Feed-back re Canadians using US Travel Sites

[Qualicum]

Have any of you fellow Canadians used US on-line travel sites to purchase a cruise? What kind of success/problems did you have. Did your documents arrive properly? With the exchange rate right now, the US prices look good. Would appreciate some feed-back on this topic.

[BLUEICE]

Last year was the first time I ever used a US TA for my cruise arrangements.

 

She was the best, got excellent pricing (before the new policy started), got doc earlier than normal. Had no problems whatsoever.

 

If you don't want to use a US agent, book directly with RCCL and keep the currency is US.

 

With our exchange rate gaining ground, it is cheaper for us to book US.

 

I can't tell you who I booked with last year, but if you send me an email, I will be happy to give you more info

wendy0416@nl.rogers.com.

 

Hope this helps.

[emmy]

Also just recently used an on line US travel agent and was very pleased with her service. Everything went without a hitch and I would do it again.

 

Now I have a question for Canadian cruisers... If you go to a Canadian TA can they book your cruise in US dollars or do you have to pay in Canadian?

 

I have read that the exchange rate at RCI is still about 40 cents. Have a coworker that is wanting to book his first cruise and feels more comfortable with a TA (I can understand that) but I sure don't want him to pay more. Picked up some brochures for him like Air Canada Vacations, Air Transat and Encore but the prices I am sure were set in there at the higher exchange rate.

 

Myself of the last three cruises 2 have been booked directly with the cruise line RCI in US dollars and the third on Caribbean Princess was booked in US dollars with a very popular agent on line.

 

Emmy

[Karen_N]

I used a US travel .com site, and was very successful for a previous cruise. The only panic attack I had was that my docs arrived the day before departure. We had made arrangement if I did not receive them to pick them up at the doc, but had conflicting stories from the travel agent and Costa as to a penalty that would have to be paid. Costa claimed we would have to pay $50.00 for the pier pickup, since it was a duplicate set of documents, the travel agent said there would be no cost??? Since it didn't get to that, I don't know who had the correct story.

 

But my upcoming cruise on the Voyager, we booked in US funds directly from RCCL, and my credit card came showing the US pricing converted by the card company to Canadian funds. The current exchange 25 cents on the dollar sure beats the rate we paid in 2002 of 62 cents on every dollar.

[beechfor]

We have just booked a cruise for April and when comparing the US$ price with the CAN$ price found that the exchange rate was about 39%. We had our TA book with RCCL in US$. When our deposit was processed on our credit card, the rate was about 24 cents. We also have the option of paying the TA in US cash which can bring the price down a little more.

[joanne30]

I booked a cruise with a travel agent here at home in August in Canadian

funds. There is a total of 8 of us going on this cruise. I then saw a TV show

saying you should book your trip in american funds because of how good the

canadian dollar is doing. I called my travel agent last week and asked her if

we could switch to american funds, she said she would look into it. Payment

was due end of November. She called me back and told me yes we could. She

would cancel our trip and rebook it. We had two balcony cabins and a inside

cabin. I wanted to keep the balcony rooms we had did'nt really care about the

inside room because it was on a different deck. She told me I had to decide

right then and there what I wanted to do. I was afraid because I wanted to

call the other people and check with them. She said to trust her and let her

do it so I did. When she called me back I had the same balcony rooms but

the inside room went from lower deck aft to my deck mid ship right across

from our cabins. The best part of this was the two balcony rooms saved a

total of 700.00 each and the inside saved 400.00 and was moved to a better

location. So yes book in us funds.

 

Joanne

[nosnobunny]

I have two cruises booked for next year, with two different US agencies. We used a Cdn credit card with the amount being converted to US$. So far, I have no complaints and have received excellent service. As far as receipt of documents goes, I can't tell you yet because the first cruise isn't until March. I'm not expecting any problems. We've booked through one of the agencies before and the docs were sent by courier approx. three weeks prior to sailing. That was the same time frame as the Cdn TAs had.

 

Beth

[Qualicum]

I'm ready to pay the balance of our cruise that I booked with a Cdn. TA. Should we contact her and ask if we can pay in US funds and will this possibly change the cabins we have?

[beechfor]

Qualicum

 

When we booked in US dollars, our TA was told that we could not change back to Canadian dollars once the final payment was due, if the Canadian dollar suddenly fell. I would think the opposite would apply as well. As Joanne30 commented, you would have to canel the original booking and rebook in US dollars. You may run the risk of losing the cabins you had chosen.

[nosnobunny]

Hi Beech ~ another Waterlooer here. :D

 

Beth

[goodml]

We've been using a US ta based out of Miami since we booked our first cruise in 1989. I have never met her or seen her office although I did check the BBB in Miami when we first started using her. At that time they had nothing to do with the internet of course but in the mid 90's they were bought out by one of the internet companies and suddenly we were able to price out everything on line and then call her and tell her what to book. She always beat even their own on line price and we always got great upgrades when booking guarantee cabins. Her company was bought out again early this year by another even larger on line company and there were some growing pains at the beginning and changes we didn't like but things seem to be settling down now. The industry has definitely changed over the years and she definitely doesn't have the ability to offer the extras she used to offer us.

 

We have never had a problem receiving our docs. In fact ours for our Dec. 12 cruise arrived via UPS last week.