Foreign Currency: Advice Please

[vaitape]

I sort of hijacked the Travelers Checks thread...sorry about that! I'll pose my question here instead.

 

We're going on an O cruise in March, traveling to 7 Asian countries and each of them have different currencies. How do we obtain cash for these countries?

 

We don't plan on obtaining these currencies before we leave for several reasons but mainly because we don't like to travel with a lot of cash, USD or otherwise. In Europe we locate the ATM at the airport to get our initial Euro stash and then use either credit card for transactions or search out another ATM to obtain more cash via our debit card. ATMs are plentiful in Europe!

 

BUT, when disembarking say in Saigon or Shanghai for instance, I seriously doubt that there is an ATM dockside....or is there?

 

What have you fellow travelers done in similar situations? Would really appreciate hearing your suggestions/experiences.

[Friscorays]

I hope these threads help:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=897784&highlight=atm

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=895330&highlight=atm

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=312873&highlight=saigon+atm

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=444685&highlight=saigon+atm

[Aussie Gal]

We always take a small amount of cash for the different countries that we dock in. We go to our local bank and order the currency, so that we leave home with it. My DH and I usually split the cash and each carry some. We always catch a limo from home to the airport and a taxi where our plane landed to our hotel in the city of embarkation.

 

You only need a couple of hundred dollars worth and it isn't hard to carry. Once on board, lock it in your safe deposit and forget about until you need it.

 

When we did our 35 day cruise on Nautica we had currency for quite a few countries on us but it didn't add up to a huge amount as we only needed the currency for small things. Our private tours were all paid in U.S. dollars.

 

Jennie

[vaitape]

FriscoRays.........well a big DUH!!! on my part...thank you Researcher Extraordinaire!!

 

Jennie, thanks for your help. Are you still on the South American cruise?

[Aussie Gal]

Vaitape,

 

We are counting the days until we fly to Athens for our cruise on the Prinsendam to Ft. Lauderdale. We did South America back in 2006. In January to Antarctica, Iguazu Falls, Machu Pichu and the Galapagos and in October from Vancouver down to the Panama and up the Amazon and back to Tampa so won't be returning to that part of the world in a hurry.

 

Jennie