U S Dollars on Eastern Med Cruise

[Fragile-Beauty]

Hi,
We leave next week for the Westerdam. May 19th sailing. We are so excited. I was going to get a few Euro's before we left for taxi's, snacks etc. I was wondering will places like Venice, Santorini, Athens, Rhodes etc take American Dollars or will they strickly take Euro's or credit cards? Thanks for any help as I hate to have too many euro's that I don't need. I do realize that I can get more euro's from the ATM's if needed.

Thanks
Karen

[jhannah]

I would get plenty of Euros since that is the common currency in those places. If you use USD, you will always have to deal with exchange rate conversions every time you purchase something. Plus, smaller shops may not even take USD. You can always return extras to your bank to trade back for USD once you return.

'Vegas Jim

[wwinfl91]

When we were on the Golden last summer the only place where dollars seemed to be still accepts were are two stops in Turkey (Istanbul and Kudadasi). In Barcelona, Monte Carlo, Livorno, Naples, Athens and especially in Venice, if you didn't have euros or a credit card a lot of places didn't want your business. As mentioned earlier the exchange rate is constantly changing and some stores and restaurants just don't want to have to deal with it. You can get euros from your bank before you leave. There are also several other posts on the board about euros which talk about other options including ATM's. On the Golden there was a cash machine where for I think it was $2 a transaction you could change up to 8 US bills into euros. The exchange rate was supposed to be the same as the latest daily rate and that seemed to be the case. That way you could take dollars and change them on the ship as you needed them. Just make sure you take advantage of the system and exchange the maximum number of bills for the charge each time you use the machine. You can also take Travelers checks. These can be cashed for no charge at the Pursor's desk and then those dollars be exchanged at the machine. I believe you can also now get travelers in euros which could then be cashed in european stops. We took our american dollar travelers checks to a bank in Venice and they cashed them and exchanged them for euros for no additional charges beyond the exchange rate.

Hope this helps.

Have a great next cruise.

HAL Noordam 3/97 West Carib
Hal Westerdam 12/97 East Carib
HAL Veendam 11/98 East Carib
Hal Zaandam 12/00 South Carib
HAL Veendam 10/01 Panama Canal
RCCL Enchantment 09/02 W.Carib
Costa Atlantica 12/02 E.Carib
HAL Noordam 03/03 S.Carib
Golden Princess 07/03 Med
Celebrity Zenith 12/03 W.Carib
HAL Maasdam 05/04 Canada

[cactusrose]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>On the Golden there was a cash machine where for I think it was $2 a transaction you could change up to 8 US bills into euros. The exchange rate was supposed to be the same as the latest daily rate and that seemed to be the case. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

wwinfl91,

There are so many daily rates, do you know if this was the rates posted by banks, money changers or the interbank/wholesale rate?

1952 - Excalibur (freighter)
1972 - Song of Norway, Caribbean
1980 - Hawaii American Curise line, Tahiti
09/01/2002 - Veendam, Alaska
05/29/2003 - Pacific Princess, Alaska
11/26/2003 - Star Princess, Australia/New Zealand

5/28/2004 - Star Princess, Venice to Barcelona
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=ff00ff&cdt=2004;05;28;21;0;00&timezone=GMT+0100[/img]

11/06/2004 - Diamond Princess, Mexican Riviera
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=00ff00&cdt=2004;11;06;17;0;00&timezone=GMT-0800[/img]

[wwinfl91]

I checked the rates when I could either on the Internet or when we were in a port where there was a bank. I believe it was also listed in the little daily newspaper that they gave out at the Pursor's desk. Not the one with the daily activities but the one that was sort of mini newspaper.

The rate they posted and the ones I saw were always very close.

Have a great next cruise.

HAL Noordam 3/97 West Carib
Hal Westerdam 12/97 East Carib
HAL Veendam 11/98 East Carib
Hal Zaandam 12/00 South Carib
HAL Veendam 10/01 Panama Canal
RCCL Enchantment 09/02 W.Carib
Costa Atlantica 12/02 E.Carib
HAL Noordam 03/03 S.Carib
Golden Princess 07/03 Med
Celebrity Zenith 12/03 W.Carib
HAL Maasdam 05/04 Canada

[Jacqueline]

You need to have local currency. Thank goodness that most of the countries are now on the Euro. WHen I did this trop in 2000 I had 6 different currencies to deal with.
Most atms are fine (four digit code only) a and some countries - like France love credit cards. Just no AMEX,

Jacqueline
Constellation 3/20/04
HAL Westerdam 7/30/04
Tahitian Princess August 2003
Grand Princess Western Caribbean 2003
Brilliance of the Seas Baltic 2002
Ocean Princess- Alaska 2001
Celebrity Zenith- Bermuda 2001
Grand Princess Med 2000

[minke]

Just back from Westerdam maiden & it was euros all the way, some places like kusadasi will take $ but will probably sting you on exchangr rate. Malta has it's own currency as well but taxi's were priced in euros on dock. local busses only take Mlira so just changed a 5 euro note, not a good rate but then it's only a few local cents on the bus. Dubrovnik would take euros everywhere.

czar22