Hi again, Stacey! My family and I love to use Disney Gift Cards to pay for our cruise and also to add to our stateroom account onboard to cover any charges. Other guests will use a credit card to have on file for their stateroom account, and others will use cash, so it's up to you.
Disney Cruise Line does offer the option of a cash account for your
stateroom charges. Just give the agents at Disney Cruise Line a call at (800) 951-3532 to discuss it. There will be a spending limit so that you can use your Key To The World Card onboard to charge up to a certain amount on your account before you have to pay that amount with cash, and then your spending limit will start over again. Super easy! Just pop down to Guest Services when you get close to the charge limit to settle the account with cash, and then you can begin charging to your stateroom again.
The reason we love
Disney Gift Cards is because at home we can purchase them at our local grocery store and receive fuel rewards, double at all times, and sometimes up to 4x fuel rewards for gift card purchases. If we know we're sailing with Disney anyway, it pays to buy gift cards to use onboard because then we end up saving a ton on gas fill-ups for our car which we have to do anyway. I see you live in Ohio, like I do, so if you're a Kroger shopper, watch for the 4x Fuel Reward specials and stock up on Disney Gift Cards then, so you can save money on gas and consider it a cruise discount of sorts!
Have fun planning, Stacey!
Marcy