BCCRUSINGCOUPLE Posted April 16, 2015 #501 Share Posted April 16, 2015 I had to call Princess for the OBC (I could not find anywhere online to do this in canadian funds). You call the gift department and they add the OBC in increments of $100.00US and bill you $110.00 canadian. When we got onboard there were 15 little cards telling us we had onboard credit of $100.00. Okay great to know. Do you have the number by any chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twoblklabs Posted April 16, 2015 #502 Share Posted April 16, 2015 Okay great to know. Do you have the number by any chance. This is what we did for our cruise a few weeks back. I heard that any cruise after September they are moving the rate from 1.10 to 1.20 US Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCCRUSINGCOUPLE Posted April 16, 2015 #503 Share Posted April 16, 2015 This is what we did for our cruise a few weeks back. I heard that any cruise after September they are moving the rate from 1.10 to 1.20 US Do do you just phone up give your credit card and your done. Any idea on the number to call Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toberman Posted April 16, 2015 #504 Share Posted April 16, 2015 Do do you just phone up give your credit card and your done. Any idea on the number to call Try this... if they can't do it they will be able to direct you to the proper # - "As the Consummate Host®, Princess Cruises is committed to making your celebrations memorable. Simply contact our Celebrations Customer Support team at 1-855-500-7690 to speak with one of our knowledgeable staff and we’ll handle the rest!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paddingtonbear Posted April 16, 2015 #505 Share Posted April 16, 2015 Anyone know of a workaround so that when accessing the Princess website I can see fares in US$. It appears that Canadian I.P. addresses cause Cdn$ prices to be shown with no option to change to an alternate currency. Have for some time been using a US online TA for booking cruises. Great site for research then speak to a human to make the booking! While this may seem odd I worked in the US for a number of years and as a result have the ability to pay in US$. Would be nice to monitor prices on Princess; compare to TA prices then make contact if Princess shows less than TAs prices. Use tunnelbear. Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCCRUSINGCOUPLE Posted April 17, 2015 #506 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Try this... if they can't do it they will be able to direct you to the proper # - "As the Consummate Host[emoji768], Princess Cruises is committed to making your celebrations memorable. Simply contact our Celebrations Customer Support team at 1-855-500-7690 to speak with one of our knowledgeable staff and we’ll handle the rest!" Thank you very much Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen Lynn Posted April 17, 2015 #507 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Call your TA they can do for you.. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racj846 Posted April 18, 2015 #508 Share Posted April 18, 2015 Use tunnelbear. Excellent, thank you!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenorus Posted April 18, 2015 #509 Share Posted April 18, 2015 I prepaid my whole cruise in canadian. Also bought on board credits, prepaid all gratuities and beverage packages and coffee card in advance. I do believe we were told we had to prepay our cruise in canadian in order to do this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCCRUSINGCOUPLE Posted April 18, 2015 #510 Share Posted April 18, 2015 I prepaid my whole cruise in canadian. Also bought on board credits, prepaid all gratuities and beverage packages and coffee card in advance. I do believe we were told we had to prepay our cruise in canadian in order to do this. Correct I called today first thing princess said was you paid in Canadian dollars so we have to charge you an extra 10 percent worked great saved a few dollars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VirtualRain Posted April 18, 2015 #511 Share Posted April 18, 2015 (edited) I'm now planning to take a few Princess shore excursions... They are priced in USD. I see I can pay for those in advance, but it's not clear what the exchange rate will be. Has anyone recently prepaid shore excursions? Are they billed at 10% exchange rate? Maybe I'm better off buying more OBC and paying for the excursions that way? Edited April 18, 2015 by VirtualRain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamloops50 Posted April 18, 2015 #512 Share Posted April 18, 2015 I'm now planning to take a few Princess shore excursions... They are priced in USD. I see I can pay for those in advance, but it's not clear what the exchange rate will be. Has anyone recently prepaid shore excursions? Are they billed at 10% exchange rate? Maybe I'm better off buying more OBC and paying for the excursions that way? The excursion rates in My Personalizer are in Cdn dollars . Gratuities are also shown in Cdn dollars . That is if you booked in Cdn dollars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VirtualRain Posted April 18, 2015 #513 Share Posted April 18, 2015 (edited) The excursion rates in My Personalizer are in Cdn dollars . Gratuities are also shown in Cdn dollars . That is if you booked in Cdn dollars. Strange. Not for me. Booked in CAD but everything extra is in USD. I prepaid gratuities in CAD but they added 10% to the standard USD gratuities. Excursions are definitely in USD and not appearing to offer the option to pay in CAD at the preferred exchange rate. :( Edited April 18, 2015 by VirtualRain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goofy559 Posted April 19, 2015 #514 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Strange. Not for me. Booked in CAD but everything extra is in USD. I prepaid gratuities in CAD but they added 10% to the standard USD gratuities. Excursions are definitely in USD and not appearing to offer the option to pay in CAD at the preferred exchange rate. :( If you want the preferred rate you do not prepay your excursions. You simply call and buy OBC equal to the excursion cost plus anything else you think you will spend. Nothing in the personalizer is shown in Canadian (except cruise cost if you booked without a Ta) the only thing yiu can prepay is tips. Everything else is handled as OBC tgat you prebuy through calling gifts and services. Sent from my SGP312 using Forums mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twoblklabs Posted April 19, 2015 #515 Share Posted April 19, 2015 i agree with Goofy, top up your OBC before the cruise at the better rate. Use that to pay for just about anything on the ship including excursions. In a nutshell try to calculate how much you will spend on ship plus excursions and that should be your OBC credit. Have fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
senior lady Posted April 19, 2015 #516 Share Posted April 19, 2015 I've never heard of excursions being in Canadian unless you pre-pay. They always get charged to your account which is in US:confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mingus Posted April 20, 2015 #517 Share Posted April 20, 2015 I had to call Princess for the OBC (I could not find anywhere online to do this in canadian funds). You call the gift department and they add the OBC in increments of $100.00US and bill you $110.00 canadian. When we got onboard there were 15 little cards telling us we had onboard credit of $100.00. It's not listed in the Gifts & Services catalog, but you can buy OBC in increments of US$500 (item #6022). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debathome Posted April 20, 2015 #518 Share Posted April 20, 2015 I'm not cruising until October but our agent was good enough to advise us that the Princess conversion rate was at 10% and with our climbing $$ it would be a good idea to top up our OBC. We each purchased 1,000.00 in OBC which will help with excursions and liquid refreshments. Unfortunately since then Princess has updated their exchange rate so I'm glad we listened and did it when we did. Luckily princess, unlike some of the other lines, don't charge for tours until tour time so the charge goes on your sail card. With some other lines you must charge to your credit card. I understand that this is now an option with Princess as well but just prior to sailing, so if you have topped up your OBC do not prepay so that the charge will go directly to your sail card and you will then be able to use the funds in your account. ⚓️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigenna Posted April 20, 2015 #519 Share Posted April 20, 2015 debathome, are you sure that the exchange rate is already at 1.20, up from 1.10? BCCuisingCouple, or anyone who has purchased large amounts of OBC, if not all spent will $'s be refunded without a problem. Reason I ask is that we will already have a fair bit on our upcoming October cruise and wouldn't want to run into any problems later. Can't get any understandable consistent answers from Princess reps, so counting on your previous experiences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen Lynn Posted April 20, 2015 #520 Share Posted April 20, 2015 It's still at $1.10 conversion, I'm looking at it right now.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCCRUSINGCOUPLE Posted April 20, 2015 #521 Share Posted April 20, 2015 debathome, are you sure that the exchange rate is already at 1.20, up from 1.10? BCCuisingCouple, or anyone who has purchased large amounts of OBC, if not all spent will $'s be refunded without a problem. Reason I ask is that we will already have a fair bit on our upcoming October cruise and wouldn't want to run into any problems later. Can't get any understandable consistent answers from Princess reps, so counting on your previous experiences. I called on Friday it was 10 percent. I am doing another order today I will let you know what I find out. I heard September they would raise it to 1.20. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mingus Posted April 20, 2015 #522 Share Posted April 20, 2015 I called on Friday it was 10 percent. I am doing another order today I will let you know what I find out. I heard September they would raise it to 1.20. The exchange rate you get for your obc depends on your cruise departure date. Cruises prior to September (with the fare ending in 90 cents) are at 10% exchange rate. Starting with September cruises, the fares end in 80 cents and are at 20%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goofy559 Posted April 20, 2015 #523 Share Posted April 20, 2015 The exchange rate you get for your obc depends on your cruise departure date.Cruises prior to September (with the fare ending in 90 cents) are at 10% exchange rate. Starting with September cruises, the fares end in 80 cents and are at 20%. the one thing I cant get clarity on is this situation: cruise after september, but booked while rate still 10%...from the gratuity option it looks like I will be charged 20% but that could just be a programming thing....I will know when i call to buy OBC later in the year....right now I'm focused on my june trip, which I know is 10%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare A&L_Ont Posted April 27, 2015 #524 Share Posted April 27, 2015 (edited) Is there a maximum amount that Princess will let you buy in one purchase? My in-laws are cruising the British Isles, for 12 days, in early August and their Princess excursions are around $3,200 US. I told them purchasing OBC at 10% was much smarter than letting their credit card do the exchange for them. Thankfully their cruise is done before the September rate change. Thanks in advance. Andrew Edited April 27, 2015 by A&L_Ont Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamloops50 Posted April 27, 2015 #525 Share Posted April 27, 2015 Is there a maximum amount that Princess will let you buy in one purchase? My in-laws are cruising the British Isles, for 12 days, in early August and their Princess excursions are around $3,200 US. I told them purchasing OBC at 10% was much smarter than letting their credit card do the exchange for them. Thankfully their cruise is done before the September rate change. Thanks in advance. Andrew They can also pre pay excursions in Canadian dollars at the same rate. It also applies to the onboard gratuities. Sent from my SGH-I317M using Forums mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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