cash?

[Trini]

Our trip is getting closer and I am getting more and more nervous. I wake up in the middle of the night worrying about new things!

Last night I woke up worrying about our cash that we are bringing. I did get some travelers checks, and we got the kids gift cards from the Disney Store that they can use for their spending money. We will use credit cards for all meals at restaurants (we decided not to do the dining plan - we couldnt get it for free and felt that the money out was more than we'd probably spend otherwise).

So my question is this: I dont want to take ALL the cash with us daily, is there a safe place to keep it in the room? I heard the safe's are not exactly 'safe'. Is that true?

 

[Evil Queen]

I've left cash in the safe before and never had any problems, but that was my experiences.

Maybe just get more traveler's check.

 

[liltoot]

I take travelers checks and cash them in the lobby in the morning before we head out. Also, I carry a tc with me in case I really get spending. The rest is left in the safe. I've never had a problem. Thank God. What an awful thing to have happen on vacation.

 

[kiddoc]

We usually take the amount of cash we think we will need on the trip, but leave it in the hotel safe save for a little pocket change. We then use room charge for our spending in the parks and pay off the room charge with our cash the evening before we check out.
By the way, I know this wasn't your question, but you should really rethink the dining plan. If you plan on having many sit down (AKA table service) meals, the dining plan is definitely worth the money! On our last trip, a 7 night stay, we paid $630 for the dining plan and added up our receipts at almost $1200! Just something to think about...

 

[goofie4goofy]

You can charge everything to your room with the key - lunch dinners, stores etc... Even most water, soda, ice cream stations take the room key. We usually bring $50 ($25 each for 2 of us) to the parks, but rarely use cash. We never take our credit cards to the parks either. The only thing of value we take is the room key and the park tickets, our wallets are locked in the safe.

We do not take much cash with us to WDW, not even Travelers cheques (never use them anywhere). We use cash for tips and to have a little in the parks.

As far as the room safes, I have never had a problem with them ever. I also have never had anything stolen from our room and we leave our laptop on the desk and sometimes our digital camera. I don't know how, if used properly the room safe would not be secure.

I love using the room key to charge, it is safe and secure. you must however sign the back of the key as soon as you get it or you will not be able to charge. They do check signatures.

 

[epfootballcutie04]

here's something creative (and kinda strange) that i heard someone say they did for cash on the tip board.

they roll up their cash and stick in a new tampon tube.

wether you do that or not, is up to you, but i thought no one i know whold want to go steal a tampon, lol... i thought it was interesting.

 

[pepe of ohio]

I usually take 200.00 cash money, for tips, taxi to WDW, odds and ends. The rest goes on our room key charged to our credit card. I basically know what the trip is going run me and have no care if we go alittle over. Not having cash or travelers checks is a blessing, nothing to worry about. We leave most everything in the room safe, just take our tickets and room key with us during the day. Never had any problems whatsoever. At the end going home, I usually have about 125.00 cash left. No need really for money at WDW, room charging has made Disney easy.

 

[Barak's Disney]

We like to spend actual cash, so we just bring along our ATM card and withdraw a set amount on a daily basis. Helps us stick to our budget.

 

[kimbac3]

We used our debit card last year. It worked out great except that I had to spend so much time entering all the transactions into my Quicken program. I had my laptop with me so I did it every night. But it still was a pain. This year I won't have my laptop. I'm considering a Visa gift card or AAA travel money. Anyone have any experience with these??
Kimba

 

[jmskinner]

We just charged everything to our resort key. It was wonderful! Still carried a little cash with us though and kept the rest in the safe and I put the key to the safe in one of our drawers in the room.

I highly recommend the Dining Plan also. It was nice to go and eat at a sit down meal every day and have someone wait on us. Without the plan, we might have eaten one sit down meal and it would have been counter service the rest of the time. Plus everytime we ate, we would have worried about how much we were spending. I will admit that we kept forgetting about snacks and probably had 6 or 7 left when we left.

 

[sherreis]

When you charge to your room, is there an easy way to find out how much you've charged? I guess I don't want to be surprised when we check out.

For those who recommend the DDP, do any of you have children who are too old for childrens' prices but still eat like children? DS will turn 11 in September and we're going in November. There is no way he can eat anywhere close to an adult portion. We keep going back and forth about what to do.

 

[bluejasmine]

I bring very little cash to WDW almost everyplace takes Visa/MC.. I actually pay with my visa checkcard for most things. The only things we use cash for are some of the snack carts but even most of them are equiped with machines now because of the DDP.

 

[bluejasmine]

When you charge to your room, is there an easy way to find out how much you've charged? I guess I don't want to be surprised when we check out.

For those who recommend the DDP, do any of you have children who are too old for childrens' prices but still eat like children? DS will turn 11 in September and we're going in November. There is no way he can eat anywhere close to an adult portion. We keep going back and forth about what to do.

Ive never done this but Im pretty sure you could probably get a daily print out if you ask at the front desk each day..

 

[liltoot]

We just charged everything to our resort key. It was wonderful! Still carried a little cash with us though and kept the rest in the safe and I put the key to the safe in one of our drawers in the room.

I will probably get flamed for this but here goes....... Is it really a good idea to leave the safe key in a drawer in your room? I'm glad that you haven't had any problems with doing that. It just seems to me that if someone was going to take something from a room that would be the first place to go looking for anything worth taking. okay I have my gear on.

 

[lizanne]

I will probably get flamed for this but here goes....... Is it really a good idea to leave the safe key in a drawer in your room? I'm glad that you haven't had any problems with doing that. It just seems to me that if someone was going to take something from a room that would be the first place to go looking for anything worth taking. okay I have my gear on.

No flames from me. I was thinking the same thing.

To the OP: We've been going to WDW for many, many years and have always used the safe. Never had a problem.

Try to relax and have a good time.

 

[CleveRocks]

Setting up a charge on your WDW resort key can be VERY HELPFUL IN STICKING TO A BUDGET.

Each "class" of resort has an upper limit for room charges, $500 for Values, $1,000 for Moderates, and $1,500 for Deluxes. HOWEVER, you don't need to set up the room charge for that upper limit -- you can set it up for any lower amount you want. That way, you can't blow your budget, KWIM? You can set it up for a smallish amount, and when you reach your limit just set up another one.

Room charges can be set up with a credit card, debit card, or cash.

I use a debit card for almost everything. Let me tell you, it was great to have only one transaction in my checkbook ledger rather than like 47 of them.

You can go to your resort's Guest Services desk and get an up-to-the-minute room charge printout as often as you like. I never tried it in any of the parks, but I'm going to guess there's someplace to do it there, too.

 

[klmall]

We carry the safe key and some cash with us to the parks and charge everything else to the room card.

We used to bother with travelers' checks but never do anymore unless we're touring other parts of Florida or places where ATMs won't be available.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I am sure there are easier ways to do this, but this is what works for me! We buy Disney Dollars every week leading up to the trip. The new gift cards were introduced about halfway into our planning this time, so I have half our spending money in DD$, and half on a gift card. For the next trip I will just do the gift card so I only have to keep track of that one thing. I also have travelers checks because we are upgrading our tickets to APs and I wanted that money separate. I will bring about $100 cash for tips, taxis, whatever. We do have the dining plan this time, but in December we'll just use the DDE card. DS turns 10 after the August trip and there is no way the DDP is cost effective for us with him as an adult.

I have always felt pretty good about locking up our stuff in the safe in the room. I carry the safe key with me in my badge holder along with my room key. I'll bring a portion of the money with me each day, and if we have to charge something back to the room we can. I just prefer to pay as we go instead of charging to the room. I think we are more likely to lose money in the parks by misplacing a wallet or something as opposed to the safe in the room being broken into.

DS9 has his own money that I carry for him. He can spend it as he likes, but when it's gone, it's gone. He isn't allowed to go off by himself and his room key doesn't have charge privileges.

 

[PocahontasLookALike]

I thought the safes had combinations...not actual keys?

I've only stayed in DVC resorts...is it different...or am I wrong?

We do travelers cheques because of safety and for the most part do the room charges to our key. Much more safe if you ask me. I wouldn't ever bring my debit card to the parks...way too dangerous if it got lost/stolen because then they would have direct access to your banking accounts. At least with a credit card, its not 'your' money, per se.

 

[HappyLawyer]

here's something creative (and kinda strange) that i heard someone say they did for cash on the tip board.



they roll up their cash and stick in a new tampon tube.

wether you do that or not, is up to you, but i thought no one i know whold want to go steal a tampon, lol... i thought it was interesting.

i don't use this method but i think of ones close just to give me a piece of mind.