Cash

[Bob1956]

Going on Celebrity cruise from Barcelona to Venice in August, all the excursions are booked and paid, and I have $1500.00 in shipboard credit for three of us. Assuming any souvenirs will be charged, how much cash would I need to bring:confused:

[cb at sea]

Sounds like the only cash you would need would be for taking cash ashore....or tips to those not included in the tipping scheme....or gambling money.

 

Your OBC will cover the suggested tips and any drinks or specialty restaurants you purchase.

 

The ships are a "cashless" society, since you will charge everything but additional tips and gambling to your room.

 

We always bring around $1000-2000 on any trip that far from home...for those "just in case" moments.....the bank lets us redeposit unused money!

Edited June 2, 2014 by cb at sea

[fla jack]

It's really hard to say--

I would start at the airport in Barcelona

by getting Euros from an ATM.

Let you bank know that you will be using

your ATM AND credit cards overseas. Check

what their charges will be in advance.

Probably 90% of your ports use Euros.

Take 200e & see how your expenses run

on a daily basis.

There are almost as many ATM's in

Euroope as the U.S.

FYI-""IF"" you have any OBC leftover you

can draw cash from the casino for a 3 to 5% fee

Jack

[tartanexile81]

Wow, this questions raises even more questions than answers in my mind!

The only thing anybody can say with any certainty is that you will only need cash on the ship for extra tips which you can choose to give or not, and for the casino. There are various threads on tipping which will give you some idea of what to expect.

 

But just some of my questions are:

 

How many nights is your cruise?

Are you going to visit the ports or just stay on the ship?

Do you expect to buy all your souvenirs on the ship or might you do some shopping ashore?

Do you think you will want to stop for something to eat / drink if you're ashore?

We don't spend that much ashore but we would expect to take around 100 euros per port as a minimum.

Edited June 2, 2014 by tartanexile81

[Bob1956]

The cruise is 12 nights and we have 2 additional night in hotels at both ends of the cruise. I was told the OBC could be used for gambling as well. This is our first time overseas and don't know what to expect. All the excursions are paid for so I guess it would be just the tips.

Edited June 2, 2014 by Bob1956

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Taking cash ashore..

[tartanexile81]

The cruise is 12 nights and we have 2 additional night in hotels at both ends of the cruise. I was told the OBC could be used for gambling as well. This is our first time overseas and don't know what to expect. All the excursions are paid for so I guess it would be just the tips.

 

So if you have 2 nights at your hotel before you cruise, you will need money for eating, and for entertaining yourself. You will probably be able to use your credit card for larger bills but as a minimum, I'd probably take about $200 for incidental expenses both days if you intend to do some sight-seeing etc.

 

Some cruises have lots of days on the ship (sea days) and you won't need any cash at all on those days except for staff - for example if you order room service you may want to give the waiter a couple of dollars each time. It is very hard to tell you how much you will need ashore. When we're in the Caribbean, we take cash to pay for the bus to the local beach, sun-beds, drinks, ice-creams and a snack for lunch. We may also buy some small souvenirs but if we make larger purchases we put them on our credit card. There's two of us and we probably allow about $150 cash. We don't do ship's tours so if we're in cooler climates, we would spend more than that (double?) if we wanted to visit places of interest. If by "overseas" you mean Europe, your itinerary will probably be fairly port intensive so you may spend considerably more. Where are you heading to?

 

This answer is still very vague I know because I don't know your itinerary, but also because what we each spend is such a personal choice so hope this gives you some indication. To end on a positive note, when you're on the ship you can lock your wallet away in the safe and put all spending on your cruise card - but don't forget you still have that bill to pay when you get home :)

[anandaindonesia]

....

We always bring around $1000-2000 on any trip that far from home...for those "just in case" moments.....the bank lets us redeposit unused money!

 

Agree 100%.

[Steviewonder1]

US cash is good on the ship, but when you get off in most places it will be the Euro that is taken, unless you get into a Starbuck's Coffee shop which will take local currency and USD. Go to Turkey and you need Lira and not Euro's. Been there and done that and knew ahead of time what to take. You can get Euro's from an ATM with less charge than getting them from a US bank before you leave the US, also did that to pad our wallet in Italy.