Petersonfcu

This exact same thing happened to me a couple of years ago, but the trigger was $3k instead of $2k. And the ship was not able to "verify" the additional cards so I had to bring them home for next time. I don't know how the specific dollar limit might vary, either from ship to ship or for the entire Carnival universe over time. I think one way to increase the limit is to set up your account and your spouse's account as totally separate (e.g, not backed by the same credit card and not cross-chargeable). Since we have done that we have been able to put up to $2k in GCs on each account. Perhaps we could have done more, but we didn't need to do more so we didn't try.

What mitsugirly said. Carnival charges nothing for you to fund your slot account from your room (sail and sign) account. Strangely, Carnival does charge you 3% if you try to buy table chips using your room account. I find this dichotomy odd because the other cruise lines under the Carnival Corporation umbrella (e.g., Princess and Holland America) have no charge at all when using your room account to fund either slots or table chips.

Yes, when you first go to the slot machine and set up your account, it will ask you if you want to charge the funds to your room. You do that, and the gift cards on your sign and sail account will be used to fund your slot account,.

Yes, this is how you prepay your gratuities with a gift card, at least when you are past final payment date (90 days before cruise) and have already paid your cruise fare in full.

One more Carnival casino tip. If you are a table game player, Carnival will charge you a three percent fee for using your sail and sign account to buy chips at the table. But Carnival does not charge any fee when you put money on a slot machine from your sail and sign account. So go first to a slot machine, set up a slot account, fund your slot account from your sail and sign account, pull the money out of the slot account at the cage, and then use the cash to buy your table game chips. OK, if you are just spending $100 or $200 at the tables, maybe this is a hassle not worth it. But that three percent fee can add up.

I have run into a limit as to how many gift cards Carnival will let you post to your sail and sign account on any particular cruise. I think this limit changes from time to time . . . but I am sure that $1,000 is below the limit. In one past cruise, I had them tell me that they needed to get approval from their headquarters to exceed this limit, but then the approval did not come. So I had to hold that gift card until the next cruise.

You can definitely use Princess gift cards to buy all those things you mentioned if you wait to get on the ship, buy them on the ship, and then load the gift cards to your onboard account to pay for them. The princess app (known as the Medallion app) has a horrible reputation, and I use it for as little as possible. I also don't usually buy other things (e.g., wifi and gratuities) in advance on the Princess website so I don't know much about that.

I do exactly what n6uqq does: buy the Carnival GCs with my BofA Cash Rewards card where it codes as an "online purchase." You can get an even better return if you keep $100k in an account at BofA (in my case, I have a no fee self-directed IRA with Merrill Lynch, which is owned by BofA), and then all your BofA credit card cash back is bumped up 75%. So I get 5.25% cash back on my BofA Cash Rewards purchases of Carnival Gift Cards. 10% discount plus 5.25% cash back. . . what is not to like about AARP Carnival Gift Cards!

+1 I had exactly the same problem, with the exact same resolution, over the course of the last few months. When every one of my credit card stopped workinging on AARP, I had to get ahold of a live AARP customer service rep, then had to convince them that all my credit card data matched my AARP membership data, and then they "elevated" the issue, and then my credit cards started working again to buy AARP gift cards. It took over two months though from problem to solution.

I see there are three HAL ships sailing from Vancouver in April. If you are on one of these sailings, you might be interested in this: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/stayvancouver-book-a-stay-in-vancouver-get-up-to-250-for-two-nights/ The comments to this Doctor of Credit blog post provide more detail than the post itself.

Carnival gift cards can be loaded to your onboard account and used to pay for any charge to that account, including gratuities.

Yes, I was just thinking about the ability to pick any open cabin within category -- and realizing I needed to do research. Based on the comments above, I started with the aft Verandahs, and found that there are some people who don't like how small the balconies are for these Pinnacle aft verandahs. And that led me to the realization that we would probably prefer VB category on Beethoven Deck, and a couple of very specific cabins within that VB category.

True. But I am already a member of AARP because there are other discounted gift cards I buy that require membership, including Albertsons (Safeway) and Carnival cards.

Thank you for this. I will now be going for the triple stack of OBC: AARP, Military, and Shareholder Benefit!

Thank you. This is very helpful. Can you tell me what AARP OBC is? I am familiar with buying discounted HAL gift cards through AARP, but is this OBC something else?

My wife and I love the Club Orange dining experience on the Pinnacle class ships. We are uncertain, however, how to best use the in-category cabin upgrade that comes with a Club Orange purchase. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Which Pinnacle ships and associated cabins offer particularly good value for using the Club Orange cabin upgrade option? Depending on the itinerary and of course the fare we might buy anything from an inside cabin up to a signature suite. Thanks!

But if you miss Antarctica that will be sad. We did this cruise on the Sapphire last February and it was one of the best trips we have ever taken.

You are very lucky that the outage didn't occur in the Drake Passage!!

My wife and I are sailing on the Crown Princess in four weeks. We like to eat early and at a table for 2 ("private table"). I have tried to use the Dine My Way function on the Medallion App to take care of this, but when I try the "Reserve Same Time" function it gives me nothing earlier than 8 PM. When I try to book separate reservations for each night, it only gives me an early private table option on two of the ten cruise nights. Based on what I read in this thread above, I went to Princess website and logged in only with my reservation number, which didn't do anything other than refer me to the app. I then removed the Medallion App from my phone and downloaded whatever passes for the current Princess app, but it didn't give me any new Dine My Way functionality or options. So I guess I will just show up early on the sail away day at one of the dining rooms -- without a reservation -- and try to get a table for two. I assume I will succeed, even if have to wait awhile. And then I will tell them on the way out that I would like same time/same table the rest of the cruise. Does this make sense? Any other suggestions? BTW, I just turned Elite last cruise, don't know if that will help at all.

The Panorama also has the Poker etable in the Hero's bar. I don't think it is the PokerPro brand, but it works almost the same. One thing I would really like would be for Carnival to bring back the annual poker tournament that ran pre-COVID.

I am not surprised that your final payment on an existing cruise booking worked. I do not read the terms and conditions as limited to new bookings.

Agreed that most folks would rather have cash back than the points. For me, however, I prefer the points, where I can usually get more than one cent per point value. For example, I am looking to book a flight to Hawaii from SFO next September. I want to fly first class if possible on this long five and half hour flight. AMEX points transfer to Hawaiian airlines at a 1:1 ratio, and that first class ticket costs 40,000 Hawaiian points. If I paid cash for the same ticket it would cost me $790, so that is a value of almost two cents per AMEX point. So I will combine my 17,500 points from this Princess offer with some other AMEX points I have to get that airline ticket. BTW, the offer on my AMEX Everyday Preferred card reads as follows: Get 17,500 additional Membership Rewards® points one-time by using your enrolled eligible Card to make a single purchase of $700 or more on cruise reservations booked online at princess.com, by calling 800-774-6237 or through a Princess Cruises travel advisor. Must be booked by 2/15/2024.

Quiz: If your TA won't apply the gift cards to pay for the cruise, you can always: A. Pay your onboard bill with them, or B. Get another TA/Book directly on Carnival's website. I know what my answer is. Whaddayathink?

I would be totally miserable if I limited my food intake to 2300 calories over a 48 hour span. For sure you will lose weight quickly if you can keep that up.

Not sure if you are saying Bourbon Street is better or worse than represented. I for one avoid Bourbon street like the plague. I love New Orleans ... but hang out mostly on Frenchmen Street instead of Bourbon. Will be on the Spirit next fall through the Panama Canal terminating in New Orleans. Can't wait!!