Can I Pre-Load the Shipboard Account

[parislady40]

I think that this is a great idea. I have two questions:

 

If we prepay and there is money left over, as we are doing back 2 backs, will they carry the credit over to the next cruise?

 

Also, someone above mentioned that if you use credit card when you board, you can pay your account at the end with travelers checks/cash if you prefer. My question is, does Princess pre-authorize your card for a certain amount on boarding? We have been on other cruise lines that have done this. It used to be $700 per person per cruise on the Windstar line!

 

Thanks.

[billsat]

This may be of interest to anyone in the UK considering to add credit to their ship board account...

 

I have just spoken to Princess Cruises in the UK and asked about pre-paying some credit onto my ship on-board account..When asking them about the exchange rate what I would receive I was told that I would get the rate which was current at the time I booked my cruise !!! not the current rate as of today.

 

I was told that this is set by head office in San Fransisco

 

They offered me $100 for charging me £70 which converts to $1.428 to the £ (I booked this cruise back in May when the rate was much lower than it is now)

 

but the exhange rate as of today (tourist rate is $1.57 to the £ )

 

So please be careful about having credit added to your account if you booked when the dollar was stronger against the £

 

I hope that makes sense !!

 

Happy cruising everyone

[Ando]

Does anyone know if we can do the same here in australia and whether we would get a gift exchange rate??:o

 

Yes you can. It is added as a "gift" on your booking and can be done through your TA or direct with Princess if you booked with them.

 

The exchange rate depends on what the Princess exchange rate was at the time you booked. For example I booked our Dec cruise back in Mar 09 and the Princess exchange rate at the time was 0.66. So USD$1000 onboard credit would cost AUD$1500 - not a good deal given the current exchange rate around 0.85.

 

But we have friends who booked a few months ago on the same cruise and their Princess exchange rate rate is 0.78.

 

I think Princess only change their rate once or twice per year. Last year it worked in our favour (like the UK example above). The dollar had dropped to 0.60 but the Princess rate was around 0.80 from memory.

[MarinaDCA]

I emailed Princess to ask about adding credit to my shipboard account. They replied ....

 

Please telephone our Reservations Team and one of our consultants will be happy to assist you. As on-board credit is added under our gift selection, as such it is non-refundable therefore, I recommend you only purchase what you know will be used. Please be aware that you cannot pre-pay your gratuities by purchasing on-board credit.

So don't add too much.

 

 

Hmmm so this makes it seem as if there is no way to get the money put in as "gift" out if you don't spend it all.

 

Guess I better be pretty close with my estimates:D

[Treven]

Hmmm so this makes it seem as if there is no way to get the money put in as "gift" out if you don't spend it all.

 

Guess I better be pretty close with my estimates:D

On the Emerald last spring I sent a gift to myself for $500 & I got a cash refund of around $150 the night before disembarking.

[arkansasnanny]

I guess I am dumb but what does the euro and the rate have anything to do with what you put on your shipboard account?You would be booking your excursions and everything on the ship in dollars wouldn't you?And I would be paying my bills in dollars. I wanted to prepay but I want to be able to get my money back also if there is some leftover. Seems like some get their money refunded but not everyone? julie

[maplo]

I guess I will ask my question too. I'm new to Princess and this is the first time I have booked our excursions and my CC not be charged right then. So, my question is.. We are putting up a CC and not cash but can we the day we get on the ship go to the desk and put up x amount of dollars towards our account which would pay the excursions? That way that part is paid and everything can go on the card? Just wondering if we can do this without calling and adding the obc ahead of time.

Thanks

[ANYPORT]

I emailed Princess to ask about adding credit to my shipboard account. They replied ....

 

Please telephone our Reservations Team and one of our consultants will be happy to assist you. As on-board credit is added under our gift selection, as such it is non-refundable therefore, I recommend you only purchase what you know will be used. Please be aware that you cannot pre-pay your gratuities by purchasing on-board credit.

 

So don't add too much.

 

 

Hmmm so this makes it seem as if there is no way to get the money put in as "gift" out if you don't spend it all.

 

Guess I better be pretty close with my estimates:D

 

 

Hi,

We were fortunate to get $2/£1 deal when purchasing OBC for

Ruby July 09. We used it for ALL onboard purchases including GRATUTIES. We were refunded the residual amount on the last night (in dollars), which we used to give additional tips. According to Pursers desk on ship the only OBC which is not refunded is that which is given to you, not purchased by you.



Anyport

[Ando]

can we the day we get on the ship go to the desk and put up x amount of dollars towards our account which would pay the excursions?

 

Yes, you can pay cash onto your onboard account at the Pursers desk. If you spend more than the cash amount the balance will be charged to your credit card as usual at the end of the cruise.

[Ando]

the only OBC which is not refunded is that which is given to you, not purchased by you. ]

 

This is correct. If you book and Princess are offering say a bonus $200 onboard credit you can not get this amount refunded to you if you dont spend it.

 

I had a situation once where each passenger in the cabin received $200pp onboard credit, including 4yo DD. As we only have 1 account per cabin, all settled on my credit card, I assumed out total credit of $600 would be deducted of my $2000 bill. But that wasn't the case. As DD only charged about $30 to her cruise card Princess said they were going to keep the remaining $170 :eek:. I ended up transferring charges incurred on my cruise card to DD's account to exceed the $200 to use up the OBC. Wherever there's a will there's a way ;)

 

Any funds that you "gift" to yourself can be refunded if unused. Whilst I usually exceed the amount, one time I did have $30 owing to me which was refunded to me in cash on the last night of the cruise.

[wickedwitchofthewest]

I guess I am dumb but what does the euro and the rate have anything to do with what you put on your shipboard account?You would be booking your excursions and everything on the ship in dollars wouldn't you?And I would be paying my bills in dollars. I wanted to prepay but I want to be able to get my money back also if there is some leftover. Seems like some get their money refunded but not everyone? julie

the rate of the pound and the euro matters if you're not american as we have to convert our currencies to dollars to pay for everything. Therefore how much we spend will depend on whether we can get a good exchange rate.