Hello Samantha!
Welcome to planDisney! You've come to the right place. I love using
Disney Gift Cards to cover expenses on my vacation. My children and I frequently receive them for holiday and birthday presents, and we gather them in our safe until it's time to travel. I'm happy to share some tips and tricks for using them in the Disney Parks and Resorts.
Paying for food, beverages, and souvenirs in the theme parks with a
MagicBand is super convenient; it might even be
too convenient because when we visited
Disneyland Resort last summer and didn't have MagicBands, I made far fewer impulse purchases! If you want to use Disney Gift Cards on your trip, I suggest leaving them in your in-room safe during the day and charging purchases to your room via MagicBand. The day or evening before you check out, visit the front desk with your gift cards and let the Cast Member know you'd like to pay down your balance with Disney Gift Cards. You'll receive an itemized receipt of charges, and anything not covered by Disney Gift Cards will be charged to the credit card on file. Unfortunately, it's not possible to store a Disney Gift Card with the front desk ahead of time. Still, it's quick and easy to stop by before check-out to take care of charges with your gift cards.
I hope this is helpful, Samantha! Another trick I use for spending Disney Gift Cards in Walt Disney World is storing the numbers in the Notes application on my iPhone. When finalizing payment for
Mobile Food & Beverage Ordering or
Merchandise Mobile Checkout, I select Disney Gift Card as my payment method, then copy and paste the gift card numbers from the Notes app into the
My Disney Experience mobile app. You'll still get a paper receipt from the food counter or mobile checkout area, displaying your updated gift card balance so you can track your spending.
Best wishes for a memorable visit this spring. If there's anything else we at
planDisney can do to make it even more magical, don't hesitate to stop by and see us again. We love to help with everything related to vacation planning!
Cheers,
Betsy