A Family Spent $10,000 On What They Thought Were Disney Vacation Tickets, But It Was Actually On Disney+ Instead

The Walt Disney Company turned 100 this year, and though they’ve had a rough time at the movies in 2023, at least their storied amusement parks are doing just fine. Indeed, one family was so eager to visit one of their brick-and-mortars that, in their haste and confusion, they spent a small fortune on another of the company’s products: their titular streamer.

Per People, one Andie Coston went viral after posting updates on TikTok about her chaotic planned family trip to one of Disney’s parks. For starters, it was supposed to happen in 2020. For obvious reasons that was delayed, though it was supposed to finally happen this year. Alas.

“We finally planned it for this Christmas. All 16 of my family members were going. To save some money, my parents bought 10k of Disney gift cards to purchase our tickets and restaurant reservations,” Coston explained in her TikTok posts.

“I went home this weekend, and they were having problems loading the gift cards correctly and purchasing the tickets,” Coston said. She then showed what her parents really bought: $10,000 in gift cards for Disney+.

Coston said her parents, who don’t use streaming services, didn’t know the difference. It was, she said, an “honest mistake.” She asked anyone paying attention for help in “getting the money in the right form.”

“We leave in 6 days and the parks are selling out of tickets because it’s Christmas,” Coston said. “My mom is distraught, Dad frustrated, and the kids worried we won’t get into Disney.”

But there’s a happy ending worthy of a Disney movie: Coston’s post went so viral that the company noticed and were able to “turn the $10,000 of Disney streaming gift cards into $10,000 of Disney Parks gift cards.”

Coston said apparently her parents aren’t the only one who made that mix-up.

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

The lesson Post your Ls, at least if they can be remedied. If they’re as ridiculous as this one, they might go viral and someone in charge might fix your mistake. Happy holidays to the Coston fam.