Cruising out of Southampton Tip in GBP?

So while on a cruise ship that departs from Southampton England if you want to leave additional gratuities for your cabin steward, waiter or favorite bar tender should you leave British Pounds? I guess it wouldn’t make much sense to leave USD but I’m sure they wouldn’t turn it down.

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THEY have access to a bank of sorts on board so they can convert your pounds to dollars or Euros as they prefer. They are paid in US dollars which is the general currency everything on board is priced in

I don’t think it matters too much on what departure port is being used, these crew members are aboard for many months and are use to many ports of call and departure ports with differing currencies. They are also from all over the world, so I agree that you can give them pretty much any currency that can be exchanged.

By the way, there is a list of ‘Closed Currency’ countries that you can’t buy or sell their currency outside their country. I’m sure we don’t have to worry about tipping in those currencies, but there will be some crew members who are from those countries and will take any currency we tip in and get it home or use it while on board. The most common I saw were Inida, Cuba and surprise surprise Bahamas. Who knew!

Den

These ships go to many places and the crews come from even more places. We usually tip in what ever foreign currency we have too much of at the end of the trip. Our last cruise was from Southampton up to Norway and I was "heavy" on NOK at the end of the trip so the waiters, the cabin attendant. Just remember to do the conversions in your head to US$ so you get the amounts right....

Us$

So while on a cruise ship that departs from Southampton England if you want to leave additional gratuities for your cabin steward, waiter or favorite bar tender should you leave British Pounds? I guess it wouldn’t make much sense to leave USD but I’m sure they wouldn’t turn it down.

 

 

You can tip in British Pounds if you have some but USD or Euros are fine and probably preferred.

I’m fairly sure they would appreciate any monetary grat but as GBP are worth more than either Euros or USD, they can do the math!

The ship and its crew is usually based out of Southampton for 6+ months a year. You will see the crew coming back on board with their shopping at Southampton. A significant percentage of the passengers on sailings from Southampton will be British, and whilst the currency on board is the US$ the ship is cashless and none of your ports of call (apart form the transatlantics) will be to countries where the the $US is not the official currency. Therefore I suspect the crew are well used to getting tips in £s as many British wont change currency just to tip. If travelling from the US with $US I'm sure $ will be gratefully received,

Hello,

I tip in the currency that I think they are most likely to spend ashore on the next cruise. By this I mean if the next cruise was in Europe I would tip in Euro, if the next cruise was a TA to America I would tip in $.

Regards,

Cublet

If they work in the tourist industry (guides, drivers, porters) they would collect all the tips until they have enough to exchange at the bank/ money exchange.

The ship crew are paid in US$.