currency

[huskie11]

We are traveling the Eastern Caribbean in mid March with ports in st Martin and haiti. Is the currency always the us dollar or do we need any other such as euro, etc. Thanks. Looking forward to getting out of this northern weather!!!

[Denny01]

They all take US $ and prefer them. No reason to do any exchanging.

 

In St Maarten (Ductch side) the offical currency is the Dutch florin/guilder. On the French St Martin side, it is the Euro. But they take and love the US $.

 

Denny

[disneyfolks]

Every place we have visited has taken US dollars. Just one small point, at a few islands you will get change in their local currency. Make sure you take lots of small bills, or you can end up with all these strange bills and coins.

[dzcruisers]

We always make it a point to take 50 or 100 dollar bills. Then we can shop and bargain with correct change in port and not worry about getting back a lot of local currency. We also have tip money for room service.

[PartyAllDaTyme]

We always make it a point to take 50 or 100 dollar bills. Then we can shop and bargain with correct change in port and not worry about getting back a lot of local currency. We also have tip money for room service.

 

Another quick point-- some places will suddenly and mysteriously run out of change, hoping when you hand them a twenty for a $16 purchase, you'll say, "Well, just keep it, then". This even after you've seen someone pay for a purchase with five individual dollar bills. Bring along exact change, or as close to it as you can come, to avoid this little scam.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

We used dollars everywhere on our Panama Canal cruise. And the friendly Constellation pursers were more than happy to renew our supply of small bills when we exhausted them. Very unlike the surly purser I encountered on the Millennium in the Caribbean, so your mileage may vary depending on the ship.