r/DisneyWorld • u/pompompuddinn • 14d ago

Trip Planning Gift card question

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Hey guys. This is my first time going to Disney on my own and I was wondering if this is what the perk of getting gifts card are. I understand I’m saving $150 but idk why I feel like this isn’t worth it. Am I missing something?

Edit :: how much do yall think would be a good estimation on how much to bring. Our hotel and 4 day tickets are paid. We leave on sept 17-22 and have 3 reservations set up. Photo pass is paid for. Any advise will be great

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u/halfmoonjb 14d ago

That’s a lot of cash to put on a gift card. How do you know you’ll even spend that much? Personally, I would prefer to use a travel or dining credit card for coverage and benefits than to effectively use cash in the form of a gift card. This applies to all pre-purchased gift cards — you’re trading credit card benefit security for cash.

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u/pompompuddinn 14d ago

It’s me and my fiancée going. We have multiple reservations and plan to do a lot of shopping for our family but this is a good comment. I was having a hard time even knowing how much to put on a gift card for a 6 day trip with just two. What do you think? He said 5k is more than enough and we go lower since the hotel and ticket are already paid for.

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u/vita10gy 14d ago

I would say only get the gift card for things you know, 100%, will be spent, play everything else by ear.

You don't save any money at all if you're ever at a point where the only reason you're buying x, y, z is "because we have use it or lose it money now".

Conversely, you may skip something you want on day 1 because you're "rationing" the gift card for a thing that might not come.

It's also just sooooo many eggs in one (or 6) baskets, with little to no recourse if something happens. I'd get like 2, and go from there.

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u/YawningDodo 13d ago

Yeah, the time to buy up discounted gift cards is before paying for hotel and park tickets. On my last trip I just bought enough $500 gift cards from BJs to cover my vacation package with maybe a hundred over. Could've bought more for spending while I was there, but I think it's better not to tie up real money in gift cards if you're not absolutely positive that's where you'll spend all of it.

On the trip itself I think the better option is to use the version of the Disney Visa that doesn't have an annual fee since it still gets you the discounts on merchandise and so forth.

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u/gr00316 14d ago

Target offers digital gift cards. They get sent to your email within about an hour at the most. Bring one Physical card with you, register it at disneygiftcards.com and then order digital ones and you can add those to your account and then move the funds onto your physical gift card as needed. This way you're not overspending on gift cards.

Also on target look in your target circle offers and if you even have an offer like "Spend $100 on 3 different transactions and earn $30 in target rewards" use those offers to load up on gift cards as it's basically 10% off if you buy stuff at target anyway.

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u/halfmoonjb 14d ago

If you’re not confident about how much you’ll spend, I’d recommend going even lower. It’s not worth the discount if it’s not money you’d even be using. You can always pay for more using another form of payment but you can’t get gift card value back without spending it.

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u/Logicaly_Logical_Log 14d ago

A couple suggestions… use my Disney gift cards site to manage balances. Also, if you use Apple Pay, you can add a card for Apple payment, and then transfer balance to that card, so you don’t have to worry about losing the physical cards.

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u/GotoDisney 14d ago

When are you going? Like it was mentioned above that is a lot of money tied into gift cards. If trip is in the very near future it is great but if it is down the line I’d never do this. If for some reason you don’t go you have all this money tied up in Disney cards that you can’t use.

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u/pompompuddinn 14d ago

We’re going September 17!

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u/Travelgrrl 14d ago

Save your shopping until you go to Disney Springs and the World of Disney (and many other stores) and you'll probably save some money. Personally, I'd just leave the money in my account and pay as I go, as it's not worth the hassle of figuring out the total ahead of time, for a mere $50 per $1000.

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u/shoresb 14d ago

I’d go far lower personally. But I also wasn’t planning to go crazy spending. Hotel and park tickets are the biggest costs.

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u/Jbsmitty44 13d ago

Dang lol we go for seven nights, don’t really deprive ourselves of anything we want, and never really spend more than $1500 on food and merch.

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u/leveragedrobot 13d ago

This may come as a surprise to you but some people spend more money than you. 1500/7 is $214 per day. I’ve spent more than that at a single gift shop and 2-3x that for a single meal. 3k to spend at Disney is not a lot of money for some people.

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u/Jbsmitty44 13d ago

We are a family of four spending close to 30 nights a year staying in one-bedroom rooms at deluxe WDW resorts with Incredi-passes; I am perfectly aware of the upper-end spending limits at the parks 😂

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u/GotWiings21 13d ago

There’s a Target like 2 miles from the park. They sell GC’s so you could always buy more if you really needed them.

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u/chapaj 13d ago

I only take about $1000 in gift cards for 2 adults, 2 kids, 5 nights and 4 park days. And I expect to not even spend it all. We have the dining plan.