Canadian Cruisers: beware Princess $CDN prices

[screen-gem]

Canadian customers will know that Princess does an admirable job marketing to their clientele north of the border. They issue/mail Canadian versions of their glossy brochures, which include pricing in $CDN. They advertise in Canadian newspapers and magazines. The www.princess.com website cleverly determines that a web visitor is resident in Canada, and automatically displays prices in $CDN. That's elegant.

 

But I have discovered that their website's "intelligence" might be too smart for our own good. I was recently planning a cruise on Dawn Princess. A visit to princess.com gave me their Canadian pricing, and of course I checked a few on-line Travel Agents for competitive pricing. I became curious about pricing policies, and wanted to inspect the posted Princess prices in $US. With some perseverance:cool:, I found a way to access the US pricing on princess.com. There, I discovered some notable anomalies.

 

Here's some raw data, as viewed on princess.com on Jan 20'08 when the CDN dollar was worth $0.973 US (mid-market noon exchange rate).

 

Embarkdt $USD $CAD

-------- ---- ----

Jan 27

-interir 499 516

-oceanvw 599 631

-balcony 799 1091 <- CDN price is 36% higher!

-rgsuite 1899 2184

 

Feb 3

-interir 584 614

-oceanvw 684 729

-balcony 884 959

-rgsuite 1984 2282

 

March 16

-interir 834 729 <<<- note CDN price is cheaper!

-oceanvw 934 844 <<<- ditto

-balcony 1084 1074 <- ditto

-rgsuite 2184 2512

(sorry about the ugly table. I couldn't figure out how to format it nicely)

The percentage comparisons range from 87% to 136%. The CDN prices are not simply the US prices multiplied by the current foreign exchange rate. You can see that there are significant disparities depending on the cabin class. The suites are consistently 15% more in CDN funds - perhaps Princess prefers not to have their Canadian neighbors occupying the premium cabins? If a Canadian were booking a balcony for the Jan 27 sailing in $CDN, they would be paying a significant premium compared to buying the same cabin in $US and letting Visa/Mastercard convert from US currency to CDN.

 

On the other hand, the March 16 sailing offers some real bargains for Canadians, as I've highlighted above.

 

I asked a Princess CSR if she could explain the disparity. The answer was 'no, the pricing is set by the computer'. I asked if I could purchase a cabin using the US price:D, even though I'm a Canadian resident. The answer was 'yes'. I ended up dealing with a US-based on-line TA, and paid 26% less that the USD pricing listed above.

 

I did not ask the CSR if an American customer could get a quoted Canadian price and have it charged to their US credit card. This could be advantageous when the CDN price is lower than the USD price; for example an interior cabin on March 16. $729 CDN converted to $US using the 20 Jan bank rate is around $709 USD. That's much cheaper than the $834 US pricing from Princess! But of course, the CDN prices are invisible to US-based surfers.

 

Another tip for Canadian cruisers - consider getting a US-denominated credit card to use for travel purchases in USD. You'll avoid the credit card companies' FX service fee (typically 1.5 to 2%) that they add on in addition to the currency exchange. USD credit cards are available from all the major Canadian banks, with annual fees ranging from $0 (BMO) to $65 (RBC). I have a BMO card, as well as a USD checking account which I use for US transactions.

 

Happy Cruising, no matter what currency you pay in.

Dave

[Cruise Junky]

This won't explain everything, especially that huge difference with the balcony, but up until I think the end of April 08 Princess's Canadian rates are set at 15% exchange, after May 1 I think the price is the same in US as it is in Cdn, which technically would make the Canadian price a bit cheaper at today's exchange rates.

[dot73]

It took me less time to buy a car than to book a cruise with Princess. It drives me crazy because I really like the cruiseline. I also travel solo which means the dreaded single supplement, which is a long story in itself. When looking at the price of a cruise, I ask my travel agent to give me a price in both currencies. I then check U.S. internet companies and see how they compare. I recently booked a btb Grand cruise and found the price in Cdn. funds to be 11% higher, so I booked in U.S. funds. I guess because Canada is such a small market, Princess basically gives you the "take it or leave it" attitude. From reading these boards, it sounds like the U.K. Princess customers are also given a hard time and are overcharged.

[screen-gem]

This won't explain everything, especially that huge difference with the balcony, but up until I think the end of April 08 Princess's Canadian rates are set at 15% exchange, after May 1 I think the price is the same in US as it is in Cdn, which technically would make the Canadian price a bit cheaper at today's exchange rates.

 

That's exactly what I would have expected to see: simply mulitply all US prices by a conversion factor to get the CDN pricing. Then update the conversion factor when needed to account for the constant rise and fall of the US dollar.

 

However, as you can see in the data I posted, the only place this happened was the Suites (with a steep 15% conversion). The Canadian dollar hasn't been at $0.85 American for a long time. The conversion rate used elsewhere is all over the map - it depends on cabin type and sailing date.

[Livabeth]

Similar costing problem happened when we booked last week for a princess cruise in Oct 2008. We were quoted through a TA a price in USD. We accepted it and paid a deposit in USD. I checked the princess website again the next day and noticed that the website quoted me the exact same dollar amount for the exact same category, but the quote was in CDN dollars. With the exchange rate being down, this would convert to $100 more. So the TA called them back and cancelled the booking and rebooked the exact same cabin ... in the same amount, but CDN dollars, not USD.

[Atomica]

Our travel agent (who is here in Vancouver) always quotes us both the US and CDN rates. When we booked our upcoming Golden Princess cruise, the US and CDN prices were within $10 of each other, so we went with the CDN because of the risk that the dollar would fall against the US and we'd end up paying far more.

[cruisergal 1]

We have always booked our cruises, through the internet, in U.S. funds. It has always been alot cheaper that way. Never booked through a Canadian agency, as I was always able to get something more reasonable, and they could never match the price, that I was able to get it for.

[kobecat]

Australian cruisers have the same problem. US agents are not permitted to book us on Princess cruises; we have to go through Australia. Same deal here, if I type www.princess.com it automatically takes me to the AU site. The current price of the Alaska cruise (balcony) we are doing on the Island in August is AU$2105.00 (only a month or so ago it was showing about AU$2700!) . This includes taxes and fees but interestingly enough for fuel surcharge it has N/A. At today's exchange rate this is $1855.77. The rate quoted on one US internet agency site today is about US$1200. Only a massive 50%+ premium for Australians.:confused:

Some Australian cruise internet agencies force you to enquire via email - certainly no transparent pricing policies. Others only show the price including air fare and a night's accommodation in Vancouver; also hardly transparent. We are lucky to have an agent in Australia who always does the best thing for her clients, but I sometimes think not helped at all by Princess.

[bionicbeacher]

This won't explain everything, especially that huge difference with the balcony, but up until I think the end of April 08 Princess's Canadian rates are set at 15% exchange, after May 1 I think the price is the same in US as it is in Cdn, which technically would make the Canadian price a bit cheaper at today's exchange rates.

 

This is absolutely correct ...however, we don't have any information yet on the possible change for May 1st as quoted.

 

On our recent Cruise on the Royal Princess we made arrangements to purchase some Future Cruise Credits. We inquired about the current prices and were informed that the US FCC was still at $100.00 USD and the FCC in Canadian Funds was now $115.00 CAD ....down from $125.00 CAD.

 

The going exchange rate at the bank at the time of our Cruise was fluctuating between $1.04 and $1.06 US for One CAD.

 

I was surprised to see the 15 % difference and pouted a bit (LOL) ...of course it doesn't really matter that much when purchasing a FCC.....but it certainly does if you are paying a deposit of 25 percent and/or a Full Cruise at this exchange rate.

 

We have aligned ourselves with a TA in the US .....we are just not comfortable with booking on line but we do research via the Internet for comparisons...in both USD and CAD before we contact our US TA.

 

Cheers

Ken & Jan

[kenexx]

Australian cruisers have the same problem. US agents are not permitted to book us on Princess cruises; we have to go through Australia. Same deal here, if I type www.princess.com it automatically takes me to the AU site. The current price of the Alaska cruise (balcony) we are doing on the Island in August is AU$2105.00 (only a month or so ago it was showing about AU$2700!) . This includes taxes and fees but interestingly enough for fuel surcharge it has N/A. At today's exchange rate this is $1855.77. The rate quoted on one US internet agency site today is about US$1200. Only a massive 50%+ premium for Australians.:confused:

Some Australian cruise internet agencies force you to enquire via email - certainly no transparent pricing policies. Others only show the price including air fare and a night's accommodation in Vancouver; also hardly transparent. We are lucky to have an agent in Australia who always does the best thing for her clients, but I sometimes think not helped at all by Princess.

 

Hi kobecat!

 

We we were still on the original SYD SFO Sun Princess that was cancelled we had a 3 day coastal from SFO to YVR booked on the Coral. We booked that thru an online agent in the US. I inquired by email and then called them to make the booking. It wasn't any problem then but maybe things have changed. I can stilll book Princess online thru an interline travel agency in Canada.

 

Can you do me a huge favour and drop me an email on my "email me" link below. Mark and I have a question that you may be able to answer.

 

Maurice & Mark

[Cruise Junky]

This is absolutely correct ...however, we don't have any information yet on the possible change for May 1st as quoted.

 

I have the unusual ability to be able to see both prices past May 1st :) my home IPO address is Canadian, my Laptop, is US which has been very handy in checking prices on Princess. As of right now, my Greek Island Cruise for September is listed at $3,555 on both sites. At home, it says $3,555 Cdn. and at work it says $3,555 US. I checked about a dozen and they all show the same price but in two different currencies. It'll be interesting to see if they stay that way!