Coming soon, Walt Disney World will test a cash-less resort program at one of it’s Deluxe resorts during a limited-time pilot program.
Beginning February 12, 2018 Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge – Jambo House will be the first resort to test a system that will not allow guests to make purchases with cash. Only electronic payments will be received at this resort during the test.
You will be allowed to make payment at the resort, gift shops and dining locations by using only the following methods: MagicBands, credit cards, debit cards, Disney Gift Cards, Disney Rewards Redemption Cards, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or Google Pay.
Guests will still be allowed to tip for service using cash. No cutoff date has been announced for the test period at this time.
What do you think of this test program?
Horrible idea- I’m here now and it is making me mad. Doesn’t not accepting the American dollar devalue it?
My Disney trips are a mix of cash (small purchase, tips), gift cards (QS meals) and credit cards (big stuff because I don’t want to take big amounts of cash) but I would not want to be forced into going cashless for everything. First because it is my choice how I pay, second because I recently had a minor bad incident with Disney tacking a charge on my card without notifying me first which makes me not want them to have access to my card anymore than necessary and I had my card stolen from an online site unrelated to Disney which had me without my card for several days. Imagine that on a vacation where all you have is a card that is now no longer valid. How do you pay for the rest of your meals, souvneiers etc in that situation if cash is no good? Cash can’t get hacked and if you are responsible, it won’t get lost either. Saying a card, credit or debit, can just be replaced over simplifies because they will mail it to your home, not your hotel. Nor do I want to come home to a big credit card bill or waste time sitting in TS restaurants waiting for the bill, waiting for them to come get my card, waiting for them to return with endless slips to sign and then finally getting out. I hand them cash and get gone. No, I do not want to be bullied into charging and if my upcoming stay was at AKL, I would be swithcing hotels asap.
I think people should have a choice on how they pay, I think restricting people to only electronic payment is a downward move. That said, I rarely use cash..the only annoyance I can see is small purchases, soda, candy a beer..etc…sometimes you just want to use cash.
The chances of us ever having cash is pretty rare except for rummage or garage sales. I just don’t see the problem here. When you lose your cash, it’s gone. If you lose your debit or credit card you can call to have it replaced. Carrying a lot of cash in the Orlando area is definately NOT a good idea. I know, I live in Central Florida.
Not a fan !!! I bring a cash allotment for each day and do not spend over that Much harder to track using a credit card I want to come home and have no bills from my trips/vacations
Cash is one of the least secure means of providing payment both when traveling and otherwise.
I am with you. Cashless systems allow folks to overspend and deal with the consequesences later. Debit cards can help but often have a line of credit backup. Common sense spending is FAR from common. Disney is great at separating you from your money and this is juanother step forward in that goal.
Do not like it. Just another way of tracking how much you spend and on what you spend it on.
Great idea! It would also give her a quick visual as to what she has in left and if what she wants is important enough to use up more $$ signs. Thanks for this suggestion!
LOL – my poor daughter is already learning the hard way about money. We are Canadian and she received a $25 gift card at Christmas. I’ve explained to her that when we get to Disney her $25 gc will only be worth about $18. We haven’t even left home and she needs to cross off 7 $!! :)
I rarely carry cash in the real world, so I don’t think this would make much of a difference for a lot of people. We are slowly becoming a cashless society anyway, so Disney is just jumping on the bandwagon.
And for those of you upset by this, just calm down. It’s a test in a very small area. Even if Disney decides to do this throughout their entire system, they are a huge corporation and it will take some time to completely go cashless. You have time to adapt! :)
It cut down on cash and loosing money and they can collect interest on there money? It a good idea from a company stand point and guest ? You want have to worries about loosing your wallet and credit cards?
Coming from the UK each time I use my debit or credit card not only could the exchange rate be different but I get charged a conversion charge back in the UK for each use. So would work out expensive for me. So suppose will use magic band to charge everything to my room then make one final payment at the end of stay.
I think maybe that is the whole idea, for Disney to get more money out of us
Disney is going down hill fast. Taking away the spontaneous of a vacation. Everything must be planned and calculated months in advance. It’s like living the movie Metropolis. Total control. The bands are plastic that helps kill the earth and not safe for your skin. The advertisememts on your emails and texts will slam your phone with “known card purchases”
Stop trying to control and regulate how money is used!
Disney knows people will spend more using credit cards than cash. This goes along with raising park fees, etc.
You are right.
Just don’t go there
The cruise ship business already uses this procedure. What time is nice is the food is free, o e just pays for drinks and such. All the extras are on the room key card. I actually prefer what the cruise ships do, because I do but gave to think about money once in board. I do t like the Disney Dining Plan, so I always pay for my food. Managing the money while on vacation is the one downside to Disney for me. I like paying up front, but I refuse to be given food rations on my vacation and told how many waffles I’m allowed. It would be awesome to simply have a huge buffet at a resort prepaid in advance. Less waist with all those boxes and such. Just a plate and a tray would be nice.
This is the end of society as we know it. The machines are taking over.
AAAAAGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
I got an email on this today. My trip is in February. When I travel, I only use cash. This trip will not be any different. There is the option of doing a cash deposit towards your magic band or using a Disney gift card. I will use a gift card.
It’s only at one area of one resort. Calm down. And it’s your option to not stay there if you don’t like the program.
Totally ridiculous. I don’t believe in letting others control me when possible. So, no cash, no AKL. There are other options. I hope this does them enough damage to kill the idea. (cuz I just stayed at AKL and loved it!)
Agree 100%..I don’t like it. ..
Calm down people! It says at ” Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge-Jambo House” & it’s just a pilot program.
I think it’s awful, we always use cash, never credit cards!
I believe you just made the point above. People tend to spend more when they don’t see actual cash disappearing from their wallets…
Then have a little self control
What if you order and only have cash? At check in will they put cash onto you band? Not everyone has credit cards or want to use a bank card.
i don’t like it as we pay with cash alot when we come on vacation.
I personally don’t like this idea. I like using cash. Purchasing items on a card could lead to someone overspending.
I think it’s coming to the chip in the skin mark of 666
I think you should be able to spend your own money the way you choose. I personally don’t like this plan.
O totally agree!! My family and I only travel using cash. For us, this new Disney idea is the worst one ever!!
My daughter gets a certain amount of money in cash to spend at WDW. She can see how much she has left after a purchase when she has cash. The visual makes a difference, unlike with a gift or debit card. They say that’s true with adults as well. We tend to spend more carefully when we see the cash in our wallets disappear.
I don’t care for this idea at all and don’t see the point. Is there a theft problem with cast members? Haven’t heard of any robberies at gun point anywhere in WDW.
Disney never turns down money. Too many foreigners, kids and even families choose to pay with currency and will continue to do so. They can make all the advances they need to make all those little kiosks work with cards, but they will never be 100% cash free.
It’s really not that big of a deal. Those who prefer to use cash can always put the cash on their room account as a credit and it will debit using their room key or MagicBand.
Disney issuing Armageddon currency..there is no end to this test.
I don’t see the point in doing this? Is there something that I’m missing?
I see this as being a big problem for foreign visitors. I see many of them with cash that they exchanged specifically for the trip. Also, some countries just don’t use credit cards that much. Like Germany, everyone uses cash.
We only use cash on vacations, so this would mean a big adjustment for us. I
I don’t care for it.
Probably a good thing, but you would still have to carry cash, baggage handler tips, mousekeeping, MDE driver, certain vendors in the parks. I think that if they’re going to do it it should be everywhere. Make the service people carry card readers for tipping.
Personally, I never have cash on me in my daily or Disney life. So it makes no difference to me. My daughters are 7 and 10 and we have always made them save up their money for extra souvenirs over what we are willing to purchase for them. They use gift cards. I know what you mean about it being abstract. One idea I came up with is if you bring a paper (where you can fold up in her wallet) that has the number of dollars she has to spend represented in a dollar sign or even a rectangle. Each time she makes a purchase , she crosses off that many dollar signs or rectangles. That way she always can see at a glance how much she has spent and how much she has left, making her understand whether she wants to spend that many on the next item or walk on past to the next opportunity to give Mickey a few more dollar signs.
As a Canadian I can see this being a challenge. Depending on the form of payment used there could be foreign exchange charges and extra added fees which could add up quickly.
More and more companies are moving this route and it makes sense. I never carry cash anymore and prefer to use an electronic method.
We use cash a lot!
When we are at Disney we only use our magic bands to pay and get a little upset one days we can’t use them. Darn having to stay on property to use them to pay.
I hope this isn’t something they choose to implement in the parks. My daughter works hard to save for our Disney trips and enjoys having her stash of cash to make purchases. It’s much easier as a Mom to explain it will take ‘1 x $10 + 1 x $5’ to purchase ‘xxx’ rather than it be an abstract thing.
We can work around it but she does enjoy the satisfaction of using the money she has so carefully saved.
Also, what about the people who chose not to own a cc. There reasons for this are not mine to judge, it will just make it more challenging as they will need to purchase and carry gift cards to cover their purchases.
Personally I could visit Disney easily without cash (normally do) but I can think of situations where this decision (if expanded) could be unfortunate.
I just got the email for our March stay. It doesn’t do a good job explaining this. I thought it was something because of my reservation. I called and was on hold for 20 mins and finally hung up. I don’t think it’s a big deal as we only use our magic bands.
Guests that don’t pay with cash will see no difference in their experience