Disney Visa Card Perks For Your Magical Vacation

It's no secret that a Disney vacation isn't exaclty easy on your wallet. Even a basic Disney vacation can easily cost upwards of 3-5k for a typicaly family of 4, which is why saving every penny and finding the best deals possible is extremely importnat. One of the ways you can do that is through a Disney Visa Card.

DISCLAIMER: I am not offering credit advice in this blog, simply stating the perks and benefits of having a Disney Visa. Please do not pay for your vacation with a credit card, unless you have the means to do so!

A Disney Visa card offers tons of perks to cardholders that can be used acrossed the Disney family, including theme parks, cruises, streaming and more! There are three different options to choose from that offer seperate rewards. We'll start with the lowest ranked tier and progress to the highest.

Disney Visa Card

The basic Disney Visa Card is the lowest tier and has no annual fee, while still offering some decent perks. New cardmembers can earn up $150 after spending just $500 in the first 3 months. In addition, you'll earn 1% back on all purchases made with the card. We'll cover the remaing perks below, as they wil be true of all cards.

Disney Visa Premier Card

Unlike the lowest tier, the Disney Visa Premier has a $49 annual fee, but offers a $300 credit statement for new cardmembers after spending $1,000 in the first three months. In addition, it also offers some better perks in terms of cashback, earning 5% on purchases made directly with Disneyplus.com, Hulu.com and Stream.ESPN.com, 2% at gas stations, grocery stores, restuarants and most disney destinations in the U.S., and 1% on all other purchases. We'll cover the remainig perks below, as they will be true of all cards.

Disney Inspire Visa Card

Disney's newest addition to the Visa card family, the Disney Inspire Visa invokes a $149 annual fee with a $500 statement credit after spending $1,000 in the first 3 months. The $149 fee can impose a bit of sticker-shock, but let's look at the perks exclusive to this new card.

First lets take cash back. You can earn 10% back in rewards on purchases made through Disney owned streaming services (see above), 3% on gas station and most U.S. Disney locations, 2% at grocery stores and restuarants, and 1% on all other purchases. But the perks don't stop there.

The Disney Inspire Visa also provides 3 additional perks for the more Disney savy card holders. These include 200 in Disney rewards when you spend $2,000 per anniversary year on U.S. Disney Resort or Disney Cruise Line bookings, $100 theme park ticket credit after spending $200 per anniversary year on U.S. Disney theme park tickets and finally, a $120 Disney+, Hulu and ESPN streaming credit with a yearly subscription to any of those

streaming services!

Perks Across All Cards

Now let's talk perks that all 3 tiers have in common.

0% APR

First, and arguably one of the most important to card holders, is the benefit of getting 0% APR interest for 6 months when you book your Disney vacation using a Disney visa! Dropping a large chunk of change on vacation can sting, but having an additional 6 months to pay it off can sometime be the difference between being able to vacation at Disney, versus vacationing in the backyard.

10% Off Dining and Shopping

At a close second, Disney Visa cardholders can take advantage of 10% most merchandise and dining purchases at Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort! This is an awesome added perk, and the best part, there's no longer a minimum on the amount you need to purchase to receive the discount. Be careful here though, especially when shopping or dining at Disney Springs or Dowtown Disney. The 10% discount only applies to Disney owned shops and restuarants, and both Disney Springs and Downtown Disney include places not direclty owned by Disney. In these cases, you'll likely not receive your discount, even if the place your shopping at offers Disney merch. This discount is also applied to purchases made at DisneyStore.com

Exclusive Photo-Opps

Third, cardmembers can enjoy exclusive photo opporutnities with select characters at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort!

At Walt Disney World, you can find these exlusive meets at both EPCOT and Hollywood Studios. The EPCOT meet is located in World Celebration right next to the Journey Into Imagination with Figment ride. Here you'll be able to meet classic Disney Characters from 1-6:30pm.

At Hollywood Studios, you can meet Stitch daily from 9am - noon at Celebrity Spotlight in Echo Lake where Olaf typically meets.

Over at Disneyland, you can meet classic Disney charactors and/or Stitch from 10:30am - 1pm in Hollywood Land, and Spider-man and/or other Marvel superheroes from 3-6pm, both at Disney's California Adventure.

In order to take advantage of these exclusive photo-opps, you'll need to present your Disney Visa to the castmember and there is a limit of 6 people per cardholder per day. And finally, photopass photos taken at these locations are absolutely free to download!

Disney Cruise Line Savings

Cardmember savings don't stop just because you've left land! Cardholders can also enjoy ton's of disconts aboard Disney Cruise Line ships as well, including 10% off select digital photo packages, merchandise purchases Castaway Cay Getaway packages and Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point experiences, as well as 20% off select onboard spa treatments!

Limited Time Offers

Disney Visa cardholders can also enjoy periodic limited time offeres including special trading pins, discounts on resorts and vacation packages, and more! My favorite is combining a Disney Visa discount on a Walt Disney World vacation paired with 0% APR!!

How To Use Rewards?

In order to use your disney rewards, you'll typically need to load them to a Disney Visa Rewards card, like the one pictured in this article. This card functions as a typical debit card and can be swiped wherever Disney Rewards Dollars are accepted. In addition, you can use them as a statement credit for purchases made through the chase app or website, including for flights purchased with your Disney Visa!

My tip for rewards is to link your rewards card to your Disney account, and use this to mobile order food around the resort and/or spend on souveniors!

Drawbacks

Like all good things, there's some negatives to the Disney Visa as well. The biggest one is probably is low earning potential and reward rates. There are tons of credit cards out there that will offer higher rewards, especially for travel, and could thus be a better option. In addition, you're restricted to the Disney family in terms of how you spend your rewards whereas, again, other cards will offer my freedom in how you redeem.

Takeaways

The Disney Visa family of cards can be great for those who are huge Disney fans or avid Disney vacationers. While the earning potential for rewards is lower compared to others, the 0% APR and 10% discount on most Disney purchases can be a real game-changer, especially if you frequent a Disney destination or have kids like mine who need a snack every 10 minutes or want to buy the whole store of toys! In the end, you should only pursue this card if you have the proper funds to pay for your vacation and/or purchases, are a Disney enthusiast, and are in good credit standing.