So, our trip was last week and I just wanted to offer my gratitude for this thread. I had purchased a small fortune (think the GDP of one of our smaller states

) through various deals you all highlighted and for the most part, it covered just about everything we did and I was able to purchase what we wanted without feeling stressed. Between renting points and gift card deals, I ended up saving almost exactly 40% over what it would've normally cost. I had separate gift cards for each of my 2 kids for spending money (that I kept on me) and managed other gift cards each night.
Had a couple of problems where charging through MB prompted AKL to charge my card before I got back to the room - because of that, I ended up just not charging via MB (I only did that when we were feeling pressed for time and it felt a little bit easier than trying to get into the zipped-up pocket inside my backpack where I kept money stuff). Not a big deal - but I do wish I had been able to just give them the gift cards I had at the beginning and not worry about it.
ETA one thing: my absolute favorite thing is that the kids really wanted to go to
Legoland and I ended up buying tickets via Sam's Club (which ended up being a little frustrating but we made it work). BUT - because we had so much in GC and money is generally a little tight for us right now, I had told the kids - we're not going to get stuff from Legoland but there is a large
Lego store at Disney World (I know it's Disney Springs, which I eventually explained to them - but they didn't need the details really) and we can use our gift cards there. And it was great. There were some things that were Legoland exclusive but frankly DS's Lego store had almost the same selection, the prices were slightly lower, and the ability to pay via DGC was phenomenal. I
highly recommend that option, if it arises for your family!