U.S. Dollars for Pre Cruise in Tahiti

[Curious Jan]

Can someone tell me if there is any problem with using US Dollars for our Pre cruise in Tahiti? We did not want to get any island money until we were aboard the ship. Also one other question. Is there any special evening aboard the ship where you would need an unusual outfit. I know this sounds funny but someone said something about a Polynesian night and if there is one

does everyone where flowered outfits or not? Only three weeks to go and I

am getting excited and nervous.

Jan

[K32682]

Yes, there is a problem. It is that the store owners and bar owners may have to make a special trip to the bank because you were unwilling to use their local currency.

 

FP is a French protectorate. The official currency is the Polynesian Franc although the Euro is generally accepted because it is pegged at a fixed rate to the franc. While they will take your US money, I found they much prefer their own money.

 

In some places, Jamaica and Cuba come to mind, they prefer American dollars because the local currency is unstable and often valueless. This is not the case in Tahiti. I feel it is condescending and rude to expect to pay USD while in a foreign country. Even worse is demanding American currency in return as I saw happen several times while on our cruise. I saw one cruiser get quite angry about not getting USD change at a hardware store in the Marquesas.

 

It won't kill you to use the local currency which is very colorful and exciting to look at. Besides, using it makes you look like an experienced thoughtful traveller, not some sort of pushy tourist.

[1cruiselvr]

Sorry, but I disagree. We have been to tahiti 2x, once in 2000 for one week and again last year for 2 weeks. We never exchanged our US dollars for local currency and it was not a problem. We used CC whenever possible and US dollars otherwise.

Happy Sailing!

[jbond]

Guess it depends on what you want to do. If you stay in "downtown" Papeete, you should have no problem with US dollars or credit cards. We took a trip outside Papeete and having FP francs was helpful. We took a day tour with Patrick and stopped to buy lunch. The store only took FP money. Patrick took care of the people without FP francs. We had changed money on the TP before we left for the tour.

In a nutshell, you can get by without changing any money, I'm glad we did because it just gave us a little different experience. On the way back to the ship we stopped in a bar for a drink and again they only took FP money. It was nice to order something and not have to ask for help with the exchange. Every other island, including Rarotonga, Cook Islands, took US dollars with no problem.