How to Pay for excursions in Foreign Country

[Rockolamamma]

Hi. New cruiser here. I am not sure where the best place to post this is..... BUT HERE GOES!

I was wondering if anyone had any advice as to how to pay for excursions and other items when we cruise to southern Carib. in September. Our credit card company charges a 3% foreign transaction fee everytime we use it, so it will definitely ADD to our spending.

Do most tour companies take cash? Should we change all of our money into the currency at each island? I am not sure if we want to do the cheapest method if it becomes a big hassle.

What do YOU do?????

Thanks!

Michelle

 

[lbgraves]

We have never exchanged our money in port. We always use TCs. In CM I have seen that with the tour we will be going on they only accept cash, no TCs so we will be sure that we have some with us.

 

[flexsmom]

I'm usually pretty adventurous and eschew using travel companies for packaged tours when we do European trips, but even though there are cost savings to be had, I think I'll be sticking with cruise-company-offered excursions. I think between having some measure of assurance that the excursion company is "certified" (I think most cruise companies are going to try to limit their liability by doing the requisite background checks) and knowing that I'm going to get a full refund and/or not be charged at all if the port gets cancelled, that it's worth the additional premium that most cruiselines charge.

So, in answer to your question - by doing this, the fee for my excursion is charged to my on-board account and the only cash outlay I have is for tips, in which case, yes, I think they'll take cash!

 

[thegales]

If you can, try to do research for your ports of call, as well as your excursions.

For example, at the DCL Rum Point Beach excursion, drinks were not included (except for water or ice tea at lunch). The prices were in Cayman Island dollars (KYD), but of course no one had KYD on them. They would do a conversion into USD (at a rate of 1.25). And if you gave them a higher amount USD bill, the change would be in KYD. That made it very confusing to some folks. I am not sure if Guest Services would have done an exchange of currency.

But then on the DCL Cozumel Fury Catamaran excursion, all prices were in USD.

Castaway Cay all prices are in USD, and all charges go to your KTTW card.

And as Flexmom has said, tips will be excepted in any currency.