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Gunner22aa

By Gunner22aa,
in Princess Cruises

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Kamloops50

Kamloops50

Posted
Posted
Can someone please clarify something for me? If I buy OBC and don't spend all the money that is available will they transfer the available OBC money over the gratuity owing?

 

OBC's will be used to cover the gratuities from the start. Any OBC's that you buy are basically a credit to your account to cover whatever charges you have.

 

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avcruz

avcruz

Posted
Posted
Avcruz, could I ask, if you received email confirmation- which code did they use for the onboard credit? In the gifts and services catalogue the code for $100 is 6012. I was billed under the 6000 "onboard credit" code. Wondering which one you have.

 

The. *edited* thx

 

 

I'm not sure, as I let my TA handle it for me. She uses her system to request the OBC for me and sends me a confirmation. It doesn't show a code. It says 5 x $100 USD onboard credit - CAD $500, which is what was charged to my Visa.

 

This is the first time I've purchased OBC, I usually make do with what I get through promos, FCC, shareholder, my TA, etc. I decided to try purchasing credits this time when the CAD started going south. Guess I will have to wait and see how it works out.

 

 

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AE_Collector

AE_Collector

Posted
Posted (edited)

They have a $500 OBC available if you call in so that is what I bought. Two per cruise and we are doing three B2B's. It has a 6xxx code, maybe 6007 or something like that which is what is on my receipt that they emailed to me after purchasing.

 

We are booked in Canadian directly through Princess. These OBCs came through as $500 US$ each on the receipt and came through as $500 CDN each from Princess Santa Clarita on my credit card. I am happy!

 

We will be giving it back to them though as we do Shorex in most ports and always have booked shore excursions through Princess. I have read about a lot of the tours put together by people here on the roll calls etc and to be honest I never really see a lot of benefit to that. I must be missing something but prices and activities seem similar to me. Sometimes smaller groups or different activity maybe? We are usually dragging behind at deciding what we want to do in port and it is so easy to change your mind with Princess where as I don't think it would be fair at all to change ones mind without a LOT of notice to an individual who has put a tour together. Just my thoughts.

 

It also sounds as though we give up a bit of OBC by booking most of our cruises directly through Princess as well rather than through a TA. We are typically last minute cruise bookers, most often after the final payment date so I feel that we usually are getting pretty good prices on what we choose to book and I have never got any more than a $20 credit towards wine from any TA that we have booked through in the past.

 

So the point I was trying to make is Princess has given us a good deal on OBC and I am quite certain that we will be giving it all back to them onboard while we enjoy our upcoming 32 day cruise from Tahiti to Vancouver.

 

Terry

Edited by AE_Collector
Typos and clarity
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avcruz

avcruz

Posted
Posted
They have a $500 OBC available if you call in so that is what I bought. Two per cruise and we are doing three B2B's. It has a 6xxx code, maybe 6007 or something like that which is what is on my receipt that they emailed to me after purchasing.

 

We are booked in Canadian directly through Princess. These OBCs came through as $500 US$ each on the receipt and came through as $500 CDN each from Princess Santa Clarita on my credit card. I am happy!

 

We will be giving it back to them though as we do Shorex in most ports and always have booked shore excursions through Princess. I have read about a lot of the tours put together by people here on the roll calls etc and to be honest I never really see a lot of benefit to that. I must be missing something but prices and activities seem similar to me. Sometimes smaller groups or different activity maybe? We are usually dragging behind at deciding what we want to do in port and it is so easy to change your mind with Princess where as I don't think it would be fair at all to change ones mind without a LOT of notice to an individual who has put a tour together. Just my thoughts.

 

It also sounds as though we give up a bit of OBC by booking most of our cruises directly through Princess as well rather than through a TA. We are typically last minute cruise bookers, most often after the final payment date so I feel that we usually are getting pretty good prices on what we choose to book and I have never got any more than a $20 credit towards wine from any TA that we have booked through in the past.

 

So the point I was trying to make is Princess has given us a good deal on OBC and I am quite certain that we will be giving it all back to them onboard while we enjoy our upcoming 32 day cruise from Tahiti to Vancouver.

 

Terry

 

 

We will be giving it back to them in the lounges and specialty restaurants. :-)

 

We are with you from Honolulu to Vancouver, and because all of our ports of call are in Hawaii we are just renting cars in each port and doing our own thing. On our last big cruise, we did a combination of Princess-sponsored shore excursions and private ones. I do find that private ones usually work better for us, for their smaller size and lower price. There were some places (usually where there is a distance and/or heavy traffic between the port and the city such as Livorno/Florence) where we decided to take a Princess shore excursion in order to ensure that we would be back to the ship on time.

 

It's a personal choice whether to use a TA or not, we do, and it seems that whether we book 15 months in advance or 5 weeks ahead we always get a great price and OBC. For this cruise in addition to our FCC credit, Shareholders credit, and the $500 I ordered myself we are getting $175 from our TA plus that $20 bottle of wine :-).

 

I agree with you, our philosophy is to spend any credit we have - that's what it's for. Getting it at par is just a bonus...

 

Adrienne

 

 

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dylandog25

dylandog25

Posted
Posted
Lucky you. I've never had that happen. Anything I purchase ahead of time is always billed to me in US funds' date=' with conversation costs added on my credit card.[/size']

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

 

it has ben like that at least since xmas I also did the same thing in january

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AE_Collector

AE_Collector

Posted
Posted

We are with you from Honolulu to Vancouver

 

It's a personal choice whether to use a TA or not, we do, and it seems that whether we book 15 months in advance or 5 weeks ahead we always get a great price and OBC. For this cruise in addition to our FCC credit, Shareholders credit, and the $500 I ordered myself we are getting $175 from our TA plus that $20 bottle of wine :-).

 

Will have to try to track you down onboard to see who you use as a TA because I just haven't had any results that made me glad that I didn't just do it all myself so that is what I have done the last 2 or 3 years now.

 

Terry

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sueandkent

sueandkent

Posted
Posted

Just booked an Alaska cruise for $100 each deposit and while I was doing that also bought 2 soda cards for our upcoming March cruise. The price of the Alaska cruise was quoted to me the same in USD and CDN so of course when I booked it I asked for it to be booked in CDN and our deposit of $200 was charged to the credit card in CDN.

Soda cards were quoted to me at the price we would pay on the ship however the credit card was again charged in CDN so we saved the exchange rate. Both charges showed on the credit card as Princess Vancouver. It's a great deal with the $$ running 13% right now. I'm impressed.

We've always used a US based travel agent in the past for our cruises but we've given that up right now as we can get quoted the same price for the cruise but in CDN funds. No point in paying USD if you don't have to.:)

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avcruz

avcruz

Posted
Posted
Will have to try to track you down onboard to see who you use as a TA because I just haven't had any results that made me glad that I didn't just do it all myself so that is what I have done the last 2 or 3 years now.

 

 

 

Terry

 

 

I haven't been on the roll call lately - will have to see if anyone is arranging a meet & greet. Perhaps we can meet up there. Plus with a small ship and 6 sea days I'm sure we'll bump into each other... :-)

 

Adrienne

 

 

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AE_Collector

AE_Collector

Posted
Posted (edited)

We've always used a US based travel agent in the past for our cruises but we've given that up right now as we can get quoted the same price for the cruise but in CDN funds. No point in paying USD if you don't have to.:)

 

Princess doesn't seem to adjust the US price to Canadian when you book a trip but rather they set the prices ahead of time for a cruising season. They have decided to add 10% to the US price for payments in Canadian beginning right after the Alaska season ends (in this market at least). Thus Canadians wanting to do Alaska, do it this season!

 

Unfortunately as soon as the Grand Princess starts doing the new cruises out of Vamcouver in September/October, the prices are 10% higher. If the canadian dollar were suddenly to go back close to par the price list would likely stay as is so it could easily be a better deal to pay in US. But it sounds as though our dollar is more likely to sink a bit lower into the 80 cent range meaning that the 10% Princess is charging this fall will still be a good deal.

 

The next thing to determine is going to be will these pre purchased OBC's, beer, soda etc be sold at a 10% premium in Canadian on Canadian credit cards for people booked in Canadian on these upcoming cruises that are priced 10% higher in Canadian. While not par it will likely still be a bargain exchange rate.

 

Terry

Edited by AE_Collector
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Kamloops50

Kamloops50

Posted
Posted

I was told that Princess changes their exchange four times a year. They changed the rate about a month ago just as the CDN started to tank. They the fares by about 5% . The cruises booked at the lower stay the same.

 

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Mythros

Mythros

Posted
Posted

I am testing this. Today I purchased some OBC for our upcoming CB cruise. I'll post back in a couple of days confirming the currency that I was charged in. I had previously purchased the Ultimate Soda Package and was charged in CDN dollars.

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CruiserLifer

CruiserLifer

Posted
Posted

I booked with a US TA (who billed me in USD to my USD credit card). Anyone had experience who also booked in USD and getting OBC or pre-order something (say a drink package) directly with Princess charged in CAD to a different (CAD) credit card?

 

From what I read, the currency you can pre-order in is based on what currency your base cruise was paid in, so I'm tied to USD then?

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AE_Collector

AE_Collector

Posted
Posted

Yes I would say that you are stuck in US funds except one one here recently reported successfully switching everything to Canadian funds. I can't recall the details but I am quite certain that it was reported in this topic.

 

Terry

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Mythros

Mythros

Posted
Posted

Just to get back to everyone from a couple of days ago. The OBC that I purchased DID go through in CDN funds to my credit card. This is especially good news! Will likely but a little more next week to ensure that we can cover our entire bill without the exchange.:D

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Mythros

Mythros

Posted
Posted

No problem - let me know if you were successful as well. I called this morning and bought some more OBC so that we won't have to worry about a final bill at all (a good up front investment):rolleyes:

 

I also just realized that we cruised together about 6 years ago - on the Golden to Hawaii. I still remember that as my best ever cruise.

 

Good luck!

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