Scandinavia cruise: foreign currency: How much to bring ahead of time?

[herb]

We will be visiting Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

 

How much did you change into each countries currency for a one day visit? Did you change money here or in Europe? Best rates??

 

We don't want to be stuck with too much left-over currency; especially since coins cannot be changed back to $$.

[spearmint]

Good thread. :) I, also, will be interested to read what people will tell you.

[Juliadlf]

We will be visiting Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

 

How much did you change into each countries currency for a one day visit? Did you change money here or in Europe? Best rates??

 

We don't want to be stuck with too much left-over currency; especially since coins cannot be changed back to $$.

 

What are you planning to do in each of the ports? Ship tour, independent touring at museums, shopping, lunch off the ship?

 

Julia

 

P.S. I can't tell what date your sailing if its in your signature (I have all the bling bling turned off on my user cp) but if you come back with any danish krones or swedish krona we'd be happy to buy it off of you. :D

We are sailing late August.

[Andee]

We didn't exchange any money ahead of time.

 

We found the best exchange rate and lowest fees using our debit cards for as many purchases and museum admissions as possible. Credit card was second best.

 

We hit the ATM in each port for walking around money--maybe $20-$30 for the two of us.

[SaylorGirl]

We had about the equilivent of $25.00 for each port. If we needed more we could always use the ATM. I have a little bit of cash left over from almost all the ports if anyone is interested.

[custompcsys]

I'll be cruising the Star Princess in mid June, if anyone is interested let me know and I'll be glad to let you know if I come back with any currency I didn't use. :)

[JodiBB]

We exchanged about $50 USD per port for each country and used City passes to get into the attractions that we wanted to see. Whatever money we had left over, we used for tips to the crew, as they travel time and again to the cities and can use the money much more than we could after-the-fact!

[Juliadlf]

I'll be cruising the Star Princess in mid June, if anyone is interested let me know and I'll be glad to let you know if I come back with any currency I didn't use. :)

 

Let me know. We also are on the Star but in August.

 

Julia

[mycruz]

The Star actually had an ATM type machine that you could exchange for some currencies. We used our debit or cc cards most of the time.

[suron]

We were on Star Princess on the Baltic Itinerary last August. We found that we got by in all places with either Euros or Dollars or Credit Cards (even in St. Petersburg!) but it was easy enough to get currency from the ATMs everywhere. The rate of exchange on board ship at their ATM was not that good and it was difficult to change back any money left over once the ship had set sail en route to the next port of call.

 

If any of you are interested I have posted a review on our trip which can be found at www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=12469

 

Another member of our Roll Call has also posted a review under the name of sunprincess and there are also some links to some great photos of this trip.

 

You will love the Star Princess and the Baltic ports but be prepared to face a very hectic itinerary - you will probably need a holiday afterwards to recover but you are in for a real treat. Have fun and happy sailings.

 

Regards from Suron in Bristol, England :)

[Boo's Mom]

I read in another post..... about the option of using your leftover currencies as tips for the staff onboard the ship.

Apparently, they are glad to take money from any country.

 

Sounds good to me.