Using Disney Giftcards onboard as deposit

[Maesa]

I've heard people checking in with Disney Gift cards for onboard charges instead of giving your credit card. How does this work? Is there an amount you need to give to them? Do they take the gift cards when you check in? What if you don't spend all the money on the gift cards, how do you get this back?

Thank you.

 

[Dug720]

I have used gift cards (well A gift card) to pay all my OBB deposits.

I do my research beforehand and either have already booked and will be reshopping or know exactly what I want to book. I pre-load the gift card (I go to a Disney Store to do it...or if there is enough time I order one from disneygiftcard.com - no messing with a zillion small ones for me) with my anticipated deposit plus a little extra just in case the price increases before I get it booked.

If you're actually booking a cruise, the deposit is 10% of the cruise cost for cruises 7 days or longer or the regular 20% of the cruise cost for shorter cruises. If you just book a placeholder, then it's only $250.

They give you back the gift card once they've swiped/entered it - and you need to hold onto it because if you cancel, the refund will go back onto that gift card (which is why it's easier to have ONE - or two if you're making a deposit over $1000 - you can combine gift cards up to the amount of $1000 on the site I listed above).

You don't get unspent money back - I don't know of many gift cards that do that. Use it to pay down some of your cruise charges or save it for a trip to Disney World.