Welcome aboard, Stacy! You're correct that Disney Cruise Line allows guests to bring
Disney Gift Cards to guest services to put as credit on their stateroom accounts. My family and I do this every time we sail.
Anything, including
gratuities, that is charged on your stateroom account can be paid for with this credit. I'd suggest you head down to Guest Services on the first night of your sailing to turn in all of your Disney Gift Cards to be added to your account right away. Then, hold onto the cards until the end of the sailing. If you have any extra funds left unspent on your account, check in with Guest Services before you disembark the ship, and they can put them right back onto your Disney Gift Card. We've had this happen a couple of times, and were happy to receive our final stateroom statement that last night to see we had credit left! It's easy to take care of that, and who doesn't like to find they have money left over?!?!
Another tip for saving money by using Disney Gift Cards: My family purchases our Disney Gift Cards at our local grocery store when it offers extra fuel rewards (gasoline savings) on purchases of gift cards. For example, we may get four times fuel rewards during a special promotion for any gift cards we buy at the grocery store during that time. So, I stock up on Disney Gift Cards then, and save tons of money on our gasoline fill ups for the car: sometimes a dollar off per gallon - what a savings! I consider it a cruise discount of sorts, since we need to fill up the car anyway and we need to pay for our cruise, so we might as well do both together and save money! If your grocery store offers fuel rewards on gift cards, watch for special promotional times and stock up!
Have fun planning, Stacy!
Marcy