View Full Version : Do your kids spend money at the ports?

02-13-2009, 09:14 AM
We are going to St. Croix, St. Thomas, and Castaway Cay in October. Is there anything at those ports that kids would be interested in purchasing? Mine are 10 and 13. Just trying to figure out if I need to start bribing them with chores to earn disney dollars and money.

02-13-2009, 09:28 AM
My kids want stuff everywhere we go! Even in the Philly airport before we fly! Ugh! :sick: Just keep in mind you can't use Disney Dollars in the ports and while you can use them toward your onboard account for purchases, the whole ship is cashless. You charge everything to you Key to the World card and they slip the bill under your door at the end of the cruise.

On our 1st DCL cruise, our little ds was 6 and he was disappointed he couldn't go around shopping with his Disney gift card as he wished. All we could do was go to guest services and apply it toward our account.

Most of the things they've wanted in ports were little knick-knack things made of shells, hats, a deck of cards, etc. Mostly little stuff.

They do like to buy arcade cards too. You can use your KTTW card on Castaway Cay and they'll deliver your purchases to the ship so you don't have to carry it all around while on the beach.

I would still use $ incentives to have them earn $ to spend. It's good for kids.

02-13-2009, 10:09 AM
Do they sell purses? My 13 year old will probably be interested in purses. Have you seen any airbrush t-shirt shops anywhere?

02-13-2009, 10:36 AM
My kids loved the butterfly farm at St. Thomas...they had a little gift shop in there with all sorts of cool things for kids. My kids are younger though, but they had jewelry, carvings, pictures, etc...basically everything butterfly. A lot of the shops in St. Thomas had purses too! They have something for everyone. Our kids earned their money before they went and then were able to spend so much at each port. It worked out well for us.

02-13-2009, 03:13 PM
I'd just go ahead and do it. Even if they DON'T want things at the port- I'm sure they can find other ways on the ship to spend any money they earned. LOL

02-13-2009, 11:43 PM
At St Maartin/St Thomas My daughter bought the neatest cloth style doll. It has a long dress on and when you turn it upside down another doll is on the other half with a different dress on.
You get two dolls representing the two cultures, I think its a French side and a Dutch side. She wanted it badly enough to spend her own hard earned money on it.(She was 10 or 11)

02-21-2009, 03:18 PM
We did the Eastern last year when our DD was 10. After the cruise we spent 8 days in DisenyWorld. Girls always want to shop so we broke it down for her like this. We gave her money for the ports. She could spend it all in one place or spread it out. You never know what they will like. Then we gave her money for the ship, after all the shops are adorable and lastly we gave her separate money for WDW. To make it fun we bought the a few inexpensive wallets and presented them to her on the flight down to Florida. It is interesting to note that she did not spend all of her money anywhere. At the end of the trip she had about 40% of her money left. We on the other hand had no money left.

02-21-2009, 04:39 PM
turn your kids on to something interesting but afordable

My son started collecting key chains. He's one from "everyplace" he's been and buch from mon and I. They caost a couple of dollars and often are free. In his new condo he hooked them together and strung them ... about 20 feet in 15 years of collecting.

Daughter does the 'fridge magnet thing. Only down side is the stress on the 'fridge door.......