For Canadian cruisers

[candiac]

Let the fun begin.

 

We make the decision to book in Canadian or USD funds at time of booking depending on the price of the cabin, they are not repriced hourly so depending on when the prices were set it may be better to book the cabin Cdn or USD. One time, the price for our balcony D1 was better in USD and my son's inside cabin was much better in CDN dollar. (Exchane rates were fluctuating and the cabin had not been repriced for several weeks. Strangely, the cabins are not priced in USD and then converted at time of booking to CDN, AUS, British Pounds or the Euro. They are priced and repreiced to the market RCI serves. It is not strictly a currency conversion question when booking cabins.

 

But the on-board charges and purchases ade on board are always made in USD. Now the decision to pay your on-board charges in USD or Cdn funds is a totally separate matter.

 

Merchants (RCI), and they are all beginning to give you this option, would rather bill you in your local currency and keep the conversion premium for themselves. But the difficulty is that when you ask a foreign merchant to bill you in your local currency, you have no way of knowing what rate they are using. At least, you know the credit card companies only charge you 2.5% which is included(hidden) in the exchange rate they use to convert. I do not know the premium RCI, Coach, or Ralph Lauren charge me when they ask if I want it billed in Canadian funds.

 

We have a USD credit card and we too ask RCI to bill us in USD. They have billed us by mistake in Cdn and we phone Miami. Now what we do is that towards the end of the trip we go to the customer service desk and ask to prepay our charges on the USD credit card. Then if they insist on converting the balance for us, it is not worth worrying about.

 

In January, we were on the sick ship (Explorer) and when I got my final bill there were several errors, purchases I had not made on the final day, showing up on my account. Pictures, bar charges, mini-bar, gift shop for about $100 USD. I phoned RCI and they said they would credit them immediately. However, the amount credit to my account was only $85 CDN. When I phoned back the fellow argued with me that the charges were in Cdn because that is what I booked in. I could not believe. I asked for his supervisor and the matter was quickly adjusted. I thought everyoe knew that the daily charges on the room statement were in USD and only at time of payment was the conversion made. It is fun to have one more thing to play with while on holiday. Enjoy the game.

[Redsfan]

okay I am confused. We paid our deposit on our re booked cruise using our US VISA, and have only $1,200 and change left to pay off come mid-September. As when we booked we use our U.S. Visa and will get U.S. money to pay off the remainder when our statement comes in. All good, right?

 

When we set up our account on board my thought was to use our U.S. Visa again and simply be billed in U.S. dollars and pay it off the same when when our statement comes..is this how we should be doing it, or are you guys suggesting we use a Canadian CC to set up our account?

[vacation_junkie]

I have paid for my cruise with cdn. dollars on my AE.

Also the wine package with cdn dollars on my AE

Now I would like to make sure my on board account which I linked my AE to will also be in Canadian dollars.

Is their a place on my reservation or on line check in where I can check what currency my on board will be.

I cannot find it and when I phone they say they cannot get into my online check-in. That I have to do that online.

 

 

The thing we love about RCCL is that you can pay in Canadian and that is a 2.5% savings up front :)

 

When generally know how much we spend from cruise to cruise so we will call ahead of time and buy OBC for our account.

[vacation_junkie]

okay I am confused. We paid our deposit on our re booked cruise using our US VISA, and have only $1,200 and change left to pay off come mid-September. As when we booked we use our U.S. Visa and will get U.S. money to pay off the remainder when our statement comes in. All good, right?

 

When we set up our account on board my thought was to use our U.S. Visa again and simply be billed in U.S. dollars and pay it off the same when when our statement comes..is this how we should be doing it, or are you guys suggesting we use a Canadian CC to set up our account?

 

If you have a US Credit card use that.

 

Our BMO Mastercard has our BMO Annual Travel Insurance Policy Linked to it so we have to use it to book our vacations.

 

Because of this its' more cost effective to use our Canadian card and pay in Canadian to avoid that 2.5% currency conversion fee.

[Ken at the beach]

The thing we love about RCCL is that you can pay in Canadian and that is a 2.5% savings up front :)

 

When generally know how much we spend from cruise to cruise so we will call ahead of time and buy OBC for our account.

 

If you had booked in CDN$ and called to purchase OBC do they charge you in CDN$? And does this get processed at the same exchange rate that they are pricing shore excursions, specialty restaurants etc or are they using a more current rate?

[squadron]

If you have booked in CDN$ it is currently very advantageous to book as much as you can online ahead of time. i.e. Specialty restaurants, spa etc.. RCI has a very favourable exchange rate and if you wait until onboard then you will be charged in US$.

 

You can avoid foreign exchange rate by paying on board bill in cash - including Am Express travellers cheques (old fashioned I know but ship accepts them and I don't pay fee for buying them). Best to have an Am dollar account and AM dollar credit card with your bank - TD has this option. Sears master card doesn't charge foreign exchange fees if you have one of those. I noticed that price of excursions haven't decreased as the CDN dollar has risen close to par.