Greetings, Joseph!
Welcome back to planDisney with a very important planning question. Your vacation to the Most Magical Place on Earth will be here before you know it.
One of my favorite perks of being a Guest of a
Disney Resorts Collection Hotel is the ability to charge food and merchandise back to my room account using my
MagicBand. You are correct that a credit or debit card must be on file at check-in to use this service. Unfortunately, you cannot link a
Disney Gift Card to your account, but you can use them to pay off your account balance for any charges that you did incur during the day.
Typically a $100 pre-authorization charge is placed on your card (this amount is subject to change) and if you do not exceed a pre-determined amount nothing is charged to your card. Check with the Cast Member at the
Front Desk regarding this amount during your stay. Disney Gift Cards are a good way to stay within your budget during your visit. You can stop by the front desk, every evening, and pay off your current charges with your gift cards. I tend to use them while shopping at Disney retail locations since I know that I will spend more than the pre-authorized amount.
You can link a Disney Gift Card in the
My Disney Experience mobile app for
mobile food orders, Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane purchases, and Merchandise Mobile Checkout. When you are finalizing your transaction select “ Use a different payment method” and then tap “Add a card” and enter your complete gift card number. Keep in mind your gift card information is not saved in the app, so you will have to re-enter it each time you make a purchase.
I hope this helps with your planning and if you have any more questions please come back and visit us again here at planDisney.
See ya real soon,
Andrea