Soth American currencies

[royal65]

On our upcoming South American voyage aboard the Star we will be visiting 5 countries, each with its own cuurency. I planned to use leftover money from each country to pay toward my onboard account, but read I something recently that led me to believe Princess might not accept that. So, my questions: will they accept pesos from Chile, Argentina, Uraguay and Brazil?; will the Falklands accept leftover Scottish pounds I have?; will the ship's ATM dispense the specific pesos needed for those countries? thanx for your responses.

[Minoushka]

Exchange what you need in the countries themselves .Pesos in Chile and Pesos in Argentina are NOT the same

Exchange offices are everywhere

[paul929207]

Check onboard with the Port Talk person. Seems we used US$ in most countries you listed.

[sultan_sfo]

One needs local currency for buying water and sundries from smaller stores in most countries. Some US banks will sell sell small amounts say US$20 of currency of each country. There is no fee to buy and the rate is about 6% more than that day's wholesale rate. We always take an assortment and if some small amount is leftover we just buy local candy or so at the pier before boarding.

 

A great pub in Falkland Island was giving a terrible rate for US$. We had English Pounds -- naturally in Falkland they accepted British coins as well.

 

Added Later: We still remember in St. Ives a lady from US went into this small store and wanted to buy picture posts cards -- total amount less than 1 GBP. The store did not take US $. Then she was arguing that she wanted to charge that to her credit card. The store refused that. We then gave her the British currency!

[IECalCruiser]

On our upcoming South American voyage aboard the Star we will be visiting 5 countries, each with its own cuurency. I planned to use leftover money from each country to pay toward my onboard account, but read I something recently that led me to believe Princess might not accept that. So, my questions: will they accept pesos from Chile, Argentina, Uraguay and Brazil?; will the Falklands accept leftover Scottish pounds I have?; will the ship's ATM dispense the specific pesos needed for those countries? thanx for your responses.

We were on the Star Princess in February. Can't comment about Brazil, but USDs were accepted everywhere else except the cab from the Buenos Aires airport to our hotel. Exchanged some USDs for Pesos at the airport. We didn't convert any additional USDs to local currency. Uruguay uses both USDs and Pesos and our charge at a winery in Uruguay was in USDs. We paid for independent shore excursions in Chile, Argentina and the Falklands in USDs and made small purchases in all ports and paid for several meals in USDs. Exchange rates vary a bit but no worse than exchanging currency and you will have no left over cash.

 

Have a great cruise and enjoy the Star Princess!

[FredS]

From the Princess web site: We accept U.S., Canadian, British and Euro currencies, and traveler's checks. Express/Optima®, Diners Club/Carte Blanche®, Discover® Network, the JCB Card®, MasterCard® and Visa® are also accepted. Those paying by traveler's checks or cash will be required to leave a cash deposit with the Purser's staff at the beginning of the cruise.

 

We have sailed around So. America and did not find a problem with using US $. In many countries the people would not accept torn, defaced, wrinkled, US bills. Some will accept $2 bills, we use these for tips, but most would not accept them.

 

We have gotten some local currency at the Purser's Desk. Many people state the exchange rate is not very good.

 

You can always buy some at the airport exchange window for each country you are going to visit. We have never found an exchange that would take coins back.

[cnd crsr]

We used US$ in all ports of call in South America. Be sure to have lots of small bills as change you receive there will be in their local currency.

Have a wonderful trip on the Star.:)

[iain48]

Done a Star Princess voyage earlier this year, South America (earthquake cruise).

Used US dollars in Uruguay but in other places we used local currency, found ATM's easy to find and use except Brazil where you need to find a machine with Visa /Mastercard logo as many local ATM's don't seem to be international. HSBC was one we used. Loved the Star and South America have a great trip.

 

Iain

[cruiserny]

Just a suggestion - Convert sa small amount of US dollars to local currency in the first country you visit. (As everyone has said, many countries except Brazil will take US dollars.) Then when you get to a new country go to a currency exchange and convert any leftover currency from the previous country. This way you will not have leftover currencies from 5 countries, maybe just a small bit from your last country visited.

[Pam in CA]

We used US$ in all ports of call in South America. Be sure to have lots of small bills as change you receive there will be in their local currency.

I've done several South American cruises and never exchanged any money. Always used US$. But then I don't buy little incidentals when in port. You can use £ issued by the Bank of Scotland in the Falklands.

[shellbeachjim]

I don't think the OP's cruise goes this far, but the official currency of Ecuador is the US dollar. They use our bills but have their own coins.

 

We have taken a couple of South American cruises. The only country we exchanged money was Argentina, but we had a pre-cruise stay in Buenos Aires for several days and needed pesos.