Disney Vacation Account Ending

[JohnneeO]

Why would anyone use Option #2?

If I have $100 in my DVA, then Option #1 nets me a $105 Disney Gift Card, which I can immediately use to pay off $105 toward a vacation. If I use Option #2, my $100 DVA balance will pay only $100 toward a vacation.

In short, DO NOT Use Option #2.



Some other stray observations:

- The funny thing is that Disney Gift Cards are accepted as deposits into DVA. So a $100 DVA balance deposited from a Disney Gift Card yesterday can now become a $105 Disney Gift Card today.

- We should net a few $ from this, as I deposited some $$ from a GC earlier this year to pay for a throwaway room that was part of a trip that ultimately postponed. The room charge was refunded to my DVA, and that balance should net the 5% bonus via Option #1.

- We have an upcoming room-only reservation, that I might have paid off through DVA sooner than the due date, in order to trigger the 2% bonus. So Disney would have had their $$ sooner. With this change, we will wait until the due date to pay.

 

[Friendlyadvice2]

Thinking more about the refund into my DVA yesterday, I do wonder what's going to happen to the refund if someone who initially paid for their trip with the DVA but has to unfortunately cancel and their DVA has already been closed out.

 

[Moramoon]

So sad to hear about this. A couple of weeks ago I went ahead and bought our tickets. I knew I should have held out.

Has anyone heard anything about still receiving the bonus card for every $1000? I'm hoping I can still at least get that since I drained my DVA down getting the tickets.

*ETA-just noticed I can still go to my account overview and request my bonus.

 

[Ryandb2]

Just to alleviate some potential fears, the eGift card they issue is a full gift card, with full account number and pin. These aren't like the Disney store ones that you have to carry around on paper. So you can immediately put them into disneygiftcard.com. Nice to have the 5%, disappointed given I have $1100 of gift cards arriving tomorrow that I was going to put into the system, so close

 

[JackieT1182]

Thinking more about the refund into my DVA yesterday, I do wonder what's going to happen to the refund if someone who initially paid for their trip with the DVA but has to unfortunately cancel and their DVA has already been closed out.

I was wondering the same thing. I have 2 cruises coming up that, after being paid in full, the port fees were reduced. The refund quickly went into my DVA. And on one cruise last year, we skipped Key West due to weather, and the port fees were credited back onto my DVA.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

Thinking more about the refund into my DVA yesterday, I do wonder what's going to happen to the refund if someone who initially paid for their trip with the DVA but has to unfortunately cancel and their DVA has already been closed out.

I was wondering about this too. I looked through my transactions and don't have any outstanding trips with partial payments made through the DVA right now so it won't be an issue for me. I wonder if they would just refund the money to a gift card.

 

[Jimsig]

*&^%#% as they used to say in the funny papers

Going in Oct and for the past 2 trips I have always used the DVA to get the bonus GC's. Was looking at around $80 more for this trip. I only have $25 in there now so it looks like my best bet would be to wait (option 3) and that way I will end up with $30 total. If it get it in time for the trip that' a bonus it's not like that $25 is going to break my budget. But if I take option 1 I'm only looking at a total of $26.25. Did I figure that right?

 

[Friendlyadvice2]

I was wondering about this too. I looked through my transactions and don't have any outstanding trips with partial payments made through the DVA right now so it won't be an issue for me. I wonder if they would just refund the money to a gift card.

If they thought about this ahead of time, that would make the most sense. But as has been pointed out, the refunds were always done automatically to the original form of payment. Hopefully, they've added programming to catch this when the refund gets kicked back and they will automatically issue a gift card or solicit a different refund method from the guest. I hope.

 

[Dayzee1026]

I feel your pain. Just YESTERDAY, I paid $2000 towards my WDW vacation, so I missed out on $100 - and even worse, the final payment wasn't due until October. I'm hoping that I still at least receive my $40 bonus. I called and the representative assured me that I would, but I'm not hopeful.

I just put in for a redemption a week ago so I hope I get my gift $60 bonus as well!

 

[DaisyJ]

I was wondering the same thing. I have 2 cruises coming up that, after being paid in full, the port fees were reduced. The refund quickly went into my DVA. And on one cruise last year, we skipped Key West due to weather, and the port fees were credited back onto my DVA.

Just a guess, but if you have any kind of refund coming on the cruise, I'd assume it would go for onboard credit.

 

[CherylA]

Why would anyone use Option #2?

If I have $100 in my DVA, then Option #1 nets me a $105 Disney Gift Card, which I can immediately use to pay off $105 toward a vacation. If I use Option #2, my $100 DVA balance will pay only $100 toward a vacation.

In short, DO NOT Use Option #2.

The plus to option #2 seems to be the Unique offer code which should get you a nice discount on your stay. I imagine you have to use a Disney vacation account to pay or else you wouldn't be eligible. Wondering if anyone has tried calling about the discounted stay offer they have, wondering how good deal it is.

 

[Cindyd04]

I just used my account to pay for part of my trip and I only have $5 in there right now :-\ I wonder since it doesn't close until 9/27, can I add more and then get the 5%?

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I just used my account to pay for part of my trip and I only have $5 in there right now :-\ I wonder since it doesn't close until 9/27, can I add more and then get the 5%?

No, it states that they are no longer accepting new deposits.

 

[Marshay]

bummed! I just paid off my DCL on Friday for $5K ... would have loved to have that extra bonus. Now I have $14.95 left so will just keep it there until I get the $5 bonus.

I too am very sad to see this program go away. Of course I liked the gc bonus, but it was another way for me to save up and get excited about doing so for Disney. I could do similar at my bank but it just isn't the same...and I would be more tempted to take it out for non-vacation at my bank.

 

[ktkerber]

The plus to option #2 seems to be the Unique offer code which should get you a nice discount on your stay. I imagine you have to use a Disney vacation account to pay or else you wouldn't be eligible. Wondering if anyone has tried calling about the discounted stay offer they have, wondering how good deal it is.

I would choose option #2 since I just paid off a trip last week to DL and my account balance is $5. I am also wondering if this is truly a good deal.

 

[Cindyd04]

No, it states that they are no longer accepting new deposits.

Ah, makes sense

 

[miztressuz]

so i finally signed up for this earlier this year and have been socking away funds for a cruise. occasionally after final payment the cruiseline refigures the taxes and fees and a small refund is due (hasn't happened in a while, fortunately not since we started using gift cards to pay the balance, but I believe the possibility still exists). i'm concerned about the egift card if that were to happen. does anyone how it's determined what gift card a refund is processed back on? is it first in, last in, picked at random? or if i made the deposit with a credit card, would i just get it there? if there's an order to it then i could make sure a smaller balance gift card gets used in that position

although the more i think about it, any worry about having it all on one GC might be better than having it refunded back to all the original gift cards and making sure none of it gets lost...

on another note, I picked up a free disney gift card about an hour before the email came out and now i'll always wonder if i had deposited it right away would i have gotten it into the balance before it got frozen

 

[JohnneeO]

I just used my account to pay for part of my trip and I only have $5 in there right now :-\ I wonder since it doesn't close until 9/27, can I add more and then get the 5%?

I would choose option #2 since I just paid off a trip last week to DL and my account balance is $5. I am also wondering if this is truly a good deal.

For each of you, (and anyone with less than $100 in their DVA), the best return will be from Option #3. Do nothing, and you will each receive $10 in [2 separate] Disney GC's, a 100% return on your $5!

Key passage in Option #3 highlighted below;

Option 3
Do nothing. Starting after 9/27/17, Disney will begin to close Disney Vacation Accounts and process refunds. If you have funds in a Disney Vacation Account after 9/27/17, then sometime after that date you will receive a full refund of your balance to your original form of payment or by check to the mailing address we have on file for you. Due to the nature of the program, Guests may experience delays in the refund process.

To thank you for your participation and for your patience during the refund process, a bonus of 2% of your closing balance or $5.00 (whichever is greater) will be placed on a Disney Gift Card and emailed to you. The bonus Disney Gift Card will be delivered separately from your refund. Please allow up to 15 days between the delivery of the refund and the bonus Disney Gift Card.

 

[Tom Cottone]

I also was disappointed about it being discontinued. I used my account for paying the down payment on our upcoming trip which included airfare. The account was down to only $100 with a planned $200 in GCs to be added end of the week. I cashed in the account for the $105 EGC. Looks like I will be paying off the balance with each GC instead of paying it all off at once.

 

[crazymomof4]

- We have an upcoming room-only reservation, that I might have paid off through DVA sooner than the due date, in order to trigger the 2% bonus. So Disney would have had their $$ sooner. With this change, we will wait until the due date to pay.

Same! I was about to pay our balance for the RO ressie in order to get the 2% bonus GC to use on the trip. I've just been dragging my feet about it, but was really going to do it THIS week. I'd have only gotten 2%. Timing worked out for me. Sometimes procrastination pays! woo hoo