Is this enough cash?

[Tara619]

I know the ship is cashless except for room service tips. I'm trying to figure out how much to bring for other things. We are 2 adults and 1 child going on a 7 day WC. We'll have a rental car to the ship and DME to MCO after. What am I missing? I'd rather over estimate than under estimate.

Porter/bus driver tips for luggage: $20 ($2/bag x 5 bags x 2-before and after ship)

Room service tips: $25 (ones)

Excursions tips: $20-40 (extreme dolphins in Cayman, submarine in Cozumel). Is the photo CD for dolphins cash only?

Quarters for tolls from MCO to port: $5

Tropicante in Costa Maya: $80? (Cash only for food and drinks)

Cab to/from Tropicante: $16

Massage in Tropicante: $35 ($25 plus tip)

Extra tips for 4 CMs: $160 (I was thinking $40 ea if they earn it. Is that too low? This is in addition to the $12/day).

 

[tchrrx]

I need to figure out how much cash to take too. I hate to take a lot, but I also don't want to pay too many extra fees for using my credit card out of the U.S. if they are smaller purchases.

Question: Can we add the extra tips for CMs onto our credit card also? How would we go about doing this?

 

[darkwing818]

I know the ship is cashless except for room service tips. I'm trying to figure out how much to bring for other things. We are 2 adults and 1 child going on a 7 day WC. We'll have a rental car to the ship and DME to MCO after. What am I missing? I'd rather over estimate than under estimate.

Porter/bus driver tips for luggage: $20 ($2/bag x 5 bags x 2-before and after ship)

Room service tips: $25 (ones)

Excursions tips: $20-40 (extreme dolphins in Cayman, submarine in Cozumel). Is the photo CD for dolphins cash only?

Quarters for tolls from MCO to port: $5

Tropicante in Costa Maya: $80? (Cash only for food and drinks)

Cab to/from Tropicante: $16

Massage in Tropicante: $35 ($25 plus tip)

Extra tips for 4 CMs: $160 (I was thinking $40 ea if they earn it. Is that too low? This is in addition to the $12/day).

Looks ok I guess, as long as your not doing any other extras like, purchasing any souvenirs or any drinks or book a future cruise. We usually do the Rain Forrest as well as dining at Remy & scheduling a Palo brunch. We leave most of our cash home & use our Disney Visa, which we pay off when we get the bill.

 

[canadiandisneyfamof4]

Looks ok I guess, as long as your not doing any other extras like, purchasing any souvenirs or any drinks or book a future cruise. We usually do the Rain Forrest as well as dining at Remy & scheduling a Palo brunch. We leave most of our cash home & use our Disney Visa, which we pay off when we get the bill.

I think OP was trying to figure out how much physical cash to bring since all on board purchases are cashless

 

[darkwing818]

I think OP was trying to figure out how much physical cash to bring since all on board purchases are cashless

Sorry for any confusion, I noted for what they were planning, their listed expenses, looked OK. However if they wanted to do some other things, as we do, a credit card, might be a better alternative, to bringing a lot more cash.

 

[Ofinn]

Looks ok I guess, as long as your not doing any other extras like, purchasing any souvenirs or any drinks or book a future cruise. We usually do the Rain Forrest as well as dining at Remy & scheduling a Palo brunch. We leave most of our cash home & use our Disney Visa, which we pay off when we get the bill.

What OP has listed are tips, which you cannot put on CC. I would bring at least 100.00 more than planned probably more. Just in case you want to buy some things on shore. There are safes in the room. If you have money left over you can always use it to pay off your onboard charges. We wanted to rent jet skis on our last cruise, but did not have enough cash on hand to do it.

 

[wiigirl]

Sorry for any confusion, I noted for what they were planning, their listed expenses, looked OK. However if they wanted to do some other things, as we do, a credit card, might be a better alternative, to bringing a lot more cash.

My suggestion also...

 

[Tara619]

Thanks guys. Yes, we plan on using the credit card as much as possible but I know some things you can only use cash. I'll add $100 or so just to be safe.

Can we increase the CM tips to be charged to the onboard account, or is cash better?

 

[CT Mom of 3]

You can add extras to the tips to your onboard account OR cash - whatever you prefer. I usually add cash - I figure I like cash, they probably like cash too!

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

We didn't bring nearly enough cash on our last cruise. Even though we had Disny account for onboard, and can use Key card at castaway, we wanted to donate some cash for the Sea Lion puppy rescue, then we wanted a few items at the basket store. My honey tried to rent a moped and if he had had cash on him, he would have been able to becuase evidently our cards that he tried weren't working even at the ATM and nassau ended up being a bust because of it.

Take at least $100-200 more than you think you will need. Tips aren't the only use for cash. Once you get there, you will want some things to remember your trip buy. We sure we we had had more, on BOTH trips. We were borrowing cash from our friends towards the end of the Feb cruise and from my parents on the Disney cruise.

If you don't use the cash, you will have some left. I seriously doubt you will have any left though. Its your one nice vacation and its unlikely you won't get some items. And credit isn't always helpful either. We had to pay a % to use our credit card at the Tortuga store. I'm pretty sure they would have taken cash no problem though!

So just some things to think about.

 

[FEmpire]

Question: Can we add the extra tips for CMs onto our credit card also? How would we go about doing this?

I was able to put extra tips on my account - for drinks, room service, additional tips for dining/room staff, etc. I believe my mother used cash for the extra tips and room service, though.

The only cash I used was for souvenir shopping, luggage tips, and tolls, and I wish I brought cash onto CC with us for the post office.

 

[caribbeandreaming]

Definitely bring extra cash. We figured out everything ahead of time, too and ended up using more than planned. We had to start conserving towards the end of the trip to make sure we didn't run out. Better to have more than enough than not enough.

 

[meajuly5]

Maybe a few dollars for airport purchases, snacks

 

[MillauFr]

I brought $500 for extra tips for a 7 day cruise. I used about $400 of it. It was the best $400 I have spent in a long time. We were treated like Kings for a week.