When you embark on a Disney Cruise, you will be given a Key To The World Card. The card will not only unlock your stateroom but also uniquely identifies you to the crew. It has a lot of information embedded on the card as well. I'll try to breakdown the information as well to show you some examples of the card.
Today was our stop at St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands. We’ve been to St Thomas twice before, both on sailings on the Disney Fantasy. The first time we were here, we went zip lining. The second time, we had plans to go to St. John’s, but canceled our plans at the last minute and went for lunch instead. This time, we had booked the “Secret Sands Beach Getaway“. This included transportation to a local beach along with beach chairs!
It was a bright sunny day in St. Thomas when we arrived.
We were able to sleep in late today because our meetup time for the excursions wasn’t until 10:45 AM. We went up to Cabanas for a quick breakfast since our excursion didn’t include lunch. After eating, we headed to D-Lounge for the excursion.
Once in the lounge, we got checked in, assigned to a group, and then waited for our group to get called. We also collected beach towels to take with us since there are no towels available at the beach. This is important to remember. You are allowed to take these towels with you (and you should return them to the ship). Once our group was called, we were led off the ship and lined up next to the ship against a fence while we waited for our taxis.
After the tour operator also checked their list, we were led to a series of open air taxi buses.
Since we had a party of six, we all just found seats inside the taxi. This can sometimes be a bit chaotic, but people were willing to shuffle around so that parents could sit with smaller children. If it doesn’t work initially, make sure that you speak up.
We then headed off for a twenty minute drive from the port area to the beach. We got to see a good amount of St. Thomas, which looks to be recovering from the hurricanes of last fall (2017).
We eventually arrived at Smith Bay Park, home of Lindquist Beach. The taxi driver paid the entrance fee (which was included for us as part of the excursion fee).
As we departed the buses, our local guide appeared. His name was Kareem and he said his job was to make sure we had a great time. He showed us where the bathrooms were (in a nearby concrete building), setup chairs for us, and told us he had water, sodas, snacks, beer and various adult mixed drinks available. He said everything was included but said we could tip him if he made our day at the beach better. (We definitely gave him a great tip, the service and mixed drinks were fantastic).
The beach itself was beautiful. We were the only excursions there during our entire time, so it was really limited to the 40 or so people that came on the two taxis. There was a slight drop off out in the water, but it didn’t go over my head out to at least 50 feet from the shore.
The beach is shaped in a half moon and you can easily walk from one end of the beach to the other. There are more shells the farther you get away from the middle.
As you get further away, you can see the seaweed was coming up on the shore. The reason the middle of the beach wasn’t covered is because there are people raking it from the shore. They must have gotten the middle of the beach before we arrived for the day.
We even got to see some of the local wildlife near the beach.
After a few hours at the beach, everybody got a 15 minute warning to get ready to head back. We then took the scenic tour back to the ship.
We stopped at an overlook on the way back where we could get pictures of the ship!
We also got the option to get dropped off in the town if we want to. Unfortunately, the trip back was a bit longer with all the included stops. As soon as we got back to the port area, we had to find a restroom. Luckily, there are a number right near the ship.
Nancy wanted to go check out a local restaurant that we ate at during our previous stop at St. Thomas. The rest of us were hungry, so we headed back to the ship to get some quick service lunch from the pool deck. Nancy was able to find the Fresh Bistro and it was back up and operating!
After lunch, everybody headed to the room to cleanup and then the girls went off to their clubs. Nancy eventually returned as well. We watched sail away from St. Thomas together from the verandah.
We headed off together to pickup a coffee from Cove Cafe, then went by Guest Services. We wanted to increase our gratuities for a few of the cast members we had interacted with and didn’t want to wait till the last night when Guest Services gets busy. We had already prepaid our gratuities, so we were just allocating additional amount. We then headed to the shops to look over the merchandise again. We didn’t end up buying anything on this cruise though, that I can remember
Before dinner, we also met up with our friends again for 80’s music trivia in O’Gills. The other husband and I were equally successful in “helping” again, so this was the last night we were allowed to participate. After this night, we sat by ourselves while the wives found people who actually knew song titles and artists.
Nancy was again taking advantage of the beer mug during this trip. If you pay an additional $14.95, you get a Disney Cruise Line beer mug. When you get a refill, you can pay for a 16 ounce beer but you get a 22 ounce pour. If you don’t want to carry the mug around with you, you return the mug to the bartender and they will give you a mug card to carry around that you can exchange for the mug. You can take either the mug home (a clean one) at the end of the cruise or the card if you have a full collection of mugs at home already.
Our master of ceremony was Teesa again. Teesa was the same adult entertainment coordinator that we had on the Magic during our Spring Break cruise.
Dinner tonight was in Enchanted Garden featuring the Prince and Princess Menu. After dinner, everybody was really tired. We headed back to the stateroom to call it a night. As always, our room attendant did a great job with his towel wizardry.
Tomorrow would be our last sea day.
Boarding | Exploring | Sea Day 1 | Sea Day 2 | St. Maarten | St. Thomas | Sea Day 3 | Castaway Cay | Disembarkation
If you have enjoyed this article, please be sure to check out our Disney Cruise Line information page, which has useful hints as well as our cruise trip reports!
When you embark on a Disney Cruise, you will be given a Key To The World Card. The card will not only unlock your stateroom but also uniquely identifies you to the crew. It has a lot of information embedded on the card as well. I’ll try to breakdown the information as well to show you some examples of the card.
| A | The dates of your cruise |
| The ship you are on | |
| C | Your name |
| D | Your Castaway Club status |
| E | Your lifeboat station |
| F | Your dining rotation:
Fantasy
Dream
Magic
Wonder
|
| G | Your dining time |
| H | Your check in line number |
| I | Indicates you have a Disney Visa Card as your credit card (entitles you to additional perks) |
| J | Your table number in every main dining room |
| K | Your Castaway Club account number |
| L | A for Adult, M for Minor |
| M | P for Disney Transportation to the Port, A for Disney Transportation to the Airport, R for Disney Resort, PA for Port and Airport, PR for Port and Resort, and RPA for Resort to Port to Airport. |
Here is our first card, which was for a cruise to Alaska. The only difference here is that we didn’t have any Disney Transportation booked, didn’t have Castaway Club status, and Disney had not yet started to indicate if you were using a Disney Visa Card.
On our second cruise, we had obtained Silver Castaway Club Status. We went on a Spring Break cruise on the Wonder.
On our third cruise, we got a star added to our card. This was to indicate that we had visited the Immigration and Custom Officials before the ship docked in Key West. This cruise was a four night Caribbean cruise on the Wonder.
Nothing new on this card for our fourth cruise. Although, it is interesting to note that there is no check in line number on this card. I think my Key To The World card got demagnetized on this cruise (and wouldn’t open my stateroom door), so it got reprinted while we were on board. This was a five night Western Caribbean cruise on the Wonder.
This was our fifth cruise and it was our first time on the Fantasy. This was a 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy.
Back on the Wonder for our sixth cruise, where we changed to Gold Castaway Club Members. We also don’t have a check in line number for this cruise, but I remember that we did upgrade our stateroom in the cruise terminal. This meant that our card got reprinted in the supervisor’s line. This was another five night Western Caribbean cruise on the Wonder.
For our seventh cruise, we returned to the Fantasy. We also paid for Disney Cruise Line transportation from the airport and the port, so the card has a PA on it. We also used a Disney Visa Card for the default credit card for this cruise, so they added the DV to this card. We didn’t actually use the credit card, since all the charges were paid off using Disney Gift Cards. This was a seven night Eastern Caribbean Star Wars Day at Sea Cruise.
Our eighth cruise was our first cruise on the Dream. We again paid for round trip Disney Cruise ground transportation and used our Disney Visa Card. This was a three night Bahamian Cruise on the Dream.
On our ninth cruise, we went on the Magic for a Very Merrytime Cruise. We drove to and from the Port of Miami, so no annotation about Disney Transportation. We used our Disney Visa Card as the default credit card for this cruise. This was a 5 Night Very Merrytime Western Caribbean Cruise on the Magic.
On our tenth cruise, we went back on the Magic for a Sprint Break Cruise. We drove to and from the Port of Miami, so no annotation about Disney Transportation. This was a 5 Night Bahamian Cruise on the Magic.
Our eleventh cruise, where we were Platinum for the first time, was another cruise on the Fantasy. We drove to and from Port Canaveral, so no annotation about Disney Transportation. This was a 7-Night Eastern Caribbean on the Fantasy.
On our twelve cruise, we went back onboard our favorite ship, the Wonder, for a Spring Break Cruise. We left from San Diego on a 5-Night Baja Cruise. This was the first time we had been on the Wonder since its refurbishment that added Tiana’s Place. Disney Cruise Line changed the way the dining rotation was specified on the card to add two letters for the name of the restaurant so there was no confusion with Tiana’s and Triton’s. We actually didn’t sit at Table 57, as we discussed in the trip report, because we wanted to sit with our favorite crew member. Since we took an Uber to and from the port (we had additional vacation days before and after the cruise), we didn’t use Disney transportation.
During some recent cruises, our daughter was old enough to go to the Vibe. When the kids check in to the Vibe, they get new Key To The World cards printed on this special card to indicate they are allowed in the Vibe. If they don’t have this card during a “Card Check”, they will be asked to leave the Vibe. Our daughter indicated they do this check every so often.
Some friends sailed in a Concierge Cabin and were kind enough to share their Key To The World card with us. As you can see, they had Port/Airport transfers and also used their Disney Visa Card as the default payment. The card is gold because they were Concierge guests and had access to the Concierge Lounge. There are two interesting items to note with this card. One first is the Concierge check-in desk number “993”. The second item is the crossed Mickey Keys in the bottom left, which also indicates a Concierge guest.
We just added some information on how you can store your Key to the World Card as well, talking about Lanyards available from both Disney and Amazon.
If you have enjoyed this article, please be sure to check out our Disney Cruise Line information page, which has useful hints in addition to our cruise trip reports!
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Here are the quick service locations on the Disney Fantasy. All of these are located on Deck 11 and are grouped together.
Luigis serves primarily pizza.
Tom Mater Grill serves primarily hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, and chicken tenders, as well as french fries.
Fillmores offers wraps, paninis and salads.
There is also a condiment bar for adding toppings to your selections.
If you have enjoyed this article, please be sure to check out our Disney Cruise Line information page, which has useful hints as well as our cruise trip reports!
We’re taking a slight detour from the subject of Disney trip planning with this series of posts. The other half of the Back to the Mouse trip planning duo, Nancy (who is usually the creative force behind our Instagram photos), shares her experiences traveling to Italy last fall.
Florence, Italy has been number one on my travel wishlist ever since I was in college. I minored in Art History, and one of my all-time favorite classes was focused on Renaissance and Baroque architecture, with overviews of the most significant buildings in Italy. After viewing slide after slide of Florence’s beautiful cathedrals and museums, I made a vow that I would someday visit.
So late last summer when my brother nonchalantly mentioned that he was headed to Florence for a business trip, I blurted out (only half joking) – “Can I come?” Unbelievably, it all came together and I was able to take an incredible four-day trip to Florence in October 2016.
I was able to stay with my brother in a studio apartment-type room in the hills north of Florence, in a town called Fiesole. My main travel concern would be getting to Fiesole from the airport (and back again for the return trip) as I planned to take public transportation once I was within the city. Since we are most familiar with United’s frequent flyer program, Joe started looking for flights into Florence for the time period I would be there. He found a saver level flight that would arrive on Sunday afternoon and depart early on Friday morning, which matched my plans perfectly. It was a United ticketed flight that would take place on Lufthansa airlines. The flight would depart Dulles airport, have a long stopover in Frankfort, then another flight would take me to Florence. On Friday, I would take the flight in reverse with a much shorter layover in Frankfort.
The flight itself would cost 60,000 United miles for the round trip ticket. We were running low on United miles, so Joe transferred 60,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points from our account into my United mileage account and booked the ticket. It cost $113.16 for the taxes and surcharges. The travel was in economy class – but for Florence, it would definitely be worth it.
Just to get an idea of the equivalent cash value of this flight, we did a quick search just to check. Here is what we found:
While there might have been cheaper tickets available that would have gotten me to Florence, this one was perfect in terms of timing. If we had paid cash for it, it would have cost $2687.66. If we were paying cash, we might have looked at a few cheaper alternatives, such as leaving from or arriving into a different airport. Because we had the ability to use airline miles, we didn’t have to.
Since Joe took care of the flights, the major trip planning aspect I focused on was determining the best itinerary for seeing Florence’s art and architecture once I arrived in Italy. When my trip was first confirmed, I located my class notes and textbooks from college to confirm the names and locations of the cathedrals and historic sites that I wanted to visit. Then I did some more research – reading blog posts from locals (Girl in Florence is my favorite), reviewing guidebooks and suggested itineraries from travel companies, and visiting web sites for the museums and churches that I planned to visit. To keep myself organized, I used a Pinterest board to bookmark and save useful articles.
While conducting my trip research, I encountered information about the Firenze Card, the official museum pass for the city of Florence. The Firenze Card offers priority admission to 72 museums, churches, and historic sites in Florence and its vicinity, including some of the most visited locations such as the Duomo, the Uffizi Gallery, the Accademia (where the David is located), the Palazzo Vecchio, the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens, and major churches such as Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella, and San Lorenzo. Since I wanted to visit many of these locations, I knew it would be worthwhile to purchase and use the card. The card also has an add-on feature, which allows you to obtain free use of city transport buses. The one caveat is that the Firenze Card is only good for 72 hours from the time you first activate it – so I knew I would have to take this into account in my plans. I purchased the Firenze Card from home and received a voucher that could be exchanged for the museum pass at one of several locations in Florence.
After buying the Firenze Card, I started to get serious about putting together an itinerary. This was important for a few reasons: 1) I really wanted to maximize my time in Florence and see as many things as possible, 2) some of the major attractions are not open on Mondays, so I needed to ensure I had a good plan for the first full day of my visit, and 3) I wanted to maximize visits to Firenze Card locations within the 72 hours after first activating the card, so I needed to pre-plan. I created a spreadsheet with several tabs. One tab was a schedule, which included a column for each day that I would be traveling. I used this to generally lay out planned activities during the morning, afternoon, and evening each day of my trip. To facilitate putting together the schedule, I had additional tabs that listed attractions (e.g., museums, churches, and restaurants) that I wanted to visit. For each attraction on my list, I added information about the days and hours of operation, which informed my approach for putting together the high level schedule. I used travel planning sites to estimate the duration that I would want to spend at each place. It took me a few hours but it all came together pretty nicely.
Here’s a high level overview of what I planned for my time in Florence. You can see it was quite the ambitious plan:
I did use the planned itinerary a lot during the trip, and stuck to it pretty closely. I didn’t feel constrained by the pre-planning aspect and I found that the durations I’d estimated were pretty close to the time I actually spent there. Of course, there were some unexpected changes to the itinerary. For example, on Monday, I discovered that the Palazzo Vecchio was closed due to an Italian government event, so I skipped that and visited later in the week. Also, my brother was invited to a special event at the Uffizi, so I altered my plans for Monday night to go with him. Fortunately, I’d built some slack into my schedule and was able to change my plans for other days and still see everything I wanted to.
In future posts, I’ll talk a little bit more about the specific locations I visited and share some pictures.
One way we keep our vacation costs down is to leverage frequent flyer miles to get free flights to our destinations. The cost of the flight to your vacation can comprise a large portion of your overall budget — why not have that cost covered for you?
One of our favorite ways to obtain frequent flyer miles is through sign up bonuses on credit cards. Credit card companies will often hand out a large sign up bonus of airline miles in order to acquire you as customer. They are hoping you will overspend on the card and pay them a great deal of interest. As long as you pay the card off every month, you can leverage that card for free airline tickets.
United Airlines has partnered with Chase Bank to offer the United MileagePlus Explorer Card. In exchange for spending a certain amount within a specific time frame (usually $1000-$2000 in the first three months of opening the card), Chase will give you anywhere from 30,000 to 70,000 miles (depending whatever the current promotion is). Additionally, if you spend $25,000 within a calendar year, Chase will give you a 10,000 mile bonus. You also earn 2 miles for each dollar spent on United Airlines transactions and 1 mile for each dollar spent anywhere else.
United flights to anywhere within the continental United States (over 700 miles in distance) can be redeemed for 25,000 miles round trip at the saver award level. Flights of less than 700 miles (like from Washington, DC to Jacksonville, FL) can be redeemed for 20,000 miles round trip. These saver level awards aren’t hard to find if your travel dates are a bit flexible. Plus, United opens up additional award space specifically for holders of the United MileagePlus Explorer Card and to MileagePlus members who have elite status. This is probably one of the greatest benefits of the card and really makes your United miles worthwhile.
The United MileagePlus Explorer Card also offers a free checked bag each for the card holder and one companion on the same reservation in addition to priority boarding. Since United has added on the new Basic Economy flights, this card will get you out of the last boarding group that you are forced into with Basic Economy. You will also be allowed a full size carry on bag, unlike the rest of the Basic Economy purchasers. Unfortunately, it won’t help with the lack of ability to select a seat.
The card holder will also receive two free United Club passes per year. The United Clubs, which are available at select airports, can provide a nice way to pass time before a flight or during a long layover.
The annual fee on the card is $95, but is waived for the first year. Whether you keep the card or not is up to you, but the card has to be active in order to get the free checked bag. There are lots of other benefits to the card that can be found on the United MileagePlus Explorer Card website.
You can only receive the sign up bonus if you haven’t received one in the last 24 months. So, if you have the card open for 18 months and cancel it, you could receive the bonus again only if you waited an additional 6 months to sign up again. I would warn you against over churning the card, as Chase might view that action in a negative light. Having said that, we have each received two sign up bonuses of 50,000 miles (for a total of 200,000 miles). We tend to keep the cards for at least two years when we sign up for them because we fly United enough that the free checked bags offset the annual fee.
So, for one credit card sign up bonus of 50,000 miles, you and your traveling companion can travel anywhere round trip within the 48 states. Got a family of four? Just have you and your partner sign up to take the whole family round trip!
If you are considering getting this card, please contact me for a referral link or make a comment on this post. I’ll send you a signup link and I’ll get some miles for you signing up and it won’t cost you anything.
One of the best ways to earn Hilton Honors points (which can give you free rooms at the Hilton Hotels and Resorts) is to to sign up for one of the two types of Hilton-sponsored credit cards.
American Express Hilton Surpass card
One Hilton-sponsored card is the American Express Hilton Surpass card. It has a $75 annual fee. There is usually a sign up bonus offered with the card; the bonus varies from 60,000-100,000 Honors points, which are credited to your account after you spend a certain amount within the first 3 months of card membership.
The American Express Hilton Surpass card has great earning potential:
– Earn 12 Honors points per dollar spent at participating Hilton properties
– Earn 6 Honors points per dollar spent at U.S. restaurants, supermarkets (unfortunately, warehouse stores are not considered supermarkets in this regard), and standalone gas stations
– Earn 3 Honors points per dollar spent everywhere else
You will also receive Honors Gold status for as long as you have the card. If you spend $40,000 per year on the card, you will also receive Diamond status. The loyalty rewards benefits for Honors are described on the Honors website.
Gold status will get you a 25% bonus on all the Hilton Honors Base Points you earn, in addition to getting you every 5th night free when you book a stay completely on points. This is a great benefit if you are planning a stay of 5 nights or more!
American Express Honors card
The American Express Honors card has no annual fee. There is usually a sign up bonus that ranges from 40,000-60,000 Honors points when you spend $750 on the card within the first 3 months of card membership.
This card has the same categories as the Surpass card, just with lower category bonuses:
– Earn 7 Honors points per dollar spent at participating Hilton properties
– Earn 5 Honors points per dollar spent at US restaurants, supermarkets (excluding warehouse stores), and standalone gas stations
– Earn 3 Honors points per dollar spent everywhere else
You will also receive Honors Silver status for as long as you have the card. If you spend $20,000 per year on the card, you will receive Gold status.
Silver status will get you a 15% bonus on all the Hilton Honors Base Points you earn, in addition to getting you every 5th night free when you book a stay completely on points. This is a great benefit if you are planning a stay of 5 nights or more!
Those are the various cards that will get you Hilton Honors points. You can visit the American Express website to see all the various details about each card. If you and your spouse each signed up for one or more cards and met the criteria for the sign-up bonus, you could accumulate a huge amount of Hilton points to use while on vacation.
Nancy and I have both signed up for both of these cards and used the points for trips to Walt Disney World. We tend to stay at the Hilton Garden Inn near Sea World or the Hampton Inn near the main gate. We have stayed well over 20 days at Walt Disney World for free using the points generated from these credit cards!
One of our favorite hotel credit cards is the IHG Rewards Club Select Credit Card from Chase, which is affiliated with the InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) family of hotels including Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Candlewood Suites, and other hotel brands. If you do a lot of paid travel with stays at IHG properties, you can really enhance your paid and free stays with this card. The card is currently issued as a MasterCard, with a $49 annual fee (the fee for which is currently waived for the first year).
One of the greatest benefits of the card is that it gives the card holder Platinum Elite status in the IHG Rewards Club. Platinum Elite status gives the holder a 50% bonus on base points earned through paid stays and room upgrades, when available, when staying at an IHG property. We have been upgraded many times at IHG properties, including the InterContinental Miami and the Crowne Plaza at Los Angeles International Airport. You also get priority check in, which can come in handy when the line is long and you just want to get to your room.
The card holder also receives one free anniversary reward night at any hotel within the IHG property group. That free night can range from a stay at a Holiday Inn Express (normally $79) to a night at an InterContinental that would normally cost $450. We have used our free stays to stay at the InterContinental Miami (multiple times) and the Holiday Inn Orlando-Disney Springs. To redeem the anniversary reward, a rewards night booking must be available, and you must have paid the annual fee for the card. The reward night must be booked within a year of getting it. We discuss how to book the free night as well, it is very easy.
The card always has a sign up bonus that is available with it, ranging from 60,000 points to 100,000 points for spending $1,000 within the first three months of opening the card. You will also receive 5,000 bonus points if you have an authorized user get the card and make a purchase with it. The card also provides you a 10% rebate on all the points you use throughout the year, up to 100,000 points. This can help you stretch the initial sign up bonus, plus any additional spend you put on the card.
The IHG Rewards Club Select card gives 5 points per dollar for any charge put on the card from an IHG property. Anything charged to your room will give you this multiplier, including taxes, fees, and dining. Eating at the on-property restaurant? Charge that breakfast to your room to earn those extra points. You will earn 2 points per dollar spent at gas stations, grocery stores, and restaurants. Any other types of spending on your IHG Rewards Club Select Credit Card will earn 1 point per dollar, though there are other credit cards that provide better rewards.
While annual fees can reduce the money you have for travel, the benefits of this card make the annual fee worthwhile. You can use the anniversary reward night to offset the annual fee. Additionally, granting of Platinum Elite status, while not the highest IHG status, will still give you some great upgrades and additional points. Nancy and I both signed up for this card and often use the free nights back to back to get a free weekend!
I had the great privilege and honor to be invited back on my favorite podcast, Rope Drop Radio, to discuss various ways to take Disney vacations for less money.
Derek and Doug, the hosts of Rope Drop Radio, are two dads who love Disney. Their goal is helping you navigate the Disney Parks and never missing a rope drop! They want to share tips and tricks, travel plans, and must sees to help you have an amazing Disney trip!
You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes. Make sure to follow them on Facebook and Twitter as well!
There are two Disney-branded credit cards offered by Chase. The first is the Disney Premier Visa Card which has a $49 annual fee. It earns 2% at gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants, and most Disney locations, and 1% everywhere else. The other is the Disney Rewards Visa Card which earns 1% on all purchases, but has no annual fee.
All the rewards are granted in Disney Rewards Dream Dollars. These Dream Dollars can only be loaded onto a reloadable Disney Rewards Redemption Card. This is basically a Disney gift card that your Dream Dollars get loaded onto that you can use anywhere you can use a normal Disney gift card (parks, cruises, paying for a trip, DisneyStore.com, etc).
The Disney Premier Visa Card has an additional benefit; you can use your Dream Dollars as a credit toward an airline purchase you have made with your Disney Premier Visa Card. We’ve never personally used this feature though.
One of the best perks of having a Disney-branded credit card is the ability to book discounts on trips before the general public. Disney will frequently offer a discount or perk to Disney credit card holders before anyone else. These discounts can be room discounts up to 30% off or free dining offers.
Both Disney-branded credit cards offer a 10% discount if you make a $50 purchase in the parks and use the card to pay for it. We have used this discount multiple times. Since you must pay with a Disney-branded credit card to get the discount, you may not pay with Disney gift cards on that transaction. Some dining locations also offer you 10% off your meal as well if you pay with one of the credit cards.
Both Disney-branded credit cards allow you access to an exclusive character meet and greet at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland. The meet and greet in Disney World is currently at Epcot in Innoventions and gets you a free 5 x 7 photo from the event. Another meet and greet is available at Disney Hollywood Studios to meet a Star Wars character. We have met both Darth Vader and Kylo Ren! There is an exclusive one in Disney’s California Adventure as well, but we didn’t take advantage of that last time we went to Disneyland. You must present your Disney-branded credit card at the meet and greet to participate.
There are also some benefits to using the Disney Visa card as your on file credit when you cruise with Disney Cruise Line. These benefits include 15% Off at select spa and salon locations, 10% off select Disney Cruise Line digital photo packages, 10% off select merchandise purchases of $50 or more aboard Disney Cruise Line, 10% off a Castaway Cay Getaway Package, and 20% Off select onboard massages or facial treatments. We have set our Disney Visa card as our main credit card while on board, but we haven’t used any of the above benefits.
Some other features of the Disney-branded cards that we haven’t used, but which are available, include 15% off certain guided tours at Walt Disney World and Disneyland; 6 months with 0% financing on Disney vacations charged to the card; and some sort of “special” financing for Disney Vacation Club. I don’t know if paying credit card interest rates for a real estate transaction counts as “special”, but you’ll have to make your own decision.
Often times, you can get a signup bonus for these Disney cards. The Disney Premier Visa card will sometimes offer a $200 Disney gift card when you spend $500 within three months of opening the card. The Disney Visa Card without the annual fee sometimes has a $50 Disney gift card after you make your first purchase.