Welcome BACK, Deborah!
It's so good to see you back asking another Walt Disney World Resort vacation planning question to us hEAR at the Disney Parks Moms Panel! Thank you for thinking of us over and over again.
This is a great question that I don't officially have a confirmation to as some details are still on a 'wait and see' basis. I have a feeling the wrist gift cards will still be available for purchase, because these little beauties are a super convenient way to keep your method of payment readily available as well as using both hands to successfully snack around the festival marketplace kitchens. The only reason I can really think of why they wouldn't be available is that sometimes these gift cards are themed to that yEAR's official festival artwork. Also, when reading through all of the information released about Disney's plans to
Return to a World of Magic, there is definitely added emphasis on using
cashless payments as often as possible, but, it is noted that traditional forms of payment will still be accepted. So this again gives me hope for these dangling gift cards.
Since your visit to Mickey's house is so close to the start of the new '
Taste of EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival', Deborah, I do have some ideas to help you plan your payments:
~ The
Mobile Food and Beverage Ordering section in your
My Disney Experience Mobile App has now been updated to accept Disney Gift Cards as payment! This is huge as before the closure payments could only be charged to credit and debit cards. Now guests can really take advantage of finding Disney Gift Card deals before their vacations. (Pro Tip: Some club-based warehouse stores sell these gift cards with slightly more value loaded on to them than what you pay.)
~ Are you staying at a
Disney Resort Hotel?
MagicBand purchases will also still be available.
~ Do you have wrist gift card from a previous festival? Disney Gift Cards are reloadable at almost any Disney-owned shop or Disney Resort Hotel. And actually, you could buy a new Disney Gift Card from a grocery store or gas station close to home and transfer the balance to your wrist card yourself on the
Disney Gift Card website. (On the menu bar, select 'Manage Cards', and from the drop-down click 'Transfer Balance.')
~ Lastly, you could even make your own wearable card by punching a hole in the upper right or upper left hand corner of a standard rectangular Disney Gift Card. You'll want to punch the hole about half an inch in from the edge of the corner, and make sure not to punch out any of the magnetic stripe, scan-able bar code or the account numbers on the back. But once punched you could attach your DIY version to a keychain, a bracelet, or even one of these cool
lanyards from Shop Disney that has a clip part that detaches so should you need to hand your card to someone you don't have to take the rest off of your neck.
I hope this helped to plan your upcoming Disney Days, Deborah, and We'll See You Real Soon!
~Kristen