Princess on board account: cdn or usd

[JillK]

Hoping a fellow Princess cruiser can provide some advice.... We booked direct with Princess in Canadian dollars for an upcoming cruise. In my planner, I can buy what is being advertised as Canadian OBC.... I am assuming that it will actually appear on my on board account as USD but then thought better about assuming... 

 

$31.25 Cdn (assume this is $25 USD)

$62.50 Cdn (assume $50 USD)

$125 Cdn (assume $100 USD)

 

This is a relatively favourable exchange rate right now but before I bite the bullet thought I would check here for further advice. 

 

Thanks as always! 

[Fouremco]

I've not sailed on Princess, but have many times on her sister line Holland America, and I've frequently purchased OBC in this manner to take advantage of the exchange rate. It will be USD OBC.

[RLK33853]

On past Princess cruises we have done exactly what your question asks - purchased USD On Board Credit in Canadian dollars.  Princess usually has pretty attractive exchange rates (current bank rate is around 1.39).

 

 

[phabric]

Your credit card will be charged $125 CDN for every $100 US, OBC you want.

 

You will receive a card in your cabin stating that $100 (x how much you purchased) has been applied to your account.

 

Present Princess CDN exchange rate is $1.35.

[pink845]

Actually, we have for years now bought the Princess Future Deposits on the ship at the Future Cruise Desk or whatever it is called these days.  We always DO This early on the cruise to make sure that IT IS DONE PROPERLY. They always have new people trying to lure people to buy these future cruise credits and they can easily make a error.  So we fill out the form and specifically in a red or other colored sharpie pen indicate we want the $100 charged to our CDN credit card (we put that number on the sheet) and it appears all the time on our CDN credit card statement as $100 CDN.  If you are using a USD credit card for your on board charges, you have to pay special attention as Princess will charge that Future Cruise Deposit to your USD credit card if you DO NOT PUT YOUR CDN NUMBER DOWN.  Why pay USD for something when you can pay CDN.  And when we receive our OBC on board a future cruise, we are pleased as punch that the OBC is always in USD.  I think this is just fabulous.  When we call up Princess and book our cruises, we make sure that the cruise is given to us in CDN dollars and that $100 Future Cruise deposit is applied against the Canadian dollar cruise. Never had a issue.   

[sabookkeeper]

If you buy the OBC on the Princess website it is now costing $135.00.  If you look at your travel summary, it will show as $100 US OBC.

 

[JillK]

To confirm this all did work out as expected. My brother gifted me $100 USD credit that I did have to visit guest services to deal with as it wasn't loading automatically on to our onboard folio but otherwise everything was in USD as anticipated. 

 

The cruise itself I would say was a mixed bag... some highs and some lows. We cruised three times last year (got in all those ones we missed during COVID as this is not typical for us by any means) and this was our least favourite for a number of reasons. We don't anticipate cruising with Princess again until hubby and I are past 65, if we ever do go back to the brand. 

[Yowman]

On 6/27/2023 at 9:55 PM, sabookkeeper said:

If you buy the OBC on the Princess website it is now costing $135.00.  If you look at your travel summary, it will show as $100 US OBC.

 

 

I'm seeing $125 CAD today

[*Miss G*]

18 hours ago, JillK said:

The cruise itself I would say was a mixed bag... some highs and some lows. We cruised three times last year (got in all those ones we missed during COVID as this is not typical for us by any means) and this was our least favourite for a number of reasons. We don't anticipate cruising with Princess again until hubby and I are past 65, if we ever do go back to the brand. 

 

We took our first Princess cruise last year and think it will be our last, also.  Over and over I see HAL mocked as the cruise line for the elderly but the passengers on our Princess sailing skewed much older than any HAL cruise I’ve ever been on.  There were many reasons why we won’t be tempted to choose them again, though, and it’s not due to passenger age.

[Yowman]

I can't edit post #8 so here's an update to it:

 

Just purchased 2x$125(CAD) of OBC.  On my Travel Summary it shows I now have $200 (USD) of OBC.  This is quite the deal - exchange rate of just 1.25 and because I paid in CAD there are no ForEx fees on top of the transaction on my CC.

[avs88]

Just to update...I checked my Princess account and the OBC is $135.00 CDN.  Will keep checking to see if the rate changes.  Thanks to everyone for posting. I did not know about this, its our first time cruising with Princess.

[Yowman]

1 hour ago, avs88 said:

Just to update...I checked my Princess account and the OBC is $135.00 CDN.  Will keep checking to see if the rate changes.  Thanks to everyone for posting. I did not know about this, its our first time cruising with Princess.

 

 

That's odd.  I just looked up my booking for September and here is what I see ($125 CAD for $100 USD):

 

 

Looking at my Travel Summary I see:

 

 

Edited July 6, 2023 by Yowman
Additional info

[avs88]

Hmmmm. thats interesting.  My cruise is in May 2024, could that be it?

 

[Yowman]

No idea.  Something is certainly different between our two cruises.

 

 

[HMSDingy]

On our next cruise in 2024 the prepaid onboard gratuities are in Canadian funds and come out cheaper if we were to pay in US onboard. Even though the US dollars fluctuates daily, the amount on the Princess website doesn't seem to change.