You don't exchange money - or at least you don't if you can possibly avoid it. Leave your money in your checking account and use your ATM card to get cash as you need it.

There will be ATMs in every town/village where you have shore excursions.

We found that using our ATM card for cash was the best way to get cash. The exchange rates were usually good and the ATM's seemed to be everywhere. That way, you also don't have to carry large amounts at any given time.

If you have a little of each currency left over, use it for tips for the crew. Since they'll likely be back to these countries the following week's cruise, they can use it.

Liz

Since you are going to tourist spots, I suspect that the stores you will go to will accept US$. Rather than get each local cash at the ATM and have a lot left over, bring a stash of US$1 and $5 bills. You may pay a few cents more for the coffee, but it will be easier in the end.

You could also ask the cruise co about this.

Anyone have experience paying with US$ in these places?

No, you don´t pay with US dollars in those places.

Jed wrote "bring a stash of US$1 and $5 bills".

That's among the worst things you might do -- generally not welcome, and it creates a poor image of Americans.

People in central Europe are quite familiar with the euro, and in tourist destinations will usually make a price in euros (with an exchange rate to their advantage, but not always outrageously so).

Using USD in Europe is a minefield. Some places don't accept it, others charge exorbitant exchange rates.

Use your debit card on ATMs attached to banks for cash withdrawals. Use a credit card only for purchases.

I'm sorry but Jed's suggestion is totally wrong, wrong, wrong! (there, was that strong enough?)

>Since you are going to tourist spots, I suspect that the stores you will go to will accept US$

Are you joking, Jed? I hope so.

At how many tourist places in your country do they accept Euros?

Mea culpa. What is my punishment?

<<Anyone have experience paying with US$ in these places?>>

I hope not, because that is just unacceptable.

One thing my sister did which I thought was quite clever on our multi-country trip in May this past year was to make a little "cheat sheet" for currency conversion in each country we visited, so she could quickly make estimates of the relative costs of things, compared to the dollar. For example, based on current exchange rates, her cheat sheet for Slovokia (currency is Slovokia Koruny [SKK]) would look like this:

$1 - 27 SKK
$5 - 133
$10 - 266
$20 - 532
$30 - 798
$50 - 1,331

One other thing: We relied on ATM's to get our currency, but on our way out of a country, we turned in our remaining currency at one of the foreign exchange places. They don't have good exchange rates, so we didn't use them to get our cash, but leaving the country it was worth it to us to ditch the small change on the way out of the country.

We keep our Euros for future trips, but other local currencies we'd rather get rid of before leaving the country in question.

It would be nice, wouldn't it, if I could collect my wits enough to include all of my suggestions in one post! But in any event, in case you haven't looked at currency conversion yet, here's a handy site that will let you keep up on it day-to-day:
http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi

Here's a site where you can make your own cheatsheet, laminate it, and it fits in your wallet or pocket.

http://www.oanda.com/convert/cheatsheet
The nice thing is that you can plug in your bank's fee/conversion rates so you know pretty close to what you are spending.

Thanks all for your quick replies. It looks like most everyone is in agreement that ATMs are the best bet to get some local currency while on this trip. I also liked the idea of the cheat sheets and the suggestion of leaving the rest for an EXTRA tip for the cruise help.

Budman, wow! That's really neat! Nice find!

We were on a Danube Christmas Market Cruise in December and you won't need much "cash" since most of your needs have been met just by paying for cruise. I got $100 worth of Euros when I arrived in Munich and it lasted the entire trip. Euros were accepted in Bratislava and Budapest- no problem. ATM is the way to go if you need additional money.

Budman, thanks for the website. So much easier than doing it yourself, especially since you can incorporate bank charges.