If you've send a kid to WDW on a school trip......

[jfranklyn]

I am going to be a chaperone on an upcoming high school band trip to WDW for 4 days. I have had a lot of parents asking me how much money they should send with their child. And also, should they send cash, gift cards or what? The kids are only responsible for one meal each day - the rest will either be at the hotel or through vouchers. But they would also need money for drinks (especially since it's a June trip), snacks and souvenirs.

If you have done this in the past, how much money have you sent with them? And do you usually use cash or gift cards? Are disney gift cards accepted everywhere? Thanks for any help you can give me.

 

[RedAngie]

When DD's school marching band went to WDW for 3 days about 6 years ago, I gave her $100 for snacks, drinks, souvenirs, etc. $50 cash and a $50 gift card. She also had some money of her own.

 

[Hannahinwonderland]

My parents sent me (6 years ago) and they gave me $125, as per the school's recommendation. But they told me that any money I didn't spend I could keep, so I tried to keep the cost low.

 

[verleniahall]

i wen tto NYC sophmore year and I took $500 - but I had my own debit card - I would NOT send cash - most places accept gift cards

 

[alliecat523]

The split of cash and gift cards is good. That way they have something for on the way there (airport, rest stop, train station, whatever) and can use the cards anywhere on property. And you don't have a teen walking around with a load of cash.

 

[cckp72]

I would estimate at minimum $20/day for food + $10 for souvenirs + 15% "contingency" = ~ $35/day *4 days = 140 bucks. Still seems a little low to me - if it were my kid, I would probably send 160-175 just in case..

 

[bluezy]

My 2 teens went on a 4 day band trip to Disney World a year ago. They stayed at ASMu. They had meal vouchers for 1 meal per day. I gave them each $200 in cash to cover meals, snacks, and souvenirs (though they knew they were going back to Disney with the family a few weeks after they returned from the school trip, so they didn't need to buy any "big" souvenirs). I used $17/meal and $5/snack as a guideline. They each had about $25-30 leftover when they got home.

ETA: While I gave the kids all cash, I did tell them not to keep it all in one place. They kept what they needed for the day in their wallets. The rest was "hidden" in different places in their luggage and instrument cases.

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

Not to be a nervous nellie, but when you get the gift cards take a photo with your phone of the card numbers and write their name with a sharpie on the card. DGS had a school trip to Disneyland and his money and cards were stolen by a roomate. (I know, who'd have thought).
I like the idea of cards/cash, but less cash than cards. You don't have to use all WDW cards either. You could give them a VISA card for stuff at the airport, etc. Still safer than cash if you've copied the numbers, etc. And they can be used anywhere in lieu of cash.
IMHO

 

[kj2mom]

Thank you soo much for asking this! My son will be going on a band trip next year and I have been wondering how much to send him with. All of his meals are covered, everything is taken care of except for spending money (souvenirs/drinks/snacks) and I have been trying to budget for how much to send with him and in what form. This has been (and I am sure will be) very helpful!

 

[BelleinPA]

My daughter just went on her Senior Class trip 2 weeks ago. It was for four days and we gave her a $200 Visa card to use. Some of her meals were already included, so she only spent about $150. She had a little bit of cash with her also. Visa card was great because she could use it anywhere, even to buy a bottle of water.

 

[Mikie]

I like the idea of telling the parents a breakdown: estimate $12-15 for a QS meal per day, plus $3 twice/day for a drink, plus $5/day snack, plus a little for stops on the way (airport, train station, etc), plus $30 for one tshirt or other souvenir. That gets me to about $160 rounded up. This way, they can tweak by their own judgement whether any piece is too low or too high for them personally. Recommend that they split between cash and plastic (either Disney gift card or Visa gift card) and photocopy fronts and backs of cards so that they can be reported lost if necessary.

 

[Minnie222]

I would send $100 and $100 gift card, or the total of $200.

$100 should be enough to cover the food, drink and snacks for 4 days, while the other $100 would cover souvenirs.
We just finished our trip, and Disney souvenirs are expensive. $100 doesn't really buy a lot when a t-shirt is about $20 to $30.

 

[Andrewsminustwo]

My daughter just went on her Senior Class trip 2 weeks ago. It was for four days and we gave her a $200 Visa card to use. Some of her meals were already included, so she only spent about $150. She had a little bit of cash with her also. Visa card was great because she could use it anywhere, even to buy a bottle of water.

Those Visa gift cards are great because you can load more money on it if needed from home and also track their spending...just jot down the number off the card....my daughter went on a band trip a few years ago and the last day I checked her balance.... $3.50 left! I just loaded more for piece of mind.

 

[subtchr]

I am a tour director for bands and choirs. I just got back from a band trip on Saturday, and am leaving for my next one tomorrow!

You have received some good advice. A couple other things -- will they receive a meal voucher each day or a Disney dining card? My groups alternate between the two. Each has its pros and cons. The pros of the vouchers are that they include a drink, entree and dessert. The con is that they are for limited locations (but still some very good choices). The pros of the dining cards are that they can be used anywhere on property. The con is that they have to pay more attention to the value of what they are buying! We usually give them $15-18 dining cards if they are using them. I tell the kids that they can get a lot more value from them if they are okay with cups of ice water to drink instead of a pop or bottled water. In fact, I tell them to ask for ice water throughout the day, to save money and stay hydrated.

He will have a blast, the kids always do!

 

[jfranklyn]

Thank you all for the great responses!!

 

[MomTo3PrincessesInNJ]

I will add that I'm a little weary of Visa gift cards after my trip over Easter weekend. My daughters had Visa GCs left over from Christmas and twice they were declined at Disney merchandise stores, even though I KNOW they had money on them. The cashiers said sometimes their system gets "confused" with them. Luckily I had my debit cards, and I was able to use those same GCs later in the trip at other Disney merchandise/snack shops, but I'd hate to leave my kid with only 1 form of payment. So, I vote, half Disney GC, half Visa GC.

 

[Sevey13]

I am going to be a chaperone on an upcoming high school band trip to WDW for 4 days. I have had a lot of parents asking me how much money they should send with their child. And also, should they send cash, gift cards or what? The kids are only responsible for one meal each day - the rest will either be at the hotel or through vouchers. But they would also need money for drinks (especially since it's a June trip), snacks and souvenirs.

If you have done this in the past, how much money have you sent with them? And do you usually use cash or gift cards? Are disney gift cards accepted everywhere? Thanks for any help you can give me.

A neat advantage to using a gift card is that you can register a Disney Gift Card on their website, which gives you access to the balance. This can come in handy if it gets lost. If you send someone with two gift cards (the normal one and a "backup" gift card with a few dollars on it) and the normal one gets lost, in just a few clicks you can actually transfer all the balance over to the "backup." So if it got lost, you don't lose the balance to the Disney ether and if it gets stolen the person who took it ends up with an empty card.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

When my son went 5 years ago, the school recommended they have a certain amount of cash because only 2 meals per day were covered. They didn't recommend gift cards because of electronic theft (ie: you think it was loaded up but someone had stolen the money off it electronically.)

I seem to remember the amount being 125.00 or so - my son used his all up and even bought a dinner for a friend who didn't bring enough money with him. He also had his debit card with him just in case he needed more.

Nowadays they probably recommend more since the costs have gone up.

 

[bluezy]

My advice if you're sending your kids with Disney gift cards is to definitely do a few cards with smaller amounts on them since even though it's easy enough to report it as lost or stolen, you have to know it's missing before you can do that. It doesn't take long for a dishonest person to pick up a gift card that's laying on the ground, on a bench, etc. and try to use it. The card could be emptied before you even know it's missing.

 

[Memaw2Wm]

My DD went a zillion years ago (20+) with her marketing class, and I have no recollection of the amount of money I send, but I'm sure it was cash.

If my live-in granddaughter was going I'd send her with some cash and her credit card with a specified limit (she has a user card on my cc). Probably $50 in cash and a spending limit of $150 on the cc. N is very trustworthy when it comes to charging.