Princess onboard currency exchange USD to Euros. Pros & Cons? Fees & Rates?

I just got back from a three week land-based trip to Italy, and we (2 adults) only used about 250 euros in cash for the whole trip - everything else went on credit cards. They took credit cards nearly everywhere we went - the exception being many of the gelato shops, which accounted for a big part of the cash we spent!

While I mostly try to use credit cards when travelling, I've also used ATMs extensively in Europe, Asia and South America with no problems.

I needed a fairly large amount of cash (euros in Europe and/or pounds in the UK) on some recent trips. Many private tours that I book online request payment in cash on the day of the tour. Some of them don't require any deposit. This is safer than paying in advance by credit card and worrying how to cancel if the ship doesn't reach that port. Some of these private tours are fairly expensive, and I needed quite a few euros or pounds for them. Also some B&Bs don't take credit cards and require payment in cash.

Since these private tours and B&Bs are booked in advance online, you will know exactly how much cash you will need for them.

But as every restaurant, museum etc takes credit cards, why would you need that amount of cash?

I have been to some 'clubs' that are cash only, but have always made my excuses and left!

I needed a fairly large amount of cash (euros in Europe and/or pounds in the UK) on some recent trips. Many private tours that I book online request payment in cash on the day of the tour. Some of them don't require any deposit. This is safer than paying in advance by credit card and worrying how to cancel if the ship doesn't reach that port. Some of these private tours are fairly expensive, and I needed quite a few euros or pounds for them. Also some B&Bs don't take credit cards and require payment in cash.

 

Since these private tours and B&Bs are booked in advance online, you will know exactly how much cash you will need for them.

This would be reason enough.............

I suggest looking up chip & pin credit card options. That being said, I was able to use my chip & sign AmEx at a number of places in Europe last summer, but needed my USAA chip & pin visa card for the automated teller machine to buy train tickets in Spain. AmEx worked about 66% of the time, and Visa was good everywhere a card was accepted. It's like being in NYC, a lot of places will take care but smaller transaction and some vendors wanted hard currency only. For a lot of the vendors that were cash only though you could find it in a shop that would take a card but might cost you a little more. (I've also experienced this in the Caribbean fwiw, with USD being accepted at a discount to card).

Cheapest offer to exchange currency was a Hilton hotel in Barcelona, where they offered to charge hard currency to my room account at a 5% fee and then AmEx did the conversion (and I got Hilton and AmEx points for all the spend). Not every hotel would do this, Hilton Athens would only charge the taxi ride to my room and then the bellhop gave the driver hard cash to prepay the ride.

ATMs are probably cheapest as long as you can jump through the hoops (e.g., find one, are willing to run an ATM transaction, know your pin, etc...). My local credit union was offering an OK exchange rate, and you can call around to different banks to try to find a better exchange rate. There's also some online services that will allow you to purchase foreign currency in advance as long as you have a target amount you need. You also can use leftover currency to pay down your cruise account (assuming a balance) or your final hotel night if you end up with some spare.

We used our chip credit card all over the Baltic last spring on the Regal P. The only times we actually needed cash in 25 days were in France at Chateau St Michelle where we wanted to buy one bottled water. They finally took our $2 USD but told us there would be no change given! I also needed a euro coin for the pay toilet at Mickey D's in Copenhagen - pay toilets are common in Europe. I used my Barclay Arrival credit card everywhere else (including Russia) for meals, Belgian chocolate, gelato, beverages and tons of sock yarn :) and there were no fees charged. I also noted that the exchange rates they gave us on all the different currencies were exactly correct when I went back to double check my receipts against the credit card statement.

Someone on Cruise Critic had posted a reminder about setting up a pin number for your chip card before travelling internationally and I'm so glad they did. I set my pin up before we left and needed it to pay for gas (in France, as well) for a rental car that required one at the self-service pump. Apparently, many of the automated train ticket machines require pin numbers for chip cards, so be prepared in advance!

I have not exchanged onboard before and after doing some research decided my best option is to use an onshore atm. I'm sure their will be one in the airport. If you are spending time in a city before boarding their should be several banks available.

You might want to be sure that you're not being charged a big fee for using an atm that isn't compatible with your card. A couple of years ago in Monaco DH used an atm, and the fee was $25. That wasn't a charge from our bank, it was the atm.

For that and other reasons we get our euros and British pounds from our bank before we sail. We also use the currency exchange machines board for the convenience. I know the rates are pretty bad, but for the conveniece it's sometimes worth it for exchanging a smaller amount of money.

I recommend using credit cards while traveling abroad in Europe. And for cash i recommend using an ATM at a bank while in Europe. This is what we do to get the best possible exchange rates with the lowest fees. We are currently traveling in the UK and this is what we are doing. It's working.

We like to have some currency before we leave on a trip especially when we have a port intensive cruise with lots of excursions. I really do not want to spend time searching for a bank ATM when I'm on a small group excursion.

We use Wells Fargo bank -- as we do not have an account the fee for us is $7.50.

im from england and have traveled all over i take small amount of cash but use the atms in most ports never had a problem