Hi Veronica,
Disney Gift Cards are a great way to budget yourself on a trip. I like using them to budget for souvenirs for myself and my kids. This helps me keep track of what we are buying instead of just continuing to charge things to the room! If you do want to charge purchases to your room instead, you can visit the front desk before checkout and use gift cards to pay that balance off.
The beauty of a Disney Gift Card is that it can be used at most locations throughout
Walt Disney World and
Disney Springs. This includes most of the shops, restaurants, and attractions. Regardless of if they are selling Disney merchandise, if the shop or restaurant is owned or operated by Disney they will accept your gift card. You are generally safe using a Disney Gift Card anywhere within the theme parks. The only exception to this is a few of the specialty festival booth at EPCOT. Disney Springs is the only place where you may find a few locations that do not accept your gift card, but they are few and far between.
If you plan to use Disney Gift Cards throughout your trip, I highly recommend creating an account on the
Disney Gift Card website so you have a backup for your physical gift cards. On your account, you can merge all of your gift cards into one, and you can recover them if you happen to lose one. This comes in super handy when you are using this as a way for your kids to shop for their own souvenirs.
Happy Shopping,
Jenna