Family Planning Disney Vacation Buys Wrong Gift Cards
Vacation planning is hard enough without finding out you paid for the wrong service. In a TikTok video that has since gone viral, a woman named Andie Coston tells a story about her parents planning a big family vacation to Disney World, buying $10,000 worth of Disney gift cards to save money on park entry. But when the time came to secure the tickets, the couple were unable to use their cards, and when Coston tried to help, she learned that they had accidentally bought Disney+ gift cards. The video calls for help in transferring the money to gift cards the family can use to buy Disney World tickets and concessions. In a subsequent video, Coston reported that the family did get help from Disney representatives, and everything has been sorted out for them.
Family accidentally spends $10,000 on Disney+ gift cards thinking they were for Disney World
— Park Hoppin’ (@ParkHoppin) December 20, 2023
@aofthecoast Thank you.
Caveat emptor, folks. This was an older couple, and it sounds like they didn’t know what Disney+ was, so they just assumed it was a general term for Disney savings. In retrospect, this will make a great Mom and Dad story for Coston and the rest of her family. Disney also deserves credit for rectifying the situation. But it must have been scary before it was fixed, especially for the parents who bought the cards. Coston says Disney didn’t make the cards clear enough, but when she shows them, they’re all clearly marked with the Disney+ logo. The funnier takeaway from the mix-up is that the couple hadn’t heard of Disney+; yes, they’re older folks, but I’m sure they know what Netflix is, even if they don’t subscribe. Netflix has been around much longer, but Disney is one of the biggest brands on Earth; that it has a streaming service so many people don’t watch, and apparently many aren’t even aware of it, is inconceivable. That’s the real marketing failure on Disney’s part, not labeling their gift cards.
