2 ?'s How much cash deposit required? How much pre-authorized

[the4ofusandallourfriends]

I would prefer to pay for my account in cash. I spoke to a Princess rep about this. She didn't know anything about this but put me on hold to find out. She told me that I'd have to give a deposit of $300 cash each.

 

I asked her if I'd have to leave $300 each for my two young children. She quickly said 'no as long as they didn't have an account'.

 

For someone who didn't know the first question, I'm not sure she really knew the answer to the kids question.

 

Can anyone verify this information? I'd hate to have to carry $1200 extra cash with me only to get most of it back. (Been on lots of cruises and we don't spend alot of the ship, just grats and maybe 2 drinks).

 

My second option is to increase the limit on my small credit card. I'd rather not do this, but if I do I want to make sure I have enough limit on my card. Does anyone know how much funds they pre-authorize or put a hold on?

[Trifus]

My suggestion would be is to bring onboard travellers cheques and use them to pay your balance. What Princess does is at midnite each nite, they send through whatever balance you've accumulated up to date on your shipboard account to your credit card company for pre-approval. I learned this from our last cruise when after the 3rd nite, my sister in law got a letter from the pursers desk advising her to see them as her credit card was declined. Apparently she made a large payment to her card the day before she left on our cruise but it still hadn't been posted to her card. Problem was solved the next day when the payment was finally posted on her account. The purser advised us that that's what they do. It was nice to know.

 

I don't want to be dinged for a service fee that our Visa charges, I think its like 1 or 2% for any charges or purchases in USD which is then converted to CDN. So what we did on our last cruise was, every couple of days, visit the pursers desk to get a printout of our charges to date, then pay the balance w/ travellers cheques. That way, any charges to our credit card is minimal onboard the ship at the end of the cruise. I've never had a problem w/ that, mind you that was 2 years ago and never had a problem onboard cashing our travellers cheques.</p>

[AerynSun_JohnCrighton]

300 is for each account that's seperate..you can put them under you and tell them a 'limit' for what you want the kids to be able to spend. That would be better... cuz on one cruise last year we heard this man fussing up and down about charges for ice cream and sodas and all that added up to a lot from the kids... it's just safer to put 'limits' on their cards and link them to yours.

[Flipper133]

Hi Guys

 

IMO Travellers Chqs are sooooo very yesteryear:(

 

In similar situations with my staff in OZ we have just put some cash advances on credit cards which effectively increases the credit available.

 

The cost of using a CC to my mind is minimal esp when compared with the hassles of using cash ...yes cash can be a hassle...security wise and operational wise (try hiring a car using just cash !). Travellers Chqs have same problems.

Buy the kids a "soda " card that should keep them happy:o

cheers

[steve20832]

when you check in, tell the Princess rep you want your kids to have a card that can not have any charges applied to it. They will honor your request so the kids card will be a room key and ID only. You must put the tips on your card then. (Tips are required at $10 per day/per person to be put on the card.)

[barbarah33]

I prefer to pay my bill in cash as well so here's what I do. When I check in I give them a credit card so they have something and don't have to panic that I am going to try and get away with a free Coke nor do I have to leave any cash. Then, on the last full day of the cruise I go down to guest services and pay my entire bill off in cash. Anything I get on that last night I just let them charge to my credit card as the lines will be huge from dinner time on and I have no desire to spend an hour or two in line to pay off a $10 drink charge.

 

I have always done this and the system works well.

[AerynSun_JohnCrighton]

Reguardless of how you decide to pay... either put a limit on the kids card or have it id/ key only because if you don't the kids can make some charges and I've never seen anyone ask for 'parents' before taking the card... ever! I was 14 on my first cruise and had no prob swiping that card by myself.

[sueandkent]

I prefer to pay my bill in cash as well so here's what I do. When I check in I give them a credit card so they have something and don't have to panic that I am going to try and get away with a free Coke nor do I have to leave any cash. Then, on the last full day of the cruise I go down to guest services and pay my entire bill off in cash. Anything I get on that last night I just let them charge to my credit card as the lines will be huge from dinner time on and I have no desire to spend an hour or two in line to pay off a $10 drink charge.

 

I have always done this and the system works well.

 

We have done the same thing and it works fine. We do it for the reason an above poster mentioned. Being from Canada, we get dinged with all kinds of additional charges, service fees etc so we avoid all that by paying in cash at the end.

[iancal]

If you insist that Princess bill you in American currency, the currency of the ship, you will not have to put up with the fees...other than the Visa US exchange fees which can be anywhere from 4-7 percent less than Princess would charge to do exactly the same. The trick is to check with the pursers desk on the second to last day. Even if you request this upfront, our experience is that your request will be disregarded and your on board charges converted to Cdn. at a rate substantially higher than normal commercial rates. This has also been the experience of a number of others that we have met on board.

[the4ofusandallourfriends]

I really appreciate all the responses.

 

We always pay off our account in cash, but my experience with our cruises with NCL is we set out amount regardless of how many of us there are. I really wish the topic of deposit would be detailed more and made public as I'm sure just a few people must be surprised when they show up on pier and don't have a credit card or a small limit.

 

I'm still wondering though just how much they pre-authorize on a credit card or how much deposit they require for the kids non charging cards.

 

I'll try phoning Princess again about it.

[bonbob]

I also understand that you can call Princess and pay for a 'gift certificate' or room credit in numerous amounts. We decided to do that for our 2 sons birthdays - they said it would be a room credit to use for whatever they wanted.