New to Emerald Princess

Hi - I'm new to sailing on Princess and taking my cruise in a few weeks. Does the ship have an ATM? Also, I'll be sailing in South America. Will I be able to purchase Argentinian pesos on board? Tried to purchase some at my bank but their third party company who sells it to them does not sell Argentina pesos. Looking at options to purchase some.

Hi - I'm new to sailing on Princess and taking my cruise in a few weeks. Does the ship have an ATM? Also, I'll be sailing in South America. Will I be able to purchase Argentinian pesos on board? Tried to purchase some at my bank but their third party company who sells it to them does not sell Argentina pesos. Looking at options to purchase some.

ATM...yes.

Don't know about the pesos. I do know, if the ATM has them, it will cost you more than going to a bank or some other source.

I told you what I know about the pesos on our roll call but wanted to comment about the use of ATMs. There's an ATM in the casino that can be used to get USD. However the fees are high. And if you buy foreign currency from Passenger Services, their charges are high as well. Princess knows it has a captive audience and charge accordingly.

Use the ship’s ATM only as a last resort. It’s dependent on the ship’s location and satellite service. There are exchange fees plus the exchange rate is often really poor.

I get foreign money before leaving home.

I told you what I know about the pesos on our roll call but wanted to comment about the use of ATMs. There's an ATM in the casino that can be used to get USD. However the fees are high. And if you buy foreign currency from Passenger Services, their charges are high as well. Princess knows it has a captive audience and charge accordingly.

I'm just concerned that I have the $20 AR for when we get off the ship in Ushuaia and get on the small ship where we have to pay the port charges in AR pesos. Just don't think I have time to run to the ATM in Ushuaia. IF I'm just getting $40 total in AR, I think the fees wouldn't be that high and it could be tolerable for that one purpose. Thanks for your help!

The PSD does not always have local currency to sell to the pax. Given that the ARS is volatile and significant fluctuations are constantly occurring, no bank or even the ship wants to be holding ARS. When we did the cruise around the Horn, the ship did not have ARS to sell nor did the ship ATM. For the same reason one has a problem buying ARS in the US. The only place to get ARS is in Argentina and right now 18.9815 ARS is equal to 1 USD. When we were in Argentina the merchants were very interested in getting USD since it is a whole lot more stable currency and holds its value. As others have stated using the ship ATM is very very expensive.

No Princess ATM offers a currency other than the one the ship uses which for your cruise will be US $. As others have said, using an ATM on board to get US $ would have a charge (probably above $5) plus any fee your bank would charge. Therefore, I would take with you any US $ that you need.

Princess may have a currency exchange machine. This is not an ATM. You insert one currency and get another. This transaction will feature a poor exchange rate (probably at least 10% worse than what you can do on shore) plus a transaction fee that might be $4 or more (I do not know the current fee).

I'm just concerned that I have the $20 AR for when we get off the ship in Ushuaia and get on the small ship where we have to pay the port charges in AR pesos. Just don't think I have time to run to the ATM in Ushuaia. IF I'm just getting $40 total in AR, I think the fees wouldn't be that high and it could be tolerable for that one purpose.

I am not sure if by $20 AR you mean 20 US $ worth of Argentine pesos (about 759 Argentine pesos) or if you mean 20 Argentine pesos (about US $1.05).

Do you know if you can pay the port charges with a credit card or if it has to be cash?

I found AR pesos difficult to get when planning my SA trip in early 2017. I was successful here. (See link below) Yes, they have a fee, but it's not horrific.

https://www.travelex.com/

I'm just concerned that I have the $20 AR for when we get off the ship in Ushuaia and get on the small ship where we have to pay the port charges in AR pesos. Just don't think I have time to run to the ATM in Ushuaia. IF I'm just getting $40 total in AR, I think the fees wouldn't be that high and it could be tolerable for that one purpose. Thanks for your help!

Ask your excursion vendor if they can stop at an ATM since I don't remember Ushuaia having a port terminal with ATMs like larger ports (but I wasn't looking for one either). We have had vendors in other ports offer to do so.

I found AR pesos difficult to get when planning my SA trip in early 2017. I was successful here. (See link below) Yes, they have a fee, but it's not horrific.

 

https://www.travelex.com/

Travelex no longer sells Argentine pesos. They probably lost on the volatility and like others probably just decided to stop due to the risk.

Ship charges are per transaction and not by the amount; at least that was our experience.

We just finished our Around the Horn cruise on the Emerald. We exchanged some Canadian $ for Argentinian Pesos as soon as we got to the Buenos Aires airport. However, when we were in Ushuaia we did see many banks near the port. We also did not have any problems using US $ in Argentina. We had more difficulty using US$ in Chile especially if there was a mark or small tear on the dollar (needed perfect new dollars). We also had difficulty finding an ATM in Santiago. Found one in a pharmacy after 2 banks had ATMs that were closed (spoke to a tour guide who laughed when I told him this and he said it is not uncommon for the bank’s ATMs to run out of money).

Interesting read and my regional bank, which is very helpful, Canadian plus Euro immediately, will usually order others, but not this time. I'll go with getting pesos at the airport when I arrive because I'll be in BA for 2 nights and the rest dollars. I've prepaid 2 tours in BA, plus a private tour in Ushuaia and I'll tip in dollars.