Make Change/Euros

[terrydtx]

8 hours ago, the penguins said:

A credit card with no fees gives you much better protection than a Debit Card. Post Covid many (most) most businesses in Europe prefer Cards to cash even for small purchases.

We used our CC many times for purchasing an expresso (2 Euros in Italy). We found some merchants that actually preferred a CC for payment.

[Fly and Sail]

8 hours ago, the penguins said:

A credit card with no fees gives you much better protection than a Debit Card. Post Covid many (most) most businesses in Europe prefer Cards to cash even for small purchases.

Hardly. At least not back home in Germany. And I dont feel comfortable using my cc in small, strange places. Protection against fraud doesnt help you much when you suddenly need to replace the card in the middle of a trip. I always travel with a reasonable amount of cash that I withdraw at the airport upon arrival.

Edited April 29, 2023 by Fly and Sail

[terrydtx]

6 minutes ago, Fly and Sail said:

Protection against fraud doesn't help you much when you suddenly need to replace the card in the middle of a trip.

We use one CC for taking off the ship or outside the hotel and keep or two from separate accounts in the safe just in case. This credit card we ONLY use when we travel abroad and has no conversion or transaction fees. We had this happen to us while on a land trip in California, and if my CC hadn't been able to overnight us a new card, we would have been stranded. BTW I have used our debit card to get Euros from guest services on both Celebrity and HAL in Europe. On land the best place to use an ATM is in bank. There are many private ATMS in bigger cites but they have huge fraud problems with CC skimmers and if legit they have huge fees that are lost in the transaction and translation.

[Jim_Iain]

I have to say that in today's world I use ApplePay for 90-95% of all transactions while traveling.  I would say the greatest risk we have as American's is using a credit card at a restaurant where they leave the room with you card.  Really easy to take a picture of your card and have all the information including the the CVV code.   

 

I feel far more safe using it in Europe and most foreign countries where they bring a CC machine to your table and you just tap your phone or watch them do the transaction in front of you.

[Royal_Cruise_Bear]

2 hours ago, terrydtx said:

Last year we found out that Turkey, Croatia and Montenegro would not take Euros too.

 

Well, I think that you are not completly correct.... 🤔

 

Turkey, of course, not in the European Union, NO Euro. ✔️

Croatia, difficult. You are correct ✔️ for the last year. Since Jan., 1st 2023 they DO have Euro 💶 as the only official currency. 

Montenegro, even more difficult 😳. They are not part of the European Union, and not part of the Schengen protokoll. And even more they do not belong to the EZB (European Counterpart of the FED). But, since they don't have an own curreny, they USE the Euro 💶.... 🤔 😖

 

I was just preparing our cruise to Croatia and Montenegro.... 😆

[markeb]

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

I have to say that in today's world I use ApplePay for 90-95% of all transactions while traveling.  I would say the greatest risk we have as American's is using a credit card at a restaurant where they leave the room with you card.  Really easy to take a picture of your card and have all the information including the the CVV code.   

 

I feel far more safe using it in Europe and most foreign countries where they bring a CC machine to your table and you just tap your phone or watch them do the transaction in front of you.

 

The beauty of ApplePay is it doesn't expose your actual credit card during the transaction. And some (AMEX for one) issuers immediately update your ApplePay credentials to a new card if your report your card lost or stolen, which you can do in the app from anywhere. Which also greatly diminishes the risk of being left "cardless" due to fraud. You probably need a physical card for hotels and rental car counters, but you can leave that one in the safe.

 

I also much prefer the international method of bringing a credit card reader to your table. It's becoming more common in the US as well. And the readers are usually contactless and take ApplePay/Google Pay so you don't need to pull out a physical credit card.

[terrydtx]

22 minutes ago, Royal_Cruise_Bear said:

 

Well, I think that you are not completly correct.... 🤔

 

Turkey, of course, not in the European Union, NO Euro. ✔️

Croatia, difficult. You are correct ✔️ for the last year. Since Jan., 1st 2023 they DO have Euro 💶 as the only official currency. 

Montenegro, even more difficult 😳. They are not part of the European Union, and not part of the Schengen protokoll. And even more they do not belong to the EZB (European Counterpart of the FED). But, since they don't have an own curreny, they USE the Euro 💶.... 🤔 😖

 

I was just preparing our cruise to Croatia and Montenegro.... 😆

I remember last year that our tour guide in Croatia said that they would be on the Euro this year. In Montenegro our tour guide would not take euro for tips, he asked for USD, so I was under the impression the country would not accept euros.

[RTR 21-0]

Recently returned from our Beyond cruise and wanted to report back on my experience with euros.   I probably spent way too much time overthinking it but I was a European traveling newbie and I assume that comes with the territory 😅 We purchased ours pre-cruise from our bank and I’m glad I did.  I had our Euros divided into envelopes for each tour guide we pre-booked (Kotor and Greece both used Euros) as well as private drivers; allotted a certain amount for our 2 day pre cruise & 1 one post cruise Rome stays, extra gratuity for cabin steward and a couple euros for our fav bartenders (although one night we tipped US and the bartender said they gratefully accept any denom tip) and came back with enough small Euro coins to give to the grands.  Only used our CC for the hotels.  I read plenty of tips to get Euros once in Rome, but I felt that would have taken away our time exploring and we arrived pressure free and ready to take on Rome.  

[mahdnc]

On 4/29/2023 at 12:21 PM, markeb said:

I also much prefer the international method of bringing a credit card reader to your table. It's becoming more common in the US as well. And the readers are usually contactless and take ApplePay/Google Pay so you don't need to pull out a physical credit card.

 

Totally agree.  Not common enough in the USA though.

[Markanddonna]

In some places in Europe, Prague for example, you can easily pay with a card but you DO need some 20 crown coins for the restrooms and shopping carts at grocery stores.  The toilet guard ladies in the restrooms have no mercy. The restroom at Prague's main station DOES take credit cards to use the toilet, believe it or not.  Not free!

[NutsAboutGolf]

On 4/28/2023 at 12:40 PM, Fly and Sail said:

 

The casino only handles USD.

 

To my surprise, the Beyond recently accepted Euros; they were accepted at the tables

[kwokpot]

On 4/29/2023 at 1:21 PM, markeb said:

I also much prefer the international method of bringing a credit card reader to your table. It's becoming more common in the US as well. And the readers are usually contactless and take ApplePay/Google Pay so you don't need to pull out a physical credit card.

Europe has had those machines since the 1980's. It's RIDICULOUS that we don't use them in the US.  

[markeb]

10 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

Europe has had those machines since the 1980's. It's RIDICULOUS that we don't use them in the US.  

 

At the same time, everyone selling a jar of honey at a market in the US has a credit card reader on their iPhone or a Square terminal. Yet CC'ers seem perfectly content to pull large volumes of cash, sometimes paying transaction fees, and carry it with them overseas, to pay a vendor who could easily do the same thing, for a private tour...

[Fly and Sail]

12 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

To my surprise, the Beyond recently accepted Euros; they were accepted at the tables

 

What sailing was that? And how did they handle the currency, convert it to USD? If so, at what rate?

[NutsAboutGolf]

6 hours ago, Fly and Sail said:

 

What sailing was that? And how did they handle the currency, convert it to USD? If so, at what rate?

After the TA, May 7th, in and out of Rome

 

There was a conversation rate but I can’t recall what it was

[Fly and Sail]

6 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

After the TA, May 7th, in and out of Rome

 

There was a conversation rate but I can’t recall what it was

 

Oh, now I get what you mean. Yes they do accept Euro as money in but the problem is that all Money Out is given in USD and then its your problem how to deposit it.

[mahdnc]

3 minutes ago, Fly and Sail said:

 

Oh, now I get what you mean. Yes they do accept Euro as money in but the problem is that all Money Out is given in USD and then its your problem how to deposit it.

 

I find that the casino usually takes care of my deposit problem, if you know what I mean.

[Fly and Sail]

3 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

I find that the casino usually takes care of my deposit problem, if you know what I mean.

 

You mean they offer a solution for the $0.34 that are left on your voucher? 👹

[mahdnc]

44 minutes ago, Fly and Sail said:

 

You mean they offer a solution for the $0.34 that are left on your voucher? 👹

 

Well, I would say that the casino did a good job of reducing the size of your problem.  But I think you are ahead by 12 cruises, right?  

 

Our son told us last week that during his business trip that he and his friend lost enough money ($300-500 each) at the blackjack table (Boston Encore) that they didn't have enough left for a minimum bet.  So on the way out they decided to pool their leftover money (~$15) and bet it on red and won.  They let it ride and won again.  They went back to the blackjack table and his friend proceeded to win most of his losses back while my son won half.  They are both in private equity so I don't know if that was a good object lesson for them.

[Fly and Sail]

14 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

Well, I would say that the casino did a good job of reducing the size of your problem.  But I think you are ahead by 12 cruises, right?  

 

Our son told us last week that during his business trip that he and his friend lost enough money ($300-500 each) at the blackjack table (Boston Encore) that they didn't have enough left for a minimum bet.  So on the way out they decided to pool their leftover money (~$15) and bet it on red and won.  They let it ride and won again.  They went back to the blackjack table and his friend proceeded to win most of his losses back while my son won half.  They are both in private equity so I don't know if that was a good object lesson for them.

 

I think in these 12 cruises, I had Losses of ~ $5700 and Winnings of ~ $4300 (plus the comped sailings and $300 OBC per cruise).

[mahdnc]

4 minutes ago, Fly and Sail said:

 

I think in these 12 cruises, I had Losses of ~ $5700 and Winnings of ~ $4300 (plus the comped sailings and $300 OBC per cruise).

 

You done good!

[Fly and Sail]

12 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

You done good!

 

I wanted to milk the comp system and make it to Elite Plus entirely on free cruises, which I will be in August (currently sitting at 720 points). E+ looked attainable to me.

 

Zenith isn't something I'm interested in right now as it would require a lot more cruising and likely deploying plenty of actual capital to reach it. It's also hard to get, although I reached these 800 points within 3.5 years, and I'm in my 30s, so it's definitely possible to do a Zenith run if I wanted to. But what for? What's my benefit after that other than being sick of X cruises by the completion of that run? 🤣

[mahdnc]

4 minutes ago, Fly and Sail said:

 

I wanted to milk the comp system and make it to Elite Plus entirely on free cruises, which I will be in August (currently sitting at 720 points). E+ looked attainable to me.

 

Zenith isn't something I'm interested in right now as it would require a lot more cruising and likely deploying plenty of actual capital to reach it. It's also hard to get, although I reached these 800 points within 3.5 years, and I'm in my 30s, so it's definitely possible to do a Zenith run if I wanted to. But what for? What's my benefit after that other than being sick of X cruises by the completion of that run? 🤣

 

Maybe Zenith is only cool when you don't have it.  Sounds like the "this is it?" let down I had when I got my degree.

[Fly and Sail]

5 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

Maybe Zenith is only cool when you don't have it.  Sounds like the "this is it?" let down I had when I got my degree.

 

Don't get me started on that. 14 years including 5 years postgrad for what? At least I didn't have to pay for it since I never faced tuition, just like my cruises. 🤣