My family is going to Disney World in October and I was wondering how I should take our spending money. Should we take cash, travelers checks, our debit card, or a combination? What has everyone else done?
when we went we just used the debit cards.
If you have older kids you may want to get them a visa gift card they can spend on their own, they have a way to spend but it's limited.
October is the perfect time to go, congrats and have fun
If you are staying on property, they have you check in with a credit card for 'extras'. Then you can just use your room key to charge back and pay for it all on the card or in cash when you check out.
If you are staying off property, I would take a small amount of cash, and a pre-paid credit card from Walmart or such. That way if you lose it or its stolen, its not connected to your real accounts.
M.
We were planning to go in September, but I think we need to back off of that now :(. Have fun!! We always bring a couple hundred in cash to pay for things like parking or drinks at stands. My husband and I both carry some on us in case we split up with the kids. The rest is on our check card (or debit card). That way we can keep track of our spending and know what money was used for. I also am nervous to carry cash because if you drop a $20 it's just gone. Or if someone takes your wallet it's gone. But that's just me. Have so much fun!!!
Just returned from there.
I bought a travel pouch that you wear around your waist under your clothes, but is otherwise flat. In it I kept our tickets, room key, a credit card and some petty cash. (If you are staying at Disney, you can put a credit card on file and just use your room key.) I opted to use my credit card b/c I got a bonus, then paid it off when I got home. Disney is pretty safe and if you bring a stroller, you will leave it all over the place, so I wanted my valuables with me. Everything else of value, I left at our hotel. We never paid for parking, but I would imagine it can be paid with credit/debit now, too!
I know there are mixed feelings about the meal plans...we opted NOT to do the meal plan. Instead, we hate poptarts/cereal for breakfast and and packed lunch most days (never had 'Uncrustables' until this trip!) It saved a ton of money and then we didn't feel bad splurging for icecream in the afternoon and a decent dinner.
Also, I hear there are "Disney Dollars", but we never converted any of our money. Glad we didn't...that would have been a pain.
I'd avoid traveler's checks...do people even accept them anymore? Most credit cards have a liability limit --if your card would get stolen, you can only be laible for $50. I was routinely asked to show my ID when I used my credit card, which made me feel safer.
you don't need much cash because every place in the park takes debit cards
We went in May. We purchased the meal plan, which you use your room key (i htink its called around the world card) to swipe at meals/snacks/drinks all around the parks. This was a lifesaver, because every meal - even breakfast - for four of us was always around $45 (or more for dinner depending on how much of a dinner you need). We had $100 in cash, and we spread that out over a couple days. Primarily, we'd use or credit/debit card for purchases other than food. Depending on the ages of your kids, the kids meals are very good sized, and you might be able to split them. We didn't - but we have very good eating 5 year old girls, and since mommy is/was pregnant, I just finished the leftovers :-). Have fun, it really is a magical place.
we did credit card and cash
We went in October on fall break a few years ago. We bought the meal plan - financially it was a lifesaver but we wouldn't do it again bc every few hours we had to stop what we were doing to make a reservation, wait at the restaurant for a reservation for 15 min - an hour, get the table, then spend another hour or longer at the meal. Our days revolved around making restaurants on time, not exploring the parks and eating when we were hungry - which we never were. I would NOT recommend it. If you're staying on campus, there is a local grocer that delivers to your hotel/condo door for only $17.
In terms of spending money, we did both - traveler's checks and CC. We are huge Dave Ramsey ppl so initially we only took the card in case there was an ER and they lost our reservation, baggage, etc.... So glad we had it. We mailed the travelers checks back to the bank and just attached our Key to the World to our CC. Easy as cake, we still stayed in budget, deliveries to the hotel room from the store were free, and we got the 5% cash back from the CC.
Btw, if you haven't already - check out allears.net. AWESOME pre-Disney site.
I've never used traveler's cheques so I don't know about those. We usually use a combination of cash & debit cards just like in every day life. I usually brought $40-50 in cash with me to the parks for stuff like ice cream, souveniers, etc., but then we'd use our debit card for actual meals, gas in the car, stuff like that.
