Currency to carry

[Akkers]

What currency should one carry to spend on ship and at ports? Ist all US dollars all the way? Are GBP accepted/exchanged easily?

Thats for Carribean cruises.

[LaCal]

US dollars 

[UKWLDCruise]

you might want to think about Pesos if you are stopping in Mexico

[little britain]

What ports? US$ usually are acceptable  everywhere but sometimes I’ve got change in local currency

Edited March 10, 2022 by little britain

[cruiseguy1016]

You won't need cash to spend on the ship, everything is done with your Seapass, the exception being tips. As for Caribbean ports, US$ are accepted almost everywhere.

[bigque]

At the ports try to use small bills and come close to the price of what you are purchasing as sometimes if you use large bills some places will try to give you back the local currency in change. 

[Joseph2017China]

2 hours ago, Akkers said:

What currency should one carry to spend on ship and at ports? Ist all US dollars all the way? Are GBP accepted/exchanged easily?

Thats for Carribean cruises.

All RCCL ships around the world is USD currency.  All ports in the Caribbean accept USD because the cruise industry is so large and they depend on it so much, they accept it.  Most of their money is also dollar to dollar, so they can easily spend dollars in their country as easy as their money.  

 

As far as Mexico, that is not an island, and they love to rip you off with exchange rates.  I would use a trusted credit card, since most likely you are only in Mexico a few hours at most

 

[billslowsky]

25 minutes ago, Joseph2017China said:

As far as Mexico, that is not an island, and they love to rip you off with exchange rates.  I would use a trusted credit card, since most likely you are only in Mexico a few hours at most

 

Agree, and make sure it's not a debit card (don't enter a PIN if it's both) since you don't have the same protection against fraud.

[LB_NJ]

Some of island nations use euros however they accept US dollars.  FYI, if you use a credit card then the card is charged at the local currency and the credit card company does the exchange at whatever rate they use.  Some credit card companies may charge a fee for currency conversion.

[soremekun]

I prefer to go big and hand out Zimbabwean dollars.

Edited March 10, 2022 by soremekun

[Joseph2017China]

57 minutes ago, LB_NJ said:

Some of island nations use euros however they accept US dollars.  FYI, if you use a credit card then the card is charged at the local currency and the credit card company does the exchange at whatever rate they use.  Some credit card companies may charge a fee for currency conversion.

Even if it is 3%, it would be cheaper than what the vendor will upcharge you.  But you should use a 0% transaction fee card, and many are. 

[Seville2Cabo]

In Mexico they will ask if you want it charged in US or pesos.  Always say pesos.

 

Usually if you are buying at a flee market, they may not have take credit cards.  I always ask the price in pesos, and do my own conversion and offer them that amount of USD (although that is rare and I almost always have pesos) 

 

[baldilocks]

5 hours ago, soremekun said:

I prefer to go big and hand out Zimbabwean dollars.

Shame on you...that's terrible. 🙂 I am multi-billionaire in Zimbabwean dollars. I bought a whole pack of money on eBay for $20. 🙂  I made out next door teens millionaires. A little humor on the Board doesn't hurt.

[George C]

 We have done 50 Caribbean cruises and always just take American dollars, suggestion of taking small bills is excellent since you may get change in local currency.

[SG65CB]

I wouldn't go to the bother of getting pesos for Mexico. Everything is in dollars in Cozumel and Costa Maya. Everyone from the resorts to the taxis to the beach vendors selling trinkets all quote prices in dollars. 

[Lane Hog]

Speaking for everywhere we've cruised in the Caribbean (Ocho Rios, St. Kitts, Belize, Roatan, St. Maarten, Grand Cayman) and Mexico (Cozumel, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Acapulco, Cabo San Lucas), everyone wanted US Dollars.

 

Edited March 11, 2022 by Lane Hog

[SRF]

11 hours ago, baldilocks said:

Shame on you...that's terrible. 🙂 I am multi-billionaire in Zimbabwean dollars. I bought a whole pack of money on eBay for $20. 🙂  I made out next door teens millionaires. A little humor on the Board doesn't hurt.

 

Only a billionaire.  WOW.

 

I only carry 100 trillion Zim notes.  I am a gazillionaire. 😄

 

[GEORGIEGIRL]

I know we've all heard the commercials before. But, "Capital One" credit cards do not add any transaction fees when you make charges in a foreign currency (you just pay the exchange rate).

 

My wife and I always carry and use our C.O. cards when we travel.

[cruiseguy1016]

Todays' goofy fact brought to you by google, the current exchange rate for the Zimbabwe dollar is 361.899/$1 USD. 😁

[DCPIV]

Here's one more vote for USD.  They are readily accepted throughout the Caribbean (other than Cuba) and the Mexican cruise ports.  Ironically, the BVI actually have adopted the USD as their official currency.  There is no real reason to worry about Mexican pesos unless you just want to impress some folks with your worldliness.

 

I don't know how readily accepted GBP are in the Caribbean.  While I expect you could readily exchange them on shore, you may be able to do so on on board the ship more conveniently and at a better rate.  If you are stopping through the USA, you also can pull some USD easily from an ATM.

[wake74]

Are there really too many "tourist" places in the world that won't gladly take good old US Greenbacks?  Sure you may not always get the best conversion rate, but I've never had someone say no, in anything that I would define as a tourist area globally.  Now, I've been to some way off the beaten track places in third world countries that expected local currency, but thats a different story as these aren't places you are going just wander into on vacation.

[DCPIV]

2 minutes ago, wake74 said:

Are there really too many "tourist" places in the world that won't gladly take good old US Greenbacks?  Sure you may not always get the best conversion rate, but I've never had someone say no, in anything that I would define as a tourist area globally.  Now, I've been to some way off the beaten track places in third world countries that expected local currency, but thats a different story as these aren't places you are going just wander into on vacation.

 

I've never had anyone turn me down when tendering dollars, but I've found that they aren't terribly appreciated by many in Europe.  Vendors tend to show that lack of appreciation through some pretty tough exchange rates (after all, you're asking them to go through the hassle of exchanging when you weren't willing to do that).  So, I tend to stick with Euros and GBP where appropriate.  Getting them usually is a simple matter of visiting an ATM or having a quick chat with my bank beforehand.

[SRF]

21 hours ago, cruiseguy1016 said:

Todays' goofy fact brought to you by google, the current exchange rate for the Zimbabwe dollar is 361.899/$1 USD. 😁

 

That is the NEW Zim dollar.  They dropped the old one a number of years ago and went to a US dollar currency.  Now they have the bright idea to try their own currency again.

 

I was there about 15 years ago.  The "official" exchange rate was 240 to 1 USD.  But on the street, you could get 5000 to 1 USD.

 

And one point, their annual inflation on the old Zim was 10 to the 23rd power percent.  That is 1 followed by 23 zeros percent.  100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000%

 

Not unlike our current gas prices. 🙂

[CILCIANRQTS]

On 3/10/2022 at 7:09 PM, SG65CB said:

I wouldn't go to the bother of getting pesos for Mexico. Everything is in dollars in Cozumel and Costa Maya. Everyone from the resorts to the taxis to the beach vendors selling trinkets all quote prices in dollars. 

But the price in dollars is typically significantly more than if you pay in pesos. Do the math next time you see an item priced in both dollars and pesos.

[SRF]

To help with the math, I have the XE app on my phone.

 

You pick the currencies you want to display and them put a price in using any of the picked currencies and it converts, at the bank rate, to all the others.

 

If you have cell data or wifi, it updates the currency rates real time.