Purchasing Royal Caribbean Gift Certificates - Non US Residents

[jy_cruisefan]

Hello.

We would like to provide our children a means to purchase gift certificates/onboard credits for us for our upcoming sailing on Oasis of the Seas in February. However, the RCI gift Certificates website (Give the Gift of Cruising (royalcaribbeancertificates.com) states that they are only available to US residents. Is there any other way for non US (Canadian) residents to purchase them online?

Thank you.

[Fouremco]

There's a wide range of gifts that they can purchase for you, but not gift certificates. If you read the Terms and Conditions, they explain this at some length, although they don't say why.  If none of the available gifts have any appeal, the best alternative would be for your children to buy you USD that you can apply to your onboard account.

[jy_cruisefan]

1 hour ago, Fouremco said:

There's a wide range of gifts that they can purchase for you, but not gift certificates. If you read the Terms and Conditions, they explain this at some length, although they don't say why.  If none of the available gifts have any appeal, the best alternative would be for your children to buy you USD that you can apply to your onboard account.

Thanks. I do like the US dollar idea. 🙂 

[hancogran]

A few years back when there wasn't such a big difference between the Canadian and the U.S. dollar, we would call Royal and add OBC to our account for an upcoming sailing.  It was just a matter of giving our credit card over the phone then they would confirm the purchase with an email.  @Fouremco do you remember about 8 or 10 years ago when Royal were giving Canadians a  great deal if we purchased OBC ?   We ended up with a few thousand U.S.  in OBC and even though we didn't spend it all onboard, we were able to get any balance refunded (in U.S. dollars) at the end of the cruise. 

I'm not sure what Royal's exchange rate is now, but you could call and ask.   

Edited December 2, 2022 by hancogran

[Fouremco]

1 hour ago, hancogran said:

A few years back when there wasn't such a big difference between the Canadian and the U.S. dollar, we would call Royal and add OBC to our account for an upcoming sailing.  It was just a matter of giving our credit card over the phone then they would confirm the purchase with an email.  @Fouremco do you remember about 8 or 10 years ago when Royal were giving Canadians a  great deal if we purchased OBC ?   We ended up with a few thousand U.S.  in OBC and even though we didn't spend it all onboard, we were able to get any balance refunded (in U.S. dollars) at the end of the cruise. 

I'm not sure what Royal's exchange rate is now, but you could call and ask.   

During that period we did the same with HAL and Celebrity, purchasing refundable OBC at a far better rate than was available from banks or currency exchange outlets. We would buy more than we would need for onboard expenses and pocket the refund at the end of the cruise, keeping us in USD to pay for hotels, meals and other expenses during future trips. At a certain point, the lines changed their approach and their conversion rates were no longer beneficial.

 

From what I can tell, RCI no longer allows non-US residents to to purchase OBC.

[jy_cruisefan]

I will definitely call RCI to see what they say.

Thanks

[hancogran]

On 12/5/2022 at 11:19 AM, jy_cruisefan said:

I will definitely call RCI to see what they say.

Thanks

Interesting thread on the main RCI board regarding purchasing OBC.

 

[jtdlmc]

We too always purchased OBC when sailing RCCL