Gift cards or cash?

[IloveJack]

My kids are emptying their piggy banks to take on our trip, but I'm torn between let them (technically me) carry cash or getting them a gift card. Gift cards are lighter, but not so easy to see the balance at a glance. Cash is heavy, but accepted everywhere. Which would you suggest? Do snack carts accept gift cards? (For when I don't feel like wasting a dining credit on popcorn😊). Is there anywhere at WDW that doesn't accept gift cards as payment?
Thanks for the advice!

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

I started to type that I'd go with the gift card. They really are accepted just about everywhere, and the carts that don't take them (such as the balloon sellers), you can pay at a nearby store, and bring back the receipt (at least that is what we did). The balance is printed on the receipts, so you can follow along how much is left.

But, it could be cool for kids to spend "money". I may see some ziplock bags in your future this trip!

I have also known people who made a "family bank book", so you just had to carry a piece of paper, and marked the declining balance on it.

[Fangorn]

If you go the gift card route, checking the balance is pretty simple. As mentioned, the balance will be printed at the bottom of the receipt whenever you use the card, but you can also create an account on disneygiftcard.com, and enter the giftcard numbers into your account. Once there, the 'manage' function will let you quickly see all card balances (up to 5 cards) at a glance. You can even transfer funds from one card to another. This could come in handy should a card be lost - you can immediately move the funds to another giftcard.

For our last trip, we we purchased lots of smaller giftcard for months before the trip, and then consolidated then into 2 special cards purchased for the occasion. That way DW and I each had a card we could use of need be, but we could, and did, move funds back and forth as necessary. I just but a bookmark to the site on my phone and if I wanted to check a balance, it took all of 30 seconds.

Steve

[mandaep]

If you know you will spend all of the money on the gift cards I would go with that. Carrying cash makes me nervous. When I bought a bunch of cards for our last trip I put them all in a bigger wallet, used one, wrapped it up in the receipt with the remaining balance, and when I went to buy something else I would go to that one next finish it off and start on the next if i needed. It wasn't as much of as a hassle as I thought it would be. I wonder if you can back up the cards somehow or report them lost or stolen or what have you. or consolidate the balances... but cash and kids just makes me nervous. but then again I still have little kids.

[IloveJack]

Thanks for the replies!!
My kids are fairly young, 8, 5, 3, and an infant, so only the oldest understands how money works (and even then, not completely)... leading me to think gift card. I had no clue that you could manage balances online. Thank you for posting that! That makes me feel better about losing one. The family bank book will include "real" souvenir money, but this is just what they've saved, and what I won't fuss about them wasting on cheap toys, or things like that.
I was concerned with leaving a balance on the cards, but we frequent the Disney store often enough that we would have no trouble emptying them.

[dnickels]

From a 'teachable moment' point of view I would stick with cash. I think it's better for kids to learn the feel of handing over their money in exchange for a snack or item knowing they're not getting the money back, than to put it on a card that gets swiped and handed back to them.

If you lose a card it's gone, you can't get that back and Disney isn't going to reimburse you for it, so in that sense there doesn't seem to be any difference between the risk of losing cash or the risk of losing the card.