Animal Kingdom Lodge’s Jambo House
is home to some of Disney World’s more adventurous dining locations including Jiko – The Cooking Place, Boma – Flavors of Africa, and Victoria Falls Lounge. Plus Uzima Pool is a great place to relax after a day at the parks.
Animal Kingdom Lodge
Since February this resort has also been home to a test — going cashless.
It is not uncommon for Disney to select a limited number of resorts for a test. In the past they introduced the Minnie Vans at a limited number of resorts, started the whole “open your room with your phone” thing at a limited number of resorts, and are currently testing allowing dogs in guest rooms at a limited number of resorts.
What does “cashless” mean for you if you are a guest at Animal Kingdom Lodge or dining at one of their locations?
Toy Story MagicBand
Cashless means accepted payment methods are:
- MagicBands
- Credit Cards
- Debit Cards
- Disney Gift Cards
- Disney Reward Redemption Cards
- Contactless Payment Options including Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay
When will cash be accepted?
- Cash deposits will be accepted at check-in to fund room charging options
- Cash will continue to be accepted for gratuities by restaurant services, bell services, valet parking attendants and other applicable staff members.
But, payment for all other resort services, including dining purchases by guests not staying at the resort, must be made via an accepted cashless payment option.
20th Anniversary Magic Band 2.0
What do you think of this transition to cashless operations? Will it change how you plan for your trip? Let us know in the comments below!
Check out our 6 Reasons to Visit Animal Kingdom Lodge (Even if you aren’t staying there)! When you’re done – check out all of our Food Tours on You Tube!
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Are they really going to call the cops if some tourist family from whatever city only has cash on them to pay their dinner check? They’ll obviously accept the cash if necessary.
Personally I like paying in cash at the parks and resorts so I don’t get excited and lose track of my spending. However, if cashless I could just put the cash on Disney gift cards and call it a day, so I don’t see it as an inconvenience.
Not a fan. We don’t always want to pay for everything with a card and I have had problems with my card at Disney in the past (not when staying at a resort but coming over for lunch or dinner).
We were there in March when they were testing in and did not leave good reviews. We like to pay for some things in cash and it was frustrating to be forced to use cards. We were a group of adults and would pay split the dining checks using cash so each person paid for their portion.
We were there when they were testing it and didn’t have great reviews to leave. We were a group of adults and spent the trip paying for our sit down meals with cash so each person paid their portion. We did that on a couple of trips actually. Not a fan of this decision especially when it comes to situations like that which I’m sure are not that uncommon.
We won’t even be there 24 hours: we fly in and check in around 7pm. At 11am we’ll check out and after spending a few hours chilling in the resort we’re heading over to OKW for the next 9 nights. We won’t have our park tickets, dining plan or even our gift card until we check in at OKW. We can’t charge to the room while we’re there as you need to pay up the before you check out, and we have breakfast booked at Boma.
Short of getting up at the crack of dawn, driving over to OKW and checking in early so we can pick everything up, I don’t see what choice we have. I simply don’t charge food on my credit card. Not unless it’s over $100. The exchange rate for us Brits makes it very expensive to do so.
Interesting idea, but it could turn very expensive for us international guests who are charged for every overseas card transaction
I used a cashless payments for Food and Wine this week just to avoid pockets full of coins. I’ve heard the stories about machines going down. Didn’t happen to us over two full days, though.
Animal Kingdom Lodge is our home away from home. My daughter loves, LOVES, this place, because she is an animal lover. we have a Disney trip planned in December and yes it will be Animal Kingdom Lodge.
We’re staying here on our first trip. I don’t mind cashless as I put my budget on Disney gift cards to keep myself from overspending.
To be fair, during my last visit to WDW (in May 2015) the only thing I used cash for was tipping house-keeping. Everything else I paid with my magicband, charging it to the room. Effectively I had a cashless holiday back then already. Happy to see them formalizing this across a resort now, but it’s already entirely possible across WDW, you really don’t need any physical currency in WDW.
I’m Canadian. I buy US cash whenever the exchange rate improves for spending, food, etc. If they require credit or debit for those things I will be charged a currency exchange fee on top of being at the mercy of whatever the exchange rate happens to be on each given day. This will end up costing more. No thank you. Will definitely not stay at AKL.
This might be great if you are an American. For people from other countries this would be more costly as we have to pay for the exchange plus transaction fees on credit or debit cards. This would force us to open an american banking account in order to avoid these charges just for one trip.
Personnally, I think it’ a bad idea to go cashless at WDW, even if this is just a test. It would be great if I were an American, but as a Canadian, each transaction made in US funds on a credit card will be converted into Canadian currency at a rate that is higher then the one I would pay to get US funds before leaving. In addition to pay for the exchange (which is is around 33 % now) I will be charged an additional transaction fee around 2.5 to 3%. I am going in November but I would think twice to return if the go aheaf with that policy. Thanks A.J. We enjoy your blog.
For those of us who prefer paying with cash,I know, very old-fashioned of us, I think it’s wrong to not accept this form of payment. I feel all forms, credit cards, gift cards, magic bands plus cash should always be allowed. I prefer NOT to have my preferred form of payment dictated to me.
There is a problem if you don’t charge. So now people need to make sure they have a pre loaded card unless you want to increase your CC debt. What if people don’t see this notification??? I agree with Justin. Another monkey wrench…. Probably won’t go and I really enjoy this resort.
I go to Disney EVERY YEAR sometimes more than once a year and I think this is ridiculous. People should have the option on how THEY pay THEIR bills while staying and dining at WDW.
I think this is bad news. For example, I’m from Brazil, and the exchange rate for the credit or debit cards are terrible. Also, we have a 6,38% tax in all our purchases made through cards. To buy cash, the tax is 1,1%. =/
We just got back and for the two weeks we were there they still accepted cash.
For guests at the hotel I can see cashless, For a non-guest there is no way you can not accept cash. I see this getting challenged quickly and frequently.
If it’s legal tender… don’t they have to accept it?
I only used my Magic Band my last 5 times at Disney (2014-2017), no cash except housekeeping tips.
However, I was kind of shocked on one trip when I tried to buy some sort of glow stick at a parade and was told cash only. So unless they changed that in the last couple years, do be aware that there are still places at Disney that only take cash. Also I had the system go down during the Food & Wine fest and couldn’t buy any food cause I didn’t have cash.
Cast members can’t make change anymore. I paid for a few things with cash and coin and some of them could not count back change.
For us Canadian Disney fans we are charged a 2.5% fee for each US transaction. This can really add up when you consider we stay for 2 weeks. I hope cashless paying does not go Disney-wide or else there will be a lot of unhappy Canadians.
I keep seeing lots of Canadians saying they get charged for each transaction. Brit here so we have this too. However are cash cards not a thing in Canada? Where you exchange money but instead of receiving it in paper you get a preloaded card which doesn’t incur fees? This may solve issues ?
Leonie, there is a provision to use cash at check-in to fund room charging. Would that be possible? Either way, you will want to chat with a Cast Member when you check in and explain your situation. Hopefully they can offer a solution!
I don’t carry cash as a rule, so it would not be problematic for me. My husband would not like it; he’s a bit more old fashioned
Hate it. Yet another push by Disney to reduce costs at the expense of patrons, another way to make it easy for Disney but not easy for guests. To be fair, I usually charge about 85% of my trips to Disney to earn points. However, I like to decide when and where I use my charge and gift cards and when I wish to use cash. I hope this program gets miserable reviews. Write Disney if you don’t like it. I will.
I’m a Brit who has been lucky enough to visit WDW a few times. I’ve never carried vast amounts of cash! I use a pre-paid card where my GB pounds are loaded on to it with a good exchange rate to US dollars, and no fees to use it. (Only a small fee if you wanted to get cash from an ATM for any reason). I only carry a tiny amount of cash for tipping Mousekeeping and other small amounts.
You have very little cover if your cash gets stolen. Much more cover if your card gets stolen, and more likely to not end up with someone spending your hard-earned Disney money.
I gave my credit card details to reception for any room charging, but popped by and settled my account with the pre-paid card a few times before checking out, so the credit card was not used, so no extra fees, but I could still use my Magic Band if I wanted to.
I found it easy to find a way to avoid being over-charged for currency exchange transactions but not have to carry cash.
Hoping that might help some of our Canadian friends who are worrying about resorts going cashless.
I personally don’t mind this at all. I put everything on my credit card to get rewards points. There is really no reason for me to ever use cash.
This is a terrible idea! What about teens who wish to purchase something from the food court? My kids do not have spending privileges on their MagicBands.
Jess, our 16 year old had his own pre-paid card last year, no cash. He learned to budget, cos when it was gone, it was gone!
Who thinks these things up? Cash is legal tender. Sometimes we like to pay using cash so we don’t have a huge credit card bill when we get home.
Not a fan. And it def would impact my future decision of staying or visiting WDW. I use cash when I go to WDW easier to budget & track & not overspend. I also don’t like to be forced to use my credit cards.
I am at Animal Kingdom Lodge having breakfast at the mara as i write this they are accepting cash. The cast member who helped me said cashless was just a test for 6 months. I have observed many folks used cash.
I really dislike this. I usually have cash budgets for different things for my trips. It’s way too easy to overspend when you just scan that little band. I hope this does not become a trend.
I love dogs ,however I would not stay at a resort or hotel that allows dogs! There are home sitters where people can leave them. It’s not fair to other people who have allergies or health conditions!
This might go over better if you were allowed to make a “deposit” to your magic band or at the very least link a Disney gift card. Maybe going to one of the Guest Relations stations in the parks or the concierge desks at the hotels and either load a cash balance onto your magic band or buy a gift card and link that. However, there had better be a way for the guest to get any unused cash back. In addition to the very valid concerns of those who would be slammed with foreign transaction fees, there is also simple budgeting to be considered. We always gave the kids x amount of money for souvenirs and when it was gone, it was gone. I had one that always came home with cash and one that was out in 2 days.