Is Select Dining being unfair to Canadians?

[Cruise Junky]

Many well travelled Canadians know to use your own credit card for exchange onboard rather than the exorbitant cruiselines rate. But having to prepay your gratuities takes this option away. Instead of $168 for two at a current exchange rate of $1.02 or probably through any credit card $1.04. Celebrity is charging approx 24% or $208....that's outrageous.

[diligaf51]

I think I would give them a call and see what gives. That is crazy.

[rothjer]

Its just like the first reservation agent I delt with for my most recent cruise. They insisted that I HAD to book the cruise in CAD when, in the past, I always given the option in terms of having them covert the price of my cruise to CAD in house, or charge me USD and have my credit card sort it out (which is usually much more favorable). Anyhow, moral of the story is that it was just that one reservation agents impression of what the rule was; after escalating the call to his superior, it was all sorted out. Chances are that somewhere down the X pipline information got construed, call and find out!

[UKBayern]

Many well travelled Canadians know to use your own credit card for exchange onboard rather than the exorbitant cruiselines rate. But having to prepay your gratuities takes this option away. Instead of $168 for two at a current exchange rate of $1.02 or probably through any credit card $1.04. Celebrity is charging approx 24% or $208....that's outrageous.

 

... maybe I'm misunderstanding something but that would mean we would have had a similar problem last November converting between USD and Euro: and we did not?

 

We paid our prepaid gratuities (for RCCL) by creditcard when booking the cruise - because we chose mytime dining - and were charged, converted, about $ 9,20 per person per day, significantly lower than the $11,- that is 'suggested'

 

We don't think it has to do with the option to convert creditcard charges to your home currency by the cruise company, or to let your own bank settle it, because that applies to your onboard account, not the prepaid charges.

 

Does Celebrity do things that differently from RCCL?

[cruisemuse13]

Many well travelled Canadians know to use your own credit card for exchange onboard rather than the exorbitant cruiselines rate. But having to prepay your gratuities takes this option away. Instead of $168 for two at a current exchange rate of $1.02 or probably through any credit card $1.04. Celebrity is charging approx 24% or $208....that's outrageous.

i ran into the same problem when I wanted to prepay my gratuities.

celebrity was charging an exchange rate or 25% and my TA said they only change the rate quarterly. well i cannot rembember when the exchange rate has been that high in the past year!! so i declined to prepay my gratuitities.

 

I also know that some posters have had a problem with the cruise line converting their online accounts to US$ with the inflated exchange rate rather than letting the credit card company make the exchange, even though they filled out a form saying they wanted the credit card company to make the conversion. for that reason, I pay off my onboard account in US$ travellers cheques so that i am not ripped off on the exchange.

[giraffelt]

When using a credit card Celebrity gives you the option of having them convert to CAD$ or posting it in USD$ and having the bank do the exchange conversion. We always opt for the second option as its less expensive. Also, last month we booked a future cruise on board and had it done in USD$. the only issue with that is that not all Canadian TA's are authorized to handle bookings in USD$ if you want to transfer the booking to your TA.

 

LT

[Christine Frances]

When I was booking my cruise on the Equinox last year, by flipping back and forth between USD & CND pricing for different itineraries I noticed quite a large disparity in the exchange rates applied. Not one itinerary had the same rate. I emailed and called Celebrity and got the same response. When they entered a CND postal code their system autmatically gave them the rate but no one seemed to know how the rate was originally calculated. They were actually quite suprised to find out that there were different rates. I was finally put in contact with the Sales Administration Dept who sent the following email which explains that the rate is set each time a new itinerary is rolled out. I usually book in USD so I can tsf to a US online TA and then I buy US cash when rates are good. Pay for cruise with my CND USD Visa and pay off the Visa from my USD account.

 

Good Afternoon!

 

Attached you will find the answer you were looking for.

 

The different exchange rates vary depending on when the price program was created. So for example, if the price program was created last week, it would have an market exchange rate from last week, and the rate could be different then if the price program was created when deployment opened. The different exchange rates exist because the price programs on those sailing's were all created at different times of the year. If all these price programs on the sailing's in question were created within the same week, then they would all have the same exchange rate.

 

So it pays to shop around for us to determine what currency to book in.

 

Cheers

Christine

[If only]

When using a credit card Celebrity gives you the option of having them convert to CAD$ or posting it in USD$ and having the bank do the exchange conversion. We always opt for the second option as its less expensive. Also, last month we booked a future cruise on board and had it done in USD$. the only issue with that is that not all Canadian TA's are authorized to handle bookings in USD$ if you want to transfer the booking to your TA.

 

LT

 

 

I totally agree with you, that there is a choice & having been on 33 cruises never had a problem, I have never been charged an excessive exchange rate because I am CDN. I believe any Cdn TA can book in CDN or US if they are not allowed it is not from Celebrity it must come from their own agency. Actually our cruise for next Mar 2011 went down by $940. last week while our friends who booked in US only went down by $400. & they are now within $100. apart. I believe Celebrity changes the rate conversion approx. every 3 months.