Different currencies, advice please.

[leehal]

Cruising to the Baltic in June and have a question about currency, we don't plan on spending a lot of money ashore and will probably rely on a credit card in case we want to buy more than a snack/coffee.

 

Denmark - Danish Krone

Estonia - Euro

Russia - Ruble

Finland - Euro

Sweden - Swedish Krona

Germany - Euro

 

How have people managed on other cruises with different currencies needed? 4 for ours.

[ExpatBride]

I live in Denmark and travel often to other countries (e.g., Norway, Eurozone, Poland, Czech Republic, Sweden, etc.) where this always comes up. A credit/debit card is generally the best way to go. Otherwise, you'll end up stuck with leftover currency and/or losing on exchanging it twice.

[SuiteTraveler]

Some places frequented by tourists in Denmark display prices in both Kroner and Euro and these places will often accept Euros. They are not required to, so if they say Kroner only use your credit card.

 

In Sweden, they will only take Krona.

 

It is necessary to exchange money for Russia as legally they can only accept Rubles. To exchange money go to a bank, hotel or airport exchange bureau. While there are vendors everywhere who will exchange money, it is actually illegal to do that. There will be lots of ATM's, however and that would be an easy way to get Rubles if you don't plan ahead and take them with you. However, if you are on a ship's tour, (which you pretty much have to be in Russia), then you pay in advance and all you might need is a little money for tips such as $20 worth of Rubles.

 

For us, we take $1000 each in Euros per week and then we'd take our credit cards for the other currencies. Prior to the cruise I would exchange enough for tips in Sweden and Russia.

[mj_holiday]

There is an ATM at the port for cruise ships in St. Petersburg. You can get rubles there, have an idea of how many you want before you get to the machine so you get the correct amount of zeros.

[CruiserBruce]

This is discussed frequently on the Northern Europe board, here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=192

 

For example, this thread:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2486140

[Floridiana]

The Swedes take credit cards for everything.

[cruisemom42]

Credit cards are accepted for almost everything in the Scandinavian countries; I'd plan to use one wherever you can.

 

If you know that you will need some small 'walking around' cash for whatever reason, then just visit an ATM for the amount you think you'll need.

[Gwendy]

One thing to think about. If you pay in another currency, eg Euro in Denmark, the shopkeeper has to pay to exchange these at their bank, therefore they build this cost into what they charge, eg conversion rate is not favourable.

I generally obtain currency for each country before I go, generally small amounts only, then use credit card or ATM or ship exchange facility if I need extra.

Let your bank know where you are travelling as sometimes they can freeze your card.

[cheeseclan]

We took this cruise last year. We had a few Euros from a prior cruise with us. We also got Danish Kroner since we were there for a few days pre and post cruise. As for the other stops, we did not change any money. If we wanted to buy anything it was with our credit card.

As for Russia, the tour took care of it all. The only time we needed to buy something outside was at a stand that was selling soda. The man wanted US $. This worked for us.

[mauimary]

We were on this itinerary a couple of years ago. We spent several days in London pre Cruise prior to leaving out of Southampton. We exchanged for GPB prior to leaving the states. We also had US dollars apx $500 with us that stayed in the safe except for apx $100 we had with us. That was the only currency we had. We used up the remainder of our GBP at Heathrow prior to flying home. We also had some Euros that we exchanged for on the ship.

 

On the ship we did exchange small amounts of US dollars for some local currency. Not the cheapest but the easiest. We would then stop in a store and buy something small (gum) anything to get some small change. Then we would have cash for small vendors or coffee beverages. We did find you sometimes need money for bathrooms. Can't use credit cards here.

 

Every where else we used credit cards. We totally used credit cards in Russia. We were with a private guide and driver. We did have lunch at a very nice very small restaurant where it turns out they did not take credit cards or US dollars. Our driver ended up paying for us as he had a fair amount of cash with him. We paid him back with USD which he was happy to have.

 

ATM was available everywhere but we did not use them. We are making another trip this fall and from our last couple of experiences we know we really do not need to worry about exchanging for local currencies ahead of time. This time we will have some euro in hand prior to leaving the states.

 

Mauimary