Canadian Princess Cruisers

[DowntotheC]

Hmmm.... I can't see that the cruise would make a difference, I can see it being the call center.

 

Imjust know all 3 of my transactions were from the San Clarita office, billed as "princess cruise servic vancouver, bc"

 

Where are the ones billed from that included 10%?

 

I was talking to the Call Center in S. Clarita and this was not different conversations or different days so it was not that I wound up at a different location. I told the girl I paid in Cnd. Dollars and received a receipt from there Vanc. processing center and I did not want to see foreign currency fee charges or exchange. Like I said the Sept. cruise went through in Cnd funds and I was online with my bank at the same time so I could see immediately. The moment she went to run the Oct. cruise through she actually told me that it wanted to charge me an extra $55. on $500 and she said it was showing as exchange. I asked her to retry and she did but same problem so that is when I told her to forget Oct. and put all funds on the Sept. sailing. She did and bingo no exchange was on it. My bank account also agreed so the only thing I could think of was that maybe it was not charging exch as Sept. was right around the corner and maybe better predicted for them. Oct. maybe too far out for them to do this when it is unknown. I really have no idea but I think if you ask the girls to let you know how much the transaction is finally going to be processed for you will know whether to stop the transaction or not. Thats if the exchange is a determining factor for you. It is always nice to get a little benefit on your transactions and really when you are paying the cruise lines prices which are full blown retail they truly are not loosing money. They are just not making what they could if the exchange was being charged. ;)

[AE_Collector]

Terry,

 

The cruise was $768, no cents. Folio to be charged in USD

 

All OBC purchases charged from Vancouver, and all in CAD

 

3 transactions in 2 days, one on Aug 24, 2 on Aug 28, but all $500 or less

 

Hhmm, my upcoming cruise to Hawaii was $699 US$ (obstructed Ocean View) which converted to $768.90 Canadian (exactly 10% more than the US price). I assumed that your cruise had been billed the 10% premium as well but maybe not since you werent charged the 90 cents (I was). When I looked your cruise up it seemed as though it was still being billed at par to Canadians but your "odd" $768 price made me think the 10% premium had been invoked on that sailing date. Not sure what is up with that but if the cruise was billed at par there is much more liklihood of OBC also being billed at par.

 

Terry

[AE_Collector]

Thats if the exchange is a determining factor for you. It is always nice to get a little benefit on your transactions

 

True! I think the 10% premium is reasonable but if others are getting OBC at par I want to try to get some as well! And the last time (May) that I was billed in US they cancelled it and redid it and I got $3500 at par. So if I thought it would be that easy this time I would give it a try. The difference this time is that my cruise does have the 10% premium for Canadian rather than being at par.

 

Terry

[cdngrl]

my 'special services' purchase of obc came from santa clarita.

interesting since my cruise was charged through vancouver.

my cruise is in october, so perhaps that is the cutoff for pare/10%?

princess likes you more than me. :p

[AE_Collector]

There wasn't an actual cut off date for adding the 10% premium to the cruises. The one time line that I have figured out is that all Alaska cruises are at par until the ship repositions away from the Alaska cruises which varies a bit depending on the ship.

 

I am inclined to suspect that how the cruise is charged is still the determining factor for the rate paid on OBC pre purchase and probably all pre purchase items. It is possible that pre purchases aren't related to the cruise itself and they have a specific cut off date for par/not at par but since some are still getting par and others aren't, it doesn't really look as though that is how it is supposed to work.

 

I may try calling one more time to initiate a pre purchase of OBC even though i have probably already purchased to much. If it is going through at par I will cancel the previous purchase.

 

If my theory is correct, all OBC at par is coming to an end on a cruise near you real soon. It as well as cruises at par were a real good gif while it lasted....

 

Terry

[avd79]

We purchased a cruise for March 2015 a few weeks ago and there was a difference between the Cdn and US rates. We always check to see which is more advantageous.

[M4dC0w]

woohoo, my Grand Sampler cruise on Sept.20th, dropped $200 pp, and added $150 pp OBC

 

Made the changes, to a mini-suite, and $300 more OBC, and they still owe me $36

Edited August 30, 2014 by M4dC0w

[AE_Collector]

We always check to see which is more advantageous.

 

Us too, we always keep several Future Cruise Deposits each in both US$ and CDN$ and then book the cruise in the currency that is the best deal at the time.

 

Terry

[cdngrl]

Us too, we always keep several Future Cruise Deposits each in both US$ and CDN$ and then book the cruise in the currency that is the best deal at the time.

 

Terry

 

yes, I do as well!

[Putterdude]

Having been burnt badly once in a major currency swing I now book in CAD unless the cruise is just a couple of months out and we are making final almost immediately. However, I do have a USD account with BofA and one of their credit cards so I book our FCC in USD and our TA makes the conversion at the time of booking. I know some TAs don't like to do this and hide behind the excuse "Princess doesn't do that" but that is not so.

[AE_Collector]

Doing the conversion is a lot of unnecessary work for TA and/or Princess though. And it adds at least a day or even two days to the process. The department that does the conversion is 8-4 M-F.

 

We mainly book last minute deals and after a couple of incidents of the added last minute stress of getting FCC's converted we now keep life much simpler by having several US and several CDN FCD's. We only have to do conversions now if we exhaust our supply of FCD's in the currency that we are booking in before we are able to "reload".

 

I get the same interest on my money with Princess as I do in the bank!

 

Terry

[Putterdude]

I agree that the bank pays as much on your money as Princess but our TA has put a hold on the cabin, done the conversion of FCCs to the appropriate currency with Princess in a matter of minutes and while I was listening to the transaction on the line. Weekends can be another matter but the TA hold always holds. Just don't let anyone tell you that Princess doesn't make the conversion between currencies any more....as I have read in the is forum in the past. All that said, what ever strategy you are most comfortable is the best one.

[AE_Collector]

Two more OBC purchases for upcoming cruises have both gone through in Canadian at a 10% premium. Both cruises were 10% higher priced in Canaian as well (Sept 16 and Dec 6 cruises) so I am not pretty much convinced that the prepurchase exchange rate is tied directly to the cruise purchase exchange rate.

 

Still, a guarantee of only 10% exchange ae onboard isnt bad though I am going to miss the days of "at par"!

 

Terry

[M4dC0w]

Added somemore to my sept 20 carribean, and still at par.

 

October panama canal came out at par too.

[AE_Collector]

Wow, you are doing well! Maybe I should try one more time!

 

Terry

[DowntotheC]

Wow, you are doing well! Maybe I should try one more time!

 

Terry

 

If you do decide to try again. Ask the rep. before she concludes the transaction if the amount you are putting on your account in Cnd $ is showing any exch. rate. if they say yes then abort the transaction and ask her to try again. When I made my transaction a week ago the first time she tried she said she could see the exch. rate so I asked her to cancel and try again. She did and it went through without exchange.

I have no idea why it is sporadic but I do know if you get a rep who knows whats going on they can get it to go through without exch.

It is actually a plus if you have enough money on your account so they do not have to process your credit card at the end as then it does get exchange and a foreign exch fee added.

Good Luck.

[RLK33853]

Thanks to this thread I called Princess at the regular 1-800-Princess number and asked about par expenses if the cruise was booked in Canadian dollars.

 

The agent allowed me to pre-pay my daily gratuities in Canadian - although there was a slight upcharge of $4.00 on $250.00 in the end. Either way it is a great deal.

 

Thanks to everyone who keeps this thread alive for others to see and use.

[AE_Collector]

I thought that I would bump up this long discussion about Pre-purchasing OBC for Canadians. Having done more cruises since I last reported my findings here I have now come to a conclusion on just how the exchange rate works for pre-purchases.

 

If you hold a Canadian passport AND you have booked a Princess cruise directly in the Princess Canadian price, you can pre-purchase OBC or anything else on the list of things that can be pre-purchased at the same exchange rate that was used by Princess to set the rate for your cruise.

 

Earlier in this topic when some were being charged 10% while others were still getting par it was because at that time some of the cruises were still priced at par and others were 10% higher in Canadian. Princess doesn't use a rate that changes daily or weekly but rather they predetermine what it will be for quite a long period of time to keep prices consistent. Then they phase in the new exchange rate as ships change to different itinerary's. Thus some itinerary's can be at one rate or still at par while other ships might be at a different rate. Before long all the itinerary's are priced at the same new exchange rate.

 

Currently everything is at 10%, a fantastic rate since the Canadian dollar continues to slide in value against the US dollar to a rate of about 16-17% currently. It seems inevitable that soon Princess is going to add a larger premium to booking in Canadian, likely 15 or 20%.

 

One day (if we live long enough!) the Canadian dollar will start to climb against the US dollar again and then we may have pricing for awhile that makes it more advantageous to book cruises in US$.

 

Terry

[canadarocks]

Well explained Terry. I booked initially with Princess at the 10% mark. When I went looking for a US Travel Agent, keeping it that way in Canadian dollars was key. I also pre-purchased our UKP drink cards months ago, just in case. We lucked out with a enough OBC to cover gratuities, otherwise I would have pre-paid those as well. I didn't want to risk the increase in exchange.

[Been There, Planning That]

We've paid in full our February cruise with a Canadian dollar card but have given a US dollar card for on board billing.

 

Am I correct that if I go on line to prepay an OBC it would go on the US dollar visa on file?

 

Is there any way to put an OBC on our Cdn. dollar card?

 

We booked thru' a Canadian TA if that matters,

 

All this is a new idea to me, so thanks in advance experts,

 

Ruth

[AE_Collector]

Nothing to do with the card you have registered for your onboard account. Pay with whatever card you want when you buy the OBC. Keep the other card in place incase you spend more onboard than all of your OBC will cover.

 

Before the Princess rep submits your purchase ask him/her to confirm the amount to you. $500 US OBC should show them a charge of $550 Canadian to your credit card. If so, all is good.

 

I did have it go wrong once and it came through as a US charge and I had to get it reversed and try again which is a lot of fooling around. Then the credit card company doesn't want to refund the 2.5% fee if it was inadvertently charged in US$ to your Canadian card. That is another battle.

 

If you buy too much OBC go to Guest Services desk the last night and they will refund you possibly in cash if a small amount or to the credit card you have on file, not necessarily the card you purchased the OBC with. This is perfect if you have a US card on file as it will be there in US for when you need it next time. The refund to your credit card can take a little while to show up though.

 

Terry

Edited January 4, 2015 by AE_Collector

[Been There, Planning That]

Sound advice for which I thank you. You've opened a world of new options. With our dollar so low, this sounds like a good option.

 

Ruth

[lastrooney]

I too want to thank you Terry for this info.

I'd like to take advantage of this.

We've booked our upcoming cruise through a TA, am now wondering if I can bypass the TA and call princess myself to purchase OBC. Cruise is a week away, and this is the first time using a TA.

[nana541]

I too want to thank you Terry for this info.

 

I'd like to take advantage of this.

 

We've booked our upcoming cruise through a TA, am now wondering if I can bypass the TA and call princess myself to purchase OBC. Cruise is a week away, and this is the first time using a TA.

 

 

Have you gone online at the Princess website and set up your account. You will need your princess reservation #, which may well be different from and invoice number from your TA. You should be able to log into your cruise and purchase OBC, excursions when available and reservations for speciality reservations. You can do all this without your TA.

 

What you can't do is speak directly to Princess or make payment of the cruise itself.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[lastrooney]

Thank you nana....:)

Good to know I can't speak to Princess directly.

I wasn't sure as I've booked all previous cruises directly with Princess.