Let’s face it. A trip to the Disneyland Resort is expensive. There’s no need to sugar-coat the truth. It is especially expensive if you are making a big family trip taking place over days or a week. With that in mind, a great way to keep spending under control is to use Disney gift cards and Disney Dollars. Here’s why I think they are great.

• By creating a budget and transferring your vacation dollars to gift cards, you will have to pay really close attention to your pennies. It’s so easy to spends small amounts of money at a time on things like churros and bottles of waters. Using a gift card makes you much more accountable for each dime spent. You can also get separate gift cards for different types of purchases. Let’s say you only want to spend a certain amount of money on meals and another amount of money on merchandise. You can put the different amounts on different gift cards. If your visit will take place over multiple days, you can also budget to only spend a certain amount each day and load the card each day (or have separate cards) in order to keep tabs on your daily spending. You can make
  

  Image courtesy of Disneystore.com

  creating different cards for different people even more fun by creating personalized gift cards with your own photos on them on the Disney Store website!

• Kids want just about everything they lay their eyes on while at the Disneyland Resort. By providing them with Disney Dollars or a Disney gift card, once the money’s gone…it’s gone! I prefer Disney Dollars because they require children to have to count their money and really allows them to see their money being spent. Gift cards keep the money “virtual” which is far less meaningful for young children. Gift cards may be a better option for teens.
  
• Another reason I love gift cards is because you can get them as gifts! Are grandma and grandpa stumped on what to get the family for the holidays or birthday? Tell them Disney gift cards!
  
• Perhaps one of my favorite things about gift cards is that they also serve a great little keepsakes that will help your family remember the trip. They are small enough to easily fit in the family scrapbook along side your photos. Don’t forget to take a picture or two of the kids (or the adults) paying with the gift cards to put next to them in the family album. The gift cards come in many different designs and you may be able to pick a design that helps commemorate your favorite characters or special celebration. I have a Disneyland gift card designed by the artist Shag that has a tour guide on it. It’s very special to me–something that is in with my Disney mementos.

Disney gift cards are available for purchase at many major retailers including Disney Stores, many grocery and toy stores, and through the Disneyland website. There are a number of gift cards available at the Disneyland Resort ticket booths as well.

Learn more about Disney Dollars and why they are the best way to beat ATM fees by clicking here.

Gift card image courtesy of the Disneyland Resort.