TheaFromCDA

Whoops! so sorry all the data I typed up was me... though there is a likelihood I just havent found the posts that @gears may have posted that gave similar data. 
My degree is in something completely useless ...I just LOOOOOVE spreadsheets and im visual so it helps both in comparing side by side as well as historically. 
its kind of a 2 parter... Royal Caribbean Gift Certificates are charged in USD funds, whichever route you take..
now with regards to HOW I pay, whether its certificates or a TA or RC, I use a zero conversion credit card. I find it more favourable than a designated USD credit card. 
I have a USD CC but in order to pay that, you're eventually going to have to draw that amount from a Canadian source to pay off right? Even if you have a USD Bank account  sadly (at least in the case of the card/ account I use) their FX is still MORE. For example, supposedly a borderless plan enables you to have a more "favourable" exchange rate... and dont get me wrong, it still does....
using the same example I did above: 
Example: 10,000 USD as of Feb 1/ Feb 2 at 10:01 am EST
0% conversion= $2,334
CDN bank to US account in CDN bank =  $2591
2.5% Visa Conversion(was a live rate)= $2,642
2.5% Masterccard Conversion (rate from previous day) = $2,617
CDN Bank to US based bank = $2760
Borderless = $2,703
=-==-=

My card is actually an Amazon.CA visa...UNFORTUNATELY, Chase Canada has elected to close all their Canadian credit card holdings (including Marriott's) BUT
there is STILL one CC company that offers the 0% conversion fee and 1% cash back... (again not affiliated with them and I dont have their card but a lot of the CDN financial and/or credit card blogs mention them as a viable option.)
HomeTrust Preferred Visa 
No annual fee 1% CashBack with no limits to your total rewards No restrictions on where you earn your rewards1 Roadside Assist membership at no extra charge No foreign currency conversion surcharges2 It doesn't stop there.
The benefits of a Home Trust Preferred Visa include a range of other features that add great value all year round - whether you're shopping, travelling or looking for special offers.
Purchase Security Insurance, so you can shop with peace of mind3 Visa Auto Rental Collision/Loss Damage Insurance4 Emergency card and cash replacement Guaranteed hotel reservations The Visa Zero Liability Policy for protection against fraud5 Verified by Visa for enhanced online shopping safety and security Apply for your Home Trust Preferred Visa with CashBack today, and say goodbye to everything you don't want, like annual fees and cash back limits or restrictions.
http://hometrust.ca/preferredvisa.aspx 

I posted my slightly nuts method on the Conversion rate for non US Cruisers ...I'd retype it but its wicked long . 
But for you @LetsTryThisTech if youre ever in an area with tons of snowbirds...say Florida , pop into any bank, ask if they have familiarity with dealing with Canadians, and they should happily open you one... just bring your SIN if you don't have an SSN and valid proof you're Canadian ( I say that because I dont know what stuff they expect from someone living in the Cayman Islands lol)
 
 
 

Thanks @Sabrinaklai for advising me to look up @Gears ...since I do a LOT of online shopping both in Canada and the US, I am always on the lookout to best leverage the dollar to get the most bang out of a (Canadian) $.
Disclaimer: I am NOT a financial expert nor am I in any way affiliated with any of the institutions listed outside of being a customer...all my data is anecdotal from a personal consumer standpoint 
@LetsTryThisTech linking to you vs cutting and pasting to the other thread 
For those that would prefer a TL:DR - what I have done is use my credit card (depending on FX as seen on table below) in combination with  (despite it clearly stipulating for US residents only)  RC gift certificates using my CANADIAN credit card and address. I wasnt sure my modified address was going to work, so at first I tried it with a $50 GC. I was ALSO pleasantly surprised that not only did it work, when I DIDNT end up using the $50, I got cash back on the ship! Now mind you, maybe it was because it was only $50 bucks...not sure what their policy may be for higher currency but I'm sure you guys can find ways to spend on board . The reason for me going this route:
- I get to save bit by bit so that like @Matt has repeatedly said, I dont get that sticker shock at the end of a cruise
- one of my credit cards charges 0% foreign fx fee and still gives me 1% back. Since RC gift certificates can be applied to the actual fare or anything on the ship, I tend to buy them when the exchange is favourable. See specific concerns FX wise below. 
BIGGEST REASON  I go the gift card route:
as y'all know, when you BUY currency, they often charge MORE than when you "SELL" currency... IE if a refund has to be done. For example, right now (Feb 2, 2018 10:01 AM EST), to buy US it is 1.279 [screenshot below]...to SELL is 1.2028. For example, if you had to cancel and rebook due to a sale on something on cruise planner, you get a refund and a new charge:
say purchase value is $500 USD. You would be paying 639.50 CDN but only getting back 601.40. thats a total of $38.10 you "lost out" on which may or may not lower your actual savings by cancelling and rebooking something on cruise planner... 
I have a pre-done spreadsheet that basically I plug how much currency I want and the rates...and I get a side by side comparison and decide how to charge accordingly. 
-=-=- MUCH longer winded explanation-=-=-
I have the following:
-a US Dollar account in a Canadian Bank
-a US Based Bank and Credit Card
- A no fee Canadian credit card that DOES NOT charge any foreign conversion fee...and still gives 1% cash back rewards... 
- Cards with rewards but have 2.5% conversion fee
So for those looking for STRAIGHT convenience, this may not be the best route but Im normally in front of a screen an inordinate amount of time and looking up cruising is relaxing and fun. I I also have a nerdy spreadsheet where I break down cost because Im a nerd like that... 
I have this spreadsheet that before I start going through the sites I update so I have a baseline ... mInd you with currency the situation is so fluid it can change every time some financial news comes out. For example (though my budget is NOWHERE near that...) for those going the suite route... on 10,000 USD here's my spreadsheet for currency for Feb 1, 2018 or those that uploaded their currency by today (Feb 2 ie Mastercard is still on Feb 1 so thats what Im using). Also keep in mind that banks tend to do their exchanges live...while Visa or MC may wait to change their conversions. ALSO, for credit card companies, the actual rate you pay is when the transaction is POSTED vs actual date... so if in the 1-2 business days it takes to post, if the FX has gone up or down... your rates are also going to be skewed. 
GENERALLY: the cheapest route without factoring in the Rogers MC system tends to be using a card with a 0% conversion. Its still cheaper than me transferring from my CDN Bank to my USD bank (whether in Canada or the USA)
Example: 10,000 USD as of Feb 1/ Feb 2 at 10:01 am EST
0% conversion= $2,334
CDN bank to US account in CDN bank =  $2591
2.5% Visa Conversion(was a live rate)= $2,642
2.5% Masterccard Conversion (rate from previous day) = $2,617
CDN Bank to US based bank = $2760

 

Best way for us Canucks...
Get a US based bank account and a USD credit card. Most of our banks offer this (RBC does). You can usually get an account (again, based in the US) and a no fee USD credit card. The account will generally have a fee, but what you will save very much offsets the fee.
Open a $USD account in Canada, move funds from your $CDN account to your $USD account using your online banking (this is where your conversion happens), then transfer the USD funds from your Canadian based account to your USD account based in the US (again, in your online banking), then pay your USD credit card from your USD account in the US. It's all online, no physical bank.
The best conversion rate is achieved by transferring online from your $CDN account to your $USD account based in Canada (have to do it at some point!). No crappy exchange rate from your $CDN credit card and no foreign exchange fees on top of that. What you will save more than covers the monthly account fees for the US based account multifold. 

LOL I am unfortunately a big online shopper... and because I do cross border quite a bit (even have Nexus lol) I actually have ebates.COM so depending on the vendor and rebates available, I use them interchangeably . I have a USD account at one of my Canadian Banks...as well as a US account and credit card with a US bank but like you, I do get my US funds routed to Paypal
 
always interested in how everyone manages to save ...just means more cruising $$$

We have lots in common!  I have gotten so much money back from Ebates.ca and.com.  I even turned it into lesson with my Grade 8s last year!  And yes, as a Canadian, having a US account is huge.  Makes travelling and cruising a whole lot easier.  @Gears also has some good info on this.
It depends if I have created a booking in USD or CDN.  If I have created a booking in USD, then I will usually check the RC site directly.  If I have created a booking in CDN then I will use the RC site or Costco Travel Canada's site.  I like the Costco site because it is live time with RC and it shows all categories and cabins.  Sometimes the RC site is wonky and even though certain suites are available it shows that it's not.  I just experienced this with my booking a few days ago.  The suite I wanted was showing on Costco but not on RC. So I called RC immediately and they had it as available even though their site didn't show it.

I messaged Ebates and customer service gave me this reply for my transaction.... Thank you for your email.  Upon review of your account, I do see that there was a shopping trip created and I can confirm that Orbitz was offering 14% Cash Back on cruises on 11/27/2017.
Just have to wait about 3 months after the trip is completed to get the cashback. I will certainly report to this site what the end result is.....
 

So...I debated whether or not to respond to this post...this is a loaded question/comment...but I feel somewhat compelled to.
Just to put it simply, if you think about a cruise vacation, there are many, many behind the scenes people that give you that complete vacation experience even if you don't directly interact with them.  Imagine if that person in the hallway wasn't there to vacuum?  Then people would complain the hallways are filthy.  Or the person in the public bathroom constantly wiping down counters and picking up the tissue mess that people leave behind?  If that person wasn't there, people would complain and say that things are unsanitary.  I personally think that they are all important in some way to giving us a better experience all together.  I'm looking at the big picture.  We don't have great cruises just because of the people we directly interact with.
Not trying to start an argument.  Just trying to view it from a different lens. ?

My way overly complex spreadsheet/eyechart comparing Voom pricing on board using C&A discounts versus advance cruise planner versus waiting to purchase on day two on board can be found below (slow day today).
Day 2 strategy involves waiting until day 2 to purchase on board.  With so much going on during day 1 do you really need Voom while in port and you possibly have cell phone data?   For non-US residents who don't have cell phone data while in the US the day 2 strategy may be less appealing.
Summary
Diamond Plus - Always cheapest to wait until day 2.  If you must have it on day 1 its cheaper to buy it on board except for 12 night or longer cruises.
Diamond - Cheapest to wait until day 2 except for 11 nights and longer cruises.  If you must have it on day 1 its cheaper to buy it in advance except for 5 night or shorter cruises.
Platinum/Emerald -  Cheapest to wait until day 2.  If you must have it on day 1 its cheaper to buy it in advance.
Gold - Cheapest to wait until day 2 except for 10 night cruises or longer.  If you must have it on day 1 its cheaper to buy it in advance.
Comparison does not take into account occasional Voom sale events.
If anyone has the on board offer letters for shorter cruises I'd like to validate some assumptions.  I tend to do longer cruises.
Voom Comparison Cruise Planner 15.99.pdf

if you werent so awesome and helpful I'd probably resent you :P 

if you werent so awesome and helpful I'd probably resent you :P 

if you werent so awesome and helpful I'd probably resent you :P 

Not for my 7/7 cruise! A double occupancy room has been $300-500 more since booking in August. I check, obsessively.

I've sailed Anthem in 3 different cabins.  Two balcony and an interior.  Two cabins were fine, one was fringe coverage.  In that cabin I found if I hang my phone near the cabin door and use my bluetooth headset I could do wifi phone calls just fine.  If I put my phone on my nightstand beside the bed wifi would drop overnight as the signal was too weak all the way into the cabin. 
Something I sail with now is a wifi travel router.  I use this in my cabin so I can share my single Voom connection between my laptop and my phone while I am in the cabin.  It has a better wifi antenna on it and an added benefit is that it produces its own wifi signal so my phone can be anywhere in the cabin, sort of like a repeater.

Short of that one Anthem cabin, most of my experience on other ships has been good in the cabin.  Perfect?  Not exactly but good enough to work from the ships, sit on two hour long conference calls, participate in GoTo Meetings, etc.
On older ships that do not have O3b the latency is nearly triple, often over 600ms.  For wifi phone calls that isn't the best but depending on your tolerance can still be doable at times.  Normal non-voice stuff like text, email, web browsing works pretty well but voice calls and video chatting suffers due to the delay.  Consistent throughput also suffers on these ships.  Rain seems to affect them more.
Having said all this, even the older Royal Caribbean ship Voom works so much better that other cruise lines and I am being super critical pointing out the worst just so you understand the worst it will be.
O3b only works between 45° S and 45°N latitude so parts of Northern Europe, Canada, Alaska and parts of New Zealand are technically outside of the intended O3b coverage area.  Even newer ships have to switch over to the older geostationary satellite (non-O3b) when the O3b signal weakens in these areas.

Word on the street is that @twangster is not a real person ?

There is a lot of steel on ships including the steel cabin door.  Perfect coverage in every cabin is unlikely.  Even hotels suffer from the same issue.  I've had cabins with great coverage in my cabin and some with poor coverage in my cabin.  Same with various public areas around any ship.  There will be spots with poor wifi coverage or so many people connected it can impact performance.  
Beyond wifi coverage there is the matter of the satellite connection on the ship.  All Oasis and Quantum class ships use the same system.  All ships limit individual speeds for Surf & Stream to around 4Mb down and 2 Mb up.  This is to avoid one person hogging all the bandwidth.  
Another factor that many people don't consider for the new ships that use medium earth orbiting satellites is that these satellites are moving, circling the earth. There are a number of them following each other but at some point the system will lose a satellite as it moves away and the ship has to find the next one rising on the opposite horizon.  
Rain has a major impact on Satellite signal so if there are rain clouds on one horizon but none on the other that can impact ship internet at times.
Combine all these - poor wifi in one particular cabin, a satellite moving away or behind a rain cloud and performance can vary sometimes.  
All this to say, ship internet isn't perfect but compared to other cruise lines Voom works amazingly well.  Land based internet will always seem better, but I've had great experiences on both Anthem and Harmony most of the time.   
I streamed NFL playoffs walking around Anthem a couple weeks ago.  No issues.  
The ships that use the new O3b satellite platform that Harmony uses includes Oasis, Allure, Harmony,  Anthem, Ovation, Quantum, Freedom and Independence.  Symphony will too.  Many of us are hoping more ships get upgraded to O3b but who knows.  With the exception of Ovation and Quantum I've had Voom on all the ships above and they all worked great, most of the time.  

OpenVPN is not tolerant of high latency.  At least not some version.  OpenVPN on BSD using UDP for example doesn't work well over satellite.
SSL VPN and IPSEC VPN work fine on Voom, even the geosync satellites with 600+ms latency.  
I routinely use Cisco AnyConnect (SSL or IPSEC) and Tunnelblick on OSX on Voom using TCP and have no issues.  Both to corporate and to my home ASA firewall.  
I've also used Juniper's VPN client without issue.  
I too have set up many VPN servers and/or firewalls in my lifetime and the only ones that don't work well on Voom are OpenVPN based and/or UDP based.
I also make numerous wifi calls over Voom.  Sometimes multiple hours long sitting on boring conference calls.  So I'm not sure who that facebook page belongs to but they have a very different experience from mine.  Even the MagicJack app worked on Oasis.  
I will say though that the only Carnival ship of 10 I've sailed where I could get even SSL VPN to work was the Breeze.  The rest?  No way.  

Depends on the ship for me.  If it is an Oasis or Quantum class ship then I would upgrade from balcony-JS for $500 or less.  Because that gets me double cruise points and CK.
We upgraded from a JS to GS on Harmony for $600 and I considered that well worth it for full suite benefits.

In my experience, swapping out names is easy enough and no issue.  The problem is when you want to add people to a reservation because that changes pricing.
I had a situation where we booked a cruise knowing we'd likely have a newborn daughter with us, but didn't have a name for her at the time of booking.  We put down my mom's name as a placeholder and then my TA changed it to my daughter once we knew the name.

The MDR waiters will basically do anything you want.  I've ordered multiple appetizers many times.  Often, on lobster night, I'll see an entree I'd like instead and they'll tell me to order the entree and they'll just bring me an extra lobster on the side (these are small, rock lobsters).  Don't worry, it's all cool.  The portion sizes are perhaps a bit smaller so you can "taste but not waste" if you want to try different things.

This is a very popular option and I've been known to do this.

All the time. I do it all the time.  You should feel no guilt.  The individual servings tend to be on the small side.