You need very little cash on the ship itself, because everything aboard runs on your onboard account — the cash question is really about your ports, where small vendors, local transport and tips are the things that still expect notes rather than a card.
This is one of the few cruise questions where the popular answer is actively unhelpful. Search it and you will find a confident figure per person per week, which is a number invented for an article rather than derived from your holiday. What you actually need depends on where the ship stops and what you intend to do when it does — and for a surprising number of itineraries, the honest answer is very little.
On the ship, you need almost none
Modern cruise ships are effectively cashless. You register a payment card at check-in, your cabin key card or wristband becomes your onboard account, and everything you buy aboard — drinks, the spa, the shops, speciality dining, the laundry, excursions bought onboard — goes onto that account and settles at the end of the sailing. Handing over notes for a drink is not a thing that happens on most ships.
There are two exceptions worth knowing. The casino generally deals in cash, and drawing casino money against your onboard account usually attracts a service charge, which is why regular players bring notes. And if you want to hand a specific crew member something directly — beyond the automatic daily service charge — that is a cash transaction by definition.
The other reason people carry a small amount aboard is that onboard accounts can also be funded with cash at guest services, which matters to anyone who would rather not have a card authorisation sitting against their bank account for the length of the cruise. That is a preference rather than a requirement.
The real question is your ports, not your ship
Once you accept that the ship is cashless, the whole question collapses into a much simpler one: what are you doing ashore, and does it take a card?
A week of Caribbean calls where you have pre-booked ship excursions and intend to be back aboard for lunch needs very little. A week where you plan to take local taxis, eat at small places, buy from market stalls and tip a few people needs a meaningful amount, in small notes, every single day.
So the useful method is not a figure — it is a count. Go through your itinerary port by port and ask, for each one: transport, food, entry to anything, tips, and one contingency. Add them up in your head and you will have a number that is actually about your holiday. It is the same exercise we walk clients through in our first-time cruise guide, and it takes about five minutes.
What still genuinely wants cash ashore
Local transport. Taxis, shared shuttles, water taxis and local buses in most cruise destinations are cash businesses, and the driver who says he takes cards frequently means through an app that will not work on your roaming connection.
Small vendors and market stalls, which are most of the interesting shopping in most ports. Beach chair and umbrella rentals, which are often an informal arrangement with somebody on the sand rather than a business with a terminal.
Tipping — guides, drivers, boat crew, the porter who takes your bags at the cruise terminal on embarkation day. That last one catches first-timers every time, because it happens before you have even boarded, and the terminal porters are not cruise line staff.
And the contingency category: the taxi back when the plan changes, a bottle of water, a bathroom that charges, a phone that has died and left you without your digital everything. Our day bag checklist treats a small amount of cash as a standard item for exactly this reason.
Which currency, and the small-notes problem
In the Caribbean and Mexico, United States dollars are widely accepted in tourist areas, and in several destinations they are effectively the working currency at the pier. That does not mean you are getting a good exchange, and it does not mean your change will come back in dollars — expect local currency back, which is fine until you are trying to spend it at the next island where it is worthless.
In the Mediterranean, northern Europe and Asia, take the local currency. Euro-zone ports are simple. Elsewhere it is genuinely worth a small amount of the right currency before you go ashore, and it is one of the few good arguments for a bank card that does not charge you for foreign withdrawals.
The detail that matters more than the currency is the denomination. Small notes. A taxi driver, a stall holder and a beach attendant all have the same problem with a large note, and the answer is very often that you do not get change, or you get it in a currency you cannot use. Break your money before you need it, not at the moment of the transaction.
ATMs, cards and what to do if you run short
Machines exist in most cruise ports, and in the larger ones they are easy to find. They are not a plan. Availability varies wildly by port, foreign withdrawal charges apply at both ends, and the ones nearest a cruise pier are frequently the least favourable and occasionally out of service on a day when four thousand people want them.
There is usually a machine aboard as well, and it exists for the convenience rather than the rate. If it is the difference between getting into a taxi and not, use it; it is not where you should be sourcing your week’s spending.
The sensible structure is a small daily amount carried ashore, the rest secured in the cabin safe, a card as the backup and a second card kept separately from the first. Splitting your money across two places sounds paranoid until the day a bag goes missing, at which point it is the only reason the day continues.
The itineraries that genuinely need more
Three patterns push the answer upwards, and it is worth checking whether yours is one of them.
Itineraries with many small or undeveloped ports. The more your week consists of places that are not built around cruise ships — the smaller Greek islands, much of the South Pacific, a good deal of Asia outside the major cities — the more of the day runs on notes. Card acceptance in a purpose-built Caribbean terminal tells you nothing about card acceptance in a village.
Itineraries where you intend to travel independently every day. Taxis, local buses, entry fees, lunches and tips compound quickly across seven ports, and each of them individually is small enough that people forget to count it.
And itineraries crossing several currencies. A Baltic or a Mediterranean cruise can touch four or five, and the trap is not running out — it is ending up with a pocket of leftover notes from each one, none of which is useful at the next stop. Draw less, more often, and spend it down before the ship sails.
How to carry it on a port day
Take what you need for the day and leave the rest aboard. The cabin safe is the right place for the bulk of it, your passport if you are not carrying it, and the card you are not using.
Keep it split on your person too — some in a pocket, some in the bag — so that one moment of carelessness is an annoyance rather than the end of the day. Nothing sophisticated is required; the point is simply that everything is not in one place.
And take your ship card and identification in whatever you carry, because you cannot get back aboard without them. That belongs in the same pocket as the cash and not in whatever you set down at the beach, which is a point we make in our carry-on checklist as well.
Common questions
Do you need cash on a cruise ship?
Almost never; the ship runs on a cashless onboard account.
What needs cash in port?
Local transport, small vendors, market stalls and tipping.
Are US dollars accepted in Caribbean ports?
Widely in tourist areas, though change may come back in local currency.
Should you use port ATMs?
They exist, but availability varies by port and it is not something to depend on.
The short version: almost none for the ship, and for the ports as much as your specific plans genuinely require, in small notes, split between two places. Anyone giving you a single figure for a week is guessing at your itinerary, and they are usually guessing high.
If you would like a second opinion on which of your ports are cash ports and which are not, that is a five-minute conversation and it is free — the cruise lines pay our commission, so your fare is the same as booking direct.