Canadian Princess Cruisers

[sueandkent]

This is interesting. We recently booked a March 15 cruise. When pricing I checked US travel agents and a Canadian one. I was quoted the same price for both but the US agents billed in US and the Canadian one charged us in CDN $$$. Needles to say we booked in Canada.

I'm going to have to look after some pre-ordering based on this.

[yvr49]

We are boarding the Ruby in an hour. I prepurchased OBC of $200 last week with my Canadian Visa card. I don`t know if that will translate to USD at the end of the cruise, but I will post again and let you all know next week after I get home.

[AE_Collector]

Yes please do! The charge could come through as $200 US and be converted to Canadian by the credit card company. I guess $200 Canadian could also turn into $180 US onboard by Princess though I doubt it would happen that way.

 

Please confirm that your cruise itself was booked directly in Canadian currency as well.

 

Enjoy the cruise!

 

Terry

[Croptop]

Based on reading through this thread, I decided to take a shot and pre-pay for my Internet minutes, an Unlimited Soda package for my wife, an Unlimited Soda and More package for me and a Coffee Card. I figured the chance to get all of this billed in CDN$ was worth the effort.

 

Just got off the phone with Princess and logged into my bank to look at my pending Visa charge. Sure enough, the whole thing was billed in Canadian funds.

 

My thanks to the OP and all of the other contributors on this thread who confirmed it. You guys saved me a bunch of money.

 

I'll consume one or more mocktails in your honour next week!

[smtcan]

I just received my credit card bill. The balcony dinner I purchased for our cruise (paid in CAD) came through from Princess Vancouver as $100 CAD. The one I purchased as a gift for our son, whose cruise was booked in USD, came through as $100 USD converted to $110.98 CAD from Princess LA. I booked them both in the same phone call. I was pleasantly surprised by the CAD deal, even though the booking agent had said it would be in CAD.

 

Sheila

[AE_Collector]

It sounds as though any specific item purchased other than prepaying gratuities will come through in Canadian $ at par as long as the trip was booked in Canadian $ and maybe it is also a requirement that you reside in Canada. Not certain about that.

 

I don't know about shore excursions. I thought they can be booked ahead but just land on your invoice once on board. Can they be paid ahead of time? If so, someone let us know what happens if your cruise is booked in Canadian $.

 

Someone reported being able to buy on board credits ahead of time and it was billed in Canadian $ but until they are on board to confirm that they actually got an equal number of US $ it is unknown if they got a deal or not. I was told that OBC pre purchased would be billed to me in US $ even though my cruise is booked in Canadian $.

 

Terry

[canadarocks]

You cannot pre-pay for shore excursions. Many people buy OBC that they can then use towards paying for their excursions.

[CBCruiser1960]

Thank you all with this information on this thread. I will do the preordering on our next cruise, which we are paying in CDN. It is the same as in US.

:)

[owt205]

Hi

We are leaving on the Star in 5 days, and I have pre-purchased several gifts and services items, inc bucket of beer, UBB, Internet, coffee card, and bottles of rum. ALL were charged in $CDN. Any pre-pay of gratuities, or onboard credit will be charged in $US.

 

Saved a few dollars on the gifts (for ourselves), and have them paid for before we go, so win-win for us. AND...no rushing to purchase these things when we get on. The coffee card, rum, internet certificate will be in our room when we board. There will vouchers for the UBB and beer which we redeem when we want. (The Ultimate Balcony Breakfast need a 24 hour notice, and must be on a sea day)

 

With the $CDN dropping daily, this is a great idea to pre-purchase things you would buy anyway..less hassle onboard, and a bit of a savings.

Happy Cruising:o

[AE_Collector]

I would imagine that if the Canadian dollar continues to drop and/or stays at least 10 cents below the US $, the deal might come to a screeching haul but for now it helps!

 

Celebrity is allowing anything that can be pre purchased including OBC and prepaid gratuities to be had for 3.5 cents on the dollar exchange rate so a great deal for OBC and gratuities as compared to Princess but not quite as good as the "at par" deal on Princess for everything else.

 

Terry

[Mingus]

Just noticed this morning.......Canadian prices have been increased by 10% :(

[kruisey]

Just noticed this morning.......Canadian prices have been increased by 10% :(

 

Our government stated the other day our dollar was not low enough.

I suppose its to increase exports form Canada so business owners and stockholders can start making big profits again;)

Its not Princesses fault its Bank of Canada they set the rates.I often write to them and grumble so should everyone else then maybe we would get results in our favor for a change.:cool:

[AE_Collector]

Just noticed this morning.......Canadian prices have been increased by 10% :(

 

Prices of what? Probably gas again I bet....

[Mingus]

Prices of what? Probably gas again I bet....

 

Princess Cruises.

[kruisey]

prices of what? Probably gas again i bet....

 

ay;)

[AE_Collector]

So across the board, all Princess cruises have a US and a Canadian price again? It has been a couple of years now since the prices went to and stayed at par.

 

I used to know how to check prices in US on the web site to compare but I can't remember how to do that now. Or maybe the web site defaulted to US if you weren't logged in but now the web site knows who you are (via cookies I guess) even when you aren't logged in. I could create a new account with a US address I guess but we receive preferential pricing quite often due to being Platinum which wouldn't be reflected if I created a new account just to check prices.

 

Any ideas how to check this online? Mingus, how have you determined that there was a 10% increase if booked and paid in Canadian? Of course we all know that the Canadian dollar is off 10% against the US dollar so if you book and pay in US and the credit card company adds the exchange...yup, cruises are up in price by 10% on Princess!

 

Terry

Edited February 1, 2014 by AE_Collector

[Mingus]

So across the board, all Princess cruises have a US and a Canadian price again? It has been a couple of years now since the prices went to and stayed at par.

 

I used to know how to check prices in US on the web site to compare but I can't remember how to do that now. Or maybe the web site defaulted to US if you weren't logged in but now the web site knows who you are (via cookies I guess) even when you aren't logged in. I could create a new account with a US address I guess but we receive preferential pricing quite often due to being Platinum which wouldn't be reflected if I created a new account just to check prices.

 

Any ideas how to check this online? Mingus, how have you determined that there was a 10% increase if booked and paid in Canadian? Of course we all know that the Canadian dollar is off 10% against the US dollar so if you book and pay in US and the credit card company adds the exchange...yup, cruises are up in price by 10% on Princess!

 

Terry

 

Yes, I remember in the past you could toggle between US and Cdn pricing on the Princess website, but was then disabled. Recently with dollars at par, it didn't matter, but we're back to choosing between US or C$ :(. You can see the US$ pricing at travelo****.com with the past passenger discount.

 

I noticed the 10% increase when I checked the pricing in "My Princess/Saved Cruises". Luckily, I had printed my list of cruises before I updated the prices.

Example:

Grand Princess, Sept 22, 2014

Yesterday's price - C$1099.00 inside

Today - C$1208.90 (exactly 10 % increase) (at the "other" website, still US$1099.00)

 

Golden Princess, Sept 20, 2014

Yesterday - C$89.00 inside

Today - C$97.90

 

One strange exception was Grand Princess, May 17, 2014......the C$59 inside did NOT change.

 

One bright side is that the 10% increase is still less than today's bank exchange rate of 13.5% :rolleyes:.

[AE_Collector]

I will have to do some more looking at the web site. I have 4 cruises saved on the Princess site and updated the prices today and didn't see any change except for one that dropped by $200. Though I did update them several days ago and did notice some increases at that time. Maybe they did Canadian price adjustments in stages.

 

I wish it were easy to see both Canadian and US prices as at any given time it might be better to book in either currency. There was a time when Canadian prices were around 10% more even though the exchange rate was approaching par. We paid for that trip in US$.

 

Terry

Edited February 1, 2014 by AE_Collector

[AE_Collector]

Did a bit of looking on the Princess web site. The three back to backs we do on Pacific Princess in April are still the same price as before. The easy way to tell if the price in Canadian has increased by 10% is if the price ends in 90 cents. Most cruise prices end in 9 dollars US so if they have added 10% for Canadian the price now ends in 90 cents.

 

I looked at the Grand Princess and where I saw the new 90 cent pricing was after the Alaska season ends in September and the Grand starts the new Vancouver Coastal, Hawaii round trip and then the 3 day coastal and into the 10 day LA-Mexico trip. I was really hoping for quite a bit if interest in these new Vancouver trips on the Grand so that they will keep doing them for a few years but it is too bad that they decided to crank the Canadian price right then.

 

Same thing for the Pacific Princess. The prices change at the end of the Alaska season as she heads off to hawaii and on to Tahiti. I guess they figure if the Canadian $ improves before the all they can cut the price or even put it back to par later and if it doesn't improve at least they are getting another 10%.

 

I haven't looked at other destinations to see when those prices are increasing.

 

Terry

Edited February 1, 2014 by AE_Collector

[caribill]

I will have to do some more looking at the web site. I have 4 cruises saved on the Princess site and updated the prices today and didn't see any change except for one that dropped by $200.

 

Try the new Cruise Critic feature that can send you a weekly e-mail about price drops http://www.cruisecritic.com/price-drop

[corsage]

I noticed that the price increased for our future cruise that we have booked on the Royal Jan 2015. I am glad we booked our cruise when we did, saved a lot of money.

 

Good to about buying OBC ahead and having it charged to the CC in Canadian. We will certainly be taking advantage of that.

[yvr49]

I used my Canadian Visa card to purchase $200 OBC as a gift to myself:) I didn't want to purchase the credits as prepaid gratuity since Princess website clearly states the gratuity amount is billed in US dollars. I wasn't sure, however, if my $200 CAD purchase would translate to the equivalent USD when deposited in my OBC account.

 

The good news is that the account showed my gift as $200 USD, so I saved a bit on exchange.

[caribill]

I used my Canadian Visa card to purchase $200 OBC as a gift to myself:) I didn't want to purchase the credits as prepaid gratuity since Princess website clearly states the gratuity amount is billed in US dollars. I wasn't sure, however, if my $200 CAD purchase would translate to the equivalent USD when deposited in my OBC account.

 

The good news is that the account showed my gift as $200 USD, so I saved a bit on exchange.

 

Since pre-purchased gratuities are simply OBC put on your account and not really just dedicated for gratuities, what you did accomplished the exact same thing at a good rate for you.

[Steelers36]

I noticed that the price increased for our future cruise that we have booked on the Royal Jan 2015. I am glad we booked our cruise when we did, saved a lot of money.

 

Good to about buying OBC ahead and having it charged to the CC in Canadian. We will certainly be taking advantage of that.

 

 

I think the key there is that your voyage date is in 2015. In recent years, Princess changed exchange rates effective Jan 1. The problem will be if the CAD gets back to par by this fall (somewhat unlikely), or even 0.95, then Princess's pricing will be more expensive than paying in USD. Before Princess finally parred up the currencies, they were charging a premium as high as 25% when the exchange was < 10%. That's when I booked in USD. I still do even though pricing has been at par for two or three seasons. (I have been earning income in USD and of course wish to reduce or eliminate as much currency conversion as possible).

[AE_Collector]

I used my Canadian Visa card to purchase $200 OBC as a gift to myself:)

 

The good news is that the account showed my gift as $200 USD, so I saved a bit on exchange.

 

Have you checked your visa account to confirm that you haven't been billed $200 US to your card that the credit card company will convert to more than $200 Canadian for you?

 

Terry