Question on Australia/New Zealand Cruise - Folio and AUD

[drowelf]

Something I've never encountered, as our Folio has always been USD. We have a 2025 New Zealand Cruise, where my booking states that the on-board folio will be in AUD. I don't have an issue with this, as I figure it must be an Australian regulation of some kind, since even on our European cruises the on-board folio has always been USD. But I do have a question as to what currency the casino will require? Will I need AUD for the table games or will they still be running on USD? What about the slot machines, which my DW prefers. 

[waltd]

I know when we were on the Royal  for our New Zealand cruise the Customer Service desk did not have any US dollars when we asked for change.

I'm going to take a guess that if you didn't have AUD dollars you could/would use your medallion for playing the slots and it would be charged to your credit card where the conversion would be made.

We did get an international fee when we used our credit card.  

[coo359a2]

We were on the Grand Princess sailing in Australia and New Zealand.  The Australian $$ is used for everything on the ship.  You can use your Medallion when playing the slots and whatever amount you enter to play will be charged to your room and will show on your folio in AU$$.  I'm sure the tables would be the same.  Before the last day of your cruise, you will cash out at the casino cashier cage and will be paid in AU$$ for the slot machine balance.

 

I check my folio balance to make sure the amount I charged to my room to play the slots is correct.  It will be listed on your folio as - Casino Slot Machines.

 

FYI - The amount of  OBC that you might have listed in your Personalizer will be the exact amount listed on your cabin folio.  Princess does not convert US dollars to AU dollars for your cruise.  So if you have a Future Cruise Deposit on board credit of $100 US,  it will be listed on your folio as !00 Australian dollars. 

[Yehootu]

We will be on a B2B cruise starting with a 10day Queensland, followed by a 30day Transpacific that ends in Vancouver. When does the folio switch from AUD to USD? I'll have Princess gift cards to put onto my account and would like to have them credited in USD. I know I can just wait till long gone from Australia/NZ and I'm sure folio will be in USD. Any idea if folio will close out after first cruise due to conversion to USD on the second? We're covered in that our CC doesn't charge for international fees.

[coo359a2]

We did the  Transpacific from San Francisco to Sydney and then several  B2B around AU and NZ.  The only accurate info I can give you is that we only had one folio showing 26 Sept to 29 Nov.  Our account was messed up when it was converted to AU$$ when we started the Sydney segment..  We nor Guest Services Manager could figure out why the mess up occurred.  We were given enough of OBC to make us happy.

[PescadoAmarillo]

57 minutes ago, Yehootu said:

We will be on a B2B cruise starting with a 10day Queensland, followed by a 30day Transpacific that ends in Vancouver. When does the folio switch from AUD to USD? I'll have Princess gift cards to put onto my account and would like to have them credited in USD. I know I can just wait till long gone from Australia/NZ and I'm sure folio will be in USD. Any idea if folio will close out after first cruise due to conversion to USD on the second? We're covered in that our CC doesn't charge for international fees.

They will not close out your folio after the Queensland portion, but they will convert it all to $US using a method only they can understand.  This is a good thing because credit card usage in Australia incurs a roughly 1.5% merchant fee (regardless of whether your credit card has an international usage fee). Do hold on to your gift cards until you start the transpacific portion. 

[azbirdmom]

The casino does use AUD for everything.  As others have said you can use your Medallion and charge all gambling to your folio.  You still need to cash out at the casino cage before the casino closes and if  you're lucky enough to have $$ left, you can go to Guest Services and use it to pay down / pay off your bill.

[Thrak]

We recently did 63 days on Grand Princess. We had 24 days using USD from San Francisco to Sydney. Toward the middle of that segment I moved my USD OBC into the casino via a slot machine. Over the course of the next week or so I gambled a bit. (As usual I lost...) Just before reaching Australia I cashed out and got USD. I did this as I had no desire to deal with the weird Princess conversion to AUD.

 

For the Australia/New Zealand segments all of our OBC was in AUD. I didn't put any of it into the casino. (Like I said, I tend to lose so why gamble?) At the end of the cruise(s) we had $657 AUD Refundable OBC remaining. I left it alone. A few weeks later we received a check from Princess for $428 USD. At that time I checked Google for conversion rates and was surprised to find that, at that time, the conversion was correct.

Edited January 27 by Thrak

[Yehootu]

13 hours ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

They will not close out your folio after the Queensland portion, but they will convert it all to $US using a method only they can understand.  This is a good thing because credit card usage in Australia incurs a roughly 1.5% merchant fee (regardless of whether your credit card has an international usage fee). Do hold on to your gift cards until you start the transpacific portion. 

Mahalo, just the advice I was looking for!  Have used your blogs for port experiences many time. 

[Thrak]

4 hours ago, Yehootu said:

Mahalo, just the advice I was looking for!  Have used your blogs for port experiences many time. 

 

Not certain but I "think" Yellow Fish ( @PescadoAmarillo ) has said in the past that she has an accounting background in some capacity and still found the Princess method of conversion between AUD and USD to be confusing or weird or something of the sort. Her comments were the main reason I took all of my USD out of the pool just before hitting Australia.

 

Of course I always find the way Princess lists my transactions in my folio to be confusing. They could definitely make it far more simple and easier to understand. I really (really) dislike the way they post the accounting info to my folio.

 

(My apologies to @PescadoAmarillo for any mangling of the reality related to your past posting.)

[icat2000]

On 1/27/2024 at 4:25 PM, drowelf said:

Something I've never encountered, as our Folio has always been USD. We have a 2025 New Zealand Cruise, where my booking states that the on-board folio will be in AUD. I don't have an issue with this, as I figure it must be an Australian regulation of some kind, since even on our European cruises the on-board folio has always been USD. But I do have a question as to what currency the casino will require? Will I need AUD for the table games or will they still be running on USD? What about the slot machines, which my DW prefers. 

AUD if the sailing out of AUstralia or NZ ports for casino. Tight machines. Always take my money 😄

 

Edited January 28 by icat2000

[PescadoAmarillo]

5 hours ago, Thrak said:

(My apologies to @PescadoAmarillo for any mangling of the reality related to your past posting.)

Your recollection was perfect,  The funny thing is that one of our traveling companions was a retired high school math teacher. We were both perplexed by Princess accounting, but converted it our own way and got very close to same answer. 

[Torfamm]

The casino currency is AUD

[drowelf]

17 hours ago, icat2000 said:

AUD if the sailing out of AUstralia or NZ ports for casino. Tight machines. Always take my money 😄

 

Always on a cruise ship, which is why I spend the majority of my money at the Craps/Blackjack Tables. Might play a slot or two if they one of the machines that I just enjoy the game (like Lucky Lemmings). 

 

1 hour ago, Torfamm said:

The casino currency is AUD

Thanks to everyone. Have to stock up on AUD during our pre-cruise time in Sydney, unless I can get cash via the Casino with any surcharges. 

[Torfamm]

On 1/27/2024 at 8:51 PM, coo359a2 said:

 

FYI - The amount of  OBC that you might have listed in your Personalizer will be the exact amount listed on your cabin folio.  Princess does not convert US dollars to AU dollars for your cruise.  So if you have a Future Cruise Deposit on board credit of $100 US,  it will be listed on your folio as !00 Australian dollars. 

The only exception is the 200 USD deposit for casino cruises. It shows as USD in the personalizer and travel summary and is converted to AUD in OBC on board. We each got about 300 AUD

[coo359a2]

4 hours ago, Torfamm said:

The only exception is the 200 USD deposit for casino cruises. It shows as USD in the personalizer and travel summary and is converted to AUD in OBC on board. We each got about 300 AUD

Never been on a casino cruise ( you must be lucky) so only know how regular OBC shows on folio.