Cash from reception?

[Portolan]

I searched but couldn't find an answer to this. On Regent, you can draw cash from reception in whatever currencies (usually dollars and Euros) they have on-board. The cash is "charged" to your shipboard account and settled like any other charge at the end of the cruise. Obviously, a pretty good deal since, for dollars at least, this is better than an ATM (no fee or interest charges). I found references to converting currency, but not whether you can do this kind of cash "charge" on-board.

A somewhat related question is whether Silversea will reimburse the foreign conversion charges that sometimes happen when on-board bills are settled in US dollars, using a US credit card, but cleared by the cruise line through a foreign bank (Regent will do this).

Thanks for the anticipated replies. Really looking forward to trying out Silversea starting Saturday!

[jgibbs]

On Regent, you can draw cash from reception in whatever currencies (usually dollars and Euros) they have on-board. The cash is "charged" to your shipboard account and settled like any other charge at the end of the cruise.I could be wrong, but I don't think SS offers this service.

[jpalbny]

I don't think that SS does this either. I just looked through a few of my daily programs from the Cloud last month, and they didn't mention it there. But, I think in the directory of services found in the suites they say that they don't offer currency exchange.

Don't know about getting dollars from them, though.

Makes sense that Regent does this - Oceania did when we cruised them in the past. Though the exchange rate was not as good as you could get at an ATM, the one advantage was that they'd take the Euros, etc, back at the end of the cruise. So you could pay for a few drinks on your shipboard account with your spare change.

One enterprising couple whom we know well would withdraw cash from an ATM free of charge and then turn in their extra euros at the desk afterwards...:eek:

We have relied solely on ATMs for the past few years. So far, so good...

[Portolan]

Don't know about getting dollars from them, though.


We use ATMs for foreign currency, as well. On occassion though when you need a few Euros the hit on the exchange rate was OK.

However, there are many areas of the world (Russia, amongst other areas) where dollars are the lingua franca and the ability to get them "at cost" has been helpful. Just to be clear, when you do this on Regent and draw, say, $200, then there is a $200 charge to your OBC which settles by credit card for...$200. There is a daily limit of some number of hundreds of dollars ($200/$300?). Pretty nice arrangement.

Oh well.

[ging466]

However, there are many areas of the world (Russia, amongst other areas) where dollars are the lingua franca and the ability to get them "at cost" has been helpful. Just to be clear, when you do this on Regent and draw, say, $200, then there is a $200 charge to your OBC which settles by credit card for...$200. There is a daily limit of some number of hundreds of dollars ($200/$300?). Pretty nice arrangement. Oh well.

Yes a very nice arrangement...I'd sure like that too.

Cheers
Jennifer

[Kununoppin]

On our Black Sea Cruise on SS last year, we were able to get Euros and Turkish Lira at the SS Tour desk. As I recall, it was charged to our shipboard account.