Disney rewards points and dining question

[Wells]

Hello all! It’s been a while since I’ve posted but I have been visiting almost every day and I have a question for the most knowledgeable group of Disney aficionados on the Internet!
We are visiting Disney World for a four night stay during the first week of October and have amassed a fair number of Disney reward points on our Chase card. Since we will not be using any of the dining plans, we intend to use these for our dining expenses.
My question is how best to do this....
Should we use the rewards card directly at the restaurants, charge back to the room using our keys to the kingdom card and use the rewards points at check-out or can we put the rewards points on the room account at check-in and use the keys to the kingdom card for our purchases?
As I remember, if you want to use the charge back on the keys to the kingdom card you must provide a credit card number at check-in which will be periodically charged based on the total that you have spent to date.
I know that this is a six of one, half dozen of the other question, but I am just looking for opinions from those of you who have had a similar situation and how it worked best for you.
Any help will be greatly appreciated!

[princessgirls]

This is what we do...

You call the number on your statement and tell them you want to cash out your points and put them on a debit card to use in the parks. They send you a card that has the dollar amount on it, and you use it like cash all around the parks for anything and everything.

OR... Guest Services at any of the parks can do this for you, which gives you points up to the time you travel, as you need to order the card a couple of weeks before your trip. Guest services can have it done for you. It's a beautiful thing!!

Enjoy!
Julie

[btharvey]

Since you need a credit card to use your room key card for purchases, I don't believe you can use a rewards card or points instead of that.

We start using the rewards card for everything from paying for the room onward ... we'll use it for every purchase we make until it's run out, then switch over to the Disney VISA. We generally don't connect the Disney VISA with the room card --- why complicate things? We have wallets, etc. with us anyway, so might as well use 'em. We'll be doing this when we go in August 2011.

I'd worry about losing the room key card even more if I had the credit card attached. Just start using the rewards card until it runs out. One way or another, you'll use them up.

[eel]

We're gonna do the same thing this December for the second time. I had called and asked our points be put on a rewards card. The only thing you need to remember is that once your points are put on a card, they can't be transferred back. Probably won't have a problem using all of our points this time either

[DisneyDoug2]

We always charge everything back to our room and then on the last day pay off the room with our Disney points. I find this easier to track what we spend because the desk will give you a reciept with all charges on it instead of trying to keep track of all the individual reciepts from the different eating places and gift shops.

[Goofy4TheWorld]

Do this!

Assuming you intend to spend ALL of your Reward Dollars during this trip, during check-in tell the CM that you you want to apply as a credit on your account the entire balance on your Disney Dream Reward Dollars card (which is not the same card as your Disney Visa Card).

Then use your room key to charge all of your meals and the Reward Dollars credit balance will get used up first to pay for all of your charges (all your charges, not just the dining ones).

This way you only have your credit card charged if you spend more than you have in Reward Dollars, plus if you have them applied as a credit to your account you don't run the risk of waiting to the last day and the charges being charged to your credit card because they run your card for Express Check-Out or you spend more than your line of credit allows (500/1000/1500).

If for some reason you do not spend the full amount of Reward Dollars then Disney will refund the remaining balance back onto you Dream Dollars card. You can't go wrong by loading the credits up front instead of waiting until later on in the trip (when things can go wrong.)

If you choose not to load the Reward Dollars up front, then don't wait until check-out to use them or Disney may have already charged your credit card instead.

[Wells]

Thank you all for your opinions and advice!
After discussing this with Deb at Magical Journeys, we have decided to apply all of our reward points to our final payment and just pay OOP for our park and dining purchases. Unless, of course, a free dining plan becomes available for our time period. If it does we would be “forced” to add an additional night to our stay (Oh the sacrifices!)

[Mfarquar]

Thanks for the good idea Goofy4TheWorld! I'm going to do this on our next trip!