Canadian cruisers!!

We bought $1000 in OBC before leaving for our Feb 22 cruise on Allure. The rep let me buy it all at one time and without any hassle of sending them any info. We received cash for the remainder of the OBC on account the last night.

This may sound odd, but I am really considering buying more OBC just to take advantage of the exchange rate. I know I am not talking about a lot of money, but does anything think it would be a problem to cash out amounts in the $1,500-$2,000 range? I would think there has to be some limit at some point.

 

We are doing a land vacation in July, and this is a good way to get some of my $US cash.

That thought has crossed my mind as well, although my next cruise probably won't be for a while. I wonder how long the exchange rates will be worse than the 10% we'd get, I assume for a while.

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I recently purchased onboard credit and had $200 that went with my booking. Is there anywhere in my booking that I can see this balance.

I recently purchased onboard credit and had $200 that went with my booking. Is there anywhere in my booking that I can see this balance.

Of the $200 was issued by Royal then it will show up on your copy of the guest booking invoice that you can request from Royal or your TA. If it was OBC from your TA you won't see it on your invoice.

The OBC that you purchased will not appear on your invoice.

I recently purchased onboard credit and had $200 that went with my booking. Is there anywhere in my booking that I can see this balance.

No.. what you purchased won't show up in your actual booking but you should have received an Amenity receipt from RCI to confirm your purchase.

If you received OBC as part of a deal when you booked, then you should be able to see that on your Booking Confirmation - Guest Copy which you should have received after booking. It will be shown under the section "Onboard Credit".

This may sound odd, but I am really considering buying more OBC just to take advantage of the exchange rate. I know I am not talking about a lot of money, but does anything think it would be a problem to cash out amounts in the $1,500-$2,000 range? I would think there has to be some limit at some point.

 

We are doing a land vacation in July, and this is a good way to get some of my $US cash.

Getting it from the casino with the added 5% fee shouldn't be a problem, but I'm not sure how much the guest services desk will give you.

Josie, thanks for coming here to report on your experience on board, but I think you might misunderstand what we are talking about.

 

We are talking about buying $US OBC with $CAD. The purchase goes through an office in Canada, so it shows up on your card as $110 CAD (which buys you $100 US OBC). I suspect you paid for your OBC in $US, so they are refunding in the same.

 

Can you confirm if you bought your OBC with $US? (what does your credit card transaction say?). Just because you are Canadian diesn't mean you can take advantage of this 10% - you would have had to pay for your cruise initially in $CAD.

 

What many of us in this thread are going to try to do is buy lots of OBC at the 10% rate. Then try and get cold hard $US cash onboard. At this point, there are two strategies - one is to change the on board account to "cash" - the thinking being that there is no credit card on file to refund the purchased OBC to. The second strategy is to use the casino 5% cash out fee to take the cash- we know this can be done at any time. Me, personally, I have $1,200 OBC and have changed my account so that there is no longer a credit card linked to it. I plan on going to guest services and cashing out. If that does not work, and they insist on crediting the amount to my credit card which I used to buy the OBC, then I will go to the casino and cash out. 15% exchange is better than the 28-29% offered at the banks today.

 

Long winded - I know, but the devil is in the details.

I didn't think my Math was so bad, but i am so confused about the OBC and collecting the remaining in hard US cash, which is premium with the horrible exchange rate for Canadians.

My bank told me today that to buy $100 US, i will have to pay $128 Canadian. So for $450 US , it will cost me $576 CDN. RCCL said for $450 US, i would need to pay $499 CDN, so the difference to purchase 450 US from RCCL as OBC as oppose to going to the bank is $77 CDN. I know this is not a massive difference, but i any savings is a bonus. Also, the RCCL Rep told me that any unused amount of OBC will be refunded back on the credit card used to buy the OBC, but when i asked her about getting the cash back in US, she said you can ask the Guest Services on the last day about the possibility to get that in cash.

Others on this forum have said that it is possible to get the remaining OBC in US cash by lining up on the last day at Guest Services. My question is if this is worth it for a $77 cdn savings? Also the RCCL rep told me that any amount greater than $499 CDN that is exchanged for US (as OBC), needs go through a fax request providing front/back of credit card, with photo ID. This seems like a lot of work and not sure if i feel comfortable providing credit card details over fax.

Has anyone been able to get US cash back from Guest Services the night before disembarkation without any hassles and over $450 US without the paper work of faxing credit card details?

I didn't think my Math was so bad, but i am so confused about the OBC and collecting the remaining in hard US cash, which is premium with the horrible exchange rate for Canadians.

My bank told me today that to buy $100 US, i will have to pay $128 Canadian. So for $450 US , it will cost me $576 CDN. RCCL said for $450 US, i would need to pay $499 CDN, so the difference to purchase 450 US from RCCL as OBC as oppose to going to the bank is $77 CDN. I know this is not a massive difference, but i any savings is a bonus. Also, the RCCL Rep told me that any unused amount of OBC will be refunded back on the credit card used to buy the OBC, but when i asked her about getting the cash back in US, she said you can ask the Guest Services on the last day about the possibility to get that in cash.

Others on this forum have said that it is possible to get the remaining OBC in US cash by lining up on the last day at Guest Services. My question is if this is worth it for a $77 cdn savings? Also the RCCL rep told me that any amount greater than $499 CDN that is exchanged for US (as OBC), needs go through a fax request providing front/back of credit card, with photo ID. This seems like a lot of work and not sure if i feel comfortable providing credit card details over fax.

Has anyone been able to get US cash back from Guest Services the night before disembarkation without any hassles and over $450 US without the paper work of faxing credit card details?

I know that the thread has gotten quite long but there have been many posts by people that have had no difficulty in getting cash back on the last evening. I am not sure that I believe the rep saying that it would be refunded to the card that purchased it. I believe that it would be refunded to the card that you provide to secure your Seapass account.

I was able to purchase $500 twice without providing all that extra information and others have posted that they have purchased even more. It depends on who you get when you call.

It depends on what type of 'account' you have set up. If you put a credit card on your account, then where is any money to put back on it? All expenses are charged to your credit card.

 

If you gave them cash to set up a spending account, then yes, they will give you back the unused cash in US funds. That is the currency that you gave them in the first place and the ship only deals in US currency for on-board accounts.

If you prepaid your on-board account through Royal Caribbean before the cruise started, that's as good as setting up a cash account. The ship will have no record of your cc number, unless you've actually given it to them while on the cruise.

The prepayment of on-board credits has always existed. It's an Amenity under the Amenity listings, like flowers, wine, logo gear, etc. It's been there for the advantage of friends or family who want to give a 'gift' of money to the people who are cruising. It's just recently that cruisers have been giving the 'gift' to themselves...:p...because of the exceptional exchange rate.

So think of it as your Uncle giving you a gift of money using his credit card from home. The ship will have no idea of his cc number...all they know is that the money is sitting in your on-board account for you to use. It is totally refundable back to you if you don't use any or all of it.

I called RCCL and was told that without paper work being faxed over with copies of front/back of my credit card etc, i could purchase per person, $499 dollars CDN worth of US, OBC (comes to $450 US). So she said $499 CDN gets me $450 US, OBC , PP. She wasn't sure if i could get unused OBC in US CASH from Guest Services, but said i could try on very last day of cruise (before disembarkation). So just to clarify, if i got the OBC, and i didn't provide credit card information on the 'online check in ' process ( i actually already have, but i guess could take that off??), then Guest Services would have no recourse but to give back unused OBC in US CASH? Now it sounds like you were able to do this mid-cruise, or certainly before disembarkation day? I don't fancy joining the long line up on disembarkation day for a savings of $77 cdn (which is the savings total to buy RCCL obc, as oppose to getting US cash from CDN bank today).

Thanks for any information.

I didn't think my Math was so bad, but i am so confused about the OBC and collecting the remaining in hard US cash, which is premium with the horrible exchange rate for Canadians.

My bank told me today that to buy $100 US, i will have to pay $128 Canadian. So for $450 US , it will cost me $576 CDN. RCCL said for $450 US, i would need to pay $499 CDN, so the difference to purchase 450 US from RCCL as OBC as oppose to going to the bank is $77 CDN. I know this is not a massive difference, but i any savings is a bonus. Also, the RCCL Rep told me that any unused amount of OBC will be refunded back on the credit card used to buy the OBC, but when i asked her about getting the cash back in US, she said you can ask the Guest Services on the last day about the possibility to get that in cash.

Others on this forum have said that it is possible to get the remaining OBC in US cash by lining up on the last day at Guest Services. My question is if this is worth it for a $77 cdn savings? Also the RCCL rep told me that any amount greater than $499 CDN that is exchanged for US (as OBC), needs go through a fax request providing front/back of credit card, with photo ID. This seems like a lot of work and not sure if i feel comfortable providing credit card details over fax.

Has anyone been able to get US cash back from Guest Services the night before disembarkation without any hassles and over $450 US without the paper work of faxing credit card details?

Don't forget that credit card companies can also charge you an extra couple of percents to convert CAD to US$. As someone on this post said, if you have a Sears MC they will not charge the extra.

To clarify as well, you can get $499US$ and it will cost you $530CAD. This exchange is done by RCCL through Vancouver.

(I believe you posted it in reverse thinking it was $499CAD as a limit.)

Has anyone been able to get US cash back from Guest Services the night before disembarkation without any hassles and over $450 US without the paper work of faxing credit card details?

I bought $1000 USD for $1100 CDN prior to our cruise with no hassle of having to send them information. I was told any balance would be refunded to our credit card. We just got off the Allure on Sunday. We received our unused OBC back in USD cash on the night before debarkation without any question or hassle. The line up wasn't that bad and moved quickly.

I bought $1000 USD for $1100 CDN prior to our cruise with no hassle of having to send them information. I was told any balance would be refunded to our credit card. We just got off the Allure on Sunday. We received our unused OBC back in USD cash on the night before debarkation without any question or hassle. The line up wasn't that bad and moved quickly.

I also called the Crown & Anchor and was able to purchase $1000 US, for $1100 CDN without the hassle i was getting about limits. I printed the Amenity Confirmation letter that states the $1100 CDN, she said i didn't need to get the $1000 US printed on this as it will already be in the system and should have no problems at the Port.

I was wondering if its possible to get the USD, in cash, mid-cruise?

Thanks.

I also called the Crown & Anchor and was able to purchase $1000 US, for $1100 CDN without the hassle i was getting about limits. I printed the Amenity Confirmation letter that states the $1100 CDN, she said i didn't need to get the $1000 US printed on this as it will already be in the system and should have no problems at the Port.

I was wondering if its possible to get the USD, in cash, mid-cruise?

 

Thanks.

I was wondering the same thing because I wanted to use any remaining credit to add to the gratuities. I wanted to avoid the line and close the account during the day on Day 6. I read somewhere here that they tried and you can only do that at the end of the cruise, meaning the last NIGHT.

I called RCCL and they said the same thing. :(

I also called the Crown & Anchor and was able to purchase $1000 US, for $1100 CDN without the hassle i was getting about limits. I printed the Amenity Confirmation letter that states the $1100 CDN, she said i didn't need to get the $1000 US printed on this as it will already be in the system and should have no problems at the Port.

I was wondering if its possible to get the USD, in cash, mid-cruise?

 

Thanks.

I was wondering the same thing because I wanted to use any remaining credit to add to the gratuities. I wanted to avoid the line and close the account during the day on Day 6. I read somewhere here that they tried and you can only do that at the end of the cruise, meaning the last NIGHT.

 

I called RCCL and they said the same thing. :(

I've been watching this thread very closely since its beginning. I have $1,200 in OBC and I am planning on cashing out and getting $USD cash.

But, I too would like to cash out midway through the cruise. There are a few people who have posted that this only possible if you go to the casino. The casino will charge you 5% fee for taking cash out. I've read from people who have returned recently that they were not able to get cash from customer service desk mid cruise.

I have prepaid gratuities. I have prepaid specialty dining. I have prepaid the one ship excursion we are taking, so I doubt I will be able to spend the $1,200 (we don't drink). I will be taking some $US cash with me, but I am counting on taking out some cash for going on shore on port days. I am going to try the customer service desk first, and failing that, will pay the 5% for a few hundred dollars worth.

Even exchanging at the casino, it will end up costing me 15%. Still better than the $1.2952 my bank (CIBC) is charging today.

I've been watching this thread very closely since its beginning. I have $1,200 in OBC and I am planning on cashing out and getting $USD cash.

 

But, I too would like to cash out midway through the cruise. There are a few people who have posted that this only possible if you go to the casino. The casino will charge you 5% fee for taking cash out. I've read from people who have returned recently that they were not able to get cash from customer service desk mid cruise.

 

I have prepaid gratuities. I have prepaid specialty dining. I have prepaid the one ship excursion we are taking, so I doubt I will be able to spend the $1,200 (we don't drink). I will be taking some $US cash with me, but I am counting on taking out some cash for going on shore on port days. I am going to try the customer service desk first, and failing that, will pay the 5% for a few hundred dollars worth.

 

Even exchanging at the casino, it will end up costing me 15%. Still better than the $1.2952 my bank (CIBC) is charging today.

I totally agree with you.. 15% is better than 28%. We are disembarking the ship one day early so I'm hoping that it will all work out for us and we'll get the balance in U.S. dollars. We won't need the U.S. dollars while in Europe but will use them when we come back to New York. :)

I recently purchased onboard credit and had $200 that went with my booking. Is there anywhere in my booking that I can see this balance.

Should be on your RCCL docs and your cruise information on line.

I've been watching this thread very closely since its beginning. I have $1,200 in OBC and I am planning on cashing out and getting $USD cash.

 

But, I too would like to cash out midway through the cruise. There are a few people who have posted that this only possible if you go to the casino. The casino will charge you 5% fee for taking cash out. I've read from people who have returned recently that they were not able to get cash from customer service desk mid cruise.

 

I have prepaid gratuities. I have prepaid specialty dining. I have prepaid the one ship excursion we are taking, so I doubt I will be able to spend the $1,200 (we don't drink). I will be taking some $US cash with me, but I am counting on taking out some cash for going on shore on port days. I am going to try the customer service desk first, and failing that, will pay the 5% for a few hundred dollars worth.

 

Even exchanging at the casino, it will end up costing me 15%. Still better than the $1.2952 my bank (CIBC) is charging today.

I have prepaid my gratuities as well. But I wanted to use the remainder of the credit to use as a way to add to the gratuities for the crew. A poster had suggested I use the form to add the additional gratuities. I was thinking that I may just go and do it early in the day so that my balance is $0. I would hope that at the end of my cruise, I don't need to go to GS, it will just close the account since it's a $0 balance. I read somewhere here that if you have a cash account (no credit card on file) and you end up with a credit (even $1), you have to go to GS to close the account or they flag your SeaPass and you can't leave the ship. I didn't put even close to the amount people are putting in, I only put what I think we would need and it will likely be a low balance at the end of the cruise and would prefer not to bother lining up but add it to the gratuities for the crew.

I've been watching this thread very closely since its beginning. I have $1,200 in OBC and I am planning on cashing out and getting $USD cash.

 

But, I too would like to cash out midway through the cruise. There are a few people who have posted that this only possible if you go to the casino. The casino will charge you 5% fee for taking cash out. I've read from people who have returned recently that they were not able to get cash from customer service desk mid cruise.

 

I have prepaid gratuities. I have prepaid specialty dining. I have prepaid the one ship excursion we are taking, so I doubt I will be able to spend the $1,200 (we don't drink). I will be taking some $US cash with me, but I am counting on taking out some cash for going on shore on port days. I am going to try the customer service desk first, and failing that, will pay the 5% for a few hundred dollars worth.

 

Even exchanging at the casino, it will end up costing me 15%. Still better than the $1.2952 my bank (CIBC) is charging today.

Not sure when you are going on the FOS, but please let us know if you are successful in cashing out USD at Guest Services, mid-cruise.

Thanks

Not sure when you are going on the FOS, but please let us know if you are successful in cashing out USD at Guest Services, mid-cruise.

Thanks

Someone posted a while back that they tried and were told only at the end.

I have a TD Bank US $ Visa so I am thinking if I use that as my credit card on account, any left over OBC will be credited back to it and I will have a credit balance on my card. It isn't cash but I can just use the credit card at ports or after the cruise knowing that it is already "prepaid". I think this would work better than standing in a long line the last night of the cruise to get it back in cash?

I sail in the Independence, leaving on Sat Mar14, returning on Sun Mar 22.

I will certainly ask at Guest Services if I can take out some amount on day 2 or 3. If I remember, I will post here sometime on the 16-17th.

I too am trying to avoid the lines on the last day, so what I might try and do is cash out early (either at casino, or GS), and THEN put a credit card on file for end of the cruise. I wonder if this is possible.

I sail in the Independence, leaving on Sat Mar14, returning on Sun Mar 22.

 

I will certainly ask at Guest Services if I can take out some amount on day 2 or 3. If I remember, I will post here sometime on the 16-17th.

 

I too am trying to avoid the lines on the last day, so what I might try and do is cash out early (either at casino, or GS), and THEN put a credit card on file for end of the cruise. I wonder if this is possible.

That's exactly what I was thinking about.. cash out early and give them my credit card just in case of any last minute charges. Can't see why that wouldn't work.

Yes, please come back and let us know how things went and have a fantastic cruise Todd!:)

Our next cruise is with RCCL and these posts have been very helpful. Just wanted to pass along the fact that I now booked a cruise on the Norwegian Gem in CAD and the exchange rate is also 10%. They have a great deal on right now too with great free offers of OBC, beverages, dining, gratuities depending upon your choice of cabin.

Our next cruise is with RCCL and these posts have been very helpful. Just wanted to pass along the fact that I now booked a cruise on the Norwegian Gem in CAD and the exchange rate is also 10%. They have a great deal on right now too with great free offers of OBC, beverages, dining, gratuities depending upon your choice of cabin.

I had heard before that you can request CAD rates from NCL but couldn't see anywhere on their website to change to CAD $. Did you have to call them or can it be done on their website?

Did you have to call them or can it be done on their website?

You have to call them.