Tricks to getting the CHEAPEST deal possible on a Disney Cruise?

[wfgamble]

We have the Disney Visa. Any amount (tips, Palo, excursions, spa) that you know you might spend, can be added to your account pre-cruise. If you add this with your DV BEFORE you cruise, you will get the 0%/6 months promotion. If you use your DV on the cruise to pay for the above, you do not get the 0%.

Also, if you book your next cruise onboard, and use your DV, the deposit will get the 0% as long as it is over $100. This will be a separate charge.

PERFECT explanation. Thank you so much!

 

[MAJPLO]

We have the Disney Visa. Any amount (tips, Palo, excursions, spa) that you know you might spend, can be added to your account pre-cruise. If you add this with your DV BEFORE you cruise, you will get the 0%/6 months promotion. If you use your DV on the cruise to pay for the above, you do not get the 0%.

Also, if you book your next cruise onboard, and use your DV, the deposit will get the 0% as long as it is over $100. This will be a separate charge.

Whoa. How did I not know that if you use the DV on the ship you don't get the 0% interest. Wow. Thanks! Makes sense I guess. Kinda.

 

[KristiMc]

Whoa. How did I not know that if you use the DV on the ship you don't get the 0% interest. Wow. Thanks! Makes sense I guess. Kinda.

Not sure really why it is like that but it is. It is a nice way to spread out your spending.

 

[shoes99]

We have the Disney Visa. Any amount (tips, Palo, excursions, spa) that you know you might spend, can be added to your account pre-cruise. If you add this with your DV BEFORE you cruise, you will get the 0%/6 months promotion. If you use your DV on the cruise to pay for the above, you do not get the 0%.

Also, if you book your next cruise onboard, and use your DV, the deposit will get the 0% as long as it is over $100. This will be a separate charge.

We pre-pay our gratuities by adding them to the cruise fare. This qualifies for the 0% , when we cruised to Alaska on Disney our port adventures were $900 so I also pre-paid them by adding the $$ to our shipboard account, this also qualified for the 0% by using the Disney Visa.
Its a good way to manage your spending pre-cruise.

 

[egesicki]

I don't think anyone mentioned this yet. If you enter all the codes inside the Disney DVDs or send in a photo of Disney movie stubs you can collect points to redeem for various things. Every so often they offer Disney Gift cards, I think the last time I redeemed it was 1200 points for a $10 card. Every little bit helps! BTW they also have free and low point things too, coloring pages, iron on patterns, thinking FE...

 

[egesicki]

I also plan to use my Walgreen's balance rewards for Disney Gift Cards. The plan says you can't directly spend the points on gift cards, but I figure if I have a $50 reward, get a $50 gift card and $50 worth of other stuff in the same transaction, like pull ups or allergy meds or batteries (at reasonable costs if I watch the sales), then I am still following the rules and my out of pocket is $50 for a $100 purchase. Has anyone tried that?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I also plan to use my Walgreen's balance rewards for Disney Gift Cards. The plan says you can't directly spend the points on gift cards, but I figure if I have a $50 reward, get a $50 gift card and $50 worth of other stuff in the same transaction, like pull ups or allergy meds or batteries (at reasonable costs if I watch the sales), then I am still following the rules and my out of pocket is $50 for a $100 purchase. Has anyone tried that?

So, basically, you're spending $50.00 cash for the gift card, and using the $50.00 rewards for merchandise. You can do the same thing by purchasing them separately. One purchase (in cash) for the gift card, and one purchase (using the rewards) for the merchandise.

 

[lealea42]

OR buy the $50 gift card from Target using your debit card, pay $47.50 and buy anything (sale prices of course) that you would usually by elsewhere! Less out of pocket & save $2.50

 

[su_A_ve]

Not sure about Costco, but Sams Club sells Disney GC at a discount. Currently they are only about 4.5%. Sams only accepts Mastercard or Discover, however here's a trick to use the Disney Visa Premier and potentially get 2% back in rewards.

Many WalMarts (specially the ones with supermarkets) have certain cash registers (typically the ones near the grocery stores) that flag transactions as grocery. Same goes for Target BTW. Any purchase made at those registers will be reported as grocery to Chase, and hence will earn 2%. So, I purchase a WM gift card and pay with my Disney Visa Premier. Then I go to Sams Club and purchase the Disney GCs with the WM Gift Card.

Back in the days of the Target $10 GC with $50 purchase, I paid with my Disney Visa Premier for about $700 worth of Disney GC. Since my local target is marks all the registers as grocery, I got 2% back in rewards.

Chase will help you identify if your recent purchases at WalMart or Target were registered as grocery. Hopefully one day they will show this on their web site directly.

Also, not sure if it was mentioned earlier... Booking and paying in full with a Disney Visa will net you a $50 on board credit. This however cannot be combined with special rates (including on board booking). The only exception is *GT rates. This OBC is in addition to whatever you get from using a TA.

 

[egesicki]

So, basically, you're spending $50.00 cash for the gift card, and using the $50.00 rewards for merchandise. You can do the same thing by purchasing them separately. One purchase (in cash) for the gift card, and one purchase (using the rewards) for the merchandise.

I know, it's really more of a mental thing for me, makes me feel more like I actually got the gift card free and make it more like a DCL discount