Taking Currency for use in Baltic Ports - Do not bother !

[hampshirelad]

Just come back from a Baltic cruise with celebrity where we took small amounts of Norwegian, Danish and Swedish, plus some Euros where we keep a stash for use elsewhere in Europe.

 

Do not bother , both Denmark and Sweden turned out to be card only even for an ice cream. With difficult managed to use my Norwegian towards a  drinks bill in a bar , but that was I thought I was taking on the National debt !

[KforKitty]

9 minutes ago, hampshirelad said:

Just come back from a Baltic cruise with celebrity where we took small amounts of Norwegian, Danish and Swedish, plus some Euros where we keep a stash for use elsewhere in Europe.

 

Do not bother , both Denmark and Sweden turned out to be card only even for an ice cream. With difficult managed to use my Norwegian towards a  drinks bill in a bar , but that was I thought I was taking on the National debt !

I would totally agree.  The only time we needed currency on our Norway cruise was for a shuttle from the cruise terminal into the town in Sandnessjoen and they took Euros, US Dollars as well as Norwegian Kroner.

 

We took a few Euros with us in 2022 on our Baltic cruise but other than using them for tips for tour guides, I don’t recall ever using them.

 

Catherine

 

 

 

[CruiserBruce]

 

[SimplyMarvie]

Latvia and Lithuania are less completely cashless than Finland, Estonia and the nordics, so you could probably use the Euros if you wish... but they're not required, except for the occasional pay bathroom, or the occasional outdoor market.

[ontheweb]

Ancient history (LOL 2007)---the batteries in DW's camera ran out while we were in Helsinki. She went into a Kodak store, and their credit card machine was not working. Since we had no Euros with us, she waited until she was back on the ship to buy batteries. And they were cheaper on the Princess ship than they would have been in Helsinki. Everyone does say the Scandanavian countries are very expensive.

[oakridger]

A couple of the hotels where I am staying in Norway next year even state on their website that they are cashless and don't have any cash in the hotel.

 

~Nancy

[John Bull]

8 hours ago, oakridger said:

A couple of the hotels where I am staying in Norway next year even state on their website that they are cashless and don't have any cash in the hotel.

 

~Nancy

 

Recently, on our last day in Norway (Haugesund) still with plenty of NOK in our pockets we stopped at a waterfront hotel & ordered two coffees at the bar.

When she'd made the first one she put it on the bar and I got out my cash - she pointed at the POS machine and said "card only". There was no sign saying cash not accepted, and altho we had cards we wanted to use up our NOK, so I told her "Sorry, I can't pay by card", and we walked out.

I do understand the advantages of cards, but the world is not cashless yet and there are many circumstances such as ours when someone can't or prefers not to use a card.

I hope she enjoyed her free cup of coffee 😏.

(NOK would have been a poor choice for tips for our cabin steward etc because this was the ship's last visit of the season to Norway)

 

No such problem in the cafes & shops in the parallel pedestrianised road behind the waterfront 🙂 

 

JB 🙂

[kaisatsu]

19 hours ago, John Bull said:

There was no sign saying cash not accepted

That’s because card payments are assumed. Just as in other countries you would ask if a place can take card, in Norway you ask if you can pay in cash.

[John Bull]

28 minutes ago, kaisatsu said:

That’s because card payments are assumed. Just as in other countries you would ask if a place can take card, in Norway you ask if you can pay in cash.

 

 

I can understand that.

But this was the bar of a hotel in a tourist area, so surely a "card payments only" notice would have been sensible.

Had I wanted to buy a trinket that would have only wasted my time, since it was a coffee it also wasted their time and their money.

.

And it wasn't our place of choice - it was the only place open on a surprisingly deserted waterfront street.

100 yards up a side-street took us to the main pedestrianised street, busy with people. No problem with using cash there - or anywhere else in Norway. And in places where we chose to use a card there were no signs saying cards-only. 

 

JB 🙂