Anyone with recent experience with Euro travellers cheques onboard?

[harz99]

Whilst we are talking about the Euro and Med cruises, people should be aware of the current financial crisis in Greece.

 

Banks and ATMs have lengthy queues as the populace is withdrawing cash in the fear of a crash if Greece defaults and leaves the Euro.

 

ATMs are subject to restricted withdrawal amounts for the locals; the knock on of this for everyone is that there are long queues and some ATMs may run out of cash.

[Pushka]

Whilst we are talking about the Euro and Med cruises, people should be aware of the current financial crisis in Greece.

 

 

 

Banks and ATMs have lengthy queues as the populace is withdrawing cash in the fear of a crash if Greece defaults and leaves the Euro.

 

 

 

ATMs are subject to restricted withdrawal amounts for the locals; the knock on of this for everyone is that there are long queues and some ATMs may run out of cash.

 

 

I am certainly award. My super fund dropped thousands yesterday.

 

The ATM's are already out of cash I hear. And possibly credit cards rejected. Maybe OS ones will be ok. Who knows.

[mermamasailsagain]

WifeofBedo... sorry that I missed seeing your post earlier...yes... our passport was kept, receipt given and you went to pick it up again on the last sea day at a designated time which you receive as mail to your cabin.

[wifeofbedo]

Ok, thanks for the info. I wonder why they do that??

I've also read that when you check into hotels in Rome (and Paris too) that they keep your passport at the desk to fill in their required paperwork. Makes me a tad uncomfortable, but if they do it for everyone they must have a safe system to keep track of them . I hope. :rolleyes:

[yorkyred]

Hi

I'm back and wanted to share my experience. I've also posted the same on a more recent traveller's check post. Christine, it was you here as in the last post... I hope if you are going on another cruise, you'll take back up! I appreciated your advice but it didn't work for me.

 

Sample of another case of misinformation from Celebrity! I was very happy pre-cruise to get Christine's response about taking Euro TC onboard to cash. I even called Captain's Club to confirm and had her doublecheck....June 8th, Reflection, YES, Amber said, I'm sure you can cash onboard Euro and American traveller's checks for a 3% fee (okay..I'd heard for no charge but that was fair enough).

 

A few days before our departure, I had my bank call 5 branches and found them downtown Toronto, spent the time going to the head branch only to find they'd used their last and got sent to yet another branch a few blocks away where after a brief conference, they found them, dusted them off and charged me a fee, which I think I'm supposed to be exempt from so there's another battle yet to follow up.

 

First day onboard, cheery to start my journey, I went to guest relations to cash my checks where the rep told me, sorry... they don't...or, let me correct myself: they will take your Euro Tchecks and convert them to American and then back to Euros which would lose me 15%!! I'm not kidding...and don't forget to factor in that I had already converted my Canadian dollars to Euros!! I argued that Captain's Club confirmed what an Elite cruiser had told me was a sure thing. Her response was so sorry but it must be a recent policy and she was following Bank of America rules...REALLY...this policy changed within ONE WEEK? I didn't win the argument after she checked with the invisible controller in the next room.(just to add, our passports had also been kept by the ship during the cruise and though I'd heard my odds of cashing the checks weren't much better on land, we had the identification issue too)

 

A few days later a bottle of wine and strawberries appeared in our room with apologies for my disappointment. The cruise was fantastic and the crew wonderful but this issue irked me as now I had to use ATMs (yes, I've learned they work well by this experience but this added stress at the time and I thought I already had a tried and true solution for safely carrying 'cash'), and I needed to come back to let those CruiseCritic members to whom I'd said..'wow..here's a great idea for you', that you should NOT take TCs so I wanted to understand this and I wanted to see if I got a different answer.

 

Back to guest relations and told the story again to a new rep...this time the answer I got was that the policy had been in effect for at least two years that she was aware of....... Celebrity, I work for a large hospital with a number of sites...why can't you catch up to this century and have an intranet system where policies are updated and staff have one true source with the RIGHT and updated responses!

 

My recommendation is not to take Traveller's checks and learn how to use the ATM. Carry cash and stash some in a security pouch so you can get through to the next port or two.

 

Just picked up on this and wish o had earlier because I would certainly have said don't bother with TC, they really are not worth the hassle these days. ATMs are certainly the way to go, the small transaction fees are nothing next to the overal cost of a holiday and it's just much easier in my view.

[yvonneh]

Ok, thanks for the info. I wonder why they do that??

 

I've also read that when you check into hotels in Rome (and Paris too) that they keep your passport at the desk to fill in their required paperwork. Makes me a tad uncomfortable, but if they do it for everyone they must have a safe system to keep track of them . I hope. :rolleyes:

 

 

It was because we were traveling outside of the European Union (Turkey). As soon as we departed those ports we could get our passports back. This was a first for me too.

The hotels asked for our passports as well, but I would never let them keep them, just record what they needed while I waited.

[Pushka]

Thats weird re passports. They didn't take ours with ports in Turkey? Maybe Captains choice?

[4774Papa]

LOL!! Yes, they do and we haven't used them because they became such a pain needing a passport and credit cards were more useful, but in this case, I'd rather not use our credit card in Italy or carry too much cash and risk having it pickpocketed, yet need Euros for private tours. It could be terrific to cash onboard.

So what happens when you cash some of the travelers checks and are carrying cash?

 

I suppose you could cash the checks on board ship, then not have to take all the cash with you as well as passport, etc.

 

Having a credit card stolen is far less a problem than if cash is stolen. If a thief uses your credit card, the charges can be easily removed, especially if you report the loss of the card.

 

I wear a money belt with extra cash and a credit card in the belt, while carrying only the amount of cash that we need for that day.

Works a lot better than paying the extra costs for the travelers checks, plus sometimes the cost of cashing them.

[CathyCruises]

Ok, thanks for the info. I wonder why they do that??

I've also read that when you check into hotels in Rome (and Paris too) that they keep your passport at the desk to fill in their required paperwork. Makes me a tad uncomfortable, but if they do it for everyone they must have a safe system to keep track of them . I hope. :rolleyes:

 

Lately they haven't been doing that as much. We spent three weeks in France and the only time we had to show a passport was to rent a car. In any event, they don't keep it, they usually just make a copy or jot down the info. I. Sure if you stay in the big conglomerate hotels, which we (almost) never do, it could be different. But it's nothing to worry about, just routine.

[mermamasailsagain]

4774papa... I needed the cash for private tours so yes, wanted to cash onboard the ship and only carry off as needed at each port.

 

Passports at hotels... in Civitivecchia, we were asked for the passport in the hotel and said we'd get them back in 10 minutes...secure? Not really as he took them out of the slots of mail behind him and wasn't sure he'd even given us the right ones as he laughed that more Canadians came in at the same time. In hindsight, you could stand and wait til he put the info in or feign reading in the lobby until he'd done the task if held up with other checkins...and I think I'd do that next time.

[maxsales]

Well I did get good responses but now I'm just confused! I will have Euro travellers' cheques so I don't see why I'd pay conversion if they give me Euros and I'd assume a 3% fee for cashing them.

 

As for the ATM, good backup but if I can take TC's 3% is better than $6US or about $8 a shot for what I'd expect couldn't be more than the equivalent of the $300 a day withdrawal that you are allowed.

 

Hopefully the Canadians who experienced this could enlighten me on the fees. Taking money from my credit card would be a cash advance with a huge daily rate.

\

The on board currency of Celebrity ships is U.S. dollars. So they would probably convert the travelers cheques to U.S. when cashing them.

 

Just a guess.

[ILVet65]

My recommendation is not to take Traveller's checks and learn how to use the ATM. Carry cash and stash some in a security pouch so you can get through to the next port or two.

 

Thank you much for updating us on your experience. It solved a debate we were having about the best way to pay for our private tours in October. ATMs it will be

 

Gerry

[kitty9]

Thats weird re passports. They didn't take ours with ports in Turkey? Maybe Captains choice?

 

The taking, and keeping, of passports has nothing to do with Captain's choice. It's all predicated on the rules of the countries you're visiting. My passport has been taken on more cruises than I can count, and in many instances it's done to make things easier for the passenger. Can you imagine having to stand in line in many ports, to have your passport checked by local officials? When the cruise line takes your passport, you're free to leave the ship once it's cleared, and officials check passports while you're off touring.

[SeaCBear]

On our recent transatlantic, from Fort Lauderdale, all passengers' passports were collected before we boarded. We were told we could pick them up again after our first port, Lisbon. We took our receipts to Guest Relations after Lisbon, and picked up our passports with no issue.

 

Our son, however, did have a problem flying home from Amsterdam, where our cruise ended. (My husband and I stayed on an extra week). Our passports were never stamped in Lisbon, and the immigration officials at the airport in Amsterdam said our son's passport had no proof of the date he had arrived in the EU. There were a few frantic emails between him, and me, as I sent him copies of our cruise documents as proof, etc. He eventually showed the officials various photos he had taken in Lisbon, with the dates taken, and they finally allowed him through to boarding.

 

So if you are on a transAtlantic, and your passport IS taken by the cruise staff (and this has happened to us before on another cruise), just make sure you have a passport stamp indicating the date you arrived in the EU!

 

 

 

The taking, and keeping, of passports has nothing to do with Captain's choice. It's all predicated on the rules of the countries you're visiting. My passport has been taken on more cruises than I can count, and in many instances it's done to make things easier for the passenger. Can you imagine having to stand in line in many ports, to have your passport checked by local officials? When the cruise line takes your passport, you're free to leave the ship once it's cleared, and officials check passports while you're off touring.

Edited August 5, 2015 by SeaCBear