Scandinavian cruise tipping

[valeep]

Hello fellow Northern Europe cruisers,

 

We will be on a cruise that starts in the UK and goes to Norway, Denmark (3 stops), Sweden, and ends in Amsterdam. We like to tip in cash onboard the ship when we get exceptional service. What currency is suggested for the onboard tips? What is most useful for ship crew?

 

Thank you in advance and Happy Holidays!

[John Bull]

Especially if it's a US ship, USD will be the best.

By a long chalk.

And simplest for you.

 

This is a great itinerary :)

But not for currency. :rolleyes:

You're likely to need GBP, Norwegian, Danish & Swedish Krone, and euros.

Giving your left-over currencies in tips to the crew helps solve your problem of what to do with them, but crew may have little chance to use them since they rarely get shore leave. USD has much lower paper denominations and coins can't usually be exchanged at banks & bureaux, which adds to the difficulty of using local currencies. And the problem is dramatically increased if the ship has different itineraries after your cruise.

Although euros are easily the most widely-acceptable of them, you're not going to have left-over euros when you leave the ship.

 

JB :)

Edited December 28, 2015 by John Bull

[hallasm]

For most cruise ships tips will be the same no matter where you sail - tipping for ships sailing in Scandinavia is the same as for the Caribbean.

However, it is different when it's comes to tipping when at shore - in Scandinavien is not quite the same tradition of tip as in USA.

 

You can use US$ or Euro - the same does apply at shore. In general there will be no need for different local currencies - except for public transportation and some museums - credit card widely accepted.

[LondonTowner]

We always have a supply of Euros, but at all those places we used CC even for our bus ticket in Stockholm. We have a CC with no foreign transaction charges.

 

Ship tips are normally taken care of, but if you wish to tip extra I would leave any currency as long as it is in note form. However, if the ship is UK based then I would leave GBP, Euros or USD.