An American in London - Please help

[DavidRoss]

Hi all,
My wife and I are traveling to the UK for a British Isles cruise that leaves Dover and travels to Ireland, Scotland and back to England. We are so excited. We have been waiting 15 years for this trip. Since we are vising multiple countries and we plan to do excursions from the ship for all of the countries we visit, I am concerned about how to handle gratuities. I don't think we have an option to charge gratuities for excursions to a credit card. We are flying to and from Heathrow. What are your recommendations for how to handle this? I can use a debit card at an ATM. Do I need to withdraw money in each country? I assume I have to get pounds for England, but what about other countries - do they all use Euros? I am trying to avoid exorbitant exchange fees.

 

[Woodview]

First of all you only need 2 currency money ( + your $ )

Sterling £ for England & Scotland ( British Isles ) & Euros € for Ireland

.......................

Depending on how many excursions you are doing say 2 in England & 2 in Scotland then

add up how much " Gratuities " you are willing to give ( usually there is the Coach Driver & 1 tour guide ) & trips last

max 8 hours then just " Withdraw " X amount of £ before you leave home ( Say £ 80 per person )

.................................

Ireland say 2 excursions again withdraw X amount of € before you leave ( Say € 40 per person )

...................

Are you arriving at Cobh ( pronounced cove ) in Ireland ?

If you are then I live only a 15 min drive away from the docking berth

Let me know when you arrive ?

 

[saintrob]

I agree, I'd get your cash before you travel given the current exchange rate. If the cruise stops in Belfast then it's pounds too.

Are you stopping in Liverpool? That's where I live - it's an amazing city and you'll have a fabulous time. There are plenty of excursions but the most popular seems to be anything to do with the Beatles.

 

[DavidRoss]

We are doing the Disney Cruise Line British Isles cruise. Here is the itinerary. I haven't traveled to England and Europe since 1987. I live in a small community and don't really have any currency exchanges here. Would you recommend exchanging at the airport? I heard it was really expensive to do that so I wanted everyone's advice. We have some sort of excursion booked at each port.

What is a normal rate to tip for something like this? Is it a percentage of the total? We will likely be spending about $330 US dollars in each port for the excursions we have booked.

Below is our itinerary. I don't suppose there is anyone else going on this September cruise is there?

Day Port Ashore Onboard
1 Dover, England — 4:00 PM
Sail-Away Celebrations
2 At Sea — —
3 Cobh (Cork), Ireland 8:00 AM 6:00 PM
4 Dublin, Ireland 8:00 AM 6:00 PM
Frozen Deck Party
5 Greenock (Glasgow & Edinburgh), Scotland 7:00 AM 7:00 PM
6 Liverpool, England 8:00 AM 7:30 PM
7 At Sea — —
8 Dover, England 7:00 AM —

 

[Woodview]

My advice would be to ask your local bank ( Wells Fargo or another large bank ) to Order some UK Sterling & Euros.

Do it soon because it might take time .

Tipping for Cobh ( Cove ) & Dublin would be about 10 Euros per person per excursion = ( $12 per person )

............... Uk .... Tipping would be about £ 5 per person


You are on The Disney Magic along with 2,800 other Passengers arriving at 07.15 hours at Cobh Cruise Terminal

 

[Tony Toon]

We'll wave to you as you sail along the Clyde into Greenock (exactly a month before we head to WDW ourselves). Hope you have an amazing time.

Mrs TT

 

[disneymomto5]

We're on this cruise too!!! I was thinking we could exchange at Guest Services????

 

[marylizcat]

You can tip in dollars if it is easiest for you. I am sure they will appreciate it whatever the currency and it is easy enough for anybody here (I live in UK) to exchange dollars to pounds or euros. Otherwise, just use an atm. Don’t get currency at the airport due to very poor exchange rates.