How much $$$ to bring on cruise?

[Yankee914]

Anyone have suggestions on how much money to bring for the 7 day Western cruise? Our excursions are all paid for. We were also thinking about what the breakdown should be (i.e. how much in travelers checks vs. cash) Thanks.

 

[Favorite Auntie]

On the ship you can only use your credit card - unless you want to pay your bill every day. Other wise you give them a credit card and you can charge on your KTTW card for the entire cruise on the ship - no cash exchanged. I guess you would only need money for tipping, (which you can do on your credit card too - other than room service.) and spending money off the ship.

 

[midnitemist]

Webring $500 cash and we have never had to use the whole thing. About $200 for tips and then the rest was for souveniors.
Most of the time we put most souveniors on the credit cards.
I don't know if this helps but this is for 2 people on a week cruise.

 

[Julma]

You can charge tips. We found this very helpful. It is simple and they give you a card to put in the tip envelope with the amount you gave on it. We brought $400 and did not spend half of it. Another tip is to ask to see your onboard account before the last day so if there are any errors you can clear them up before the last day rush.

 

[jrabbit]

If you are paying by Credit Card you don't need any cash while on the ship except for tips for the room service servers. Wait, if you have to do some laundry that probably take cash. I don't know if you can get a "cash advance" from guest services from your room card.

Any purchases made on board are done via your room key (Key To The World card of KTTW for short).

Arrival and departure at the port and the use of porters requires cash for tipping them - please do, they work very hard. When leaving, if they haul you bags way out to the hotel shuttle (not the Disney busses) or to your car way out there - please tip them generously - it's their living.

Obviously anything you purchase at any of the stops you will need cash or your credit cards (and you need you photo ID and KTTW card to leave and board the ship at the various ports - INCLUDING Castaway Cay).

Guest services will cash travelers checks for you.

Repeating the BEST tip in this thread - get your account statement BEFORE the last day to check it over. Don't wait for the final moring statement under the door - you will want to check that too - but if you checked the day before - at your leisure, you will have less to do before disembarkation - which comes way to soon.

2nd Best Tip - You can charge your tips to the Dinning Staff and room steward to your room - It is easy and works very well

 

[katz99]

Do they approve a certain amount for the cruise or do it daily? I have one card with a very low limit so that I can limit my spending and I do not want to run into any embarrassment.

 

[Yankee914]

Thanks everyone for all the great advice. Someone on another thread suggested bringing cash and paying down the account every day at Guest Services. This way you can check for errors on the account and there isn't a large credit card bill when we get back home. I just didn't know if I wanted to bring that much cash.

 

[4cruisin]

On top of bringing some cash and travelers checks, I send a payment in advance to my AMEX account so when I get home, I don't get sticker shock when the bill comes in.