BTHodgeman

When you say online account, is that just my carnival account or is there a different account I need to create for the players club?

That's correct - just your normal Carnival online account. From within your account, click on "My Offers," and that's where you'll see things pop up.

You'll always have two different "Past Guest Offers," which are not from the casino. Above those offers you may see other offers occasionally. For example, right now I have a "Casino Offer" and a "Premier Cruise Casino Offer."

We just got off the Pride on Sunday, and I got a PMI.

 

Usually I can see the free cruises in my Carnival calendar, and my VIFP offers.

 

Not this time.

 

I called and although the offer says for booking through January 2018, all three times I've spoken with a rep (plus one time with one of those "fancy" reps) they say the offer is only good through October.

Similar experience for me. I could see my offers online, but even though the certificate said valid for 6 months, it only showed sailings for 3 months. And they were mostly 3-5 day sailings, which don't interest me much.

I let mine go unused and a month or so later got an e-mail offer saying something along the lines of, "We understand there was limited availability for your last offer - so here's a makeup offer." That one had MUCH better availability, more along the lines of what I had seen with previous PMI offers. However, that one was a pain to book since there were NO details available online. It was only available through the casino reservation line.

Please please tell my what qualifies you for a PMI!!! I've done 13 cruises - not all on Carnival but never booked direct through them. Does this make a difference? Being retired they would never go to waste! WOW - I knew gamblers got special offers but not exactly sure what a PMI is. Thanks!

Generally 5,000+ points earned PRIOR to the last evening. (The certificates are actually printed during your last day. Whatever gambling you do that day/night is not included in that certificate.)

PMI is valid for a free interior cabin for sailings in the next 6 months. The certificate usually says valid for cruises up to 15 days, and excludes Vista/Alaska a lot of the time (not always). As the initial poster stated though, these offers now are seemingly really only valid for 3 months. And for me, I say mostly 3-5 day cruises, or "poor" 7 days cruises (Cozumel, etc.).

Also, it should not matter how you booked your cruise. The bounceback offers is based on gambling in the cruise casino, and valid for a future cruise. They don't really care how you booked your current cruise.

Good luck!

Usually 5,000 points or more will get you a free interior room. They will send a postcard to your cabin (same as what you got), but instead of a discount it will be for a free interior cabin for 2. These offers must be booked within 2 weeks and are valid for sailings up to 6 months in the future. The offer will note any exclusions, but usually the terms indicate it's valid for sailings up to 15 days, and Vista/Alaska are sometimes excluded. However, in my recent experience, the only sailings actually available when trying to book were 3-5 day sailings and only within the next 1-3 months (vs. the 6 months advertised).

Like suz1450 mentioned, if you skip your offer, they will usually still try to get you to come back, occasionally with an even better offer.

On my very fist Carnival cruise, which was free from a land-based casino, I earned around 3,500 points and received no offer. Within a few months, I had a "Pack and Play" offer in my online account, which included a free interior cabin for nearly every sailing for any length.

Keep an eye on your online account. You'll definitely see some offers pop up occasionally.

They offered me 400$ cash the 7 day ones they offered 500$

Same for me. I'm not going to be able to make any work right now, but this round of Premier offers is pretty good compared to some recent ones.

do you sign up for the $5 messaging onboard or can you do it prior to your cruise

On-board only. The only function within the Hub app that will work prior to your cruise is the "Cruise Countdown Clock." Once on-board and connected to the ship's wi-fi, the other features become available.

The day isn't published pre-cruise. I don't know the reasoning but it might be because at times if enough reservations are requested it will be scheduled for more than one night.

 

It won't be the first night.

 

If your reservation is confirmed by e-mail you will receive an invitation and instructions in your cabin.

 

You can also stop by the Steakhouse on embarkation day and they will let you know which night.

 

I know this probably doesn't help you, but that's my understanding of the way it presently works.

This is exactly the way it works. It depends on the number of people who signup for a given sailing. On my last cruise (not on Magic), Chef's Table was offered 3 times. As you said, it won't be the first night, and I've also heard that they try to avoid Cruise Elegant nights.

You can reserve Chef's Table ahead of time from your booking manager, and you'll get a confirmation or denial. You can try to reply to that e-mail asking if they know which night it will be, but you'll likely get a reply that "it depends" on a lot of factors.

On NCL if you are booked through the casino they automatically give you the casino drink card regardless of your status. Don't have to earn it. How much do you have to play to earn it?

To get a Drinks on Us card for your current cruise, you'll need to earn 1,500 slot points, which is $3,750 through the slot machines ($2.50 per point).

However, since you are cruising on a land-based casino's free cruise offer, I would encourage you to e-mail the casino in advance and ask if they can extend a Drinks on Us Card based on you having received the offer from another casino. It worked for me several years back, and I've heard of it working for others as well.

Also, earning 5,000 points on your cruise will net you an automatic Drinks on Us card during your next cruise and you will also likely receive a bounce-back offer on the last night valid for a free interior cabin on a sailing within the next 6 months.

Both are balcony staterooms. We have 4 in a stateroom for both. Everything is the same except with the Vista you get:

 

Sports Bar

The little peddle car things

Red Frog pub

1 extra day

 

Seems too little for that kind of cash.

I've never been on the Dream, but have been on Vista. Here's my "rating" of the extra amenities you mentioned:

• The sports bar is fine, but it is fairly small, and the casino's Poker Pro table is in the sports bar rather than the casino.
  
• SkyRide is fun, but more or less a "one and done" type activity.
  
• The best of the amenities you mentioned above is Red Frog Pub, and especially the outdoor seating right outside Red Frog.
  
• One extra day - depends on whether it's worth it to you. Does it add a great port? An extra sea day? etc.
  

Vista does also have a few more fee-added dining options, the best of which by far is JiJi Asian Kitchen. Vista also has the Havana bar and pool deck. The Havana bar is open all day to everyone. The pool deck/lounge area is open to everyone after 7PM.

Overall, Vista is a very nice ship, but for a $1600 price difference and the specific amenities you mentioned above, I'd probably pick the Dream.

30 minutes before departure, so in your case 5:30.

Credit Cards price matching a cruise? Nope, not gonna happen. Go ahead and try and get it charged back. Carnival will hang onto the cancelation penalties that they agreed to when they booked.

This is not the same as a charge back, which actually goes to the merchant to review, dispute, etc. (ETA: I do see that the initial poster also talked about a charge back as being an option. You are correct there - the cruise line will absolutely win that dispute unless it's such a small dollar amount (usually $50-100 or less) that the credit card company doesn't even process a claim and just writes off the small dollar amount.)

There are also separate benefits called "Price Protection" that some credit card companies offer as a perk to their members. I've typically seen it used more for physical merchandise (i.e. you buy a TV for $1500, and the retailer puts it on sale for $999 the next week but won't price match you. You call your credit card company and if you have the benefit, they'll give you a credit of $501.)

Most credit cards beyond the basic/starter credit cards actually have this benefit, but very few people use it. There are typically limits on the number of price protection claims you can submit in a year (per card) and also an overall annual dollar amount limit.

I'm also not entirely sure that it would work on a cruise, but it certainly cannot hurt to try to file a price protection claim with the card company!

I was wandering if they still have Win-a-Cruise Bingo on Carnival? Back in 2003 my husband won and the following year we took a 5 day cruise on the Miracle when she was brand new.

We are pretty regular bingo players on the ships, and have never seen this. (However, all our cruises have been since 2015.)

Was a cruise one of the prizes you could win while playing bingo?

The only cruise giveaway that I have seen is in the casino on the last night.

I don't particularly love to dress up for dinner on cruise elegant evenings. I'm not sure if it's because I don't like being in dress clothes while eating (just gets kind of uncomfortable) or if it's because I wear dress clothes to work each day.

Either way, when I'm on vacation, getting dressy is one of the last things on my mind, but I do pack dress slacks and a dress shirt, and eat in the MDR at least one of the cruise elegant nights.

I always order both. Just know that you will end up with two complete dinners.

/\ This! Even if you ask only for the lobster tail or the prime rib itself, you'll get two full meals. A lot of time I just want the protein from a second dinner (and ask for it), but without fail an entire meal comes out... Kinda wasteful, but I think much easier on the kitchen staff than preparing just a main or just a side, etc.

There also really isn't much that you can use an S&S card for prior to sailing. The shops and casinos are closed, specialty restaurants are closed, etc. More or less the only thing open is the bars.

Carnival has probably done the math and finds that it is cheaper to erase some potential fraudulent bar charges than it is to add to the staffing cost at check-in.

I haven't done Chef's Table on Ecstasy, but I have done it on Valor, Vista, and Fascination (in that order). The menus and experience have been different on each sailing, but all of them have been VERY GOOD. On Valor and Fascination, the dinner was served in the library, and on Vista it was served in a special dining room in the galley.

The menu does tend to be more designed for foodie/adventurous eaters as another poster mentioned. The courses "seem" to alternate from something unique/unexpected to something a bit more familiar but prepared very well. (i.e. one course may be fish prepared in a pretty standard way, and then the next may be whipped bone marrow with edible twigs, etc.)

I think it is well worth the $75-95 (depending on ship). The dinner starts with a glass (or two) of champagne at the designated meeting point, and then includes unlimited wine throughout the 2.5-3 hour dinner.

Feel free to ask any other questions. Unfortunately, I don't keep track of menus/exact dishes, but I've enjoyed every dish served at a Chef's Table dinner, and I don't even consider myself that adventurous of an eater. :)

Is steak and lobster only served at the "Formal"/"Cruise Elegant" nights in the MDR? Is it served in the buffet anytime? We are sailing on Oct. 1-8 on the Fascination.

I cruised Fascination two months back. Here's my experience:

Steak is offered in the MDR each night. They have both a flat iron steak on the regular menu or a variety of cuts on the "Steakhouse Selections" menu for a $20 upcharge.

Lobster is available the first cruise elegant night in the MDR. I believe it was also on the "Steakhouse Selections" menu some nights, but I do not think it was available every night. The second cruise elegant night they did not offer lobster, but had prime rib.

As for Lido, I have never seen lobster there, but I don't go to lido every night, so I could have missed it. There are some steak dishes on lido occasionally, mostly in some sort of sauce or cheap cuts served at the carvery line.

Ugh, unsubscribing! I called DriveWise help line and determined that they changed the application in June to disable non-Allstate policy owners from creating accounts. They surely need to update the error message they give the users so they don't spend their precious time trying to register! Oh well, color me jealous of you that created an account before they changed the app.

I literally created my account 2 days ago and I am not an Allstate customer. Although I can't help you troubleshoot your issue, I will tell you that they gave you wrong information.

I am not a customer, never have been, and was able to subscribe, earn 25,500 points, and redeem 15,000 points already.

Joined today, not an Allstate customer, earned 15,500 points between signup bonus, promo codes, and watching videos. (Did not yet receive the 10,000 points for using the app, which I hope to do tomorrow.)

I was able to redeem 15,000 points for $1,500 in gift cards for $1,350, and have already received all of them in e-mail.

This program is WAY better than AARP so far.

Looks like most of your questions are answered. Here's some more info on theme nights/deck parties, and elegant nights in the MDR.

1.) Depending what you mean by "theme nights," Fascination seems to be programmed a bit differently. There was no White Party, etc. Also, during my trip in April/May, I thought that Fascination was a bit 'sleepier' than most Carnival ships. There were deck parties, including Sail Away, Rock N Glow, and Mega Deck Party, but they didn't tend to be well attended. The Sail Away Deck Party seemed to last about 15-20 minutes, then the Fun Staff were gone, and the DJ continued on for just a little longer. The Rock N Glow and Mega Deck Party were so hardly attended that I just went to the casino instead.

2.) Flat iron steak is available every night. It's not the "best" cut of meat, but does tend to be my go-to option if nothing else sounds good. The first elegant night lobster will be on the menu. The second elegant night has prime rib and a few others. On Fascination, although there is no steakhouse, they do offer "Steakhouse Selections" in the MDR for an up-charge of $20. If I recall, there was steak and lobster on that menu each night.

One of the dining rooms is reserved for early/late seating, and the other is Your Time Dining (YTD). We always do YTD, and on Fascination never had a wait. Menus are the same between the two dining rooms. The key difference (downfall, for some) with YTD is that your wait staff and tablemates may change. You can request specific wait staff when you check in, and if you like your tablemates, just agree to meet at the same time for dinner.

Have fun!

Outlook? Panorama?

The best offers I see are casino-generated offers. The "bottom two" offers are always the same: two category upgrade and choose your own cabin.

Above those two, I usually have "Casino Offer" and "Premier Cruise Casino Offer." These are based on casino play, and are typically the only ones I ever look at.

If he lives in or near a city with a Passport office (you can find the list on the Department of State website someone linked above), and he provides proof of international travel within the next couple of weeks, he can apply in person and have a passport in hand as quickly as the same day. Typically, they'll offer same-day service for individuals travelling that same day and next-day or "next-few-days" service for people travelling in the near future.

He'll have to pay an additional $60 for the expedited service, and if they do not issue it same-day, he will probably want to pay the additional $15.45 overnight delivery.

This is certainly cheaper than some of the private expeditors who can charge upwards of $200 above the cost of the passport itself.

...so have to call Monday after 10am to see if there really is something worth taking.

If you haven't called/booked yet, the variety and length of sailings available was significantly more than what showed up in the online rate calendar for my initial PMI offer. (As another poster stated, that only showed itineraries 3-4 months out, and mostly 3-4 day sailings, so I didn't book, which is what generated this offer.)

I called and more or less every cruise that I was interested in was available.

i have my first on board credit of 50.00

since we are also getting the Cheer's package which includes all kinds of drinks.....

 

what would spend the 50.00 bucks on?? i'm not into jewerly or things that have the ship logo on it so what are some ideas i could use it for?

Specialty coffee, milkshakes, bingo, specialty dining (steakhouse, Cucina, JiJi, Sushi), Chef's Table, Steakhouse Selections in MDR, candy... I'm sure there are more :)