How one family's Christmas trip to Disney took a turn for the worst. Photo / Unsplash

Family’s horror over $15,000 Disney gift card mistake goes viral

Author: NZ Herald,
Publish Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2023, 12:21PM

Disney is the happiest place on earth, so it’s no surprise that Andie Coston and her family couldn’t wait to visit the theme park over the Christmas holidays.

However, their excitement was soon replaced with stress as they realised a major error in their planning.

In a clip posted on TikTok, Coston gets candid about the trip and how her family were supposed to go on the adventure years ago. However, because of Covid-19 and the resultant lockdowns, they had to reschedule the holiday.

Her parents had decided to save money and pay for the trip with Disney park gift cards - US$10,000 ($15,890) worth to be exact.

However, it wasn’t until Coston visited her parents, who had been struggling to load the gift cards online, that she realised what had happened, reports Honey9.

Her parents had not bought $10,000 worth of Disney theme park gift cards, but $10,000 worth of Disney+ gift cards.

@aofthecoast Do I have a story for you! PLEASE HELP! Note that the purchaser is not familiar with Disney Plus and did not know the difference! Honest mistake. It is not about the funding of the trip. It is about finding someone who can help us transfer the money into the correct gift card so we can make it to Disney! @Disney Parks @Disney+ @Disney #ohno #fail #disney #disneyworld #disneyplus #disneyfail #help ♬ Oh No - Kreepa

That’s more than 70 years of access to the streaming service.

This was a disaster: all 16 family members had taken time off work and were excited to go to Disneyland, but it looked like the holiday might not be happening.

“We leave in six days and the parks are selling out of tickets because it’s Christmas. My mum is distraught, dad frustrated, and the kids worried we won’t get into Disney,” she wrote.

“Anyone know of someone who can help?”

Coston’s TikTok quickly went viral, as did all her follow-up clips answering the many questions other social media users had about her family’s dilemma.

Main Street, USA is one of nine themed lands at Walt Disney's original version of the park. Photo / 123rf

She admitted that her parents don’t use streaming services so didn’t know there was a difference between Disney and Disney+.

She also revealed that since her parents had tried their best to upload the vouchers to the Disney park site, the backs had been scratched off of them, meaning they couldn’t return them.

While some people thought Coston’s situation was funny, struggling to understand how something like this could happen, a few people in the comments who comforted the family by speaking of similar situations that they had been through.

“That’s been a comfort to my parents,” she said.

Thankfully, Disney swooped in to save the day and the family’s holiday.

Less than a day after the original clip was posted on TikTok, Disney got in touch with Coston and her family to help them transfer the $10,000 worth of Disney streaming gift cards into $10,000 worth of Disney park gift cards.

Chatting to People, Coston said, “I am so glad we were able to get it resolved, especially for my parents’ sake. It was also good to hear that my parents are not the only ones who have experienced this.

“I received many messages and comments from people telling me that they or someone they know have had similar experiences. I hope that this story makes more people aware of the card difference so no one else experiences this.”