Changing money and tipping question

[msmama]

About to head off for our Norway/Iceland adventure!! So excited. A couple of last minute questions...

- Do I actually need cash to "exchange money" on the ship or do they just charge it to my room?

- The only cash I plan on needing is for tips for excursions. Is there any way of knowing how many people I will be tipping?

- How much do you usually tip (I'm guessing it depends on the type of excursion). We've got a couple that are actual tours and then a few others that I think are basically just transportation. Obviously I'd tip the tour guys more than people who are just driving busses.

 

[cmwade77]

The ships are cashless, I have never heard of them changing money on the ships. I actually use an online bank that refunds all ATM fees that other ATMS charge, including international ones. So I just use the ATM to get money and they have far better exchange rates than any other I have found.

 

[SteveMP]

Most international airports have cash exchange booths. Though you may need to go to the international terminal. I fly to EU often for work and come home with random euros so I usually have some 1 and 2 euro coins and even some bills. In europe they don't tend to tip as much so I normally do a 2 euro coin ir 5 euro bill depending on what it is.

 

[DCL Repeaters]

Don't know if this has changed, but back in 2010 when I needed a few extra euros Guest Services on the Magic would only accept cash for euros. So to answer your question yes, DCL did provide local currency exchange for cash only.

 

[Pens Fan]

I can't completely answer your question, but when we did this cruise in 2015 they only had Norwegian Krone and Euros available for exchange. I know that they did not have Icelandic Krona, and I'm pretty sure they did not have Pounds either. I have no idea if that's changed, but that is how it was then. We got a small amount of currency from our bank prior to leaving for each country we were visiting (they had to order it, so it took a few days), so I don't know if you have to have cash to make the exchange on board or not. Other than that, we just used local ATM's for cash if we needed it.

At the end of the cruise, we had some foreign currency left over and had guest services apply it to our account. I'm sure the exchange rate wasn't the best, but our bank charges a $15 per currency transaction fee, so I figured it was actually a better deal for such a small amount as we had left over.

As for how much to tip, well everyone will have differing opinions there. We usually stick with 15% to 20% of the cost of the excursion / transportation, depending on the level of service.

Enjoy your cruise!! It was our favorite cruise we've taken to date. You will love it.

 

[Mil leech]

I will see you there!! From what I've heard they will do Norwegian Krone and pounds. Also, I didn't realize that in Europe a lot of places are chip and pin for credit card use... I am not sure I will get my PIN in time...