Booking Excursions

[j!m]

maybe one of my fellow canuks can provide info??

 

do you know if we can book shore excursions over the phone in $US??

 

i am concerned about booking online because the pricing is in $C and i am using a $US credit card. so am concerned Az will charge the $C to my US card. this would mean the price would be converted twice. once by Az to create the $C price then again to get it back to $US by either Az or visa

 

anybody dealt with this before???

[j!m]

nevermind

 

i phoned Az and am advised that since the original booking is in $C all shore excursions purchased online will be denominated in $C. so indeed the pricing will in fact be converted twice. i may however purchase onboard in $US.

 

what an archaeic system rccl has. this company transacts in a multitude of currencies you would think their systems would be sophisticated enough to handle them. apparently not.

 

i guess i could go back into the credit card info i have posted,change it to my cdn card, buy the excursions and then change the info back to the us card. at least i would avoid 1 conversion of the funds.

 

i booked the cruise in $C because at that time the exchange rate used by Az was quite favourable, now it is not so i would prefer using my $US. also i will be settling (i hope) our onboard account with our $US card. but that too may be a problem, we shall see.

 

they sure complicate things but frankly i'm not sure they even understand.

 

oh well we will still enjoy our cruise

[allyurwishes]

I have had the same experience as you J!m. It seems odd that Azamara can provide CDN$ fares on the web site, but only US$ prices for excursions also sold on the web. Why can't RCCL do both?

[brian_uk]

Hey J!m

 

And you actually believe that explanation...........................

 

Brian

[j!m]

brian

 

yes i believe them

 

i think their systems are antiquainted and incapable

 

two years ago we took an X cruise from fll round the horn to buenos, a b2b, we were on the ship for 4weeks

 

anyway i booked a trip to machu picchu with X and they charged my $C card when it was supposed to be my $US card

 

long story short when i asked to cancel and re-book in $US they did but i was out a few hundred dollars because of the fx. they (rccl/X) basically said too bad

 

fortunately visa refunded the difference after having a chat with rccl and telling me they (visa) were doing it only because we were good customers and that rccl would do nothing

 

this whole fx thing is EXTREMELY annoying to us (cnds) and maybe you (other non american) folks too

 

rccl"s functional currency is $US, all other pricing is simply their conversion to that particular currency

 

infrequently, the rate they use to convert is favorable (to the customer)but more often than not, that is not the case

 

americans generally pay less for the some accomodations than we "foreigners" do and it is not simply because of differing travel agency laws , a lot has to do with how rccl (and other cruise lines for that matter) handle fx

 

i suspect we "foreigners" are more profitable customers than americans simply because of how cruiselines handle fx, i think they all make quite a bit from their conversion process

 

it is particularily annoying to us canuks because of proximity and familiarity with their cuurency of choice,$US

 

if you have $US investments as i (unfortunately) do then you have $US available to pay $US bills so you and i are in a position to choose the currency to use but rccl doesnt see it that way

 

they prefer to charge us more (strange eh)