Ahoy, Randi! Welcome back to planDisney and thanks for bringing us your question about using Disney gift cards where magic meets the sea.
I am happy to report that Disney Cruise Line accepts both physical and digital Disney gift cards. Prior to sailing, you can use digital gift cards to pay the balance on your account online or by calling Disney Cruise Line directly and providing the card information to a cast member over the phone. Once you step onboard, all of your purchases are typically charged to your stateroom account, but you can also use digital gift cards to pay your balance.
The easiest way to apply the digital gift cards to your stateroom balance is by adding them to your stateroom account as “Onboard Credit” at least three days prior to embarkation day, but you can also take them to the
Guest Services desk onboard and have them applied. No matter which of those options you choose, I highly recommend consolidating all of your gift cards together in advance. You can
manage your Disney gift cards online and consolidate 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 per gift card, so you can only consolidate up to that amount. Just be aware that the Disney gift card website is not meant to store your balance for you, so you will still need to keep your original gift cards until you confirm that their balance has successfully been transferred onto another card or used in full for payment.
Once you have consolidated the balance onto a single gift card, 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. Any balance that is not used on the ship will be returned to the gift card, which is why it is important to make sure that you keep the gift card information for later.
Finally, if you choose to bring the cards onboard to the Guest Services desk instead, just remember that you may have trouble accessing your digital gift cards unless you purchase an internet package. Make sure that you have screenshots or downloads of the gift card information to be safe.
If you have any other questions, then we are always here to help at planDisney. Happy sailing!
Catherine