In my “real” life I hardly ever use cash. 90% of my spending is online, and the rest I use my credit card for – often contactless payments.
Will I need much cash at WDW, or is electronic the way to go? (I’m staying off-property so I can’t use my Magic Band.)
The only places I can think of where you’d need cash would be snack stands, and anywhere where you need to tip but it wasn’t added to a check. I’m thinking if you went to a bar, like Trader Sam’s, and bought drinks, would a tip be added?
I always have some dollars in my purse but mostly never use them. But then we stay on site so just use the bands. Snacks though, you will need cash, like the popcorn carts for example.
Cash to tip the mousekeeper. I use gift cards. Carry one with you. When magic bands didn’t work, the gift card did.
I am the same way - but we do carry about $200 - $300 at the start of a vacation. Tips for bags, taxi, hotel etc. I do try to put everything on plastic as it is easier and we get points. You should be good with a limited amount of cash
I plan on taking $200-$300 cash, mostly for meal tips but also for any little emergency that might pop up (mainly if I’m out and about and forget or lose my plastic).
If you’re doing TS meals then they’ll add the service charge to the check. You can alter the amount but it’s usual to pay it all at once.
Even at the snack stands, you can use your credit card. You should even be able to just tap, but not all CMs let you, for some reason.
Cash for tips and tolls on non-Disney properties or to give the kids something to spend. You might want $20 a day for parking, so you don’t have to wait through a credit card processing, but they take credit card,too.
I had Zero cash on my trip with a family of four. We were fine, the snack stands also take cards and gift cards. With that said, we did not drink and take cabs, etc. We also stayed offsite. I would take cash if you plan to be in a place where you would want to tip…ie…a bar. before everyone starts to think I do not tip…I do…however my tips were mostly at TS restaurants and I placed those on the card as well.
We are generally a pretty cashless family. I think that in the US you are almost always able to tip on a credit card with the exception of any sort of valet or porter. We’ve had to scramble in these cases before. However, in Disney we don’t use those services so that is fine. We’ve started to use Lyft over Uber for the ease of tipping within the app.
At Disney we almost never have cash and always just use our magic bands. This past trip we carried only magic bands and our drivers licenses. This is where we got burned this one time. We were at Food & Wine during the afternoon in September and there was the usual pouring rain storm. Well the outdoor booths close when it starts to thunder and they shut down their electronics. They will take cash for a while before the rain really gets going and they close completely and then when they reboot they will also be cash only. Well we didn’t even have our ATM cards to get cash so we were without any access and personally starving! So that was a bummer.
The silver lining was that my son had just fallen asleep so we made a run for the indoor craft beer area that was nice and dark and had a lovely charcuterie plate and cold beer so we did not starve or go thirsty, but next time we will bring some cash or our ATM card at the very least!
There are some little roaming carts that you need cash - the only one I know of is the cotton candy light up wand cart roaming around Before the Happily Ever After show. I needed $10 cash - which I didn’t have. Cash to tip uber driver.
I believe that Uber allows tipping now.
Only in some markets. Not sure why!