Wilf

My wife and I just booked a 9 day cruise on the Ovation of the Seas (Hong Kong to Singapore) departing November 14. This will be our 4th cruise (3rd with RCCL). What I am not seeing (e.g. on Cruise Planner) is what we can expect for entertainment. On our previous RCCL cruises we saw Cats and We Will Rock You . While musicals were not our primary reason for booking these cruises, they were definitely a highlight. I'm pretty sure that on those cruises we knew what the shows were well before we booked. So my question is, should we expect to have a marquee performance on this cruise that is yet to be announced or is this not to be? I understand this vessel has a 1300 person theater. They must have some plans for this?

I believe I’ve sorted it out now… (1) All pre-cruise purchases (specialty restaurants, dining packages, drink package, excursions, etc.) that you purchase before the cruise is in the same currency as the currency that was used for the original booking. This cannot be changed. The currency for on-board expense account which you set up at check-in is different. You can change the currency for this account with Guest services once you are on board. (2) It turns out that the exchange rate that RCI is charging for pre-cruise purchases is actually reasonable. I had miscalculated it because I got the wrong price for the 3-night dining package from the RCI rep (Quantum and Oasis class ships are $80 instead of the quoted $70 which resulted in my 10% error) If for some reason it turns out that I am unable to change the currency for our on-board account once we are on our way, I will post here.

Again, my problem is not with the credit card it is that the currency of my RCI on-board account is in CD$ and RCI is using an unfavourable rate to convert listed US$ pricing to CD$. I have a US$ TD Bank account with a US$ Visa Debit card, which is how I would like to pay ... or as you say it "Link to my $usd account for payment".

Now we are getting to the nub of the issue. The answer lies in the "unless otherwise specified" clause in the FAQ that you quote. As I said in my original post, When I phoned RCI the agent said that the currency of my account could be not be changed before or after boarding. I was not satisfied by this answer and as I usually do in such a situation I phoned back and spoke to a different agent. She said that the currency could be changed once on board by Guest Services. I appreciate the research that you have done and will certainly show the FAQ to Guest Services if they give my any push back. What I was mainly looking for was to find someone who had gone through this and could confirm that GS can accommodate the change. My cruise is in a couple of weeks and if I don't hear from anyone, I will post my experience here when I get back. While this may seem like a minor issue, it is not. One example, the cruise currently has a deal (20% discount) on the Ultimate Drink Package. If I purchase it on-line now, I will be charged in CAD$ at an unfavourable (by about 10%) rate - so the net savings would only be about 10%. I expect that for the four people in our group we will be spending about USD$2000 in on-board charges over the 10 days. At 10% that comes to a $200 swing.

Todd, That is NOT the question that I'm asking. RCI has told me that my on-board account is in Canadian Dollars. I want to pay my on-board expenses in US Dollars. I do not want it converted by my credit card company or otherwise. If anyone else has had experience switching their on-board account currency from one to the other I would appreciate it if you could share.

cjappert, When did you originally do the booking? Taking the USD$5700 and dividing by CAD$8500, I come up with a conversion rate of approx 0.67. Looking at historical exchange rates, the Canadian $ bottomed out at 68.54 cents US around January 20 of this year - so pretty close to the rate that you are seeing. Again it all depends on when you booked. I also expect that prices for any given cruise can fluctuate in either direction over time. This is based on supply, demand and a somewhat complex formula that the cruise company uses. I even read somewhere on this blog that prices can fluctuate based on the day of the week that one is booking. Anyway, as a fellow Canadian I do feel your pain. We recently booked a cruise on the Anthem in CAD$. At the time the conversion was spot on but now I am looking at on-board expenses such as 3-night dining package for USD$70 but If your on-board account is in CAD they will charge CAD$106.40 - again an exchange rate of approx 0.658 which is way off from the current spot rate of 0.754. Does anyone have experience with changing their on-board account from one currency to another? e.g. CAD to USD? I was told by one rep that it was not possible and by another rep that it could be done by Guest Services once on board.

Last year on the Oasis I purchased the Ultimate pkg. One of the things that I liked about it was that it included smoothies at the juice bar in the fitness center. This did not include add-ins like protein, vitamins or wheat grass but I generally don't get those anyway. It included smoothies made from fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables in any combination. Looking at what the Ultimate package includes on the Anthem (this year we are on the April 8 Eastern Caribbean cruise) it only mentions fresh squeezed OJ (which I also like). Does anyone know if there is a smoothie bar on the Anthem and can we use an Ultimate pkg to get drinks there?