Hi Ashlea and welcome to planDisney!
I just love using Disney Gift Cards for my vacations at Walt Disney World! Everyone knows that gift cards are the perfect present for me because I always have a trip planned just around the corner. You can use gift cards for practically anything at the theme parks,
Disney Resort hotels and
Disney Springs!
At this time, you cannot link a gift card directly to your
MagicBand for your payment method, but you can use them to pay off your balance on anything purchased using your MagicBand. After a day at the parks, I stop by the front desk and have them charge my gift cards for anything I have accrued on my hotel room folio account and then I get to start the next day fresh with a zero balance. It's also a good way to budget what you spend from day to day. You can wait to pay off your entire balance at the end of your trip, but once you hit a certain threshold for room charges, the credit card on file automatically gets charged. This has happened to us before and it's not a big deal. You can have a lovely Cast Member at the front desk reverse the credit card charge and then use your gift cards at that point.
If you have multiple gift cards, I highly recommend combining them. You can do that right on the
Disney Gift Card website. Any single card can hold a maximum value of $1000, so it's easier to combine them onto one card rather than carry around several with you. Always take a picture of the back of the card just in case it gets lost. If that does happen, you have the number and can transfer it to another card without any worry.
Purchases made using the
My Disney Experience Mobile App for
Mobile Ordering meals, snacks and beverages or
Merchandise Mobile Checkout at select gift shops will not let you charge to your room account, so I like to copy and paste my gift card number in my phone's notes app or text it to my husband. That way, I can easily paste the number on the payment screen without having to type out a long gift card number each time. Both of these in-app features saves so much time by being able to order and purchase ahead of time and skip the long lines. We like to use Mobile Ordering on vacation, so this tip makes doing so much more convenient for us when using gift cards to pay.
Please stop back by and visit if you have any additional vacation planning questions.
Have a magical day!
Leslie