dogchopper

I cruise solo now, so those studio cabins for one, are a good deal for me. Bye the way; the dog in your avatar looks like mine:) Cute!

He's a Maltese .. I just happened to tie dye him last year for an event in our town :)

I have stuck with Carnival over the years because it has always worked out to be the best price for me, as well as I was satisfied with the product, but price is still bottom line for me, and it looks like my next cruise after October will be NCL Getaway. I am open to trying something new if the price is equal or lower. But yes, I have noticed that the prices are much higher than they have been.

I too have stuck mainly with Carnival, have tried a few others but the value has always been with carnival. I have yet to try NCL but if I do get a good deal I'll. have to give it a try

I'm at least glad to see it's not just me getting a bad deal on my cruises :)

Hopefully the prices will drop! I want my OBC:D

I am hoping they go down but so far the 'sales' have been higher than I paid. :eek:

But I don't see them selling out very quickly?? Very strange

I have 2 cruises booked, one in December and one in January. I booked them both with early saver. So far I've only seen HUGE price increases, not decreases. Both of the cruises are off peak times and I really thought they would go down but so far I'm very wrong .

I just assumed (and we all know that's never a good idea:rolleyes:) that we gas prices so low that the prices would go down some.

I will enjoy my cruises either way but I was really wanting to get some OBC

Thanks... That's what I figured :)

I booked a cruise early saver and just an interior ,.. I booked a 4F cabin but it was the same rate as the 4A.. Now, when checking prices am I looking for the price of a 4F cabin or the 4A.

I'm assuming the 4F but I just wanted to check

I love them both!! If your cruising on a budget those at 2 great stops! Half moon cay is great! Nice beach, free food... I consider it a free beach day and enjoy it to the max!!

Grand Turk is almost as good.. No free food but the beach is right there .. And if you'd rather swim in a pool margaritaville is right there and you can swim there for free too!. They have a 'flo rider' if you want to pay to learn how to surf.. I have pictures from grand Turk but for some reason I can't figure out how to upload them.

Thanks everyone. I'm glad to know we can get to Fort laud from Miami pretty easily. Now I'm confident I can book my cruise.

There are multiple companies that offer shuttle service from FLL to Port of Miami for approximately $15/pp.

A few examples are SAS and Jiffy Jeff.

As for your flight. I don't recommend any airline that only has one flight a day to your vacation destination. Make sure there is a backup plan or fly in the day prior.

We are flying in a few days before the cruise to visit people, it's the flying home part that is the hang up. We both leave the day after the cruise but cannot fly out of Miami .. A logistics nightmare :). But Jiffy Jeff sounds like it may help, thanks !!

My sister and I are trying to book a cruise and running into air port problems. We are both flying in from different states and she is using spirit air and I'm using allegiant..neither of them fly into or out of Miami, which is where the cruise is but they fly into Fort Lauderdale ..

We have a way to get to the ship but cannot get off the ship and to the Fort Lauderdale air port. Any ideas how? Rental cars?? Are their shuttles that go that far??? Any advice would be appreciated.

I was in the same boat (no pun intended ) with a decision between the Dream and the Freedom of the seas . But at the time they were similar in price... So we took the Freedom. It was a beautiful ship, I cannot deny that, but cruise itself was a disappointment. The staff was not as friendly, it was 'stuffy', they want money for everything. Just trying to get a drink of anything besides water was difficult unless you wanted to pay for it. Same for snacks. They had free ones but not nearly as many. And...... No 24 hr ice cream :eek:

I loved the ship! But I still like carnival better.

I will probably try them again one day but only if the price is very close. I wouldn't pay extra for it.

I goofed...I was referring to a upsell call not a upgrade. Right now if I upgraded to a balcony room it will be a extra $250. I kick myself in the butt for not taking Carnivals flash sale offer the other day. That would of cost me a extra $180 for the balcony. I would really love to fall asleep with the balcony door open. The sound of ocean waves is heavenly! Decisions decisions...balcony or extra spending money?

I got my upgrade call 53 days before my cruise. I got the call Wednesday and my cruise is May 17th.

I didn't get a free upgrade but I did get a call with a decent upgrade to a balcony .. Cheaper than if I just booked it myself ..

This was my first upgrade offer call..

I'd sure love to get a free upgrade but I doubt it will ever happen.

congratulations dogchopper! I have never had the pleasure of a balcony stateroom yet, but hope to some day.

 

I cruise mostly solo now, so am not likely to get such a good deal, but who knows. But given the offer you got, I would have gone for it.:)

 

Enjoy:)

Thanks!! I hope that one day you get to have a balcony !!

I thought the 300 for the upgrade was a pretty decent deal !

I usually go cheap on cruises and book early saver I hopes to get upgrades or OBC but this cruise was kind if a last minute thing. I had a cruise booked in February and has to cancel it so when our friends decided to go on this one we just jumped right in!, I think the balcony is gonna make it well worth it!!:cool:

Don't have Verizon or AARP. :(. Poop!

I'm so excited for you!!! There's nothing like getting an upgrade!!!

Going from the cheapest room to a balcony must feel amazing! I hope you enjoy every minute you spend on your balcony!

I'm pretty excited about it!!:D. And our friend we are traveling with is in the blackjack tournament, he said if he wins he will pay for our cruise... So, I'm hoping for a free cruse!!!!

My citi banks isn't either! Dang I need a way to get some giftcards!

Its not 10% through Carnival.This is a link to the citi site she uses to redeem her points for the 10% discount

 

https://citieasydeals.com/index.jsp

Thanks!,

yes you can

 

My wifes Citi has rewards and she uses X amount of points(cant recall how many) and she can get a $100 card for $90. So what I am doing is buying total of $2000 worth of cards for $1800 ,Ill spend the money anyway so it saves me some money and we have to carry less actual cash with us

I think I'm hijacking this thread here but, is it all carnival e gift cards or just thru citi bank? When I look up the cards on carnivals site I don't see mention of the 10% anywhere?

Every cruise Carol and I have been on, save 1, has included a balcony. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. It is nice to sit out there while the other gets reading for evening activities. It is nice sitting out there at night and watching/hearing interesting things in the water. It is also nice to know that you have a place to go that is quiet if the ship is too much for you. In the morning, go get your breakfast plate and your specialty coffee and then eat together on the balcony...nice way to start every day!

I loved the balcony I had on a RC ship, but we only got it due to a massive price drop and a LOT of arguing .. This cruise has been going up in price so ther was no chance of a free upgrade...

I can't wait to eat breakfast on my balcony!!

Hello all

 

I was wondering if anyone has used the Carnival ecards for gambling with their sign and sail and if anyone had any problems using them ?

 

I bought 10 x $100 with our Citi card points for $900 and was thinking about buying another 10 today to use for some of our gambling. I love having the 10% off ,sort of like $200 more OBC for us :)

 

It says right on the print out redeem towards activities/shore excursions or onboard gifts, drinks and fun but nothing casino so just trying to make sure

 

Thanks

Ok, I'm new to the gift cards, your saying you get 10% off when you buy a gift card? So you could maybe buy enough to book a cruise and save 10% on your cruise??? Or am I dreaming?

My husband and I are booked on the Dream on May 17th. We booked the cheapest interior guarantee we could get and last night I got a call from carnival ... I was so excited when I saw that 305 area code ! They offered us a balcony for 150 each more. I don't know if it's a GREAT deal but I've been watching prices for a white and it looks like it's about 100-150 less than we would pay if we booked it ourselves that way so... We took it :D we have friends on going on the cruise with us and their interior was not much cheaper than our balcony so we figured it was a good deal?

I'm so excited!! I've never had a balcony on a carnival ship !!! I sure hope it's worth the extra money !,

I'm envious !! I have 61 LONG days to go ..

Have a wonderful time !!!!!!!