Canadian Princess Cruisers

[AE_Collector]

Correct. It was the same last year. Early in the year (feb or march) we began to notice that prices continued to be at par for cruises up to September but became +10% for cruises in September or beyond. The same happened this year except the change in September is going from 10% to 20%. Lets hope that this time next year we don't begin to see cruises for September 2016 going to 30% or even worse. Still hoping to get in one or two more cruises at 10%.

 

Terry

[poyan]

All I did was phone Princess and ask to buy OBC. They charged my credit card that is registered in Cruise Personaliser for $2200 for the $2000USD bought. If you have booked with Princess direct they can give you a confirmation email but if you used a TA then they can get the confirmation for you.

 

I booked directly with Princess as well. I paid for the cruise with a Canadian dollar credit card and registered my onboard account with an US dollar credit card. If I call Princess to purchase OBC, will I be able to pay with a Canadian credit card?

[AE_Collector]

It has nothing to do with the fact that your onboard account will be settled in US$ or whether you have regstered a US$ or CDN$ card to cover it.

 

And it doesn't actually matter that you paid for the cruise with a Canadian credit card because you could just as easily pay the US price for the cruise which the credit card company woud convert to Canadian dollars at the current exchange rate.

 

What matters is that you hold a Canadian passport and you elected to pay the Princess Canadian price rather than the US price. Then you can pre purchase anything you want to from the catalog, including OBC at the same exchange rate that was built into your Canadian cruise price. 10c on the dollar for cruises commencing by September and 20c on the dollar for cruises after that. There isn't an exact date in September for the change, it is a little different for each ship and itinerary.

 

Terry

Edited March 30, 2015 by AE_Collector

[dreamcruiser53]

I just want to thank everyone on this thread for all the excellent information. I had no idea that this was something we could do and we are regular cruisers! We just finished a cruise at the beginning of March, didn't pre order cruise credits and paid the price! Next cruise is Baltic in June, we are on top of this now and will prepay into our account ASAP! Thank you so much

[goofy559]

It has nothing to do with the fact that your onboard account will be settled in US$ or whether you have regstered a US$ or CDN$ card to cover it.

 

And it doesn't actually matter that you paid for the cruise with a Canadian credit card because you could just as easily pay the US price for the cruise which the credit card company woud convert to Canadian dollars at the current exchange rate.

 

What matters is that you hold a Canadian passport and you elected to pay the Princess Canadian price rather than the US price. Then you can pre purchase anything you want to from the catalog, including OBC at the same exchange rate that was built into your Canadian cruise price. 10c on the dollar for cruises commencing by September and 20c on the dollar for cruises after that. There isn't an exact date in September for the change, it is a little different for each ship and itinerary.

 

Terry

 

Ok - so that's all clear, and I did this for my march cruise so I know the process, but, here's my question:

 

Cruise booked for December 2015 - booked while rate was still 10% - when i buy OBC will be at the rate I booked at or the current rate?

[richstowe]

Ok - so that's all clear, and I did this for my march cruise so I know the process, but, here's my question:

 

Cruise booked for December 2015 - booked while rate was still 10% - when i buy OBC will be at the rate I booked at or the current rate?

Unless they change the policy , you will pay 10% .

[poyan]

Thanks Terry!

 

Just want to clarify, when I call Princess to purchase OBCs, can I give them a different credit card than the one I registered? As I mentioned above, I registered with a US dollar credit card (I have some US dollar that I bought at par but not enough to cover everything) so I don't want them to charge that or it will defeat the purpose.

[AE_Collector]

Ok - so that's all clear, and I did this for my march cruise so I know the process, but, here's my question:

 

Cruise booked for December 2015 - booked while rate was still 10% - when i buy OBC will be at the rate I booked at or the current rate?

 

I haven't had this scenario myself yet but my guess is that it will still go at the (1.10) rate that you paid for the trip initially. I guess it is possible that for pre purchases the system could update to the new current 1.20 Princess rate.

 

Someone must have been through this after last September with a cruise booked prior to the change from par to 10%. Maybe "Richstowe" did this previously?

 

Let us know what happens.

 

Thanks Terry!

 

Just want to clarify, when I call Princess to purchase OBCs, can I give them a different credit card than the one I registered? As I mentioned above, I registered with a US dollar credit card (I have some US dollar that I bought at par but not enough to cover everything) so I don't want them to charge that or it will defeat the purpose.

 

Yes you can give them what ever credit card you want to pre purchase the OBC. We always have a US card registered for the onboard account but used our Canadian credit card to pre purchase OBC.

 

As always, ask them to tell you the amount that will be billed to your card before they complete the transaction.

 

They always say "we will be charging your card $110 for your purchase of $100 OBC". I have occasionally had someone who can't tell what will be charged for some reason. If so, say "thanks anyway" and try again later. My Princess Vacation Planer doesn't seem to be able to tell me what the charge will be, they might have a different computer system. I always just call the 1-800 Princess number to pre purchase OBC.

 

Terry

Edited March 30, 2015 by AE_Collector

[poyan]

Thanks again Terry! You totally answered my questions :):):)

[AE_Collector]

You're welcome! Enjoy your cruise which is a bit easier to do knowing that you got a good exchange rate!

 

And THANKS PRINCESS for making this better rate available to us. I find myself looking for "just one more (okay, maybe MORE than one) cruise before the exchange rate goes up again"!

 

One day when the Canadian dollar finally starts to consistently climb against the US dollar, be certain to look at booking cruises at the US price. Since Princess infrequently changes their exchange rate and when they do it can hold for a year, there will be times when it is better to book in US$.

 

We keep both Canadian $ and US $ Future Cruise Deposits for this reason. You can have FCD's converted but that is one less thing that we have to do when trying to make a quick decision since we have them in both currencies. We wouldn't make much interest on the money elsewhere anyway and our US$ FCD's were bought at par so we have done well on that investment!

 

Terry

Edited March 30, 2015 by AE_Collector

[tiqittaq foo]

If I buy, say US $500 OBC for my June cruise and I need to cancel the cruise at the last moment due to whatever reason, does anyone know whether the pre purchased OBC can be refunded back to the credit card ? Thank you

[richstowe]

 

Someone must have been through this after last September with a cruise booked prior to the change from par to 10%. Maybe "Richstowe" did this previously?

Terry

I booked my Regal cruise in October with a 10% discount , not at par.

The Cdn $ continued to drop prior to the cruise. I found this thread and bought OBC on multiple

occasions all with the same rate. I took off, in cash, the OBC that was not used. :)

As I previously posted, "Unless they change the policy , you will pay 10% ".

 

On a different topic , I used air miles to pay for a car rental from National . Great deal !

Edited March 30, 2015 by richstowe

[AE_Collector]

If I buy, say US $500 OBC for my June cruise and I need to cancel the cruise at the last moment due to whatever reason, does anyone know whether the pre purchased OBC can be refunded back to the credit card ? Thank you

 

I am sure it would be refunded but not certain if refunded to the card versus mailing you a cheque for the US $ that you purchased. Apparently they now will only refund left over pre purchased OBC via a mailed US $ cheque so I don't know if they would do the conversion back to Canadian and refund to your card in that scenario.

 

It seems to me that they would be smart to ONLY refund unused OBC via converting back to Canadian at the rate the original conversion was done at to avoid abuse. But I suspect that once the accounting is done initially they want to keep the OBC in US$ all the way to avoid more accounting irregularities.

 

So I wouldn't worry about losing your money but you may have to wait for a month or so for a US cheque to arrive and the cheque will more than cover the conversion back to Canadian $ if you cant use the US$.

 

Terry

Edited March 30, 2015 by AE_Collector

[tiqittaq foo]

Thank you. Terry.

[VirtualRain]

I just wanted to say thank you for all the helpful tips here... buying OBC and paying gratuities in advance at the 10% exchange rate is going to save me a bundle and I would never have known about this savings had it not been for this thread. Thank you!

[BCCRUSINGCOUPLE]

Sorry if this has already been asked. If you pre purchase your obc can you go to pursuers desk for example and ask for 100 bucks cash off your account.

[paradiseisaprincessaway]

I recently booked a cruise i am canadian but my FCC were ij US and the only way to utilize them was to be quoted in US and pay in US or wait several days for my FCC to be converted to CDN

 

but the costs were close i suppose

 

HA NOT

 

i paid $1077 CDN for the cruise quoted $883 USD

and 754 CDN for the flight and quoted $583

 

BUT - theres always a butt!! I knew going into it that i would be eating costs but i am happy to be sailing princess again after a year and a half of sailing carnival

[toberman]

 

BUT - theres always a butt!!

 

Yep - there's always a butt.. we all like looking at them. :eek:

It's the "but" that's always a problem. :D

[Kamloops50]

Sorry if this has already been asked. If you pre purchase your obc can you go to pursuers desk for example and ask for 100 bucks cash off your account.

 

Not really.

 

Sent from my SGH-I317M using Forums mobile app

[AE_Collector]

Sorry if this has already been asked. If you pre purchase your obc can you go to pursuers desk for example and ask for 100 bucks cash off your account.

 

Discussed quite a bit in just the last two pages of this topic. Maybe but maybe not to cash at the desk so you cant count on it. They wouldn't give me any even though it was for extra gratuities onboard.

 

Terry

[senior lady]

Just go to Casino and upload $ to your account, gamble a bit and then go cash in.:)

[BCCRUSINGCOUPLE]

Just go to Casino and upload $ to your account, gamble a bit and then go cash in.:)

 

 

Great idea did not think about that thanks.

[adaptabl]

I just got back from the Royal and had purchased an extra $1500.00 OBC at 10% (I also had $200.00 NR Credit). I had about $1300.00 left over and went to the casino and moved the balance to my casino account (you can do it on any slot machine). I had to do it in multiple transaction since they only allow $500.00 per transaction. The next day I got a call in my room to be sure to cash out any balance before the last night. I went to the cashiers desk and was given $1300.00 in US cash. I didn't pull the slots one time. I now have spending money for my next vacation purchased at 10%.

[BCCRUSINGCOUPLE]

I just got back from the Royal and had purchased an extra $1500.00 OBC at 10% (I also had $200.00 NR Credit). I had about $1300.00 left over and went to the casino and moved the balance to my casino account (you can do it on any slot machine). I had to do it in multiple transaction since they only allow $500.00 per transaction. The next day I got a call in my room to be sure to cash out any balance before the last night. I went to the cashiers desk and was given $1300.00 in US cash. I didn't pull the slots one time. I now have spending money for my next vacation purchased at 10%.

 

 

Great thanks for the good info. We are leaving in a week. So you just filled out the form on line to make it happen. I never pre paid for on board credit before.

[adaptabl]

Great thanks for the good info. We are leaving in a week. So you just filled out the form on line to make it happen. I never pre paid for on board credit before.

 

I had to call Princess for the OBC (I could not find anywhere online to do this in canadian funds). You call the gift department and they add the OBC in increments of $100.00US and bill you $110.00 canadian. When we got onboard there were 15 little cards telling us we had onboard credit of $100.00.