sailawaykaye

7 hours ago, MeganGC1983 said:

So we’ve heard a LOT about pickpocketing in Barcelona… like way more than normal places we visit. And I have to admit, it does have me slightly concerned. I’ll be carrying my Travelon purse and I grabbed one of these off Amazon for my phone. No roving gang of criminals is gonna steal my phone outta my hand. I have a live to do. 

We ordered those too, but from Temu. I agree, nobody is taking my phone!

7 hours ago, MeganGC1983 said:

Barcelona (pre-cruise): 

Last year, we sailed the Resilient Lady on the Greek Island Glow itinerary. We planned to get there two days early, but when we checked in for our flight… it was cancelled. This time, 2 days before sailing is still the name of the game, and I’m definitely having flashbacks of the scramble to rebook flights from last year. This year, I decided we definitely wanted to go nonstop to avoid any other issues that can pop up ie lost bags or delays. So we are headed out on Thursday evening from DFW. As for accommodations, I started off looking at Bonvoy products, but I really didn’t care for the locations. I ended up really diving in to H10 properties and for the budget (less than 200 euros a night), I decided on H10 Montcada in the Gothic district. 
I knew we would want to see as much of the city as possible so I grabbed hop on, hop off bus tickets… I’m not usually a fan of those, but I like the routes and it hit all the hot spots. Plus, we will do a Park Guell tour on the morning of Aug. 3 and La Sagrada Familia in the afternoon. I found the top churro spot of all of Barcelona on IG and a few bars I wanna go by, so it should be a pretty packed itinerary pre-cruise as long as we get there and aren’t too jet lagged. 

Happy Birthday! Will be following along. We are staying at the H10 Montcada for our Transatlantic cruise at the end of October! We did a Transatlantic out of Barcelona last year, and fell in love with the city, so doing it again this year! Barcelona is absolutely amazing!

We are Platinum on Carnival. We are 50 days from Diamond. We have decided that it’s time to move on. Luckily we were able to get a “status match” on Virgin Voyages. We are doing a TA on the Valiant Lady in October. 
 

With a Loyalty Match program, all tips included, all specialty dining included, a $600 bar tab credit and 2nd sailor 50% off, made it super easy to drop Carnival.

10 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Hey we might meet up again. I am booked on dream and now it's back showing on carnival site, so who knows. Hope we get to cruise again. Were you the one I talked to about sharing a cruise sometime in the future?  Not sure of her cc handle. 

 

As far as why cruiselines are booking cruises they know will be cancelled, they need the cash flow.

 

 

Hopefully it will be a go.......but only time will tell. I am sure our paths will cross again.😎

Hi Fire Fly,

I have met you at one of the meet and greets on a carnival sailing out of Galveston. I can’t remember the ship or sailing date. I am pretty sure it was an Ultra or Premier casino cruise. 
 

I have a B2B sailings on Carnival Dream for August 31st and September 5th. I can still see the August 31st sailing on Carnival’s website.........but not the September 5th? I can see that maybe the 5th might have been taken off due to capacity as that is Labor Day cruise.

22 minutes ago, WorkerBee74 said:

 

Thank you ever so much.  I've been looking for a concise explanation for what happens.

 

Taking it a bit further, did you book a new cruise yet with the credit?  I'm looking for someone who did who received an OBC of 'up to $500' because the 'new' cruise (and by that i mean strictly the Cruise Rate and not all the other fees that were refundable) was cheaper than the original one.  If you did... did you do it online?  Did you have to phone to talk to someone to book the new one or do you just get a 'credit bank' or something in your account?  Do you have to pay for the new one with deposit and then contact before March 31 to get your credit or will they know you canceled and apply it automatically?  I don't want to be caught on the 31st unable to get through.

 

We are looking at cancelling and booking a 7 day cruise in March and pricing one that has a cruise rate of $476 less than the 10 day one we have currently booked.  We would definitely use up that $476 OBC on booze and add'l dining.  Not the greatest deal ever for 3 days less, but I booked the 10 day one about 2 days after it was announced so it was a pretty amazing deal.  I had such an awesome 'bowling alley' balcony on the 10 day I am sadz... but I'm looking at an aft-extended to make up for it.

Hi. I just cancelled a cruise with $500 OBC. It was a casino offer called “Hot Streak Bonus”. That offer had expired March 3rd, so I couldn’t rebook with that promotion. This is what I was told when calling the Ocean Players Club since it was a casino offer.
 

She told me that they were sending out new Hot Streak Bonus offers that came with $500 OBC. Sure enough after checking under my VIFP profile, there it was! I was able to apply that to my new booking. Every thing was transferred to the new booking.

Email confirmation stated that I still owed $300. After calling about this, it’s the amount of the deposit for both of us. He said that it can take up to 48 hrs to go through after they submit the form. I just now checked my balance and it says Paid In Full. So all is good. 

I must say, that I had to call 3 times about this and each time I waited about an hour and half to get through. Sometimes I was disconnected after waiting 40 minutes. 🙄 Just make sure that if you booked a casino offer to call the Oceans Players Club.

5 hours ago, gambleballs said:

Has anyone had experience canceling/rebooking a rate that was through a casino offer? I have two cabins booked at a discount plus $500 OBC each for April. Was wondering if that OBC would carry over to the new booking along with the cruise credit for the rate paid? No luck getting through to my PVP so far, and I've read a number of threads with similar questions asked but no answers it seems.

Hi. So I had booked a cruise with a casino rate. It was the “Hot Streak Bonus” which included $500 OBC. I was only able to cancel and rebook when I received another Hot Streak Bonus offer under my VIFP profile, which actually appeared today. You have to call the Oceans Players number for casino booked cruises.

When talking with her, she said that I wouldn’t need to pay anything more than the cruise fare difference. I paid that while on the phone with her. After looking at my confirmation email it says  guest balance due $300! I thought that I read somewhere somebody explaining this but I can’t find it.🤓 Any info would be greatly appreciated!

Following. We sail September 2nd doing a B2B. 🤞

Yes we notified them. They were very nice about it. The issue is being forwarded to the casino manager so here's hoping they can help.

OMG! :eek: I will be on the December 9th Ultra Premeir sailing. This will be our 3rd Ultra. I am hoping to draw the S8+. I would be devastated if I could not activate it. Hope you get it worked out. Please keep us posted of the outcome!

Thanks for the review! We will be doing the same itinerary one week for today. I think we will try to find the same spot as you had for sea days. Also, the quiet spot on deck three sounds relaxing. ;)

My Ultra offer is a P3L. Discounted rate, no casino cash.

Thanks. I was looking at that one. Very limited OV cabin selection. Really wanted to check out the Serenity Deck on the Sunshine. ;) Had to go with the Freedom Dec. 9 Ultra. This will be our 3rd time on her. Nice not to have to fly, and managed to get my favorite cabin! Maybe the Sunshine will come to Galveston in the near future.

Just curious. Which one sold out?

I too wonder about that. But I was specifically told by the Casino Host on our last Ultra Cruise on the Breeze, that non of my points earned that cruise would count toward next year's Ultra. You have to earn 7,500 on a Premier to qualify for the Ultra. :rolleyes:

We booked the Ultra out of New Orleans. We are very excited. We've never been on the Dream or cruised out of New Orleans. This will be our first Ultra. We did a Premier in January and had a great time. And yes, they do keep you busy in the casino.

So happy you booked it! You will have a great time.:cool:

So when they changed the rules for receiving an Ultra Cruise, I was pretty bummed. I cruise at least 2 -3 times a year. On the Breeze Ultra Cruise last year, I had acquired around 6,500. Last March I was on a Premier Cruise. Towards the end I had around 6,600 points. I had to go for that 7,500 mark. Luckily I made it with some wins here and there. I know I would have been upset if I didn't receive the Ultra offer. I pretty much think that this might be my last Ultra Cruise. It will be interesting to see if I receive the Ultra next year based on my combined play for the year.

I will admit, the Vista was way too expensive. More than double the price. We have been on the Freedom twice and we're hoping that this year's Ultra Cruise would be on the Breeze again. We love those cove balconies! Not a problem though as we like the Freedom and was able to get my favorite cabin!

I want to type this fast because if you haven't booked the Ultra Cruise by now, all the limited slots may be gone. If click my name, you can view previous posts. Scroll down to the Magic Ultra cruie posts. Read the whole thread though. Detailed description of a Ultra Cruise from last year.

Received ours today for December 9 on the Freedom. This will be our second Ultra. So excited !

We booked the Ultra Cruise on the Freedom too. This will be our 3rd Ultra Cruise. Last year's Ultra Cruise we were on the Breeze. Were you on that one? :cool:

So happy you received an upsell! I am getting ready to go on a cruise at the end of June. I am booked in an interior on the 10th deck. Would love to get a upsell call. Every time the phone rings, I check the area code for ( 305 ). Is this the area code your upsell called from?

Thanks for posting this. When I saw this thread, I was thinking that one of the four ships wouldn't be the Valor in which I will be on in six weeks. Pleasantly surprised to see the Valor is included. Will definitely have to try this new venue!

Bounce Back offers are from the Ship Casino. Usually sent out in the early morning hours before debarkcation. I believe if you spent a good amount of time in the casino. Sort of like a bounce back from your losses . Lol. ;p

We received a bounce back offer on our last cruise. We were staying an extra night in Fort Lauderdale after the cruise. We got to the hotel super early, and hung out in the breakfast area until a room became available. During that time we decided to check out that offer. It was listed under my VIFP offers.

We booked an interior, and only paid port fees and taxes. We wanted to book a ocean view, but that wasn't an option. I thought I would just call the next day about upgrading. This offer was good for 2 weeks.

When we got home, I called about upgrading. Carnival had said we couldn't because that promotion was now closed. So only 2 days after our cruise we would not have been able to book the bounce back offer.

It was a good thing we had 4 hours to kill at the hotel. I mean we got off the ship at 7:30 am and booked the bounce back offer at 10:30am. It was a great feeling checking into our hotel early knowing we did get a free cruise.

We could only do a 5 day, but it's at the end of June, smack dab in the middle of High Season. The cruise fare is listed at $750.00 per person for an Inside Stateroom.😮 That is why we only cruise in the Off Season. In 25 cruises we have never sailed in the summer.

Hope you are able to use your offer. It great to get one, but blows when you aren't able to use it.

Thank you! Well Jacks shack is definitely out now. It's definitely going to be the Beached Whale or the Sandbar. I like that the Beached Whale is closer, but may not have good snorkeling.

They both have great reviews on Trip Advisor. On my google map it says that the Sandbar is a 12 minute walk, or a 4 minute cab ride from the cruise pier. I guess we'll try to go to both!:confused:

Sorry. I just reread your post. No you haven't been there! 😂