account?

We are staying at Dolphin/Swan with a convention, so I can't use them there and we are buying YES tickets so can't use them for that. I don't think there is any way to attach them to Magic Bands to use to pay with.

Also what is a good $ amount to plan for meals each day - 2 adults and 2 kids (technically Disney adults at 10 & 12, but not big eaters)? We will eat breakfast in our room and are only planning 1 character meal. We will likely do mostly counter service meals other than that.

 

[rebornat33]

To Disney that will be a credit card if it has a Visa or MasterCard logo, so yes.

thanks!

 

[turkey1031]

I am collecting Disney gift cards to pay for meals and souvenirs. Is there any advantage to combining them into a DVA account?

We are staying at Dolphin/Swan with a convention, so I can't use them there and we are buying YES tickets so can't use them for that. I don't think there is any way to attach them to Magic Bands to use to pay with.

Also what is a good $ amount to plan for meals each day - 2 adults and 2 kids (technically Disney adults at 10 & 12, but not big eaters)? We will eat breakfast in our room and are only planning 1 character meal. We will likely do mostly counter service meals other than that.

If you added up to $500 worth of gift cards to the dva you could then request a gift card with the dollar amount you put in so basically you have the one gift card instead of a bunch. That's the only advantage I can see for you

 

[Bree]

I am collecting Disney gift cards to pay for meals and souvenirs. Is there any advantage to combining them into a DVA account?

We are staying at Dolphin/Swan with a convention, so I can't use them there and we are buying YES tickets so can't use them for that. I don't think there is any way to attach them to Magic Bands to use to pay with.

Also what is a good $ amount to plan for meals each day - 2 adults and 2 kids (technically Disney adults at 10 & 12, but not big eaters)? We will eat breakfast in our room and are only planning 1 character meal. We will likely do mostly counter service meals other than that.

There are menus with prices on allears.net that will give you an idea on how much money to bring for food. The DIS restaurant board has the prices for all the buffets and character meals. It's a sticky with AYCTE in the title.

 

[davper]

Can the DVA be used at any time while in the World?

 

[Dugette]

Just a little PSA for anyone requesting a Disney Gift Card from their DVA funds:

I did this recently and knew it was coming. However, I didn't think it would be in a plain envelope with this generic return address:



I had no idea what that was and figured it was junk mail. No signs of Disney anywhere. But something compelled me to open it and this was inside:



So, yeah, I'm glad I opened that. Just keep your eyes open for an unexciting envelope!

As a side note, they told me that it would be 2 gift cards, due to a max of $500 on each. This appears to just be one card for the full $990 I requested, though. I'll verify that in the app later and, if I'm wrong, I'll edit this. Otherwise, it appears they can put over $500 on a card.

 

[once]

Wow, Dugette, I'm glad you opened that envelope!!!

I'm debating on whether, or when to open a DVA account. There doesn't seem to be a lot of benefits. I can only think of being able to combine gift cards and the possibility of having an extra $20 for every $1,000.

 

[Dugette]

Wow, Dugette, I'm glad you opened that envelope!!!

I'm debating on whether, or when to open a DVA account. There doesn't seem to be a lot of benefits. I can only think of being able to combine gift cards and the possibility of having an extra $20 for every $1,000.

That was the balance left in my DVA after paying for other things directly with it (we're doing a land and sea, so I paid for the cruise using the account and also a park ticket for my DH, among other things). I think you are limited to getting $1000 in gift cards back, so I made sure to keep it just below that.

Initial set-up, they made us use a credit card for $10. Everything else I've ever put in there has been gift cards. No regular contributions, just as I've gotten them.

You are right on the benefits. I love combining gift cards, as it saves time paying off the room-charge balance on the trip (I've spent a lot of time handing over $50 cards before, so the $990 seems awesome). I also did get a $40 bonus gift card, due to my spending from the DVA, so that was nice. I think the benefits are mostly for people like me who are going to use gift cards to pay for everything anyway (I get mine 5% off at Target).

 

[turkey1031]

So is the $500 limit only on the bonus? I was adding gc to my account last night and saw that you could get up to $1000 Clift card with your balance. If so I'm gunna throw a bunch more in to pay off my room charges for food and wine

 

[Turk February]

So is the $500 limit only on the bonus? I was adding gc to my account last night and saw that you could get up to $1000 Clift card with your balance. If so I'm gunna throw a bunch more in to pay off my room charges for food and wine

Yes. You can get $20 per $1000 spent up to $500. So that would be after you've spent $25,000 from your account.

You can request a gift card of your remaining balance for up to $1000 every 90 days. Your account must be active for at least 60 days before doing this and you should allow 4-6 weeks for your gift card to arrive.

 

[Pinfeathers & Golly Fluff]

Makes me so nervous that they would send that amount of money without tracking or insurance ... I have $1,000 in "extra" $50 gift cards to use toward tips, meals, souvenirs etc and had called DVA to see what their policy was about safeguarding that high of an amount and was told that there would be no way to track it and "it would not be an easy process to try and fix things if it were to get lost in the mail". Since I know that I would be worried sick for 4-6 weeks if I requested the $1,000 card and would be obsessing about it until arrival I'm going to just deal with the 20 $50 cards and save myself the agony!

 

[Turk February]

Since I know that I would be worried sick for 4-6 weeks if I requested the $1,000 card and would be obsessing about it until arrival I'm going to just deal with the 20 $50 cards and save myself the agony!

That's the smart thing to do IMO. Why go through the process of buying cards, entering them into DVA, and then just requesting a large sum card and hoping it arrives when you can just bring a stack of $50s in your suitcase and pay off your balance with the front desk.

 

[turkey1031]

With such a high amount I would think that they would send them uses with some kind of tracking info but I guess that might cost them more to do it that way

 

[Dugette]

I will just mention that I requested mine on 4/21 and received on 5/4 for our trip starting 5/14. I probably should have requested sooner to be safe, but it definitely was not 4-6 weeks of waiting. While I agree they should do more to safeguard that sum of cash (and that may be why they send it in such an obscure envelope), a gift card can be cancelled and reissued, I would think. Maybe a pain - depends what your level of risk tolerance is. For me, I've been that person at the front desk with a giant stack of gift cards watching my vacation time tick away due to super slow Disney computer systems. I welcome the chance to cut my time to 1/20th of what it was - same reason I like the new $100 gift cards instead of just $50s. But do what you feel okay about. Obviously, this didn't keep me up at night, other than almost tossing the card out without opening it.

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

I will just mention that I requested mine on 4/21 and received on 5/4 for our trip starting 5/14. I probably should have requested sooner to be safe, but it definitely was not 4-6 weeks of waiting. While I agree they should do more to safeguard that sum of cash (and that may be why they send it in such an obscure envelope), a gift card can be cancelled and reissued, I would think. Maybe a pain - depends what your level of risk tolerance is. For me, I've been that person at the front desk with a giant stack of gift cards watching my vacation time tick away due to super slow Disney computer systems. I welcome the chance to cut my time to 1/20th of what it was - same reason I like the new $100 gift cards instead of just $50s. But do what you feel okay about. Obviously, this didn't keep me up at night, other than almost tossing the card out without opening it.

Just wanted to add sometimes it takes longer than 8 weeks I paid off our cruise for June 120 days ahead of time and funded what I needed to so requested mine of about $140 in March and still haven't received them. I called about two weeks ago and they sent to the back office and I received a follow message this was normal and I'm pretty sure they are shipping soon - I think they said beginning of May.

I've read and it appears to be my experience as well, they really use the date you provide and if it's further out than you prefer you might want to bump up your travel date to get them sooner. As long as I get them this month I'll be good but indeed we are at 8 weeks now.

Heather

 

[pillow]

I've read and it appears to be my experience as well, they really use the date you provide and if it's further out than you prefer you might want to bump up your travel date to get them sooner. As long as I get them this month I'll be good but indeed we are at 8 weeks now.

Heather

The first time I ordered a bonus card, it never came. Luckily, we were going to WDW, and they just issued me a new bonus card at guest services. This last time I ordered a bonus card, I fudged my travel date so that I would get it sooner (just in case there were problems - hate getting it at the last minute). I followed your lead Heather and preloaded my onboard account in order to get to the next $1,000 threshold. Gotta love free Disney money!

Jodie

 

[jennab]

Question about purchasing Disney gift cards at Sam's online. If I purchase with my Disney visa will I get the 2% back (like at Walmart)? Just wondering if Sam's is considered in the grocery category for the Disney visa! TIA!

 

[kerrie55]

Question about purchasing Disney gift cards at Sam's online. If I purchase with my Disney visa will I get the 2% back (like at Walmart)? Just wondering if Sam's is considered in the grocery category for the Disney visa! TIA!

Sam's Club here in NE PA does not take Visa - only Discover and MasterCard. Or a debit card with a Visa logo.

 

[jennab]

Sam's Club here in NE PA does not take Visa - only Discover and MasterCard. Or a debit card with a Visa logo.

Thanks for your response! I know in the store they will not take a visa credit card, BUT they will online and they have the $150 packs of Disney gift cards online for about 5% savings so I was thinking of doing that if I could get the 2% on my Disney visa (instead of going to Target and paying with my red card)