I fainted when I saw your dues. When I told my husband our dues were $3500 he was like "YEESH." So I'll tell him yours to make him feel better.
I don't care to put much mental energy into deal hunting either. I just go with the 5% off using my Target Red Card. I pay my CC bill at the beginning of the month. Then I immediately go onto the Target site and buy a couple $200 e-gift cards for that billing cycle. Then go to the disney GC website to transfer the balance onto one of the physical Disney GCs I have. You can only have $1000 on each card. So I currently have 4 physical cards. I ended up with three full cards and one with $500 on it. Just went online and paid dues with them and that it was. It was basically like I paid monthly, in a way. And now I'll start back up again for 2026.
So are you just buying gift cards for other places and then considering that as savings towards your dues? Or are those actual Disney gift cards you use to pay for your dues?