American Cash

[CanadianPrincess]

I am 21 days out from my trip, and I am trying to calculate how much American cash to take with me! I plan on putting the majority of purchases on my credit card, and I have $400 in Disney Gift Cards to kick me off... We plan on skipping mousekeeping, so I dont need to worry too much about cash for room tips! We are going for 10 days for our disneymoon! Just trying to calculate the cash part!
Thoughts???

 

[hdrolfe]

I don't normally take a lot of cash, I prefer to use gift cards or credit cars attached to my magic band, so I don't have to carry as much. There are a couple places in parks that take cash (those light up things for fireworks, but if you are on a honeymoon I'm assuming you aren't taking a kid who will HAVE to have one ). Otherwise it's cash for tips and I always try to keep $20 for the airport to get a snack on the way home. I normally take about $200 in cash and sometimes come home with some, sometimes not. That's for a week with me and kiddo.

 

[ellbell]

I second the $200. That's what I normally take. I usually get at least 50 in 1s and 5s because even if you are opting out of housekeeping there are still people to tip like anyone who handles your bags for you.

I also like to get a roll of quarters and some pennies once I'm down there for pressed pennies.

 

[AnnaS]

We don't take much cash ourselves. $200 sounds reasonable. I break it up $20s, $10, $5s and some dollar bills. I also started carrying a $20 to the parks (when I remember).

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

I would definitely carry $20-$40 in cash to the parks. If the credit card system goes down, you'll still need to eat.

 

[starvenger]

I agree - $200 sounds about right. If you can get singles for tips and stuff all the better but I’m sure the front desk will break a $20 if needed. It’s also good for “cash only” restaurants but since I think you’re onsite that’s probably not applicable.

 

[Sue M]

I agree with the $200 cash. You still may need tips for luggage. If you are going by DME and you put carry ons in luggage compartment under bus arriving and departing. Also for the resort Airline Check in Desk. It’s customary to tip the guy who checks your luggage, just like you would if you used curb side check in at the airport.
And as mentioned sometimes the restaurant system can go down. This happened to us at the Disney Springs CS Cookes of Dublin!

 

[musika]

I think we went with 100-150$ american and it was fine for a week with 2 adults, 2 kids. We used our magic band for almost all purchases. I think that you will find outside of emergency situations or small $5 purchases you won't have much need for a ton of cash, especially if staying onsite.

 

[Raimiette]

I am clearly in the minority here but I like to take quite a bit of cash (enough for all food at least, I'm going for 8 days in November and am taking $600usd) . I prefer the hard money so I can budget lol.

 

[dis_guy]

I am clearly in the minority here but I like to take quite a bit of cash (enough for all food at least, I'm going for 8 days in November and am taking $600usd) . I prefer the hard money so I can budget lol.

I totally get it. We find budgeting with cash is much easier in general. We used to do all our groceries and gas that way until the pay-at-the-pump law came into effect here in AB. Now it's just groceries- we use debit for the sake of convenience when buying gas now.

In the past we've often been on the dining plan so we got by nicely with just $200US or so. This time we're leveraging gift cards for food so we'll see how that works.

For our next trip, I'll take a bit more since we have a longer layover at IAH on our return. We'll definitely need something to eat while there.

 

[BLAZEY]

I am clearly in the minority here but I like to take quite a bit of cash (enough for all food at least, I'm going for 8 days in November and am taking $600usd) . I prefer the hard money so I can budget lol.

I do the same. I don't like exchange rate fluctuations so I use mostly cash when in the US. We use magicbands too. I have a credit card linked, but stop each evening to pay off our charges with cash. I like knowing how much I've spent.