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Canadian Princess Cruisers


Gunner22aa
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The wife and I have a long cruise coming up in Apr. I just pre ordered a bunch of stuff for the trip from Princess. Total bill was just over $280. Coffee card for $31, soda and more card for her at $8.05/day incl gratuity and a couple of bottles of red wine.

 

As we know I the onboard currency is US dollars with the exception of a couple of ships where it is in $AU.

 

I had fully expected to see my actual charge on the credit card in $US and be something over $300 Cdn. Much to my suprize the bill was Princess Cruises Vancouver and for the exact amount I was quoted. Had I waited to get this stuff once I was on the ship it would have cost me about 10% more than it did.

 

With our dollar taking daily hits against the recovering $US right now the smart thing to do is pre order whatever you want/can and save some money. The exchange rate isn't getting more favourable anytime soon and many of the reliable forcasters are predicting our dollar to drop to about .88 US

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Lucky you. I've never had that happen. Anything I purchase ahead of time is always billed to me in US funds, with conversation costs added on my credit card.

I think perhaps this was an error by whoever processed it, rather than their policy? But I certainly hope I'm wrong!!!

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I have pre ordered lots of stuff but never looked at the charges that close before. I wasn't looking this time either but rather looking to see that an almost 20k final payment had gone through. It was there and also billed to Princess Cruises Vancouver. I knew it would be in Cdn dollars as that's what it was booked in. Maybe I just got lucky but its worth trying if you are off on a trip. Worst case is you pay the same as you would on the ship.

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I have pre ordered lots of stuff but never looked at the charges that close before. I wasn't looking this time either but rather looking to see that an almost 20k final payment had gone through. It was there and also billed to Princess Cruises Vancouver. I knew it would be in Cdn dollars as that's what it was booked in. Maybe I just got lucky but its worth trying if you are off on a trip. Worst case is you pay the same as you would on the ship.

 

I wonder if it makes the difference because you paid in Cdn dollars for the entire trip? Our current FCC's are in USD, so that is how we have been paying most recently.

Either way - good for you!:D

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So those prices you were quoted and then charged were in Cdn dollars? I've never see Princess Cruises Vancouver before.

 

Princess Vancouver, could this be one result of consolidation of some of the home office functions with HAL?

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I wonder if it makes the difference because you paid in Cdn dollars for the entire trip? Our current FCC's are in USD' date=' so that is how we have been paying most recently.[/size']

 

Either way - good for you!:D

 

On our last cruise (Oct) they had to convert the FCC to cdn$ before applying it as a deposit. They converted it at par.:) I suppose anything you order online gets charged in cdn$ as well.

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So those prices you were quoted and then charged were in Cdn dollars? I've never see Princess Cruises Vancouver before.

All the cruise fare and all the purchases I made prior to boarding is charged to Princess Toronto. I thought for the cruise fare it was my agent but it is not. Princess do have accounts in Toronto and Vancouver. FCCs on board can be bought in US$ or CDN$. We always buy the CDN ones and pay the cruise fare in CDN funds. So no exchange rate anywhere.

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All the cruise fare and all the purchases I made prior to boarding is charged to Princess Toronto. I thought for the cruise fare it was my agent but it is not. Princess do have accounts in Toronto and Vancouver. FCCs on board can be bought in US$ or CDN$. We always buy the CDN ones and pay the cruise fare in CDN funds. So no exchange rate anywhere.

 

Are you saying that you have pre-paid for gratuities and other on-ship expenses and been charged at par? Or just the cruise fare and FCCs?

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My pre cruise purchases were at par. Coffee card, wine and the soda and more package for the wife as she loves the mock Mojitos.

 

I did some digging. All of the stuff for my November 13 cruise was billed through Princess Scarborough ON. That includes the fare, pre cruise purchases and my final bill on board.

 

The Apr cruise has everything billed through Princess Vancouver BC. Just chatted with my TA on Face Book. Princess Vancouver is new and new to her and she has been in the business a lot of years.

 

So pushing the envelope I just got off the phone with Princess and ordered some more stuff. A $31 dollar bottle of wine and a $31 dollar coffee card. Just got the e mail bill from Princess and it says I owe them $62 which is correct and matches the prices at Princess.com

 

The billing will show up on my credit card in a couple of days. I'll let you know if it is $62 Cdn or $62 US which would make it about $69 Cdn at the current exchange rate.

 

This is fun.

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When I did visit the site earlier I noticed under the pre paid gratuities it specifically said billing is in $US. I'll see what happens with todays order and if its still in Cdn then I'll try the pre paid gratuities. Worst case there is I pay what I would pay on the ship anyway.

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Not that many years ago when the Canadian $ was significantly below the US $, the cruise lines (that we deal with) had separate Canadian and US prices for the actual cruise to make up for the exchange rate. However, they set these prices in advance for the cruise season so the constant fluctuations in the actual exchange rates would sometimes make it a better deal to book in the other currency.

 

We have always wanted to have multiple FCC deposits anyway to allow for B2B cruises so we made a point of always having a couple of Canadian and a couple of US deposits....each. This way you can use the deposits in the currency that you choose to pay for the trip in even if paying in US $ works to your advantage. And if you find yourself booking B2B2B as we have just done, we just had to have one of the US deposits converted to Canadian $ first. They did this buy refunding the US deposit to our US card and then re-billing the $100 each in Canadian on our Canadian card. So there was no exchange rate involved in the deposit.

 

The last several years all cruises that we have been on were the same price in US or Canadian since exchange rates have been close. But as the OP said, this is likely going to change the way or dollar has been sliding recently. Hopefully it will stabilize and then begin the slow recovery like it usually does.

 

I didn't know that you could prepay the gratuities. If so, I am going to give it a try and see if i can pay in Canadian since I paid for this entire B2B2B in Canadian.

 

Thanks for the interesting info and keep us informed as we try our last gasp at anything in PAR!

 

Terry

Edited by AE_Collector
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I didn't know that you could prepay the gratuities. If so, I am going to give it a try and see if i can pay in Canadian since I paid for this entire B2B2B in Canadian.

 

 

The way to prepay gratuities is to gift yourself a $$ amount equal to what the gratuities will be.

 

This amount will then show up on your ship statement as a credit from which any charges will be subtracted until it is all used up and you start to owe money for remaining charges.

 

So doing it this way will reduce your onboard bill by the amount of the gratuities, but it will not be applied only to gratuities.

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Cdn dollar took another half cent hit this morning based on increased unimployment figures here for the month of December. Now trading below 92 cents US. With what the banks add for their conversion rate that equates to about a 10% difference and since the on board account is in US dollars is starting to add considerably to the cost of cruising for us chozen frozen north of the 49th.

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Just ordered a coffee card and an ultimate balcony dinner, and the rep specifically said he was billing me in Canadian Dollars. I asked him how much and he said $31 and $100 both Canadian. I had intended to buy on board, but after reading this thread decided to try pre purchase. If it works as he says it is a saving. If not, then it is no worse than if I booked on board.

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