Hi Melvin!
Welcome to planDisney! Thank you so much for sending this great Disneyland Resort budget planning question to us hEAR. I'm happy to be your planEAR today!
You must be after my own heart, Melvin. I love listing
Disney Gift Cards as my go-to gift guide so I can treat myself to treats and merch while at Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park. I have some helpful hints, as well as some cool tricks when it comes to using this form of Mickey money:
Yes, you can apply a Disney Gift Card to both
Mobile Food and Beverage Ordering and the new
Merchandise Mobile Checkout. The rule at this time is that Disney Gift Cards cannot be saved in the
Disneyland Mobile App, so you'll have to enter the individual gift card code numbers for each mobile transaction you make. The neat DisneyHack to this is to open up the notes folder in your phone and make a list of any and all Disney gift card numbers you have. Then, when you're ready to make a mobile order, all you'll do is copy the gift card code from your notes and paste it into the payment screen. I really love this method because I don't have to fiddle with finding the physical gift card in my purse or big park backpack, and I also don't have to worry about losing the gift cards completely.
Pro Tips:
~ Currently only one Disney Gift Card can be used per mobile order/purchase. If the amount on your gift card will only cover the partial balance of your total, the remainder will go to the credit/debit card that is on file in your Disneyland Mobile App.
~When listing your gift card(s) in your note, be sure to add in other pertinent information, like the card's access code under the scratch-off sticker, as well as the starting balance of each card.
~If you have more than a few Disney Gift Cards that you're planning on using during your visit to Mickey's house, I find it helpful to physically number each card with a sharpie and order the cards into my phone note by the number I gave them. Yes, each gift card is already individually numbered with their code, but I find when I'm in that busy Disney mode that this system is an extra fail-safe for my vacation brain.
Bonus Tip:
You can also take photos of the back of each gift card (ie: their barcodes) and present the pictures from your phone or smartwatch to Cast Members to scan when you're checking out in a physical line. (This comes in handy when you have lots of cards with small balances left because Cast Members can apply as many gift cards as you have to pay for food, shopping, rentals, tours, even your Disneyland Resort Hotel charges!)
I hope this helped to
tech your vacation wallet to the next level, Melvin! Be sure to check out the
official planDisney Instagram account for even more Disneyland Resort tips and tricks. And thank you again for reaching out to us, Melvin! We'll See You Real Soon!
~Kristen N.