Canadian cruisers!!

[moopetguy]

With the current rate from RCI at 1.40 it is still better than most exchange companies. if I put some more money in, how easy is it to take the $$ out without more %? Already prepaid gratuities and I've been following the casino suggestions so do I go to guest relations and indicate cash account knowing that the c&a dollars I added don't show up for a couple of days anyway? Get money from casino? Don't normally go into casinos.

 

"Ourusualbeach" (Ken)'s tip from several pages ago suggested to get slot machine vouchers from the casino cashier ($500 daily limit) in your desired denominations, insert them into a slot machine, and then hit the cash out button to convert into cashable vouchers. With a cash account you won't be subject to the 5% fee. If you already set up a credit card for your SeaPass account, you can call up RCI to have them remove it and convert you to a cash account. You'll need to reprint your SetSail Pass if it's already been issued.

 

I'm sure the casino cashiers will catch on to what you're doing but I don't know if they really care or if there is anything they can do to stop you.

[Ourusualbeach]

With the current rate from RCI at 1.40 it is still better than most exchange companies. if I put some more money in, how easy is it to take the $$ out without more %? Already prepaid gratuities and I've been following the casino suggestions so do I go to guest relations and indicate cash account knowing that the c&a dollars I added don't show up for a couple of days anyway? Get money from casino? Don't normally go into casinos.

 

You set your account up as either a cash account or credt card account when you complete your set sail pass. This can also be changed at the pier when you check in. I know that you can add a credit card at guest services however I'm not sure that you can change from a credit card account to a cash account once on board.

 

Getting money from the casino will happen in 1 of 2 ways,

 

1. You go to the casino cage and ask for $500 and they give you $500 cash

 

2. You ask for $500 and they give you a voucher. Take that voucher and insert it into a slot machine and then hit the cash out button on the machine. It will print a pay voucher, take that to the cashier for cash or some casinos have machines that you can put the pay voucher in to get your cash.

[xcell]

I was looking at the liberty too but I heard Galveston is a nightmare ... but if people still cruise out of there I guess it's just not for everyone...

 

Anyways ...I'm confused...book online or call it in? ??

 

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[Funbobby68]

We are booked on Liberty for May got good price from 1 year ago ... Just checked no west coast residents rate . As it stands cabin is 1300.00 than we paid

[Magicat]

So what is the current new rate of exchange that Royal is offering? Is it better than 1.45?

[jojocruisin]

I thought I would report back with regards to our experience.

There were 12 in our group, first 2 (my husband and me) then 2 more cancelled for medical reasons.

I had to cancel the onboard credits on the one cabin as they would not let me transfer it to my kids. (Adult kids) who were still going.

My daughter lost her passport, she left it on the plane. We tried everything to find it, but Delta found it the next day and it was not in the port city, so RCL would not let her on the ship. Canadians have to have their passport. We tried sending her the copy we had, a copy of her NEXUS card, birth certificate. She flew back home.

Her onboard credit was still on her room linked to her name.

My brother in law convinced the guest services to give him the cash on the last night of the cruise.

My son, the only one left from our family had a great time with his cousins.

[Ourusualbeach]

so what is the current new rate of exchange that royal is offering? Is it better than 1.45?

 

1.40

[Ourusualbeach]

I thought I would report back with regards to our experience.

There were 12 in our group, first 2 (my husband and me) then 2 more cancelled for medical reasons.

I had to cancel the onboard credits on the one cabin as they would not let me transfer it to my kids. (Adult kids) who were still going.

My daughter lost her passport, she left it on the plane. We tried everything to find it, but Delta found it the next day and it was not in the port city, so RCL would not let her on the ship. Canadians have to have their passport. We tried sending her the copy we had, a copy of her NEXUS card, birth certificate. She flew back home.

Her onboard credit was still on her room linked to her name.

My brother in law convinced the guest services to give him the cash on the last night of the cruise.

My son, the only one left from our family had a great time with his cousins.

 

Wow. Sorry you had to go through all this.

 

A great reminder to all Canadians about the passports though.

[happy cruiser1234]

I thought I would report back with regards to our experience.

There were 12 in our group, first 2 (my husband and me) then 2 more cancelled for medical reasons.

I had to cancel the onboard credits on the one cabin as they would not let me transfer it to my kids. (Adult kids) who were still going.

My daughter lost her passport, she left it on the plane. We tried everything to find it, but Delta found it the next day and it was not in the port city, so RCL would not let her on the ship. Canadians have to have their passport. We tried sending her the copy we had, a copy of her NEXUS card, birth certificate. She flew back home.

Her onboard credit was still on her room linked to her name.

My brother in law convinced the guest services to give him the cash on the last night of the cruise.

My son, the only one left from our family had a great time with his cousins.

 

Your story brings a tear to my eye. I can only imagine how your daughter must have felt. I'm sure everyone else in the family must have felt terrible also. So sorry this happened to you. Was she able to fly home without her passport, or did she have to wait until Delta returned it to Fort Lauderdale?

[hancogran]

I thought I would report back with regards to our experience.

There were 12 in our group, first 2 (my husband and me) then 2 more cancelled for medical reasons.

I had to cancel the onboard credits on the one cabin as they would not let me transfer it to my kids. (Adult kids) who were still going.

My daughter lost her passport, she left it on the plane. We tried everything to find it, but Delta found it the next day and it was not in the port city, so RCL would not let her on the ship. Canadians have to have their passport. We tried sending her the copy we had, a copy of her NEXUS card, birth certificate. She flew back home.

Her onboard credit was still on her room linked to her name.

My brother in law convinced the guest services to give him the cash on the last night of the cruise.

My son, the only one left from our family had a great time with his cousins.

Oh my... that is truly a shame what happened to your family cruise. :( So sorry. I am sure your daughter was heartbroken and rightly so... I sure would be.

 

I keep a copy of our passports with me in my tablet but this just proves to me that the copies wouldn't be of much use if something happened to the original passport (other than helping to replace them if lost). Glad your BIL was able to get your daughter's OBC credit back though.

[Canadian Tyler]

Just wanted to report back on my experience. We just got off Freedom today. We had OBC and a cash account. We withdrew from the casino on Day 2 with no issues. Initially they said it would be a 5 percent charge but once they saw it was cash account they said no charge. They said the withdrawl limit is 500 per day per stateroom and you could only withdraw until your account was in the negative 500 dollars before adding more cash to your account. All in all a very easy and pain free experience. We still had $41 remaining credit in our account at the end of the cruise and that was refunded in cash at Guest Services on Day 7.

 

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[Russ Lomas]

I was looking at the liberty too but I heard Galveston is a nightmare ... but if people still cruise out of there I guess it's just not for everyone...

 

Anyways ...I'm confused...book online or call it in? ??

 

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Call in for the deal is what my niece did.

the website shows inside cabins from $500, when you selected continue, it jacked up the price to triple.

I just checked and now it is working properly and showing $1000 canadian for 2 people inside guaranteed. Great deal. Therefore you can either call them or book it online for the same price now. I assume that RCCL website people had changed the pricing on the 1st screen but not done the required work for their programming to offer that price on the 2nd screen before payment (just guessing). Oh well, looks good and available now and I hope some of you fellow Ontarians can take advantage of the deal.

[jojocruisin]

It was a stressful 2 days, I didn't feel better until she was past security at the airport and waiting for the flight delta had helped me book. Only 2 seats on any flights to Detroit were left that day.

Canadians can fly domestically with a drivers license, or I would have flown down to get her. By then Delta had found her passport in Fort Meyers. I just didn't want her alone in a hotel.

She recovered quickly, and had a great time at home that week.

RCL says that they would be charged 10,000 for letting a passenger on without a passport. A call to RCL said there were some ports that allowed copies of passports, but I think this would be for Americans, not Canadians. At the port they said that she couldn't board even with a NEXUS card, so only a passport for Canadians.

 

We enjoyed having her home, but it was just one of those situations, especially after my husband and I had to cancel earlier.

We will try again next year.

 

I should mention that this was Port Everglades, and that several supervisors were involved in trying to resolve the situation. Delta was also very helpful, but the passport was just not found in time.

 

Live and learn

[Russ Lomas]

I thought I would report back with regards to our experience.

There were 12 in our group, first 2 (my husband and me) then 2 more cancelled for medical reasons.

I had to cancel the onboard credits on the one cabin as they would not let me transfer it to my kids. (Adult kids) who were still going.

My daughter lost her passport, she left it on the plane. We tried everything to find it, but Delta found it the next day and it was not in the port city, so RCL would not let her on the ship. Canadians have to have their passport. We tried sending her the copy we had, a copy of her NEXUS card, birth certificate. She flew back home.

Her onboard credit was still on her room linked to her name.

My brother in law convinced the guest services to give him the cash on the last night of the cruise.

My son, the only one left from our family had a great time with his cousins.

I too am so sorry that your daughter ran into passport issues and missed the cruise. It is a great reminder for the rest of us, but must have been heart-breaking for both you and her.

 

My DW and I had a similar problem 15 years ago when we went on our honeymoon and she did not have her passport with her. The government in Turks and Caicos would not let her off the plane even though the airline rep said we did not need it with us. We ended up having to fly back to Canada and complained about what there rep had told us (3 others were sent home too being told the same thing so the rep did not have a leg to stand on). They flew us back there the next day, but really put a huge damper on the honeymoon.

 

I will be holding on to our family's 6 passports extra tight after reading your story and will be sure to check I have them all safely in my pocket before we disembark our plane in March. Another reason to fly in a day or two early if possible I guess to hopefully avoid this situation and get it replaced if possible prior to the cruise if you knew it was missing. So sorry once again you had to go through this.

[Russ Lomas]

Just wanted to report back on my experience. We just got off Freedom today. We had OBC and a cash account. We withdrew from the casino on Day 2 with no issues. Initially they said it would be a 5 percent charge but once they saw it was cash account they said no charge. They said the withdrawl limit is 500 per day per stateroom and you could only withdraw until your account was in the negative 500 dollars before adding more cash to your account. All in all a very easy and pain free experience. We still had $41 remaining credit in our account at the end of the cruise and that was refunded in cash at Guest Services on Day 7.

 

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Thanks for reporting back to us Canadian Tyler. We are on the Freedom 8 weeks today so it is great to hear your positive experience about withdrawing the cash as we hope to do this with some of our cash as well. How was your sailing? We have friends who were on the Freedom with you for their first RCCL trip ever (avid Princess cruisers). I cannot ask them about their trip because they are doing B2B and are still on the Freedom for another week. Were the beds as bad as many people have reported on here - rock hard since being replaced?

[Canadian Tyler]

Thanks for reporting back to us Canadian Tyler. We are on the Freedom 8 weeks today so it is great to hear your positive experience about withdrawing the cash as we hope to do this with some of our cash as well. How was your sailing? We have friends who were on the Freedom with you for their first RCCL trip ever (avid Princess cruisers). I cannot ask them about their trip because they are doing B2B and are still on the Freedom for another week. Were the beds as bad as many people have reported on here - rock hard since being replaced?

The cruise was great. We missed Coco Cay due to swells but had a great cruise despite that. We enjoyed Freedom.

 

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[squadron]

Just wanted to report back on my experience. We just got off Freedom today. We had OBC and a cash account. We withdrew from the casino on Day 2 with no issues. Initially they said it would be a 5 percent charge but once they saw it was cash account they said no charge. They said the withdrawl limit is 500 per day per stateroom and you could only withdraw until your account was in the negative 500 dollars before adding more cash to your account. All in all a very easy and pain free experience. We still had $41 remaining credit in our account at the end of the cruise and that was refunded in cash at Guest Services on Day 7.

 

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Relieved to hear that it was the same procedure as my last cruise.

[disneykins]

We have 2 TAs booked with Harmony and Rhapsody for the fall, the main reason being the 1.10 exchange rate. Without that, we have decided to cancel both and do NCL Epic, better pricing than Harmony and the free beverage or dining package are a nice perk. We wont cancel just yet in case Royal comes up with something to compensate for the low dollar.

 

We are booked on the Freedom for March 2017 with friends so we will probably keep that one but are looking for 2 more cruises in March 2017 and I think they will be NCL also.

 

The 1.10 was a great perk while it lasted, we took advantage of it twice, but if they don't come up with something similar I think they will be losing a lot of Canadian business.

 

Tony and Debbie

[xcell]

Call in for the deal is what my niece did.

the website shows inside cabins from $500, when you selected continue, it jacked up the price to triple.

I just checked and now it is working properly and showing $1000 canadian for 2 people inside guaranteed. Great deal. Therefore you can either call them or book it online for the same price now. I assume that RCCL website people had changed the pricing on the 1st screen but not done the required work for their programming to offer that price on the 2nd screen before payment (just guessing). Oh well, looks good and available now and I hope some of you fellow Ontarians can take advantage of the deal.

 

Yup inside is $500 CDN + taxes but when I tried the outside it turn to be around $1000 pp.

 

Good deal for inside...could get two cabins...

 

J

[Tamaracklady]

Thought I'd stick this question in here given all my fellow Canadians are already following along - it may be a stupid question but thought I would ask anyways. I have read that you can use a Starbucks card onboard at Starbucks (We are on Oasis). Does that count for Canadian cards too?

[hancogran]

Thought I'd stick this question in here given all my fellow Canadians are already following along - it may be a stupid question but thought I would ask anyways. I have read that you can use a Starbucks card onboard at Starbucks (We are on Oasis). Does that count for Canadian cards too?

 

:confused: You mean Starbuck's Reward card? If not and you mean a Starbuck's card to pay for your coffee, I doubt it, since I imagine everything you purchase on board will go on your Set Sail Pass.

Edited January 17, 2016 by hancogran

[Tamaracklady]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2299171

 

From this thread it sounded like you could use a Starbucks card onboard.

[A&L_Ont]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2299171

 

From this thread it sounded like you could use a Starbucks card onboard.

 

i wonder if they would accept a Canadian one?

[JessyCruises]

Huge price drop for Ontario residents.

 

My niece just booked a cruise under the Ontario resident rate out of Galveston on the Liberty 2 cruises after its drydock on February 14, 2016.

 

The price for an inside cabin is $500 CANADIAN!!!! (you can confirm this on the website) plust $110 Canadian for port fees.

 

I did a mock booking online and the price tripled though. She called in and booked it at the $500 listed on the website about an hour ago. It is an inside guarantee cabin. $662 Canadian for outside cabins.

 

Hope someone can take advantage of this. I would but cannot get that week off work (teacher's holidays)

 

We got a great rate on the liberty a few months ago for this summer. It ended up being $2745 CAD for 5 of us in the Promenade Family Stateroom ($549pp). We also got a steal of a deal flying out of BOS. Unfortunately I did not buy any OBC before the 10% went away, but we still got a great deal. I think I booked under the 30% off sale.

Edited January 17, 2016 by Canadian Disney Mom

[hancogran]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2299171

 

From this thread it sounded like you could use a Starbucks card onboard.

 

Well it sure looks like it from that thread. :) You could just hand them your card and see what happens. :D Come back and let us know how you make out. I'm not a Starbuck's fan... Timmies for me! ;)