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Tipping currency for baltic cruise


Cruiser3131
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Hi there!

Really looking forward to our cruise!:D

I do have a question on tipping. I've seen the posts on the rates but nothing on the currency.

 

I assume you should tip in the local currency?

Just trying to get a handle on how much cash we'll need to tipping on excursions.

EU should get you sorted for everywhere including St Petersburg?

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On an excursion, I would tip in the local currency. However US dollars are also welcome in developing countries (not Europe, obviously). On board a ship, tip the staff in US dollars or Euros.

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You may tip with any available currency. All will be accepted and appreciated.

Any currency? Please don't follow some UK cruisers.

 

Last Baltic, on leaving the coach after the St Petersberg Gold Room Tour, giving £5.00 to the driver and £10.00 to the Guide, when the Guide asked if we would help her and change British £1.00 coins for U.K. notes, as coins are difficult to change into local currency.

No problem. To which the guide took a bag of £1.00 coins from her satchel, containing "tips" from her first trips/season as a guide. The bag contained about 40 plus £1.00 coins, but sadly only 12 were U.K. Legal, the rest were old £1.00 coins.

Over a year after they ceased to be legal tender?

 

Appalling!

 

Be aware! There are Brits out there, who knowingly gave, an unsuspecting and trusting guide, worthless tips as they left their tour coaches, as a thank you.

 

We were so angered, that we took bag of coins and exchanged the £10.00 for £50.00. The whole bag of coins later given to Cancer Research who say they could accept them, and change into a legal donation.

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How do you know it was Brits who gave these old coins? More likely to be people from other countries I would have thought who perhaps don't realise they are no longer legal tender.

 

There was a thread on tipping on the CC British Isles board a few weeks ago and someone (I forget which country they were from) there asked if they could use old £1 coins for tipping. They didn't get a very kind reply.

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How do you know it was Brits who gave these old coins? More likely to be people from other countries I would have thought who perhaps don't realise they are no longer legal tender.

 

There was a thread on tipping on the CC British Isles board a few weeks ago and someone (I forget which country they were from) there asked if they could use old £1 coins for tipping. They didn't get a very kind reply.

 

I was advised of the ship's brands, and that gave an indication as to the givers Nationality. As she said, Europeans give Euro notes, and never coins.

Personal note: Europeans give notes.

Edited by PORT ROYAL
Personal note
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We were so angered, that we took bag of coins and exchanged the £10.00 for £50.00. The whole bag of coins later given to Cancer Research who say they could accept them, and change into a legal donation.

 

Well done, PORT ROYAL, we're all proud of you. I would like to think that many of us would have done the same. Can't imagine why anyone would tip in Russia with British coins. Ignorant peasants! Although we are not American, we have found that USD is acceptable almost everywhere if you don't have local currency. Except Cuba.

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The bag contained about 40 plus £1.00 coins, but sadly only 12 were U.K. Legal, the rest were old £1.00 coins.

Over a year after they ceased to be legal tender?

 

Appalling!

 

Be aware! There are Brits out there, who knowingly gave, an unsuspecting and trusting guide, worthless tips as they left their tour coaches, as a thank you.

 

Or, as she had such a lot of coins, maybe she had had them for a considerable time ? i.e. from a time when said £1 coin was still current in the UK.

 

Do you really think people deliberately took £1 coins on holiday knowing full well they were no longer legal tender in the UK ?

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Sorry but I think that it is more likely that the Russian tourist guide was given the "old" £1 coins over a period of time when they were legal tender and the guide had saved them without realising that they had changed in UK and were no longer legal. Cannot believe anyone whatever nationality would knowingly go on holiday and take coins that they knew were not legal tender anymore to give as tips.

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How do you know it was Brits who gave these old coins? More likely to be people from other countries I would have thought who perhaps don't realise they are no longer legal tender.

 

There was a thread on tipping on the CC British Isles board a few weeks ago and someone (I forget which country they were from) there asked if they could use old £1 coins for tipping. They didn't get a very kind reply.

 

There has been discussion on Princess British Isles cruise thread about Americans who keep foreign currency on returning home and save it for their next visit to the UK . There was one who had got a bag of "old" £1 coins from previous trips to the UK and had saved them to give as tips in bars/hotels on their next trip to UK without realising they had changed and they were asking was there anywhere in Southampton i.e. banks where they could exchange them.

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Or, as she had such a lot of coins, maybe she had had them for a considerable time ? i.e. from a time when said £1 coin was still current in the UK.

 

Do you really think people deliberately took £1 coins on holiday knowing full well they were no longer legal tender in the UK ?

 

I agree I do not think people would knowingly carry and take "old" £1 coins to give as tips in Russia knowing they are worthless.

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There has been discussion on Princess British Isles cruise thread about Americans who keep foreign currency on returning home and save it for their next visit to the UK .

 

Indeed, and also UK coins and notes do change quite often (relatively speaking), but as far as I know, US coins and notes never change. For example, the £1 note was withdrawn 30 years ago but the US still has a $1 note ( which is worth about 77p - and who wants a wallet full of 77p notes !?).

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"Withdrawing" currency is a concept happily unknown to Americans. The idea the government can say "oh we've changed our minds and you MUST use this instead and what you have will be worthless within x time" would... not well received. Indeed, I don't think there is any denomination of U.S. currency issued over the last 100 years you could not spend at the corner store today. Of course it would be probably worth far more to collectors than it's face value which remains quite negotiable.

 

For overseas travellers, it is especially annoying to be stuck with worthless currency that was worth something on a visit within a year or so.

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