movtarget

23 hours ago, ShakyBeef said:

I recommend (thanks to what I've heard here on CC) you bring a printout of Carnival's rules (quoted by weezal above) along with your boarding passes for both cruises.  This worked for me (although they were not at all accustomed to B2Bs on Elation🤣); and they did not hold my second-leg bottles, but allowed me to take all of them onboard for my first leg.

Same for us on Sunshine out of Charleston this past December. They made sure the boarding passes for both were legit (reviewed them well). They did really inspect one of my wife’s bottles because it had an unusual seal (to see if it had been recorked).

42 minutes ago, I_AM_GROOT said:

eGift cards not available now? Anyone else seeing that?

 

Somehow my account got limited and was locked, (got restored) not sure why but their reasoning doesn't make sense as to why when I don't really use the account to buy anything which I haven't since Feb of this year and only do daily deals with gift cards if I can even get one/instant win.

 

Seems like their software flag my account my mistake. 

I just logged in, I don’t see any e-gift cards. 

Although my port is Charleston, could also be a generic port Carnival embarkation timing question.

I have an 11:30-12:00 arrival appointment for 12/5 Carnival Sunshine sailing out of Charleston. My available hotel shuttle pickup times were 10:30 or 11:30 (plus others). I chose 10:30, which will likely put me arriving by shuttle sometime before my arrival appointment, but variable, depending on other hotel stops along the way (if any). If I get there by shuttle early, will they just ask us to wait a little while? I assume it's not like when you drive and they tell you to come back later.

Anyone have experience with this? (Holiday Inn Express US Hwy 17 & I-526)

Ocean players club website - its a dot com. Contact us button. I used the verify casino offer button, and got this response about 24 hours later. (My initial inquiry reflected back at the bottom of their message)

Mxxxx Mxxxx (Global Casino Services)  Aug 31, 2022, 4:24 PM EDT  Hi movtarget, (I edited this and several others in this sample email)   We are glad to hear you are sailing with us again!   Our records indicate you claimed a casino Hot Streak Bonus offer aboard the Carnival Sunshine 2022-12-05. We have already discounted your cabin on this voyage.   This offer includes Onboard Credit issued to your Sail & Sign card, and will be immediately available upon boarding. This offer also includes Drinks On Us! valid for your personal use while playing in the casino.    Additional casino comps cannot be combined at this time. On your cruise, our Casino staff will provide you with onboard comps based on your level of play.   Should there be any changes made on the booking in the future, only the promotion that was last applied will be extended to you onboard.   We look forward to welcoming you aboard!   Consult CDC's website for the latest CDC cruise travel advice, warnings and recommendations. Kind Regards, Mxxx Mxxx Global Casino Services | Carnival Corporation & PLC. www.oceanplayersclub.com Consult CDC's website for the latest CDC cruise travel advice, warnings, and recommendations. Casino offers are not combinable with any other casino-associated offer extended on the applicable sailing. All offers are pending verification of any other casino offers utilized at the time of redemption on board. This e-mail is intended solely for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged information. Any review, dissemination, copying, printing, or other use of this e-mail by persons or entities other than the addressee is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please contact the sender immediately and delete the material from any computer.

Movtarget Aug 30, 2022, 5:04 PM EDT  don't remember the perks for this booked cruise, I believe under a casino offer, how do I get those details? Thank you

2 hours ago, birdie16 said:

I don't know why my pictures posted upside down...Sorry...I tried everything to fix it.

Australian Cruise? 😉

11 hours ago, Inveterate Cruiser said:

 

How often do these cruise cash discounts offers happen? I would definitely have bought some if I had seen a discount offer before my Vista cruise in August……

Early in the pandemic they offered 20% off cruise cash and 20% (10% additional to the pre-purchase price) on cheers in order to drive cash-on-hand. I got gift card refunds for both after (multiple) cancelled cruises. 

Oh, Cruise Cash - Bar. Yes it’s a credit that specifically applies to bar purchases. As opposed to Cruise Cash - photo, etc. 

Yes, gets applied to your sign-n-sail. 
 

Unless you are getting it specifically as a budgeting tool or a gift, I recommend the generic Cruise Cash that can be used for any purpose. You should know that it is a use it or lose it. With the generic one, you can use the casino trick to load it onto a machine, then cash out after a play or two to turn it into take home cash. 

This just happened to me (but red to gold). I would have hit 24 days (25 threshold for gold) at the end of my 10-day, but I’m back-to-back same ship for an additional 4-day. Once I linked the B2Bs, my status went gold for the upcoming cruises. I assume the system sees it as 1 14 day cruise, so gold starting on embarkment day.

I just changed a Jan 2023 five-day out of Charleston to a Nov 2022 five-day out of Charleston (same room/itinerary). Only had $100 deposit committed under one of the reduced-rate deposit offers on my VIFP.

They waived the penalty and transferred the $100 to my now 2-month earlier cruise. This was through a travel agent, so the on-hold while dealing with Carnival was lengthy but worth it. Transferred the $300 cancelled cruise OBC (from original cancelled 5-day Nov 2020 that I rebooked to Jan 2023 a while back) and added the $500 OBC for rate code OUV (only available to me on 2022 cruises, reason for the switch-up in dates).

So, $800 OBC already on my Booking and Order details. (and for the bonus round, same room was $32 less)

So, YMMV, but there is some recent success at avoiding the deposit sacrifice penalty on changes.

Moving Target

This is an attempt to do a cut & paste from my spreadsheet for current drink prices per category (effectively March 2020 - most likely Panorama, assuming all ships have the same pricing):

As a note, surprised Alchhemy hasn’t increased

Movtarget in NC

Current pricing on what YOU would drink is critical to evaluating the value of Cheers. Since that spreadsheet is older, you would need to update pricing. Although pricing increases over time due to inflation/market factors, it’s difficult to get good up-to-date pricing.

So here’s (yet another) shout-out to Saint Greg’s info. This time his menu captures. They appear to be late 2019 or early 2020 menus with updated (increased) prices. Examples: 1) Atrium/Casino Bar menu has the Tropical Classics for 9.95 - I’ve seen menu photos over time at various price points from 8.50 to that current 9.95. 2) Wine by the glass moving from 9.50 to 10.75 over time for the Layer Cake Cabernet Sauvignon. Almost every category seeing similar incremental increases.

Off topic: is there a way to “tag” someone you mention in a post? This is at least the second time Saint Greg’s information has been a topic of my posts.

I have a running spreadsheet that’s not designed for public consumption where I’m doing something similar. If I would have bought 2 beers, 2 wines, and 2 bottled water per day, I would be at break even for Cheers (considering I bought during the 20% off sale, with additional savings for 12% gift cards).

Movtarget in NC

I found an additional resource for cabin selection that has extended descriptions for some ships (Legend seems to have decent details). I cannot link to it, but look for cruise advice (it’s an “org” domain). A button near the top for “ships” lets you select the legend and then click on “picking a cabin”.

I learned that my particular cabin on the Ecstasy is in a gap between under the show room, and under a more public area (it’s under some of the shops).

Movtarget in NC

Carnival Dream 7-Day - 6/25/2011 - Western Caribbean (Belize, Roatan, Costa Maya (skipped due to weather), Cozumel, Progreso).

Yeah, It’s been a while (did other cruises since then - off-topic - “Lebrewski Cruise”).

Movtarget in NC

This is a photo test

To summarize, this is a “thank you” that goes across a couple of different thread topics

(X% off Cheers, AARP gift cards, Allstate gift cards, X% off Cruise Cash, + others) but I think this is the best home for it, because I was most excited by the Cheers discount!

Especially thank you for the “Saint Greg” method to book BOTH 20% discount Cheers and 20% discount Cruise Cash against my 11/7&11/12 B2B cruises on the Ecstasy.

Thank you to my CC friends for educating me on AARP and Allstate gift card discounts.

Thank you to my CC friends for leading me to pursue “casino rates” and “VIFP offers” that led to my booking both of my B2B cruises under the $500 OBC offer.

I leveraged previously acquired 10% Allstate gift cards for the Cheers, and the newly acquired 12% Allstate gift cards for the cruise cash. I only booked enough Cruise Cash to cover tips and a small excursion to make sure I wasn’t underwater since I’ve got the $500 OBC on both legs of my B2B (I am a gambler/craps player, so not much chance of being under water - another thank you for educating me on the “casino trick”). My realized costs on both cruises with drink packages and $500 OBC is only $200 more than I budgeted for the first cruise WITHOUT OBC (except a small $50 one) and WITHOUT a drink package.

Thank you CC community!

Hopeful, but understanding if not, that by November cruising will be a safe option.

Movtarget in NC

3 minutes ago, bury me at sea said:

I didn't get an e-mail and it isn't in my Cruise Manager.  Cheers is but only the normal 10% pre-purchase price.  No discount on cruise cash either.

 

Maybe I'm on Carnival's naughty list.

DId you add it to your cart? It doesn’t really show the 20% off until you go to cart to checkout (before you hit payment screen).

Success! Five day cost $490.42, three different gift cards. Effective cost to me 10% less. A little over $44/day each. Wow. Thanks!

Movtarget in NC

1 hour ago, shibby sails said:

just read all these and lol. make sure you bring your sturdy glass straw so you can punch a hole through your face mask to drink your beverage

Wait, doesn’t alcohol kill the virus? It’s for “medicinal purposes”, and I plan to maintain the dosing levels adequately. /s

I am thorough. Also losing my mind Joebucks, lol. The possible reason I’m seeing two amounts (see my earlier post, don’t want to quote myself) is one presents with gratuities AFTER the discount, one presents with gratuities BEFORE the discount.

When you first add the item to your cart, you are likely to see the gratuities discounted, and I still cannot check out online with gift cards. If you add to your cart, log out, and log back in, it shows the same discounted package price, but gratuities are added pre-discount (which is the way it should work from a fairness perspective, I’ll take either). I still cannot check out.

A new problem has arisen for me. My first card with only $20.05 left on it now shows as invalid, both in the payment process AND when checking through Carnival’s “our gift cards” checker. Others are OK. That’s a battle for another day - I’m focused on discount drinks!

So I think the error is some kind of internal audit check that’s automated. The pricing in cart doesn’t match a valid amount “Database Table” elsewhere. IT, accounting, and marketing will need to work this out. I’ll call before 4:00 Eastern to see if I can get something more resolute and post back here.

Movtarget in NC

This morning (7:30 eastern time) still showing as available to add to cart with 20% off acknowledged in cart, but cannot checkout, errors out. Will keep trying throughout the day, and try Cust service again this afternoon.

Movtarget in NC

I added it to my 11/7 sailing and saw the 10% off note before adding to my cart, but details in the cart were 20% off (415.60 for a 5-day for two + 93.52 Grats + 509.12). Tried to check out (with gift cards), came up with an error. Tried it a second time, same 10%/20% info, but total was different (415.60 + 74.82 Grats = 490.42), same gift cards. Errored again. Called the number in the error, punched through for fun shops/gifts queue, waited about 30 minutes on line. Customer service said everyone (other Cust service reps) reporting the problem, but she tried anyway. She came up with the 490.42 number, wouldn’t process for her, either. She recommends calling tomorrow. I took screen shots for both the totals I tried to check out with, so I have ammo if they get squirrelly on the retry. Offer good through Sunday 4/12.

Movtarget in NC

Yes. Thank you! I wast just wondering about buffering somewhere between $100 and $500 worth (I currently have enough to cover my final payment and planned costs, but no buffer). This made it an easier decision to get 4 $100’s @ $354.36 incl $2.36 postage.

Movtarget in NC

I’m booked on that $500 OBC offer. I fall into “we want you back” gamblers since my last Carnival cruise was in 2011. I am not a “heavy” gambler ($100/day budget), and I come home positive in about 1 in 4 outings. (Primarily CES in Vegas)

I play craps, so it REALLY depends on how the boxman (banker) and pit boss rate you. I also participated in a Texas Holdem tourney on that 2011 cruise and finished high, but not the big winner.

I think this supports the theory that the heavy offers are trying to attract KNOWN gamblers (of any amount), that haven’t booked against their VIFP players account WHILE on a cruise in a while.

If you are NOT a gambler, think about running $25-$50 through on a slot machine for fun, and then see if in the future, you get some of the more generous offers. Especially if you take a cruise after that and don’t gamble at all. Might be worth the $25 gamble (pun intended)

Movtarget in NC

Doc Brown and Marty McFly should be able to help...

I’m wondering when the next round of enticements will come for players club, or if I will see limited offers because I took them up on this $500 OBC offer.

Movtarget in NC

Calling casino dept is an excellent idea. Will do and thank you xDisco.

I’m sure they want to get back some of what I brought home with me 9 years ago... It was an unusually good night at the craps table. They don’t necessarily know that other cruise lines have already claimed that.

From my limited view without the code, the prices have only fallen $20 off my current rate, but that may not hold true (up or down) for a “casino rate”.

Movtarget