Royal Caribbean payment options, travel wallet or credit card?

[Thomo7]

Hi all,

My husband and I haven't been on a cruise since the travel card/wallets have become common.

We will be travelling on RC Ovation of the Seas in a couple of weeks and from other Topics I've seen that option B, (having your own bank convert currency) seems to be the go. However, with the option of using a travel debit card with either US or NZD on it versus using a credit card with AUD I'm at a bit of a standstill.

 

The travel card doesn't have any fees to set up or to transfer money to, it simply gets changed from AUD to USD (&/or NZD) at the current exchange rate. When the cruise is done if I have cash left on it, I can either let it stay there or convert it back to AUD at whatever the rate is (don't know if there is a fee involved in getting it transferred off the card to another acct.)

 

Using the credit card with my bank converting payments from USD to AUD sounds okay (and is relatively unlimited) but If I put a set amount of cash into the Travel card/wallet in USD and NZD (NZD for use onshore) will Royal Caribbean simply charge my card in USD (and therefore not have any change over fees)...

 

If anyone has used this method, I'd love to hear how it worked out. 

Cheers, JT

[Chiliburn]

I’m not quite sure what you’re asking but just put your credit card down and choose to get your bank to convert it . Royal Caribbean give a woeful exchange rate, I have heard as low as 55 cents. Your bank will give you a good exchange rate.

Im pretty sure it’s processed in Sydney if you choose that option otherwise ,if you get them to exchange it I think it’s processed in New York by a third party bank .

If you have A travel card with U.S dollars you can go to Guest service the last night and just pay your bill .That’s what I do but with U.S. cash.

[Thomo7]

5 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

I’m not quite sure what you’re asking but just put your credit card down and choose to get your bank to convert it . Royal Caribbean give a woeful exchange rate, I have heard as low as 55 cents. Your bank will give you a good exchange rate.

Im pretty sure it’s processed in Sydney if you choose that option otherwise ,if you get them to exchange it I think it’s processed in New York by a third party bank .

If you have A travel card with U.S dollars you can go to Guest service the last night and just pay your bill .That’s what I do but with U.S. cash.

Thanks Chiliburn. Was wondering if anyone had used the travel card to pay and therefore skipped the exchange expenses. Sounds like you've done just that.  Will do what you've suggested. Thanks for the heads-up. looking forward to it, cheers. JT

[OzKiwiJJ]

Check carefully what the travel wallet "current" exchange rates are. You can get credit cards, like Latitude 28 Degrees, that don't charge foreign transaction fees and whose exchange rates are quite close to the XE rate at the time of the transaction. Some travel cards/wallets make their money by offering less than the best exchange rates. 

[aussielozzie18]

 I use my 28 degrees credit card when I book cruises like Royal that have onboard charges  in USD or for cruises overseas where excursions are in foreign currency.

Edited February 26 by aussielozzie18

[MicCanberra]

We have used the credit card at the banks rate rather than 5he cruiselines rate.

However lately on some lines, we have been loading our ship board account with OBC (some lines have more favourable ratess than the current exchangerate) and using that to have a $0 bill.

[mr walker]

About 10 years ago we opened a CBA Travel Money Card account & put US$ on it. We have lodged it for all our USD cruises (RC) to cover our onboard cruise account & the final payment taken out by the ship has always been exactly our final invoice amount without us having to do a thing.

We have also used it for restaurant bills etc when in US, again with no additional charges.

 

Note: in the 10 years we have had to top up the amount in our account once or twice 🙂  

[Thomo7]

OzKiwiJJ, ozzielozzie18, MicCanberra, mr walker, thank you all for your input.

 

The travel wallet we have organised is a Westpac World Wide Wallet and the current rate to load the card seems quite comparable to other rates I've checked out. Sounds like a good option. 

Thanks again and happy cruising, JT

[birdofsong]

On 2/26/2024 at 4:39 AM, Thomo7 said:

Hi all,

My husband and I haven't been on a cruise since the travel card/wallets have become common.

We will be travelling on RC Ovation of the Seas in a couple of weeks and from other Topics I've seen that option B, (having your own bank convert currency) seems to be the go. However, with the option of using a travel debit card with either US or NZD on it versus using a credit card with AUD I'm at a bit of a standstill.

 

The travel card doesn't have any fees to set up or to transfer money to, it simply gets changed from AUD to USD (&/or NZD) at the current exchange rate. When the cruise is done if I have cash left on it, I can either let it stay there or convert it back to AUD at whatever the rate is (don't know if there is a fee involved in getting it transferred off the card to another acct.)

 

Using the credit card with my bank converting payments from USD to AUD sounds okay (and is relatively unlimited) but If I put a set amount of cash into the Travel card/wallet in USD and NZD (NZD for use onshore) will Royal Caribbean simply charge my card in USD (and therefore not have any change over fees)...

 

If anyone has used this method, I'd love to hear how it worked out. 

Cheers, JT

Hi there!  We're on the same cruise.  We just had our bank convert USD to AUD.  It's probably more than we need, but I'd rather have it that way than not enough.  It's my understanding that everything on the cruise itself is in USD, despite leaving out of Sydney.  We have excursions for all three NZ ports, so we're just planning on using our regular Visa card for anything we may purchase there. 

 

See you in Australia!

[OzKiwiJJ]

Happy travels!

[Thomo7]

On 2/28/2024 at 11:02 AM, birdofsong said:

Hi there!  We're on the same cruise.  We just had our bank convert USD to AUD.  It's probably more than we need, but I'd rather have it that way than not enough.  It's my understanding that everything on the cruise itself is in USD, despite leaving out of Sydney.  We have excursions for all three NZ ports, so we're just planning on using our regular Visa card for anything we may purchase there. 

 

See you in Australia!

Hi Birdofsong, thanks for the info and hope you enjoy Sydney and anywhere else in Australia that you have the chance to go 🙂 We are having some difficulty getting cash exchanged. Living in regional NSW, the banks are simply not stocking foreign currency! Never know, might bump into you onboard!

[banzaii]

Am I correct in thinking that the main benefit of a travel wallet or card is that you control the timing of when and how much you load in the currency of choice?

 

So if AUD is stronger against USD you can benefit from loading USD at that point?

[dazadelaide]

Hi,

Is it correct that you can pay your final bill with cash in $US on RCL?

We have only ever paid on other cruises with a credit card but we have a bit of $US left from a previous trip that I would like to use.

Thanks

Daz

 

[mr walker]

20 minutes ago, dazadelaide said:

Hi,

Is it correct that you can pay your final bill with cash in $US on RCL?

We have only ever paid on other cruises with a credit card but we have a bit of $US left from a previous trip that I would like to use.

Thanks

Daz

 

Yes, you can pay in cash onboard at any time. Some people go straight & put money on their account straight after boarding.

We once had a windfall when one of our party won a bingo jackpot, with winnings shared by prior agreement. The payout was in cash US$ & we took it straight to Guest Services & paid down our onboard account - happy days as it felt like we had a free cruise 😀

[Thomo7]

12 hours ago, banzaii said:

Am I correct in thinking that the main benefit of a travel wallet or card is that you control the timing of when and how much you load in the currency of choice?

 

So if AUD is stronger against USD you can benefit from loading USD at that point?

Yes, I think so. You can elect when to load your card and how much. I believe that if you go over the amount on your card in the chosen currency, they can draw from another currency on the card (if you have another currency as well) but at the exchange rate current at the time of charging. Hope that makes sense.

Also, our bank does not charge fees for the card, or for loading and unloading the card or a transaction fee. We originally just wanted cash for some occasional

ripping if warranted! Very difficult to get cash where we are! 

[dazadelaide]

6 hours ago, mr walker said:

We once had a windfall when one of our party won a bingo jackpot, with winnings shared by prior agreement. The payout was in cash US$ & we took it straight to Guest Services & paid down our onboard account - happy days as it felt like we had a free cruise 😀

Thats how I have got the $US

We were on Virgin In October and I thought I would try my hand in the casino.

Not being a gambler I asked the casino staff what i needed to do.

She showed me but i didn't fully understand and i bet more than i wanted and after 2 pushes i realized my mistake but it was too late to change when i realized but that second push of the button won me free games and i ended up winning $1200.

I went and cashed in straight away but the only options were ship credit or cash in $us so i took the cash for the next time we travel so this will be a great chance to use my "free money"

Daz

[Thomo7]

Hi again, 

This may be a silly question, but can you use your credit card, Travel wallet or even cash to pay for onboard expenses as they occur or  can you only use your Seapass for all purchases and transactions which are then automatically put onto your account?

 

[fairywren]

You can use usd in the casino but all other charges are on your seapass card which is paid on final night either automatically by your registered cc or cash. Not a good rate of exchange unless you already have usd loaded.