Cash,Debit Cards,Disney Dollars?

[jraczes]

Not Sure if I should bring cash, disney dollars,get a Disney gift card or what when I go in 56 days with my DD and DS?
I really don't want to carry my wallet around.
If I loose my debit card it would be harder to get a replacement while on vacation. If I uses disney dollars than I'll probably have to carry my wallet. The Disney card if lost as long as I have a copy of the card I can get a replacement at WDW.
Your thoughts?

[faline]

Generally, I use a combination of cash, travelers' checks, credit card, and room key.

I don't carry much cash with me. For this reason, I also don't depend upon Disney dollars which is the equivalent of cash if lost or stollen.

[medic9016]

I secure my room key with my Visa debit card. The money comes right of my account the day I check out. This way I carry little cash and if my room key is lost, it can be replaced right there.

[Doug The Disney Man`]

Absolutely. I like to link up one of my credit or debit cards to my Key to the World and then just carry that one card with me. I lock up my keys, wallet and everything else in the room and I have tons of pocket space. Of course now that my DS is a little older, 6, I might not have to reserve so much pocket space for sippees, wipes, etc, etc! HA!

[snifflesmcg]

You didn't say if you were staying on-site or not but here is my suggestion. I use my debit card so I can charge purchases onto my room key. If this gets lost, you can easily replace it. Other than that, I bring about $20 for snacks/drink or small items I might want.

[DizneyRox]

Room key is the best option. You can leave Cash/Disney Dollars/etc. against it if you want, but you only then need to worry about that one card, which you'll need to get into your room anyway.

Otherwise, I use a debit/credit card. I don't worry too much about losing it, just keep track of it and you'll be fine.

[lilmick]

Great info for our upcoming (8 days!) trip to WDW. Can you just verify for me that if you leave your debit card number at your Disney resort, they will not charge anything on it until you check out? Thanks

[DizneyRox]

Great info for our upcoming (8 days!) trip to WDW. Can you just verify for me that if you leave your debit card number at your Disney resort, they will not charge anything on it until you check out? Thanks

I will verify that they will NOT charge your card UNTIL you hit the limit.

At a value, that limit is $500, at a moderate that limit is $1000, and at a deluxe your limit is $1500.

If you don't hit that limit until you check out, then it will not be charged until you check out, and be careful that youtell them you DO NOT want express checkout, otherwise it will be charged that morning, regardless of if you show up at the front desk or not.

[Lady]

Pay off our room before we go so we don't have to use our debit card when we get there. We don't use credit cards so we usually use traveler's checks or a Visa cash card. We register our cards so they can be replaced if lost but we never have had that happen.

[PAYROLL PRINCESS]

I usually use a mix of travelers checks, Disney dollars and a major credit card. And as stated, if you are staying on property, you can use your room key to charge everything to that and only have one thing to keep track of. But bring a little cash in case you want to buy something at a kiosk and they are down computer wise.

[Lizzie]

I would do room key and disney dollars. The best thing about room key is you get a print out so its easy to keep track of what you spend and not go home and be shocked by what you spent.

[starrmomof2]

When we went last year, I wanted to use cash,but not carry it. Our package was paid for, so I just put $xx on our account and used our room key against it. I then checked every couple days by getting a printout from the front desk to see how close we were to our balance, ready to add more to it if needed. I then carried a small amount, $20 or so, with me each day for small things if needed. This worked well for us as I didn't worry about tying up or involving my debit/credit card.

[vamaggie]

A related question: Can I "load" my DS & DD's room keys with a specific amount that they can charge up to? I was going to get them a Disney gift card and/or Disney DOllars for their spending money allotment but if I can load their room keys with their spending money it will be one less thing to keep track of. TIA

[dolphinmickey9170]

I secure my room key with my Visa debit card. The money comes right of my account the day I check out. This way I carry little cash and if my room key is lost, it can be replaced right there.

We do the same thing. Then there is no carrying a wallet, if you don't want. So easy.

[DizneyRox]

A related question: Can I "load" my DS & DD's room keys with a specific amount that they can charge up to? I was going to get them a Disney gift card and/or Disney DOllars for their spending money allotment but if I can load their room keys with their spending money it will be one less thing to keep track of. TIA

I have applied money towards my room charges, HOWEVER it was just me. I don't think they will allow you to put seperate amounts of different cards. I've heard it's possible, but most folks that have responded in the past indicate that they don't let you put different charge cards on different rooms keys, so I'm guessing they won't do this was cash either.

[Disney Doll]

We use the room key with our American Express card and then carry just a little cash.

[CleveRocks]

A related question: Can I "load" my DS & DD's room keys with a specific amount that they can charge up to? I was going to get them a Disney gift card and/or Disney DOllars for their spending money allotment but if I can load their room keys with their spending money it will be one less thing to keep track of. TIA

There can only be one (1) room charge account at any one time. You can pick and choose which cards will have charging privileges and which won't, but you can't assign individual limits to cards.

In your case, for the kids, the Disney gift card will be the best choice.

On a related matter, to comment on an earlier post about room charge limits ....

The limits of $500/Values, $1K/Moderates and $1.5K/Deluxes are UPPER limits. You can set YOUR room charge limit for any amount up to and including those upper limits. Even a lot of Disney resort CMs don't know this; I've had several tell me its not possible, so I ask them to try it anyway, and when it works they've learned something new that day!