Ahoy, Catherine! As a fellow Catherine, I’m excited to welcome you to planDisney, where we answer all of your questions about sailing where magic meets the sea.
Once you step onboard the
Disney Treasure, everything will be charged to your stateroom account from the largest expenses like your Port Adventures to the smallest purchases like popcorn bucket refills outside of the Walt Disney Theatre before showtime. You can absolutely use Disney gift cards to help pay your stateroom balance and the easiest way to do that is by adding them as Onboard Credit to your reservation at least three days prior to embarkation day. To add them to your account, you should first consolidate all of your gift cards together and then apply the total amount to your reservation.
If you have a lot of gift cards that you have been collecting in anticipation of your cruise, then the first step is going to be consolidating them. The Disney Gift Card website allows you to manage your cards online and combine the amounts from multiple gift cards onto one designated card to use for payment. There is a maximum balance allowance of up to $1,000.00 per gift card, so you may still need to keep a few cards depending on the total amount you plan to put on your account.
In order to consolidate your cards, go to the
Disney Gift Card website and login using your MyDisney account information. Then click on the tab at the top labeled “My Cards.” When the page opens, you can click on “Add a Card,” which will allow you to give each card a nickname and enter both the account number and EAN from the back. Once you have added your cards, pick one gift card that will be your designated main card and click on the right where it says “Manage” in blue. That will open a page with an option that says “Transfer Funds to This Card” on the far right. Click on that option and select the desired cards to transfer to your main card. It will only let you transfer funds from three gift cards at a time, so you may need to complete this step multiple times. In the end, you should have a main card with your full total on it (or a few cards if the full amount is more than $1,000.00). Please keep in mind that the Disney Gift Card website is not meant to store your balance for you, so you will still need to keep your physical gift cards until you confirm that the funds were successfully transferred onto another card or used in full for payment.
After you have consolidated all of your gift cards, then you should login to your MyDisney account on the
Disney Cruise Line website. Click on the tab labeled “Already Booked” at the top of the screen and click on “Onboard Gifts” located under the “Before You Go” section. Your upcoming reservation should come up with your sail date indicated at the top of the page. Click on the “Shop by Category” option and you will see “Onboard Credit” on the far right of the drop-down menu. Enter the total amount of your gift card and then use that same gift card to check out to have it applied to the onboard account for your sailing. Remember that any balance that is not used on the ship will be returned to the gift card you used, so definitely make sure to keep that particular gift card for later.
I know that’s a lot of information, but I assure you that the Disney Gift Card website and Onboard Gifts page are both very user-friendly once you see them. I hope that helps you get your gift cards ready to use on your sailing in October. If you have any other questions before embarkation day, then you can always reach back out to me and my friends at planDisney. Happy sailing!
Catherine