Gift Cards vs Disney Visa for Onboard

[scottb8888]

As long as the Disney Visa is the card you have on file for your on board account, you will get the discount. They print a code on your KTTW card which tells the cashiers to apply the discount. The discounted amount gets charged to your account, then you can apply gift cards to your account.

On my last cruise, I called in advance of the cruise and purchased on board credits with gift cards, but my Disney Visa was the card on file. I was able to get the discounts.

We have cruised before but not heard of purchasing onboard credits in advance. How does that work? At the start of the cruise I used to take my giftcards but lateley they would not take them in advance so I have to wait mid cruise.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

We have cruised before but not heard of purchasing onboard credits in advance. How does that work? At the start of the cruise I used to take my giftcards but lateley they would not take them in advance so I have to wait mid cruise.

I call the number for "In room gifts and amenities" and tell them I want to purchase on board credit. That number is (800) 601-8455. I used to take them to the front desk on the first night or the next morning, but then I saw a section on the in room gifts and amenities order form for purchasing on board credit and decided it would be easier to do it that way. I'm usually calling in to purchase rainforest room day passes anyway so I can take care of both with one phone call.

 

[scottb8888]

thanks

 

[scottb8888]

And on board credits can be used to purchase anything?

 

[Maggie'sMom]

And on board credits can be used to purchase anything?

Yes, you are just depositing money into your on board account which is then used to pay off any charges made to that account. So it can cover drinks, Palo/Remy meals, spa treatments, the daily gratuities, gift shop purchases, port adventures booked through DCL, etc. The only thing I'm aware of that can't be charged to your on board account is the deposit for booking your next cruise on board.

 

[YawningDodo]

While I put my Disney Visa on file, I always add the GCs the first night. I don’t wait until I feel like things need to be paid off because there is a limit to your account when they automatically charge whatever is on file once you reach a certain spending limit. That limit is determined based on the number of nights sailing. I spent a lot more than I realize a lot faster than I think I do. I always pay my tips ahead of time so my bill doesn’t seem as large in the end. (Although Disney does know how to magically separate you from your money like bippity boppity boo!)

Feel free to ignore me, because I am an internet stranger offering you financial advice, but I figured out a system to use on my cruise in January. This was the first time I've gone on a trip since high school that I didn't go hundreds of dollars over budget (I actually came in about $30 under budget). I built my trip budget in Excel, breaking expenses out by category, then used that information to build a series of tables in Word, one for each day of the trip, in which I could track how much I expected to spend that day, how much was left over from the previous day, and then, of course, how much I actually spent.



Sorry if it's not clear from the image what's going on there -- for some reason I chose one of the most complicated days to take a picture of it (my excursion had been cancelled and I moved the money from it into other categories). The "Wiggle Room" didn't initially have any money in it, but I ended up having extra money because my flight was delayed and I didn't spend a night in a hotel before embarkation, and then I used that category to pay off extra drinks through the whole cruise. I kept track of everything by taking a photo of the receipt every time I made a purchase, and then whenever I happened to be back in my stateroom for a couple minutes I'd comb through my photos on my phone, copy the amounts into my table, then delete the photo so I wouldn't accidentally count it twice.

I traveled solo and didn't take advantage of the spa or really any excursions after the only one I'd booked was cancelled, so I was less likely to hit the limit and have my credit card charged. I just used my gift cards and Disney Visa Reward Card to pay down my balance on the second to last day, but you could certainly do it earlier in the cruise. On future trips I may add a line for tracking how much is currently charged to my onboard account just to be sure I'm nowhere near the threshold.

 

[professorandmom]

I call the number for "In room gifts and amenities" and tell them I want to purchase on board credit. That number is (800) 601-8455. .

There is a BIG perk to adding room credits on your Disney VISA prior to the cruise: you get 6 mo no interest...really spreads out the spending for those of us without deep pockets.

 

[Sorcerer's Dad]

Just returned from a Fantasy 7 day Western Caribbean cruise and in both the Spa and the merchandise store we were asked if we were either using Disney VISA or were DVC members. We had Disney VISA on file so it didn't matter that we also had DVC. We also applied Disney gift cards to our on-board account the first night out.

 

[scottb8888]

Feel free to ignore me, because I am an internet stranger offering you financial advice, but I figured out a system to use on my cruise in January. This was the first time I've gone on a trip since high school that I didn't go hundreds of dollars over budget (I actually came in about $30 under budget). I built my trip budget in Excel, breaking expenses out by category, then used that information to build a series of tables in Word, one for each day of the trip, in which I could track how much I expected to spend that day, how much was left over from the previous day, and then, of course, how much I actually spent.

View attachment 303463

Sorry if it's not clear from the image what's going on there -- for some reason I chose one of the most complicated days to take a picture of it (my excursion had been cancelled and I moved the money from it into other categories). The "Wiggle Room" didn't initially have any money in it, but I ended up having extra money because my flight was delayed and I didn't spend a night in a hotel before embarkation, and then I used that category to pay off extra drinks through the whole cruise. I kept track of everything by taking a photo of the receipt every time I made a purchase, and then whenever I happened to be back in my stateroom for a couple minutes I'd comb through my photos on my phone, copy the amounts into my table, then delete the photo so I wouldn't accidentally count it twice.

I traveled solo and didn't take advantage of the spa or really any excursions after the only one I'd booked was cancelled, so I was less likely to hit the limit and have my credit card charged. I just used my gift cards and Disney Visa Reward Card to pay down my balance on the second to last day, but you could certainly do it earlier in the cruise. On future trips I may add a line for tracking how much is currently charged to my onboard account just to be sure I'm nowhere near the threshold.

Love the system! Want to share your spreadsheet?

 

[YawningDodo]

There is a BIG perk to adding room credits on your Disney VISA prior to the cruise: you get 6 mo no interest...really spreads out the spending for those of us without deep pockets.

Right!! I feel silly that I forgot this perk since I used it on the last cruise, though I used it to give myself an extra two months to pay off the cruise fare rather than paying ahead for room credits. Works on WDW and Disneyland tickets and rooms, too. I don't use the Disney Visa for any of my spending outside of Disney vacations anymore (I get better rewards on other cards), which makes it easy to keep track of when I have to pay off those big charges without smaller day-to-day charges muddying the waters.

Love the system! Want to share your spreadsheet?

Sure! It's a bit of a hodgepodge and you'd need to adjust it to reflect the categories you actually need, but I can make a blank version and share it. I do want to stress that it's a messy setup, but I'm still proud of it because I also broke everything out according to things paid in advance versus upcoming expenses, and when I got back I added spaces and filled in what I'd actually spent for comparison.

Do you know if you can just attach those kinds of files to replies on this board?

 

[scottb8888]

I've seen a know attachments done... Don't know how other than PM or email?

 

[YawningDodo]

I've seen a know attachments done... Don't know how other than PM or email?

I think I'd have to email it, and unfortunately I'm not comfortable with giving out my contact information like that. Here's a screencap of the blank template.



Columns D, E, F, and G have equations built into the cells at the top to sum up the cells from that column -- so for column G, the equation in cell G4 is =SUM(G5:G35). I gave separate columns to things that would need to be paid in cash, things that could be paid with onboard credit, and then general "out of pocket" for things I'd be putting on my credit card. I wanted to be sure I got the right amount of cash, among other things.

Column H is where I put the onboard credits I expected to receive (including the Visa redemption card). I wrote them as negative numbers, and the equation in cell H4 is =SUM(H5:H35)+G4. You could also just put them in column G as negatives, but this helped me see the total actual costs before subtracting the credits.

J4 (Total Upcoming) is =(E4+F4+H4) -- i.e. Out of Pocket + Cash + Onboard expenses after OBC. That let me see what money I needed to have set aside versus what was already paid for.

L4 is =(J4+D4), which is Total Upcoming plus the total for Paid in Full, and gives me the total planned cost of the trip.

Then M4 (total of actual expenses) is just the sum of column M.

 

[scottb8888]

I sent you my email!