Gift Card or Room Charge - which is better?

[disneyjr77]

Happy Thursday!!

I'm so excited, because as of 30 minutes ago our trip is PIF!!!!! Now to start saving for spending money.

I want to minimize the cash being carried and wondered which would be better...charging back to the room or a gift card.

At Disney i use room charging and then would pay on the balance as the week went by. It was easy and i never had any problems. The one time i used room charging at Universal it was a giant headache and that was at the CBBR gift shop while I was still in the hotel! So i'm pretty sure that's out, but if for some reason it's better than a gc please let me know

I was thinking with a gc, i could buy one for the max $500 before we go and then reload it as needed, keeping the cash in the in-room safe.

I have a few questions:

• Can you use the gc anywhere on Universal property? I read in the FAQ's it was accepted at certain places.
• Are they easy to reload?
• Is there any reason why a gc for food/drinks/souvenirs etc wouldn't be a good idea?

 

[FlipHipster]

We have been loading up GC's to take into the parks and so we don't have to carry a CC or a bunch of cash. I've noticed that the GC works great in the parks and any Universal run stores. The only real issues we have had were at the hotels. For example Starbucks at CBR wouldn't take a GC. The gift shop in RPR that sells the wood carvings wouldn't take it, also had a lot of issues at Bayliner Diner. They take GC's but scanning them and connecting to Universal's system is painfully slow and usually had to be repeated a few times. We were actually waved through when it was crowded and the cashier had to keep scanning the card and line was getting really long. The Universal Gift shops in the hotels take the GC no problem but they are probably on Universal's pay system and not Lowes. I ended up carrying a CC and the GC and just using my CC for anything not Universal. I hate running up the CC on vacation though so I think next trip we are going to use GC in the parks and use room charge for the hotel and pay it off before we checkout.

They are super easy to reload and every time you purchase something the balance is on the receipt. I love the GC for the parks but would have another form of payment when at the resort. Not sure about City Walk it seems like we didn't have any issues using a GC but I may have used a CC don't remember. I know we used a GC at Toothsome np.

 

[Metro West]

I would think charging to the room would be easier.

 

[georgina]

I used a GC until my room charge was set up, and found it easy to use the GC in the parks, but I can't tell you if there are places that don't accept that. One thing I will say is that using GCs to pay off room charges at checkout can be a pain, depending on where you are staying. I had a bunch of $100 GC to pay off my Portofino Bay charges last year, and the process of redeeming them was cumbersome. The TM had to call in each one and get a code, which she then had to enter somewhere else. I stayed at CBBR later and can't remember if they had that same system, or maybe because my charges were less it was easier.

I buy GC at my local grocery store for the rewards, and they only sell them in $100 denominations. I love how Disney lets me combine GC online so I don't have so many!

 

[chmurf]

we use room charge at CBBR. It always has been a breeze.
TM will swipe room key, and over a ticket where you print name and room number, and sign. Done. (and often times faster than using a CC or a GC)

Room charge can be monitored on the TV in the room (balance and itemized puchases), and check out can be made from the same TV,

I don't do GC, because they're basically cash. If you lose them, you lose them, game over.

If it comes down to taking a card to the parks, I'd rather it be a replacable room key, than a CC or a GC

 

[bchbetha]

I prefer room charging. One less thing to worry about. The kids were gifted gift cards and bought treats and souvenirs with them. I did like that; they had to budget.

 

[spidet1964]

wondering since we are two people who will being pay seperately if we can set up room charge for two seperate accounts? One for her and one for me?

 

[bumbershoot]

I pay using our credit card. Easy.

 

[georgina]

I don't do GC, because they're basically cash. If you lose them, you lose them, game over.

Usually, yes. But as part of Disney's online GC site, if you noticed you lost it you could go online and instantly transfer the balance from the lost card to another one. I like the system a lot, because I am a frequent GC user.

 

[Robo56]

wondering since we are two people who will being pay seperately if we can set up room charge for two seperate accounts? One for her and one for me?[/QUO



I would give them a call directly to the resort to see if that would be possible.

 

[Robo56]

wondering since we are two people who will being pay seperately if we can set up room charge for two seperate accounts? One for her and one for me?

I would call the resort directly to see if this is possible.

 

[chmurf]

Usually, yes. But as part of Disney's online GC site, if you noticed you lost it you could go online and instantly transfer the balance from the lost card to another one. I like the system a lot, because I am a frequent GC user.

thank you, but this is a thread about Universal.

 

[disneyjr77]

We're going to get one GC and keep reloading it, but also take some cash in case there's a problem. I like the idea of the room charge, but am still kind of leary. We don't use a CC on vacay, unless it's an emergency, so we don't overspend.

Thanks for all the input!!