Booking excursions Pre cruise versus on board.

[heatherRN53]

Hubby and I are cruising for the first time ever and we are booked on Celebrity Silhouette April 9-16th/17. I am from Canada. I have been looking at potential excursions on the Celebrity website. They are priced in Canadian dollars. I am assuming, that once on board, the price of tours then will then be priced in American dollars. Just wanted to confirm one way or the other, as the Canadian dollar is very low at the moment, so if thats the case it would be worth my while to purchase excursions before going.:):)

[ChucktownSteve]

Hubby and I are cruising for the first time ever and we are booked on Celebrity Silhouette April 9-16th/17. I am from Canada. I have been looking at potential excursions on the Celebrity website. They are priced in Canadian dollars. I am assuming, that once on board, the price of tours then will then be priced in American dollars. Just wanted to confirm one way or the other, as the Canadian dollar is very low at the moment, so if thats the case it would be worth my while to purchase excursions before going.:):)

 

It depends upon if you have any On Board Credit that you may want to use for the excursions. If you pre-book, you pay cash. If you book on board you can use OBC to pay for the excursions. However if it's a very popular tour, it may be sold out before you board the ship. In that case, if you really want that tour, pre-book it for cash.

Edited June 8, 2016 by ChucktownSteve

[heatherRN53]

We do not have an OBC. My biggest question is regarding the currency the excursions are charged in, if purchased on the ship. If when you book an excursion onboard, the charge is forwarded to your OBC, then I guess my question is really what is the operating currency on the ship in general?

[Canada17]

We do not have an OBC. My biggest question is regarding the currency the excursions are charged in, if purchased on the ship. If when you book an excursion onboard, the charge is forwarded to your OBC, then I guess my question is really what is the operating currency on the ship in general?

 

Hi Heather;

 

Fellow Canadian and our low dollar is a bit of a hit in the pocket book. Thank goodness it has rebounded back in past weeks! On board, the operating currency is US dollars, including any OBC that you may have. As previous posters have mentioned, if its a popular excursion, it may be better to book it pre-cruise, not only will it guarantee you the excursion but it will be based on our mighty loonie. Have a great cruise.

[ChucktownSteve]

We do not have an OBC. My biggest question is regarding the currency the excursions are charged in, if purchased on the ship. If when you book an excursion onboard, the charge is forwarded to your OBC, then I guess my question is really what is the operating currency on the ship in general?

 

I've read on CC where some Canadians have pre-purchased OBC at a good exchange rate. I don't recall many of the details but that may be an option for you.

 

Hopefully a Canadian who's experienced with that will help you.

[Scrappytraveller]

Right now celebrity's fx rate is terrible so I wouldn't book anything this far out in cdn. Do your homework. At the bottom of their website you can click on US to change the default website country and then find the tour in USD.

For a long time we were benefiting from a great rate with celebrity but now they've gone the other extreme.

 

 

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[Bruin Steve]

Onboard, everything is in US Dollars...

 

One other consideration is that the prices of the excursions go UP onboard.

 

We were on the Silhouette a couple of moths ago...and, since we had a lot of OBC, some of which was nonrefundable, and we had little to purchase onboard since we also had the drink packages and, as Elite Plus Captains Club members, we had 200 minutes of free internet each, free laundry, etc., we decided to wait until onboard to book excursions...

 

Well, when we got to the Shore Excursions desk onboard on day one, we found that every excursion had gone up $10 per person over the internet pre-cruise price...So, for the four of us, three ports, the decision to book onboard cost us an extra $120...

 

That might override any considerations about the exchange rates...

Edited June 8, 2016 by Bruin Steve

[Quitwhin'n]

Unfortunately, once booked in CDN, all pre-purchases will have the built in exchange. I would wait to get on board unless there is something you absolutely have to do that is very limited in supply (like kayaking). We've missed out on two excursions, once in San Juan and again in Colon, Panama because the only companies that handled these excursions were contracted to the cruise line and it was fully booked.

 

When you set up your onboard account, you will have the option of having Celebrity handle the foreign exchange or have it handled by the credit card company you have connected to your onboard account. If you are not sure if you've done it correctly or don't see this option (you tick a box I believe) ask the CSR who checks you in to confirm that your CC does the conversion NOT Celebrity.

 

We have a US credit card that we like to use on cruises and always book in USD. We tend to convert larger amounts before we travel through companies such as Canadian Forex who give better rates than the bank especially for larger sums. We then use this to pay off the CC. Also, be sure to check your statement after you get home as Celebrity doesn't always get it right. One time we discovered that Celebrity converted our charges to CDN at an exaggerated rate and then our USD CC converted it back to USD. Fortunately, it wasn't a huge bill.