which way to pay off cruise?

[daisyx3]

I have the money set aside to pay for the rest of my late May cruise plus I have added tips and ground transfers. PIF isn't until Jan. 31. I am torn between two ways to pay:
1) use my Target card to get Disney gift cards. When I use these I buy them, then walk right over to customer service and pay my CC off with the cash I have. The pro is saving 5% (we already saved 10% by booking onboard). The con would be calling and giving them the card numbers; the biggest denomination I've seen is $100. I would probably break it into 2 or 3 payments.
2) use my Disney Visa. I would get 2% of that back in points and it would add points to my amount. We are taking a big WDW trip in 2021 with all my kids plus my son in law and grandsons. In the grand scheme of things it won't buy us much, but if I add it to the points I already have we might get a few meals, LOL. I would also be able to save my money for 6 more months before taking it to the bank to pay off the CC. The con is of course it is the full amount to pay; instead of saving now I get to save later.
Thoughts?

 

[deliela999]

You can combine gift cards up to $1000. My travel agent calls them in for me but I still consolidate to keep it simple. It's disneygiftcard.com. Also, if you have a Meijer near you they frequently have 10% rewards on gift cards, which you could buy with your Visa to get a little extra (my Amazon visa is always 1% at grocery stores). Their normal deal is a $5 reward for every $50 gift card with a limit of $500 in gift cards. It's through their Mperks rewards, which is tied to your phone number. DH has a separate account with his number for when we need to buy more than $500. A couple times a year they'll do one day of 10% off gift cards up to $1000 instead of the rewards. I'm working on paying for our entire cruise for next Christmas in discounted gift cards. My best so far was when Discover had 5% back at grocery stores combined with the 10% rewards from Meijer. Right now Disney gift cards don't have rewards but the current category expires today so likely a new category tomorrow. Sometimes it's all gift cards with a few exceptions and other times it's a category like restaurants only.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

Combine all the little cards into $1000 units at https://www.disneygiftcard.com/
$1000 is the max to load any one card, but you can have as many $1000 cards as you need to pay off the cruise.
You must keep the plastic card in your hand. The https://www.disneygiftcard.com/ is not a bank or e-service, just a way to combine small denominations into one large $1000 card. Then keep the cards all the way through and beyond the cruise because if there is a refund, it goes back on that card (or one of your $1000 cards).

 

[daisyx3]

Wow I'll watch Meijer....I could use my mperks to get 10% off of the cards and pay with my disney visa to get points too! I'll have to look more into my mperks account. I'm there at least twice a week.

 

[deliela999]

Wow I'll watch Meijer....I could use my mperks to get 10% off of the cards and pay with my disney visa to get points too! I'll have to look more into my mperks account. I'm there at least twice a week.

Yeah, they don't heavily advertise it and the employees think I'm nuts. I buy most of our groceries there so I have no problem spending the rewards on stuff I'd buy anyway.

 

[FigmentSpark]

5% off is better than 2% cash back. It's more work, but we're likely not talking about a couple of dollars difference, either. Add up what you need to spend to get the Target cards, then also add up what your cash back would be and decide if the difference is worth having to consolidate the gift cards to use for the cruise.

 

[nutshell]

I did it all with gift cards.

 

[Capitalangel]

Meijer just posted the 5 off 50 rewards and Disney GC are not excluded so I will be buying some when I get my groceries today!!!! 10% off plus my 2% with Disney Visa at grocery stores.

 

[dad of 3 addicted to DCL]

I purchase the Disney gift cards from Target online using the Target Red card and can purchase up to a $500 card - makes it easier for payment. Also, I go to the website to put the card numbers in so I don't have to dictate a zillion numbers over the phone. I did that on opening day to pay the downpayment of the 11 night southern we recently did. Yeah, made me a superstar with the CM. Also, I keep track of which numbers were used for what cruise/room in my handy-dandy over-planner spreadsheet so that should the worst happen and I have to cancel the cruise

I've saved over $9500 on cruises this way

 

[BartmanLA]

Target Red cards offer 5% off on purchase of Disney gift cards, Sam's Club offers around 4% off purchase price for Disney Gift cards (they offer $500 cards at most locations) if you purchase from Sam's Club and use your Disney Visa card you also accumulate Disney Reward Dollars, plus any cash back your card might offer. I also use Dosh App and enter my Disney Visa card, they rebate you from 2% to 20% depends on time of year, for our 2019 WBPC we got nearly $80 rebate from Dosh, $270 on Disney reward dollars from the Disney Visa and around $300 savings on the Sam's Club cards purchased. We walked off the ship with $99 still in our onboard account they refunded us.

 

[Minnie368]

Do you live near a Giant Eagle? They currently have a double fuel perks offer on gift cards including Disney. When we do that and move our savings from gas to vacation it comes 12%. Plus the 2% earned on my credit card when I buy the gift cards.

 

[daisyx3]

Do you live near a Giant Eagle? They currently have a double fuel perks offer on gift cards including Disney. When we do that and move our savings from gas to vacation it comes 12%. Plus the 2% earned on my credit card when I buy the gift cards.

No, sadly all of the Giant Eagle stores here closed. We have some big empty buildings now.

 

[randumb0]

What happens if you pay with gift cards and have to cancel your cruise? Would travel insurance reimburse you in cash?

 

[auntlynne]

This doesn’t help you, but it may help others.

Discover Card announced that Warehouse Clubs will be a category for the 5% cashback bonus next spring.

Sam’s Club offers $75 packs for $71.98 ( 95.97%). Combined with cashback, that’s 91.17 of the price. The $75 pack of 3 $25 cards is the most savings. The other denominations are nearly the same. I just want to squeeze out that last penny of savings.

 

[dad of 3 addicted to DCL]

What happens if you pay with gift cards and have to cancel your cruise? Would travel insurance reimburse you in cash?

The funds revert to each card you used to payoff the cruise. If you're purchasing cards in the store, keep them until you get back from the cruise. If you purchase virtual cards online, keep track of the numbers in a spreadsheet for the same reason. I had $48 be refunded recently due to a change in port fees and the CM at the DCL phoneline was able to tell me which card the funds were credited to so that I could apply them to the next cruise.

Happy cruising

 

[lanejudy]

What happens if you pay with gift cards and have to cancel your cruise? Would travel insurance reimburse you in cash?

It depends on when you cancel.

If you cancel prior to the PIF, you get a full refund from DCL and it will go back onto the gift cards. If you cancel after PIF, it depends how close to the sail date but any portion that is refundable from DCL will go to the gift cards.

I assume your travel insurance reimburses in cash, but if it's a concern you may want to confirm. If you have the policy offered through DCL, and the reason for canceling is not covered, then the 70% credit kicks in -- and I believe that's sort of a voucher with DCL (not gift card, not cash).

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[ahain]

Meijer just posted the 5 off 50 rewards and Disney GC are not excluded so I will be buying some when I get my groceries today!!!! 10% off plus my 2% with Disney Visa at grocery stores.

I use mPerks, but how do you find/see this promo? I can't find it. :-(

 

[mostlytraveling4food]

BJ’s Whole has $500 GCs for $469.99 right now with free shipping. You can buy a $10, one day membership to jump on this deal.
I just bought 15 of them, so I don’t think there’s a cap on how many you can buy.

Until they run out of course.

 

[deliela999]

I use mPerks, but how do you find/see this promo? I can't find it. :-(

It's in the rewards section. You don't have to clip a coupon, it kicks in automatically with a purchase like other rewards. On the website if you click on rewards you can see the offer.

 

[randumb0]

My question was related to non Disney insurance. Let's say you purchase 5k in gift cards then need to cancel after PIF. I wonder if you would be reimbursed for the gift cards.