Show me the money ....

[oceanblue1]

I presume that the ship operates on US dollars even when in Europe? And can one cash Euro travellers cheques on board? If so, is there a large fee /any fee for cashing them? We will be on Galaxy.

 

Secondly, are the euro travellers cheques easy/difficult/costly to cash in Italy and Greece? Thanks in advance for any information.

[lambs2]

If you don't get an answer here ask on Celebrity board. Yes, Celebrity will operate in US dollars in Europe.

[lisiamc]

I presume that the ship operates on US dollars even when in Europe? And can one cash Euro travellers cheques on board? If so, is there a large fee /any fee for cashing them? We will be on Galaxy.

 

Secondly, are the euro travellers cheques easy/difficult/costly to cash in Italy and Greece? Thanks in advance for any information.

 

Cashing Euro travellers cheques ashore, at least in Italy, is a nightmare! We had a horrible time cashing ours the last time we tried. The banks had short hours, long queues and hefty fees. The foreign exchanges had better hours, but the fees were still horrendous. We finally found a travel agency that only charged us an arm, and not a leg too.

 

If they will cash them on the ship and give you Euros, that might be the way to go, but otherwise, I don't recommend Euro travellers cheques. We use our ATM cards now, along with a small wodge of Euros left from the last trip to give us a cushion in case the first ATM we find isn't working (which has happened a few times.)

 

Lisa

[Susan-M]

We cashed euro travelers cheques on board Millennium in '05 ... straight exchange/no fee. However, we found ATM's the best way to get money ... good exchange rates and ATM's were easy to find. When we go this fall, we'll take a small amount of Euro cash to get started with and then use ATM's for the rest.

 

I wouldn't try to cash T.C.'s on land for all of the reasons mentioned in the post above. Friends of ours had American Express T.C.'s ... stopped at an A.E. office in Florence, only to wait an hour in line (they were on a land trip and had an hour to spare...but not something you want to do with only 6 hours in Florence.)

[SelectSys]

I wouldn't expect the ship to provide a "friendly" exchange rate on Euros if the ship operates in dollars. With the rise of ATM's travelers checks have very limited value in my mind.

[Susan-M]

I wouldn't expect the ship to provide a "friendly" exchange rate on Euros if the ship operates in dollars. With the rise of ATM's travelers checks have very limited value in my mind.

 

The OP mentioned bringing Euro T.C.'s to exchange for Euro cash ... but I do agree that if exchanging U.S. to Euro's, the exchange rate may not be all that great.

[Betsy's Mom]

It is my understanding that if the ship operates on US$ they will first change your euro travelers checks in to $ (commission) and then back into euros (another commission) no one wants euro travelers checks on land for sure. Better off using ATMs or $ travelers checks if you want the security of travelers checks.

B.

[Susan-M]

It is my understanding that if the ship operates on US$ they will first change your euro travelers checks in to $ (commission) and then back into euros (another commission)......

 

Celebrity's currency is U.S. $ but they exchanged our euro T.C.'s for euro cash without charging any commission or fee ... a straight exchange. That was in '05 .... perhaps they've changed their policy since then?