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Booking On Board Credit In Advance

karjoe

By karjoe,
in Princess Cruises

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LIMPIT

LIMPIT

Posted
Posted

On Sea Princess on 25th April, booked way back in May 2008.

After reading this thread, I rang Princess UK today and secured $1500 OBC for £750 ($2-£1), which is fantastic, I was informed that the rate is firm and fixed.

Our cruise price fell by approx £200 per/person after we booked, so helps to compensate.

This is obviously a ploy by Princess to "encourage" UK guests to spend, spend spend !

Will make the beer (and the wine, and cocktails !) taste that litler bit sweeter, thats for sure.

 

Lee:):):)

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robanddiane

robanddiane

Posted
Posted

We have also took advantage for our Sea Princess cruise this month and also got the same deal for our Grand Princess cruise in august. We have saved a tremendous amount of dollars, this must be one of the most helpful threads we have ever read.

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Molly's Mum

Molly's Mum

Posted
Posted

Thanks Toto for the tip on withdrawing OBC from the Casino....as a newbie (who has never set foot in a Casino before!) could someone tell me how / what to do exactly - starting from the premise that I know nothing!

By the way I got $2 to the £1 but originally booked my cruise last April.

Will be onboard the Ruby 2 weeks on Saturday - cant wait!:D

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PhxPhin

PhxPhin

Posted
Posted

My wife and I just completed a cruise, and although US residents making the exchange rate issue void, we did work our way through the casino

 

being nervous about carrying a lot of cash we looked into ways of having our money on the boat without a fee

 

seems we could use our credit cards to purchase either OBC or casino credits - both would be treated as purchases (some even mentioned double points on their princess CCs as it was a princess purchase - not applicable to us though)

 

We heard about creating a PIN and using the slot machines and that just seemed complicated. So we ended up buying casino credits.

 

These are essentially gift purchases. For example, if your cousin was going on a cruise and loved to gamble you could buy this for them and they would show up and have the gift coupons in their cabin. You can also buy these gifts for yourself.

 

We showed up and had the credit coupons in our stateroom. After setting sail the casino opened and we took them to the casino cage. At first the lady was confused and sent us to the pursers desk. I verified with them that they should be used to redeem cash that we could then use over the course of the trip in the casino (or otherwise). He made a call, sent us back to the cage and said he'd be there in a minute to make sure it went smooth.

 

When we stopped again the lady had it figured out. She verified my photo ID, with cruise card and then matched my redemption coupon to the receipt in the cage making it a secure transaction. Then she handed me cash. No fees, or issues. True to his word the pursers desk gent came by to make sure everything was OK.

 

Whole process, with a slight snag, took 15 minutes.

 

We did play some of that in the slots and my wife was actually up in one machine and wanted to move on.

 

This is when we discovered the PIN.

 

Basically you insert your cruise card into the slot machine - like you would a loyalty card at any casino.

 

There is a little screen with button option on each slot machine. One of them will be a prompt to setting up a PIN.

 

You basically enter some basic info like date of birth - then what your 4 digit pin will be.

 

Once the PIN is established you can feed credit from your card into the machine or from the machine into your card.

 

You can also transfer money from your OBC onto your cards "casino bank" that can then be put into the machine or just held in the casino bank portion.

 

To get cash out of your "casino bank" just take your cruise card to the casino cage and they'll give you cash. This is how you can cash out slot winnings.

 

Even typing it seems complicated - but it was really, really easy. There are instruction signs in the casino and any of the casino personel will help you establish a pin.

 

So basically, it's not difficult at all to transfer OBC to cash via the casino

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HBriss

HBriss

Posted
Posted

Seb... You are never slow to spot an oppotunity.

It sounds too good to be true but if you can do it that would be next years cruise paid for.

I would give it a spin myself but unfortunately I'm stuck with the $1.4 rate.

Please post if it comes off.

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seb530

seb530

Posted
Posted
Seb... You are never slow to spot an oppotunity.

It sounds too good to be true but if you can do it that would be next years cruise paid for.

I would give it a spin myself but unfortunately I'm stuck with the $1.4 rate.

Please post if it comes off.

 

lol...theres a flaw in my plan tho... i would need to find £5k up front!!

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sailing_scot

sailing_scot

Posted
Posted

Are we 100% sure this would work?

 

I always belive if something is too good to be true it normally is.

 

How could this go wrong? Is there any chance they will not let you use in the casino - or let you transfer it to cash?

 

I have put $500 on my OCB - for 250 pounds. If I can put a further 200-300 on - and cash in - and take off the boat as cash - I could then use before I leave the US - at a rate far better than Travelex will give me

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lizboyle

lizboyle

Posted
Posted

Seb, I thought of exactly the same thing! LOL:) Just not 100% sure it would work though. As they say.....if something sounds too good to be true................... OH! here we go....giving us canny Scots a bad name again! LOL:)

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dmackay46

dmackay46

Posted
Posted

Following the info on this site, I purchased £1500 of onboard credit ($3000) a few days ago using my credit card.

 

I tried to use the same credit card for a transaction today and found to my shock, it was declined.

 

I contacted my bank to find that Princess had taken two payments of £1500 from my card instead of the one, but this does not reflect on the amount of onboard credit showing for my booking.

 

I contacted Princess and spoke to a very apologetic Customer Services person who said there had been payment problems on the day I bought OBC from them (Wednesday past, 1st April) and that quite a few customers have had double payments taken from their credit card.

 

The only way that anyone will know this error has happened is if customers check their credit card accounts and contact Princess UK on Monday when their Accounts Office opens.

 

If you, like me, have bought OBC from Princess in the last few days, I would advise to check your card accounts now, It may save you the embarrassment of having a transaction declined in a queue of people, just as what happened to me today.:eek:

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Joa

Joa

Posted
Posted

Hi

 

I have also purchased on board credit and have just read a new thread which from my reading of it seems to imply that the credit has to be used by the person who bought it. i.e purchases by anyone else in the cabin wont be taken off the credit. May have to use one cruise card for all purchases. I will check with Princess tommorrow but it may be a fly in the ointment.

Link to thread

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=962046

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Toto2Kansas

Toto2Kansas

Posted
Posted
Hi

 

I have also purchased on board credit and have just read a new thread which from my reading of it seems to imply that the credit has to be used by the person who bought it. i.e purchases by anyone else in the cabin wont be taken off the credit. May have to use one cruise card for all purchases. I will check with Princess tommorrow but it may be a fly in the ointment.

Link to thread

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=962046

 

Yes, if you want the credit to be applied to the entire shipboard account for two or three passengers, the same credit card must be used for that shipboard account for those passengers. They combine all accounts (even though you will receive seperate charge sheets for each person) at the end of the sailing and the credit will be deducted before billing any excess to your credit card.

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Joa

Joa

Posted
Posted
Yes, if you want the credit to be applied to the entire shipboard account for two or three passengers, the same credit card must be used for that shipboard account for those passengers. They combine all accounts (even though you will receive seperate charge sheets for each person) at the end of the sailing and the credit will be deducted before billing any excess to your credit card.

 

Hi can you just confirm my understanding of your reply. Sorry but I find this confusing and cant afford to get it wrong.

 

As long as my DH and I use one credit card, even though the OBC is in my name, if my bill isn't large enough to wipe out all the OBC they will use the remainder of the OBC on my DH bill?

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Toto2Kansas

Toto2Kansas

Posted
Posted
Hi can you just confirm my understanding of your reply. Sorry but I find this confusing and cant afford to get it wrong.

 

As long as my DH and I use one credit card, even though the OBC is in my name, if my bill isn't large enough to wipe out all the OBC they will use the remainder of the OBC on my DH bill?

 

Exactly!

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yyzatcqq

yyzatcqq

Posted
Posted

I can explain why people are getting different rates for this.

 

Princess sets the exchange rate at the time you book your cruise. Everything you do "pre-cruise" is based on that exchange rate. For me, I'm able to re-fare my Sept Alaska cruise and I get USD-CAD at par because when I booked the cruise 10 months ago the C$ was equal to the US$. If they offered the advance OBC for my Alaska cruise I could get it at par but since I booked my Grand Princess cruise recently (May23 Iberian Interlude) I would not be eligible for the £1=$2US rate. I would end up with the £1=$1.5ish rate that others that booked recently got because that's what the rate was when I made my booking.

 

Personally I like the fact that the exchange rate is fixed for the booking at the onset. I'm considering upgrading my Alaska to a full suite and take advantage of this.

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sparkieplug24

sparkieplug24

Posted
Posted
Hi can you just confirm my understanding of your reply. Sorry but I find this confusing and cant afford to get it wrong.

 

As long as my DH and I use one credit card, even though the OBC is in my name, if my bill isn't large enough to wipe out all the OBC they will use the remainder of the OBC on my DH bill?

 

 

you just go to the pursers desk and ask them to link all the accounts to your name thats what I did on our last cruise. What this does is you still have individual accounts and each person itemised bill is still seperate so you can see who purchased what but the bill is all totalled off to one total on the last page

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220e

220e

Posted
Posted

Thank you so much to KARJOE. We start our cruise this Saturday 11th April and have had a dilema over where to buy dollars with the awful exchange rate. Called Princess this morning and purchased £1500 on board credit at $2 to £1. We booked summer last year so were elegible for the better rate. Split it between Casino and OBC. Prob cash most of the Casino credit to use in Ports and cash in through the Casino any OBC left.

The replies in this thread have been really useful, thank you all. ;):o:D:p

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