Taking cash....

[salty dingo]

I usually bring $500 for two people and a 7 day cruise. There's usually some left over when we get home.

 

Some (perhaps most) of the private excursions like to get paid in cash. Of course there is the casino too, and some tip and travel money, plus what you buy ashore.

[blindrid]

We usually take about $400 in a variety of denominations for bargining in the ports. We bring a lot of $1, $5, & $10 bills so we can bargain at lower prices. Plus the small stuff is good for small purchases and tips. I try to pay in exact change that way I don't get a counterfiet. I saw a counterfiet $20 bill in St Martin being used by a local at a local shop. The bill looked real bad. The cashier questioned it, but ended up taking it. I didn't say anything because I didn't want to end up in the hospital or jail and miss the ship.

 

I do not take a lot of small bills as it is very cumbersome to carry a strap of $1's (100 of them) and the like, I prefer to look like I carry little money and I will go to the pursers as necessary to break larger bills. Accordingly when I leave, I'll probably have $1,000 in mostly $100's and $50's as you accumulate enough small bills in the travel process.

 

Anyway, to each their own and bring what you feel comfortable with.

[H82seaUgo]

i take very little. maybe $100. use the card, and a cc almost exclusively.

[lizie1155]

We usually take around $400 to $500 in singles, fives and twenties. Need our singles for room service and porters...whatever is left over gets put into the cruise fund when we get back home.

[gargoyle999]

I just figured out today what I'm bringing in cash for our B2B cruises starting in 10 DAYS! :D:D

 

100 - $1; 28 - $5; 14 - $10; 6 - $20 = $500

 

A few ports we don't have excursions or just have a car rented, one excursion is prepaid with Carnival and one is prepaid independent. I'd bring more if we had to pay cash for the excursion when we arrived but on this trip we won't.

 

So I'm bringing that for tips and a few souvenirs in port. We don't buy much in port except for small things.

[cruisingreena]

there are two of us and i usually budget 200.00/day for every day of the cruise, booze, gambling, ports, excursions. i dont use credit cards and our cruise is 12 nights i hope to come back with at least 700.00? if we are lucky...maybe we will get real lucky playing poker and win some $$

[amylee1178]

How much cash do you take with you onboard for your cruise? We have our tips pre-paid and are unsure of whether or not we're doing excursions. If we do, they'll be pre-paid as well.

 

My husband and I are doing an 8 day cruise on Freedom, which only has 5 cruise ports. I wasn't sure how much was enough cash to take. I guess it boils down to how much shopping we do?

 

 

We use cash for S&S w/prepaid tips, and have a general idea of what we want to do in port, so it all depends. We're not big shoppers (and it's usually all done on board). Last week we had about $500 in cash, plus there's an ATM on board. We ended up coming home with most of the cash and didn't touch the ATM.

 

It all depends on your habits, plus whether you're using a credit/debit card for S&S. If you haven't already, check out the port of call boards to get an idea of what you'd like to do in each port. That should help you get more of a ballpark figure of what you'll need.