Alaskan Cruise 2012 - Paying On Board

TrishSomerset

Good afternoon all

My husband and I are looking forward to a very special holiday next year to celebrate our Silver Wedding Anniversary. We have never been on a cruise before :-)

We fly from London to Seattle and then sail up the Inside Passage of Canada to Alaska and then we are spending another couple of days in Seattle before we fly home to the UK.

Please excuse the dumb questions but we can't get our head around the following statement from Princess Cruises where they try to explain how we have to lodge a credit card with them for the entirety of the Cruise....I have copied and pasted below....

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One of the best things about cruising with Princess is the convenience of being able to sign for all your expenses and have them charged to your stateroom.
An itemized statement will be delivered to your stateroom prior to disembarkation. By providing your credit card in advance, you are automatically registered for Express Check-Out. There is no need to visit the Passenger Services/Purser's Desk to settle your account. We accept US, Canadian, British and Euro currencies, and traveler's checks. Express/Optima®, Diners Club/Carte Blanche®, Discover® Network, the JCB Card®, MasterCard® and Visa® are also accepted.
In addition, all ships accept bank issued Debit cards with the Visa®/ MasterCard® logo.
Whilst you are onboard your daily spend will be authorised at close of business each day with your card provider. These authorisations remain on your card for up to 28 days. On your return home, you may wish to contact your card provider to clear any outstanding authorisations so as to not affect your credit limit.
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ME AGAIN NOW...

We would like to keep a close eye on how much we are spending and budget for everything before we go so we dont go mad and end up in trouble!

Q.1 Has any of you done the same or similar cruise who could email me some advice?
Q.2 Will we need US Dollars and Canadian Dollars and Alaskan currency?
Q.3 Can we pre-load a card and ask for a daily balance?

I apologise if this is confusing....and look forward to your responses.

Many thanks

Trish x

alanq

"...we have to lodge a credit card..." / "By providing your credit card in advance..."

I don't think that they keep the card. I think that, like some hotels, they swipe a credit card when you arrive and then charge any subsequent bills to the card that you have presented.

luci

They will swipe your card at check in and all your onboard spending will be charged to the card at the end of the cruise. When you pay for drinks, etc onboard you will hand over your cruise card (boarding card which you keep on you for the duration of the cruise), sign and you will get a receipt.

You can check how much in on your account at any time at the purser's desk.

You will probably be charged in USD so make sure you use a card that doesn't have high charges.

IceCreamDreams

I wonder if in this instance it's possible to use a pre-paid debit card? That way you will only spend what you have on there and your budget remains in check. I have no idea whether you can actually do this, though I'm sure someone on here will know...

...That wasn't much help at all, was it?