HELP!!..confused with deposit refunds..Princess USA

[S&D]

Hi everyone,

 

We are booked on the Diamond Princess for Feb.. but due to the $$$ slide - at the moment, our friends are having to cancel. They are in NZ..even worse $ exchange than here!..:(

 

So...IF we decided to cancel, what happens with this $$ thing?

 

We booked thru the USA ..we paid in FULL....at 94 cents exchange rate. What rate would we get back if we cancelled, would it be 65 cents as it is today ??- very confused here...hope someone can help!!..:confused: :confused:

 

Thanks.....

S&D

[Corey W]

Hi everyone,

 

We are booked on the Diamond Princess for Feb.. but due to the $$$ slide - at the moment, our friends are having to cancel. They are in NZ..even worse $ exchange than here!..:(

 

So...IF we decided to cancel, what happens with this $$ thing?

 

We booked thru the USA ..we paid in FULL....at 94 cents exchange rate. What rate would we get back if we cancelled, would it be 65 cents as it is today ??- very confused here...hope someone can help!!..:confused: :confused:

 

Thanks.....

S&D

Hi S&D - If you booked thru an agent with you credit card, you will be getting back more than you paid.

example - paying $1000 US will have cost you around $1065 Aussie at 94c/$US.

If you cancel at 65c/$US you will get a refund of around $1538 Aussie less agency fees and conversion charges and margins.

 

There is another thing to vary this - the way banks make their money in currency conversion.

If Aussie dollaris at 65 cents - if you are selling to buy US conversion you will only get around 63 cents to the dollar. if you are being paid in US (refund) it will be around 67 cents to the dollar. The 4c difference is pocketed by the buying and selling institutions.

[susie2shoes]

Hi Sandra,

 

This whole exchange currency thing is doing my head in!!! I hope someone with Princess experience can help you. My way of thinking is, if you paid an amount for your cruise and were charged US$ on your credit card, when they put the same amount back on your credit card and the bank converts it to aussie$$ you should get way more back???

 

Hope you get some answers. These are very unsettling times!!!

[S&D]

Hi Corey

Thanks for your reply, I don't suppose we will know for sure unless we actually cancel and see what happens. Nice to hear from you.

 

Susie,

The only other option we have is to maybe transfer our booking over to an earlier sail date, that way we still get to do the cruise, and our friends can re book with us -at a much cheaper rate for those other dates, don't know why the Feb cruise is nearly sold out and the Jan cruises still have deals on them and plenty of space. Maybe to do with school holidays etc?

 

Anyway, we will sort it out the next few days...

:) :)

S&D

[mum and son]

Can I ask a quick question (realising that I might look really stupid...) If you have booked and paid, has does the $AUD affect the cost? Is it just for costs and purchases while on board? Or does it also somehowaffect the cruise price?

 

I have just booked on the Diamond Princess on Dec12th on the deal of a lifetime !!!

[rkmw]

Can I ask a quick question (realising that I might look really stupid...) If you have booked and paid, has does the $AUD affect the cost? Is it just for costs and purchases while on board? Or does it also somehowaffect the cruise price?

 

I have just booked on the Diamond Princess on Dec12th on the deal of a lifetime !!!

 

hi mum & son, if you have paid in full the fare is locked in

 

if the diamond princess trades in US $$$ you will have to pay more whilst on board for duty free items and any shore tours and i suppose with your tips works out at $10 US which on todays exchange rate is $15.00 AUD so you would be paying $180.00 in gratituty each ( i think thats how it works)

 

rkmw

[Corey W]

The OP has booked through the US, so every day the dollar slides, the outstanding balance in Aussie money goes up. This is also the same for those booked on Rhapsody, where the fare is priced in US money.

[karmac]

hi mum & son, if you have paid in full the fare is locked in

 

 

 

Does anyyone know what happens if you have a group booking and 1 or 2 pay in full early? Does the T/A wait till everyone has paid in full before fowarding the money to P&O, RCCI or whoever? I've also wondered if T/A waits until due date to forward any money so that they can earn interest on your money. A guy that works with my DH is booked on ROS in April 2010 to Honolulu. They are booked in a group but he has fully paid his. They all got a letter the other day telling them that the cruise has gone up $600 per person.

[mikeyg0]

I've had this same situation before, and the refund amount that I got back was EXACTLY the same as the amount that I paid.

 

i.e. if you paid US$1000 which turned out to be AU$1200 back then .. and today you wanted a refund, you will only get back AU$1200 even if US$1000 is worth a lot more.

 

At least that was the case in my experience.

[NSWP]

S&D Sandra and Dave..why not cancel your USA booking then re book through an Aussie T/A in AUD..read my post re Princess prices in AUD staying firm..'holding your breath etc.

 

Good luck.:D

[S&D]

Thanks Les, well... we actually just did that yesterday....the US agent was very nice, but understood our dilemma, the $$ exchange rate was killing the booking.

 

We cancelled and re booked with our Aussie TA, who I have mentioned on here before, she has the BEST service, very efficient..we were lucky we could still get on the sailing, as we had hotels, air etc paid for.

 

No idea how much refund we will get, have had so many opinions we are confused.

 

No matter, we are on the cruise we wanted, and all is well.

 

S&D:) :)

[Ela 2]

Hi Sandra,

With the AUD dropping in value you should get more money back if you cancel. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way and the cruise line (or Australian agent) takes the windfall from the different exchange rate. Our b2b Millennium cruise was cancelled by the cruise line, and we are being refunded the same amount in AUD that we paid. On the other hand, we all know that with a dropping AUD, anyone who has the balance still to pay will have to pay a lot more. If someone has already paid the balance, I can't see how the cruise line can ask for more money. I hope that the case that Karen mentioned, was simply an error by RCL. :):)