How I Saved Money on Our Disney Cruise Using Sam’s Club Gift Cards

If you’re a parent planning a Disney vacation, you probably know the feeling of looking at the total and thinking, “Okay... how can I make this hurt a little less?”

That was me.

I wasn’t trying to plan the cheapest Disney Cruise possible. I wanted the things that mattered to our family, but I also didn’t want to pay more than I had to.

For this trip, I booked two connecting Deluxe Oceanview Staterooms with Verandahs for my family and my parents. My son will be two, and being able to let him go back and forth between us and his grandparents was important to me. So was having a verandah where we could sit while he naps or winds down.

Could I have booked cheaper rooms? Absolutely.

But my goal wasn’t to sacrifice the parts of the vacation we would actually enjoy. It was to save money on the exact vacation I wanted.

And discounted Disney Gift Cards from Sam’s Club helped me do that.

The Numbers

Our two staterooms cost $5,941.84 altogether.

By buying discounted Disney Gift Cards instead of simply paying Disney directly, I saved $282.02.

No credit card points. No complicated travel hacking. I just changed how I paid for something I was already buying.

When I booked in January, Disney was also running a promotion that let me pay only 50% of the normal deposit upfront. I paid $297.09 instead of $457.56.

That didn't lower the actual price of the cruise, but it left me with $5,644.75 due by October, giving me plenty of time to use discounted gift cards to pay it off.

And here's another little tip: have ChatGPT watch for Disney promotions for you.

You can ask it to regularly check for new Disney World or Disney Cruise deals and alert you when something useful is announced. That way you're not trying to remember to constantly check websites and Disney groups yourself.

Sometimes the promotion might save you money directly. Other times, like my reduced deposit, it might simply give you more flexibility.

Either way, I'd rather know about a Disney deal when it's announced than discover it after it's over.

My Actual Savings Plan Was Really Simple

At Sam’s Club, I was able to buy $200 Disney Gift Cards for $190.

I get paid weekly, so every week I bought one.

That's:

$200 toward Disney for $190 out of my pocket.

In a normal four-week month, I accumulated $800 in Disney money while spending $760.

And if you're paid weekly, you know about those random months with a fifth paycheck.

I didn't buy a fifth gift card.

That was intentional.

Four weeks are predictable, so that's what I built our vacation budget around. That random fifth week wasn't guaranteed every month, and I didn't want to treat every extra dollar as Disney money.

I bought my normal four cards and left the extra week's $190 in our regular budget.

Because Disney is great, but we also have a mortgage, groceries and a toddler who somehow always needs something.

By September, I had accumulated $5,600 in Disney Gift Cards while only spending $5,320.

That's $280 saved.

I had $44.75 left on the cruise, so naturally, after coming that far, I wasn't about to pay full price for the last little bit.

I bought a $50 Disney Gift Card for $47.98, saving another $2.02.

My total savings: $282.02.

And I still have $5.25 left on that final gift card for the trip.

Why I Like Saving This Way

Honestly, the discount isn't even the only reason I like this.

Once I bought a Disney Gift Card, that money became Disney money.

I couldn't look at our vacation savings and think, “I'll borrow $200 for this other thing and put it back next month.”

We've all heard that one before.

The gift cards essentially forced me to save for our vacation without constantly being tempted to dip into the money.

And you can do this long before you've even booked a trip.

For example, if you bought a $200 Disney Gift Card every other week, you'd accumulate around $14,400 over three years. You don't have to spend it all on one trip either, and Disney Gift Cards don't expire.

This is also why I love the idea of asking for Disney Gift Cards for birthdays and Christmas.

My child does not need 700 more toys.

If someone was already planning to spend $50 on him, I'd happily take $50 toward a future family memory instead.

One Important Gift Card Tip

If you start doing this, please don't keep a pile of 20 separate gift cards.

Disney's Gift Card website lets you manage your cards and transfer balances between them. A Disney Gift Card can hold up to $1,000, so you can consolidate your smaller cards into a few larger ones.

You can even organize them by purpose.

Maybe one $1,000 card is for food, another is for souvenirs and another is for park tickets.

I also like buying one of the nicer physical Disney Gift Cards and transferring my Sam’s Club balances onto it. Label your cards, keep their information somewhere safe and keep track of your balances.

Especially once you're talking about thousands of dollars.

So... Is $282 Really Worth It?

For me, yes.

I was already going to spend nearly $6,000 on this cruise. Buying the gift cards didn't change our vacation at all.

But now that $282.02 can become an excursion, souvenirs, a special meal or something completely ridiculous my toddler sees onboard and suddenly cannot live without.

That's really my philosophy with family vacations.

I don't necessarily want to do Disney cheaply.

I want the verandah. I want the connecting rooms. I want my toddler running through the connecting door to see his grandparents. And I want to occasionally say yes to something overpriced simply because it will make a great memory.

I just don't want to waste money on the parts that don't change the experience.

If buying a discounted gift card every payday lets me save a few hundred dollars on a vacation I was already going to take, I'll happily take the savings.

Especially when all I really had to do was remember to stop by Sam's Club once a week.