Hey, howdy, hey, Jennifer!
Welcome to planDisney. It's our pleasure to provide advice and support for fellow Guests. After all, I'm dreaming about our next Disney cruise too. So it's great to be thinking about what's just around the river bend.
I love using Disney Gift Cards for all of our Disney vacations, especially for Disney Cruise Line sailings. We like to purchase them at places where we regularly shop, often at a discount to help stretch our vacation budget even further. For the awesome folks from Canada like you, a convenient feature of purchasing Disney Gift Cards is the Canadian Dollar-to-U.S. Dollar exchange is convenient, without fees, and at a competitive rate.
The funds originally loaded onto your Canada Disney Gift Card remain in the original Canadian Dollar currency. When you use your Canada Disney Gift Card to purchase a product or service at a Disney location in the United States or through the Disney Cruise Line, the transaction will be done in U.S. Dollars, with the exchange rate in force at the time of the transaction. Note that any remaining balance on the Canada Gift Card will be reported at the point of sale or on the receipt in U.S. Dollars. Depending on the fluctuations of the standard exchange rate, the remaining balance as indicated in U.S. Dollars may vary.
For more details, please refer directly to the Canada Terms and Conditions for Disney Gift Cards and Merchandise Credits and the frequently asked questions. My planDisney pal Candace, who is also from Ontario, shared a nicely-written summary about Canada Disney Gift Cards that I found informative and helpful.
If you purchase a refundable onboard credit for your Disney cruise, any remaining balance is usually only refundable to the original form of payment. If you plan to use Disney Gift Cards for payments, I recommend keeping track of all of your gift cards, just in case. I use a document that I keep handy on my mobile device. Several years ago, I paid for two separate Disney cruise vacations using Disney Gift Cards. Unfortunately, both cruises had to be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I'm very glad I kept detailed notes about all of my Disney Gift Cards so I could track the refunds as they came in. Sometimes the refunds came in irregular, unexpected amounts, seemingly as if they were from different departments within Disney Cruise Line. But in the end, it all added up to the original amounts paid. Since each Disney Gift Card can only hold up to $1,000, I'm also glad that I used each card only once for each payment without reloading the cards between transactions. You can bet that once the Disney Cruise Line was allowed to resume sailing, we re-booked our vacations as soon as we could! So those funds certainly didn't go to waste.
I'm glad you came to ask such an important question, Jennifer. If you are interested in any other advice or recommendations, we'd be happy to hear from you again here at planDisney.
I hope you have a magical cruise, Jennifer!
~Tony