What currency for tipping

[kazwaz]

Hi,

We are going on our first Royal Caribbean cruise next year to the Mediterranean.

 

What currency should we use for tips, Euros or Dollars?

 

Thanks

Karen

[madforcruising]

Are you talking about the tipping onboard?

 

As the onboard currency is usually US Dollar (Except for some sailings on the Legend out of the UK this year - not sure if there are some next year too) the tips should be provided in USD too.

If you would let them charge the tips to your onboard account this would be done in USD too.

 

Ashore I would use the local currency which would be Euro in the most med. countries. Anyway tour guides ashore are used to get tipped in USD as well. I´m sure they often get a mix of Euro and USD especially from cruise ships with many north americans aboard.

[Ocean Boy]

The OP raises an interesting question and I am just curious as I have not thought about this before. Why would tipping necessarily be in U.S. currency aboard a ship sailing in Europe, registered in the Bahamas, and run by a mostly non-American crew? With the exception of the casino no currency is really used aboard the ship.

[kazwaz]

My original question was raised from reading other posts on the forums. From what I understand, in addition to the gratuities added to the bill or pre-paid, other service providers may also warrant a tip (i.e. the person who brings your luggage - if you're there when it arrives) If I'm wrong, please correct me! As I said before, it's my first Royal Caribbean cruise although I have cruised with Thomsons (UK based holiday co).

 

I would have thought that if the tips are in local currency then the staff can spend them ashore. As I'm from the UK small denominations of Euros are easier to come by than Dollars.

 

Has anyone been on a mainly American ship sailing the Med? What did they do?

Thanks

Karen

[madforcruising]

I haven´t sailed in the med but in the Baltics on RCCL ships. My experience was that onboard tipping was in USD and tipping ashore either in local currency, USD or Euro (most of the countries we visited in the Baltics had not the Euro).

 

The OP raises an interesting question and I am just curious as I have not thought about this before. Why would tipping necessarily be in U.S. currency aboard a ship sailing in Europe, registered in the Bahamas, and run by a mostly non-American crew? With the exception of the casino no currency is really used aboard the ship.

For sure your thoughts are true, though I still think that for the crew USD may be the most comfortable currency.

The crew has to spend some money onboard too I think, i.e. drinks at the crew bar, eventually Internet (most do this in port too), etc. I guess that these expenses have to be done in USD. In addition I´m quite sure that much of the tipping money (at least this was told to me by many crew members) is sent home to support their family. I believe in most of those countries the best bet would be the USD.

 

Though I have to admit that cruising the Baltics I recognized that the people ashore liked the Euro better than the USD as the Euro is stronger at the moment. I´m talking about countires that don´t have the Euro and I only had Euro or USD but no local currency. Best example was Russia, they always preferred the USD but nowadays they rate the Euro higher.

 

So I´ll stick to the USD onboard. I also think it´s easier to tip a bill than a coin and with USD I have single Dollar bill, while the smallest Euro bill would be 5 Euro (~5,80 USD). This is of course my personal opinion.

 

I believe neither with Euro or USD you will go wrong when it comes to tipping I´m sure they will appreciate both.

[kazwaz]

Thanks for the replies.

 

One more question - how easy/difficult is to obtain small denomination dollars on the ship, if at all?

 

The last time we got dollars from the UK banks the smallest notes were 10s. When ever we go to Europe we usually get money from ATMs when we arrive.

 

thanks

Karen

[madforcruising]

Sorry I never have really tried this on the ship.

 

It´s not easy to get one dollar bills over here too but I can order them at my bank, but I have to tell them and insist on getting X 1 Dollar bills, X 5 Dollar Bills etc. . Most of the times it works. Of course i don´t know about the UK. Sorry not be of more help here.

[German Wunderkind]

One more question - how easy/difficult is to obtain small denomination dollars on the ship, if at all?

Hi, what you can always do is you can go to the Casino and they will give you cash money.

It will go to your onboard account but I really believe (never done it by myself) that they can provide you with whatever denomination you wish.

Or just change the $10 bill at the casino cashier.

G.W.