halterk

Has anyone booked Secrets All inclusive beach resort online or at the door without going through the cruise line? Is it much cheaper, or the same price?

Carnival is charging $114.99 / person for my November cruise.

I have bought several Carnival Gift Cards via Ebay. The Merchant selling them is Paypal.

Ebay gives 2% ebay bucks when you purchase them.

They also run specials where you can get up to 10% ebay bucks back for buying them.

And the best part is if you can get Ebay gift cards at a discount (a month or so back you could get them from Target for 10% off), you can use your Ebay gift card to purchase Carnival gift cards.

I ended up buying Ebay GCs at 10% off, then buying Carnival GCs when they went 10% off using my already discounted Ebay gift cards (meaning 20% off!!)

Has Carnival said when they would release the details?

I'm hoping they do by November as I might book a cruise out of Mobile on my November cruise.

It can also be to your advantage to have the stock in HIS and HER name, if you ever book multiple cabins (kids in their own).

As each person is entitled to the OBC, but only one per room.

So HE books one room, with one kid, and SHE books one room with one (or more kids). And both rooms now have the OBC.

The last time I looked the ship will have come in the day before or 2 days before, not the same day we board, so.....

The ship always leaves the same day with the next batch of passengers unless they are planning a drydock (which they don't at JAX).

If you are leaving May 30th (Memorial Day), the ship is coming in on May 30th with the last cruise, and setting sail again on May 30th.

I've sailed out of JAX a couple times now, and like any port it can be hit or miss how things are working. It only takes one little glitch to throw the whole routine off, and making the loading process that much longer.

Ebay has also been having some deals of Gift Cards (purchased through Paypal/Ebay, not 3rd party sellers).

Ebay has been having 2x, 4x, and even 5x the ebay bucks.

When they had the 5x ebay bucks deal, it was the same as getting 10% in ebay bucks to use for a future ebay purchase.

** Currently I don't think Ebay is having any promotions.

Has anyone found the discount code for Amtrak for 2015?

I've found the codes for other cruise lines, but not Carnival.

The "Citi Easy Deals" have eGift Cards.

$100 gift card costs 10 points + $90.00

The terms state:

Carnival eGift Cards can be used for almost anything: towards the purchase of a Carnival cruise,activities/shore excursions, and redeemed onboard toward the Sail & Sign account for gifts, drinks, and fun.

My PVP called me at 9:45 pm the other night.

Ugh, way to late to be calling, as it was a school night, and I have two kids in Elementary School.

If I remember correctly it was your Senator or Congressman, however also if I remember correctly they no longer do it.

My son had his PLASTIC TOY sword confiscated when getting on the boat in the Bahamas.

And it in NO way could have hurt anybody.

We made jokes about it for the rest of the cruise. Everytime we sat down at dinner we would joke about how we could have metal knives, but not a plastic sword.

It can also depend on which countries you are visiting. I believe Mexico requires a letter from the absent parent before the kids are allowed to enter the country (get off the boat).

I'm just guessing, but maybe in a month or two they will extend the expiration date, or get a new code.

I took Amtrak from Effingham IL to New Orleans for a cruise two years ago, and I was able to use the Carnival Discount code. It saved me around $100 I believe on the tickets.

From my (limited) experience, the price of the train does not increase until a few weeks before departure.

I just got an upgrade email from Carnival yesterday for my November cruise.

Was booked an inside room, and for $24 I could upgrade to an Ocean View room.

We went ahead and upgraded. :)

When you get back let me know.

I will be going in November with a 5 & 9 year old.

I'm interested in the cabanas also for Little Stirrup Cay.

We're going to be there in Nov. and am thinking about renting one our group of about 10, but am worried it may be to crowded if multiple people tried to use it at the same time.

Also with several kids in our group, I'm wondering if we would be to far away from the water?

We have a group of 7 adults, and 4 kids.

Do you think there would be a problem if we got one cabana and shared it amongst all of us? It sounds like space is limited in the cabanas, but we won't all be in it at the same time.

Can we all get armbands, or do you only get so many armbands when you book?

We parked at the Fulton Garage. Easy to find (people holding huge flags ushering cars into their garage.) We didn't make reservations, just showed up and paid (didn't get the rooftop, but an inside parking spot.

The garage is secure too, as I remember there was some car rental places that park their cars in there too.

Is there a reason that everyone is using their promo cards for obc instead of using it to pay off your cruise?

To get a bigger promo GC.

If your cruise total is $1000, you should buy a $1000 GC and get a free $100 (to use as OBC)

If you just bought a $900 GC, and used the free $90, you would be missing out on the free $10 (or one drink onboard).

I just tried adding my (2nd) gift card that I purchased this morning.

The carnival site still shows my gift card has a $0.00 balance. :(

Looks like I will be calling back tomorrow.

Just got off the phone with Carnival's GC department.

They looked up the GC # and confirmed there was the correct amount of money on the card, and suggested I try checking again in an hour or two online to get the money applied to my cruise.

I just bought a 2nd e-gift card just now.

Email arrived with my gift card #, and I went online to enter it, and it says

Card balance:$0.00 Sorry, this gift card is empty

Anyone have this problem before? Does it take a little while for the GC to get money on it? I figured once they sent the GC to my email, it would have the money on it!

The first one I bought two days ago I had no problems with. :confused:

I recently thought of this, and haven't tried it, but from the outside grill, take some french fries, add some cheese, then go inside to the salad bar and add some bacon bits.

You now have bacon and cheese fries.

Sailed out of NOLA in Nov 2012 and it was very organized. We quickly got through and boarded.

Sailed out of NOLA in Dec 2013 and it was NOT very organized. We waited in line for a long time, while only 3 or 4 reps checked people in. All the other reps were just sitting there at their computers not doing anything. :( I have no clue what was going on, but it really irritated me!

Interesting that some of you are reporting that Carnival changes comedians mid week. Is that for longer 7 day cruises?

I've never seen that happen on any of my (3) 5 day cruises. It has always been the same 2 comedians perform at the beginning and at the end of the cruise.