Princess gratuities

[MicCanberra]

54 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I think the confusion comes because theoretically there are no gratuities on Australian cruises booked in Australia so gratuities are never mentioned. 

 

I am 99.9% certain that if the onboard currency is AUD on a repositioning cruise to Asia that was booked in Australia that there are no added gratuities - that was certainly the case in 2018 and I don't expect it to have changed.

 

Anyway we've just changed our Feb 2025 Diamond Princess cruise to do the cruise up to Japan so hopefully that will be the case. 

Does that mean you and Ralph will be joining us?

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just now, MicCanberra said:

Does that mean you and Ralph will be joining us?

Yep! Rolf will be tagging along with me to carry my bags! 🤣

[MicCanberra]

4 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Yep! Rolf will be tagging along with me to carry my bags! 🤣

Great news, spell check changed it from Rolph to Ralph, sorry about the wrong spelling of Rolf.

[OzKiwiJJ]

8 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

Great news, spell check changed it from Rolph to Ralph, sorry about the wrong spelling of Rolf.

No worries, he gets lots of strange spelling of his name.

 

We'll have to catch up for a drink onboard. No fancy suite for us this time unfortunately but we scored a nice balcony cabin thanks to my Princess Planner. There were no balcony cabins available online and haven't been for some time but I rang my Planner today to ask her to keep an eye out for one for us and she came up with one immediately. We're very happy with that! 

[MicCanberra]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

No worries, he gets lots of strange spelling of his name.

 

We'll have to catch up for a drink onboard. No fancy suite for us this time unfortunately but we scored a nice balcony cabin thanks to my Princess Planner. There were no balcony cabins available online and haven't been for some time but I rang my Planner today to ask her to keep an eye out for one for us and she came up with one immediately. We're very happy with that! 

we have a Mini suite but it hasn't been allocated as yet.

[OzKiwiJJ]

40 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

we have a Mini suite but it hasn't been allocated as yet.

We might try for an upgrade bid when the time comes but at least we have a balcony.

[MicCanberra]

We had to cancel this years Royal Princess  cruise to Japan and booked the Diamond  cruise instead and went for a Minisuite guarantee.

[Wanderers2]

On 4/16/2024 at 7:54 AM, arxcards said:

In true Princess consistency, I just had a look at the 2025/26 launch brochure again. The Singapore to Sydney cruise is listed as a $US cruise:

 

8 Nov 25 Discovery X544

Singapore > Ho Chi Minh City (Phu My) > Nha Trang > Lombok > Darwin > Yorkeys Knob (for Cairns) > Airlie Beach (for the Whitsundays) > Sydney

Onboard currency is in USD

Referenced from page 18 of: 23376_Mini-Brochure_25-26_AU_3.0.pdf (princess.com)

We are booked on this cruise & the Travel Summary in our Princess account definitely shows the onboard currency as AUD

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, Wanderers2 said:

We are booked on this cruise & the Travel Summary in our Princess account definitely shows the onboard currency as AUD

Yes, I always believed that was how it should be too.

Just noting how confusing it can be when the Princess brochure doesn't match reality.

[OzKiwiJJ]

4 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Yes, I always believed that was how it should be too.

Just noting how confusing it can be when the Princess brochure doesn't match reality.

I guess they make a mistake occasionally. After all we are the only region in the world where the ships operate in a local currency onboard, and repositioning cruises are confusing in that respect - different rules for different start/end locations. 

[Wanderers2]

6 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Yes, I always believed that was how it should be too.

Just noting how confusing it can be when the Princess brochure doesn't match reality.

Yes I agree, very confusing.

[Wanderers2]

Just now, OzKiwiJJ said:

I guess they make a mistake occasionally. After all we are the only region in the world where the ships operate in a local currency onboard, and repositioning cruises are confusing in that respect - different rules for different start/end locations. 

I really expected as the Discovery was coming from Singapore that the OB currency would be USD

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just now, Wanderers2 said:

I really expected as the Discovery was coming from Singapore that the OB currency would be USD

No, I would expect AUD coming from Asia but USD coming from the US or Europe. It changed sometime between April 2016 and March 2018. 

[Wanderers2]

1 minute ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

No, I would expect AUD coming from Asia but USD coming from the US or Europe. It changed sometime between April 2016 and March 2018. 

Ahhh I didn't know that. thanks

[arxcards]

5 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I guess they make a mistake occasionally. After all we are the only region in the world where the ships operate in a local currency onboard, and repositioning cruises are confusing in that respect - different rules for different start/end locations. 

And that's why we have a local office to dot the T's 😉

[OzKiwiJJ]

40 minutes ago, arxcards said:

And that's why we have a local office to dot the T's 😉

Except these days you rarely get to talk to the local office, just an off-shore call centre that I suspect handles calls from everywhere and who actually don't know much. 

 

What is more reliable is looking at the summary page on the Personalizer for your cruise where it clearly states the onboard folio currency. 

[arxcards]

4 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Except these days you rarely get to talk to the local office, just an off-shore call centre that I suspect handles calls from everywhere and who actually don't know much. 

 

What is more reliable is looking at the summary page on the Personalizer for your cruise where it clearly states the onboard folio currency. 

Yes, that is easy to confirm - after booking. By the general rule, a ship coming or going between an Aussie season & Asia is $AU, with a fare that has absorbed any daily gratuities. Princess literature confuses this more than we do.

Edited April 19 by arxcards

[MicCanberra]

Not so easy to determine other aspects of the cruise though.

[OzKiwiJJ]

13 hours ago, arxcards said:

Yes, that is easy to confirm - after booking. By the general rule, a ship coming or going between an Aussie season & Asia is $AU, with a fare that has absorbed any daily gratuities. Princess literature confuses this more than we do.

That's because we're the experts! 🤣

[MicCanberra]

If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times, exaggeration is not required in pointing out people's hypocrisy

[wintrev]

I have a question regarding the crew appreciation. I understand the difference between Australian cruises and the rest of the world.

 

i have booked a Japan cruise for August next year. When I log on via the web page on my laptop the crew appreciation box comes up - they have kindly changed the dollar value from the $17USD to the full total for the cruise in AUD - was a bit confusing at first until I figured out that they had done the conversion.

 

However my question is why does it say in the review packages app on my mobile (we purchased plus) that crew appreciation is included??

 

I am presuming that this is an oversight and glitch with the app?

 

[arxcards]

10 minutes ago, wintrev said:

I am presuming that this is an oversight and glitch with the app?

 

Yes, a limitation with the way their data reports to the app. As a $US cruise, it presumes plus was purchased as the US version.

[OzKiwiJJ]

No, unfortunately if you booked the cruise in Australia with a Plus fare it's not a error. The system sees you have a Plus fare on a non-Australian cruise so gives you the default US description of the Plus package. But even though you paid the fare in AUD it isn't an Australian fare so does not include gratuities. Remember the US package costs US$60 (AU$93.50 at the current XE rate) and you paid AU$65 for the package. The US daily gratuities at $17 work out to AU $26.50 (but may work out a bit less if you prepay). Add that to $65 and you end up paying a couple of dollars ($AU$91.50) less than you would if you'd bought the US package.

[wintrev]

20 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

No, unfortunately if you booked the cruise in Australia with a Plus fare it's not an error. The system sees you have a Plus fare on a non-Australian cruise so gives you the default US description of the Plus package. But even though you paid the fare in AUD it isn't an Australian fare so does not include gratuities. Remember the US package costs US$60 (AU$93.50 at the current XE rate) and you paid AU$65 for the package. The US daily gratuities at $17 work out to AU $26.50 (but may work out a bit less if you prepay). Add that to $65 and you end up paying a couple of dollars ($AU$91.50) less than you would if you'd bought the US package.

Thanks OzKiwiJJ and Arxcards for your replies. I had already presumed that we had to pay the crew appreciation on top of the cruise fare so don’t have problem with it but find it interesting that the app can’t distinguish the difference.

 

As a point of interest we booked this cruise and then 2 days later noticed a significant increase in the cost. When I logged into the cruise personalizer on my laptop I got an obscure message stating that because it recognised me as a loyal customer we had been charged a lower price than the new revised one - have never seen that before? Nothing has changed in the payment due but unsure what to make of it all.

Edited April 20 by wintrev

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 minutes ago, wintrev said:

Thanks OzKiwiJJ and Arxcards for your replies. I had already presumed that we had to pay the crew appreciation on top of the cruise fare so don’t have problem with it but find it interesting that the app can’t distinguish the difference.

 

As a point of interest we booked this cruise and then 2 days later noticed a significant increase in the cost. When I logged into the cruise personalizer on my laptop I got an obscure message stating that because it recognised me as a loyal customer we had been charged a lower price than the new revised one - have never seen that before? Nothing has changed in the payment due but unsure what to make of it all.

That's a new one to me too.