Currency on Australia/Asia Cruise.

[Reina del Mar]

Starting to prepare for our Majestic Princess cruise from Sydney to Hong Kong,( visiting Brisbane, Darwin, Singapore, Vietnam, Kaohsiung (Taiwan))

 

Can anyone please advise which currencies we might need? 

 

Obviously Australian Dollars for Australian ports but not sure whether we'll need Singaporean Dollars, Vietnamese Dong and New Taiwan Dollars, or whether US or Australian dollars may be used in these ports. 

 

Thanks in advance for any current information.

[triple7tahoe]

WE are on the cruise with you. Also, we have done this basic cruise a few times in the past. It was our experience that once outside Australia (beyond Darwin) US$ work fine for most things. The time you will run into problems will be when you try to take Public transportation they want the fare in local currency . I take a debit card/ATM and get local currency in the smallest amount the ATM will allow to use on subways etc.  Even there you will probably want to buy the local version of Oyster/Octopus/multi use card. I can tell you that most street vendors will gladly accept US$ as will most merchants.  I always take lots of smaller bills (1s; 5s and 10s) so I can barter. Nothing like getting the price you want and then having to ask for change. Even if you were to get change, it would likely be in local currency and then you have to figure out what to do with that. 🙂

 

[trbarton]

1 hour ago, Reina del Mar said:

Starting to prepare for our Majestic Princess cruise from Sydney to Hong Kong,( visiting Brisbane, Darwin, Singapore, Vietnam, Kaohsiung (Taiwan))

 

Can anyone please advise which currencies we might need? 

 

Obviously Australian Dollars for Australian ports but not sure whether we'll need Singaporean Dollars, Vietnamese Dong and New Taiwan Dollars, or whether US or Australian dollars may be used in these ports. 

 

Thanks in advance for any current information.

 

I’m on the same cruise & I have been told by a very reliable Asian friend that US $ are excepted everywhere. I had the same question before myself. 

 

Tom😀

Edited January 20, 2019 by trbarton

[Reina del Mar]

46 minutes ago, triple7tahoe said:

WE are on the cruise with you. Also, we have done this basic cruise a few times in the past.

 

46 minutes ago, triple7tahoe said:

We have done the Australian ports , Singapore and HK previously;  have booked the Princess tour into Ho Chi Ming City but not sure what  to do in Kaohsiung...any advice regarding what to do..??

 

Do you remember if there are 8-12 seater taxi shuttles like the Caribbean islands, in port area, please? We wondered about Pier 2 Art Centre....not sure we want to go far from cruiseport though.

 

Thanks in advance for any information you can offer.

 

[triple7tahoe]

We have been fairly lucky the last couple of times we were in Kaohsiung. The most memorable was our last trip where we got a taxi right outside the ship (or port area-Not sure which) and he gave us a wonderful tour for very little money. I had made the mistake of trying to get NT$ before leaving home and not being familiar with the currency ended up with Thai Baht. We tried to pay to enter some museum with the money and the "ticket sellers" looked at us like we were crazy (or con artists). Anyhow the driver fronted us the correct money and took the Baht. I wondered if I had lost BIG Time in that exchange but found out later that the driver was the one that probably lost.   We loved the city and this guy got us to the big things just like he did it everyday. We have some great pictures of the changing of the guard at the Palace. So far, we have had good luck with language as well; probably did not hurt that the US Army had a presence there for quite awhile :-).  We will probably just wander around port area, if we get off. WE are saving ourselves for the week in Hong Kong.  Hoping to get into China to do some shopping-Not HK shopping as we have had enough of that but there are a couple of places just over the boarder that my wife really likes..

[triple7tahoe]

Reina Del Mar-- I knew I should have had my editor (wife) check before I made comments. She pointed out to me that although we have been to Taiwan three or four times, we have not entered via Kaohsiung. At least two trips we came into Keelung (port at other end of island, nearest Taipai, and the other time we flew directly into Taipai.  Sorry about that.

 

maybe we can together sometime and talk about the old Canberra,  Started a world cruise on her out of Vancouver, way back in 1967-Lots of other P&) cruises followed,

[Reina del Mar]

Triple7Tahoe,

 

Thanks so much for the info.  Do you remember ( roughly) what you paid for the taxi tour, please? Will change some money into NT$ but don't really want to be left with much, as exchanges here offer dreadful return rates...usually keep spare US $ and Euros but not sure if/ when we'll return to Taiwan.

 

We are not staying in HK post cruise..too busy for us, but having a few days in Dubai on  both the outward and return journeys.

 

Would love to reminiss about Canberra..our cruises were mainly Mediterranean and Canary Island trips.

 

Thanks again.