How much USD do I need?

[TheCat]

I (and DW, DD10 and DD5) will stay at Pop for 9 nights in the summer. I have made 2 ADRs. I have already paid for the CRT. I plan to buy lunches and dinners from counter service or food court in Pop. How much USD do I need to exchange? Should I pay the CS meals with my Canadian credit card or cash?

Thanks!

 

[rewok]

Since you're staying at Pop, I'd suggest you link your hotel key card to your credit card, and use it to pay everywhere on property, except the small carts that don't take it That way, you won't have to bring too much cash, and you avoid ID checks that seem more frequent when you pay with the credit card. On the day before check-out, if you have a lot of USD left (of if you prefer to bring USD and not charge anything), you can go at the concierge desk and pay part of your bill with it (while keeping some money for the airport and emergencies), and the rest will be automatically charged on your credit card the next morning. That's what we did last year. I had brought 300$US for incidentals and out of property days (food at Universal, ...), and finally used 200$ to pay for my bill! I always bring too much, since I always use the card.

 

[canadaman]

Since you're staying at Pop, I'd suggest you link your hotel key card to your credit card, and use it to pay everywhere on property, except the small carts that don't take it That way, you won't have to bring too much cash, and you avoid ID checks that seem more frequent when you pay with the credit card. On the day before check-out, if you have a lot of USD left (of if you prefer to bring USD and not charge anything), you can go at the concierge desk and pay part of your bill with it (while keeping some money for the airport and emergencies), and the rest will be automatically charged on your credit card the next morning. That's what we did last year. I had brought 300$US for incidentals and out of property days (food at Universal, ...), and finally used 200$ to pay for my bill! I always bring too much, since I always use the card.

If I pay for everything with american cash and don't use any "extras" at the resort my bill upon checking out will be $0 right??

 

[rewok]

If I pay for everything with american cash and don't use any "extras" at the resort my bill upon checking out will be $0 right??

I'm not quite sure what you mean, but I'll try to explain a bit more. If you pay with cash at all locations: food court, restaurants, shops, ..., then you won't have a bill at check-out, or only 0$. In that's what you want, you don't need to link your credit card to the hotel key at all.

It's just that the key system is very easy, and avoids bringing lots of cash or using the credit card everywhere. You get a fully itemized bill with every transaction at the end. The only problem I had, because I'm a bit obsessive and I enter every transaction separately in Quicken, is that it all comes in one big transaction on your card! I had to enter everything by hand...

 

[digskat]

If I pay for everything with american cash and don't use any "extras" at the resort my bill upon checking out will be $0 right??

That is right. We only use cash at Walt Disney world. You can bet on about $25-30 a meal at counter services. Unless you get cheaper items ie fries etc.
We generally take close to $2000 ( but we pay cash for everything including hotels and gas on the way home and usually buy some xmas gifts down there. The first year we went we stayed off site and took $1200 and were fine with that. The more you take the more you spend usually. Check out menus on allearsnet it will give you prices of items. Take Care Kat table services can run $60-100+ depending on where you go and what you order.

 

[joech]

I (and DW, DD10 and DD5) will stay at Pop for 9 nights in the summer. I have made 2 ADRs. I have already paid for the CRT. I plan to buy lunches and dinners from counter service or food court in Pop. How much USD do I need to exchange? Should I pay the CS meals with my Canadian credit card or cash?

Thanks!

keep in mind you your canadian credit card will charge you 2.5% on top of the exchange rate unless your credit card in in US fund.

 

[rewok]

keep in mind you your canadian credit card will charge you 2.5% on top of the exchange rate unless your credit card in in US fund.

But the bank will also charge you about 2-3% to get USD cash! There's no good way around that, unless you buy lots of money.

 

[bunnyfoo]

Before I got my US$ credit card, I use to charge everything I possibly could to my room. That way, if I needed to return something, I wouldn't get charged twice by my Canadian CC to exchange the money.

If you have a friend or family member who works at a bank, they most likely get an employee discount on currency exchanges. You might be able to get a better rate on the US$ this way

 

[BitsnBearsMom]

You can always use the room key to pay for everything and clear the amount owing each day or every other day with cash at the front desk. That's what we usually do!
Easier then carrying a wad of cash around the parks and better then putting it all on our credit card. We still link our credit card to it but pay it off before they can charge it!

 

[DisneyRookie2007]

I (and DW, DD10 and DD5) will stay at Pop for 9 nights in the summer. I have made 2 ADRs. I have already paid for the CRT. I plan to buy lunches and dinners from counter service or food court in Pop. How much USD do I need to exchange? Should I pay the CS meals with my Canadian credit card or cash?

Thanks!

We just returned in early May (2 adults and 2 young teens). We spent an average of $40 for counter service meals, but some of the portions were large, so I'm sure we could have ordered only 3 meals and split them up.

Our table service meals, including 20% tip, averaged to about $90.

We brought $700 US for 8 days and found we needed to put some of our table service meals on the credit card