Welcome back, Lori! My family uses Disney Gift Cards to pay for our onboard stateroom account every time we sail. Disney allows you to pay for your cruise with Disney Gift Cards too. We pay a little every now and then leading up to the sailing just by calling our travel agent or the Disney Cruise Line agents at (800) 951-3532 to make a payment using our gift cards. You can use Visa gift cards as well.
Onboard,
Disney Gift Cards are accepted in the gift shops. However, the easiest way to use them (or Visa gift cards) is to turn them in at Guest Services. They can add those as credits before you spend anything on your stateroom account. Then, when you swipe your Key To The World card onboard for purchases, or Port Adventure charges, they'll be deducted from any credit you've already put on your account. Sometimes I luck out and find that it's the last night of the sailing and I still have credit left. The Cast Members at Guest Services are then happy to put the remaining credit back onto my Disney Gift Card (so save the cards until you leave the ship, just in case you don't spend them all!). However, any money over the credit I've put on will simply be charged to the credit card I put on file.
Disney Cruise Line typically mails out the cruise booklets about four to six weeks prior to your departure. You mentioned that it's a surprise, and I have a great suggestion for a way to reveal the trip to them. Did you know that Disney offers character phone calls? Mickey or one of his friends can call your house to tell the family they're really looking forward to sailing with them! These are free and can be set up for any day and time you'd like! You can set those up by clicking on the link found under
View Details when you're logged into your
cruise reservation. I hope that helps, and please stop back again, Lori!
Marcy