Hi Shelley!
Welcome back to the Disney Parks Moms Panel! How exciting that you will be returning to the Walt Disney World Resort next year. I’m sorry to say there is not currently a way to make payments through Disney for a visit that isn’t booked. There was a Disney savings type program in the past, but it was discontinued a few years ago.
What about purchasing
Disney Gift Cards in advance? This is something I do frequently. If I pick up some overtime or have extra in the budget that month, I will purchase Disney Gift Cards and save them until I am ready to pay for some part of my visit. You can purchase at local retailers or online at the Disney Gift Card website. Once you have a few of them, you can combine them on the website onto one card up to $1,000 USD. It looks like you are visiting from Canada, so using Disney Gift Cards purchased in Canada would avoid the Foreign Currency Fee that is sometimes used by credit card companies. If you already have a Membership to a warehouse club, I also recommend checking them as sometimes you can purchase Disney Gift Cards at a discount.
Another idea is to talk to your financial institution about setting up a separate vacation account. I can do that here in the states with my credit union. It’s kind of the like old fashioned idea of a Christmas Club. I can set up the account, name it whatever I want such as “Disney Vacation Money,” and then have it set up to transfer in a specific amount from my checking account each time I get paid. I can also go online and do one time transfers if I wish. This would allow you to set money aside to use once you are ready to book.
I hope maybe one or both of these ideas will work for you Shelley, and I hope we’ll see more questions from you as you plan your next visit.
Happy saving!
- Kate