Hello there Robert!
It's incredibly exciting that you've got an upcoming visit to Walt Disney World on the horizon! Congratulations on your choice of dates. My family considers February temperatures in Florida ideal for a Disney vacation. And Caribbean Beach Resort's tropical vibes, access to hop on the slick
Disney Skyliner transportation on days we're heading to EPCOT or Hollywood Studios, and what my kid's affectionately refer to as "the cool pirate fort pool" makes this one of our absolute favorite places to stay!
Purchasing discounted Disney Gift Cards from an outside retailer is a brilliant way to save a little money on your Disney vacation. Well done, you! While you can not use a Disney Gift Card or a Disney Rewards Redemption card for a pre-arrival MagicBand order, I promise you there will be many terrific options to use your gift cards.
I recently used my Disney Gift Cards directly on the Walt Disney World website towards an upcoming vacation package for my family, by making individual payments the amount of each gift card. Another helpful option is to combine multiple gift card balances on the official
Disney Gift Card website. The "My Cards" section allows you to combine your card balances onto a single card, with a limit of $1,000 per card. This may be helpful when making checkout purchases that only allow for entering one gift card.
Once at the Walt Disney World resort, you'll also be able to use your gift cards to purchase meals, snacks, and souvenirs. Sounds like you plan to
use MagicBands during your vacation... which is an excellent choice! Personally, I love the convenience of charging everything to my MagicBand+ during our Disney World stay. It's part of that wonderful immersive Disney experience, where you don't need to take along anything but your MagicBand and your smile! To cover these charges by using your Disney Gift Card, just head down to the Caribbean Beach front desk the day before departure and have them apply your gift cards towards your balance.
One last tip! There's been an exciting change to
Lightning Lane Passes at Walt Disney World, which allow you to save time standing in line. And BONUS... because you will be staying at a Disney resort, you will be able to purchase Lightning Lane Passes
7 days prior to your arrival date (vs 3 days for off site guests). So mark your calendar for 7:00 am ET one week in advance, to get all your top picks! My favorite is the Lightning Lane Multi Pass, which allows you to plan ahead and schedule 3 of your favorite must-do attractions in the park of your choice. Then just show up at your booked arrival time, scan in with your MagicBands (or My Disney Experience app), and you'll get to skip the standby line! And good news, you can pay for your Lightning Lane Pass purchases inside the My Disney Experience app by using a Disney gift card. At the last step of check-out, just select "Add a Payment Method" and you'll see the option to enter your Disney Gift Card number.
I hope this helps answer your question, and that you and your family have the happiest Disney vacation ever! Please let me know if I can help with anything further.
See ya real soon!
Tami