How much cash should I carry?

[FatCow]

I'm not used in carrying cash. In Canada I pay everything with my Amex and the occasional debit card. However, I never had more than CAD$40 in my wallet. At least not in the past 10 years.

Questions:

Outside of the $100 needed for the transportation back and forth (how much is it for the tip each way anyway?), what else can not be paid with credit card at WDW area?

We're planning to have US$500 in cash for our 7 days/6 nights trip. Two adults, 1 child.

Do ice-cream vendors, sandwich vendors, restaurants, fast-food outlets (all within WDW Resort area) accept Amex/Visa/Master? Or do some of them only accept cash?

[mudnuri]

The "cart vendors" do not take credit cards...because these are temporary establishments, they do not have the phone lines etc.. required for the card machines.

Sit down and counter service restaurants take CC's...however if your staying on site- you can get your room key to be "chargable"...and not carry around your amex card at all..

Brandy

[FatCow]

Is "chargeable" means it's just transferring everything to the hotel without additional charges? Or will there be surcharge for this convenience?

[mudnuri]

Correct it is just added to your room bill.

What I've read some people on here actually pay "more than the cost of the room"....for instance, as they budget over the planning stage, they know the room costs say 800.00

so they pay $800.00 plus they also pay an extra $250 or so...that way, the first $250.00 that they charge, is already "paid"...because they paid this before they even left home.

We will be off-site, however I think being able to use a room key as a charge is a great idea...you can have to "charged"...so both a DH and DW - or for instance you have older children- the older child could have one as well, so they could charge...you can get daily print outs when you return to your resort, to keep the spending in check..

At the end of your trip- just pay the for the room/charges with the AMEX card..

Brandy

[FatCow]

Thanks for the info! :Pinkbounc

[mclimo]

Even with charging back to your room (and the do not add a surcharge for the service), I will still keep $50-$75 cash on hand.

This is for anything that may come up that can't be charged to the room. A stop at the gas station, McDonalds, vendor carts, ect.

If anything is left over, just add from your "Bank Roll" to get back to the $50-$75 level. The "Bank Roll" of course is left in the room safe - don't loose the key!

[FatCow]

BTW, how small/large is the safe? Can I put my laptop there? or is it safe to leave my laptop in my suitcase and lock the suitcase?

[mclimo]

The safes are small - Paper documents only. We keep our airline tickets, cash or travelers checques, and vacation documents in there. I've brought my laptop and just kept it in the nightstand drawer without any problems.

[Familymoon]

oh crud - the laptop - how did I not consider that!?

We're staying offsite - I wonder if our hotel will even have a safe?!

That reminds me - I need to see if there will be any ATMs from my back in the area.

As for the TOPIC at hand :) We'll probably carry $50 a day...the rest will go on the debit card :)

Do most counter service "restaurants" take debit?

[mclimo]

Counter service restaurants will take credit cards. Anywhere a credit card is accepted, will accept a room charge, or I believe debt cards - provided they have a Visa or Mastercard logo on it.

It is the push carts and street vendors that only accept cash.

[summerrluvv]

I always carried about $20 cash with us (just myself and DS).

I did bring $500 disney dollars at check in to put on my account to charge back to and anything above that amount would go on my cc. She told me I could NOT do that. I said YES I can, I've done it before. She had to go ask someone and came back and of course I was right. She was very friendly up until that point too. I think the fact that I proved her wrong made her mad or something because during the rest of the check in process, she had a HUGE attitude problem!! Oh well!!

[sue1013]

After having my wallet stolen a few years ago (not at WDW), I now carry very, very little cash. Credit cards, debit card while having to make a few phone calls and fill out some paper work cost me nothing but the cash cannot be replaced. You can charge most things to your room and there are ATM's everywhere if you need cash for something. The most cash I carry anymore is $20.00.

[crisi]

I can get by fine with $20 and my room card (or another debit card). My family has gotten addicted to taking cabs instead of the Disney buses, so now its $60 - which will usually cover cab fare.

My husband did discover last trip that it was more efficient for him to pay cash at the counter service restaurants - it just sped things up by a minute.

Except for the occational bottle of water from a street vendor, or box of popcorn, and the obligatory Dole Whip, and the Mickey suckers the kids need to have, we really don't spend too much cash. In fact, we find that we buy far fewer snacks and drinks than we think we will.

Don't forget those "old fashioned" travelers checks are an option as well. They will be accepted pretty much anywhere and you don't need to worry about losing them (just keep the numbers somewhere).