Is the earlysaver option a safe bet?

[gerry48]

we can save a few more bucks by doing the early saver option where they pick the location. has anyone gotten a really bad room by doing this?

[mxylpic]

we can save a few more bucks by doing the early saver option where they pick the location. has anyone gotten a really bad room by doing this?

 

In early saver you pick your room, so you can't get bad room. You may be talking about fun saver which is a guarantee, but not a location. It depends on if the location is important to you or not. For example, if you have someone who is prone to motion sickness, you want the center of the ship where the motion is less, and you could get put all the way fore or aft.

[Vanessa L]

You are talking about 2 different options, OP. If your question is about Early Saver, I do recommend it. IF you know you are going to cruise. If you have to cancel you will get your deposit back less $50pp I believe, that can be used for a cruise within 1 year. My experience with this was having a cruise booked for my daughter, son, and myself, and my daughter had to cancel because she went to work on the Pride of America in Hawaii. Carnival switched the deposit I paid over to my name, only charging me the normal $50 cancellation fee (even though it says it is non-transferable, if you pay for a child and can prove it, they will transfer it to your name). We have saved a LOT of money using the Early Saver. While our cruises never went down in price, many do, and you can get that difference back by sending in the form on Carnival's website (though I've read that some have had problems with Carnival responding in a timely manner to those requests). Early saver rates are NOT for someone who has a job that could prevent them from traveling (since you have to book them fairly far out), children who are young enough that they can't be left alone, or many other reasons that would cause one to cancel. We have had much success with the Early Saver rates, but they are not for everyone. One word of advice, RESEARCH this to death before you decide.

[mxylpic]

You are talking about 2 different options, OP. If your question is about Early Saver, I do recommend it. IF you know you are going to cruise. If you have to cancel you will get your deposit back less $50pp I believe, that can be used for a cruise within 1 year.

 

You DO NOT get your deposit back, it is non-refundable. Carnival will let you change your booking for the $50pp cancellation fee and transfer your deposit to the new booking.

[sunseeker09]

We booked with the Early Saver. It's been great for us. We have already saved $260 (partially in price reduction before final payment, and partially in OBC after final payment) and still have 5 weeks to go. I've filled in the form several times now and have never had a problem, even with getting a reduction due to a resident rate. We got to choose our location, which our PVP wa more than happy to help us with (being new and all).

The only down side I can see is needing to cancel. Don't relay on Carnival for that. We have a very extensive insurance policy that covers us canceling for a variety of reasons. Once we book air fare (which we do early, that's non-refundable anyway, so we ALWAYS get cancellation insurance for every trip. So for us ES has been win win all around.

[Traveler353]

Using ES, if you get a bad room it is because picked it. Before choosing the ES option please read the rules as posted on the Carnival site. It will save you a lot of heart burn later if things do not go exactly as you want them to go. I personally have been very happy with the ES program. So far no problems at all for me. Two very nice refunds, but recently the prices have been doing nothing but going up. I don't expect that I will see any more refunds/OBC before my next cruise.

[sparkscruiser]

Trying early saver on our 2011 B2B - can't tell you much about it yet! The guarantee option is great if you are not prone to seasikness, etc. but it's the luck of the draw. I have done guarantee many times and have not had any real issues.

[firefly333]

Dont forget with early saver, they dont allow any name changes, if you cant go last minute, you cant substitute someone else for $50 like with any other fare.

[jayscore]

If you book ES way in advance, like I did, you might as well consider adding trip insurance to the cost. I booked a year ahead, and who knows what may happen in that span of time.;)

[sunseeker09]

Dont forget with early saver, they dont allow any name changes, if you cant go last minute, you cant substitute someone else for $50 like with any other fare.

 

Sustitute someone else? I don't think my DH would like that if I told him he couldn't come, and took some other guy! LOL. J/K ;) We couldn't sub. someone else for the air anyway, since that's already in our names. Darn... so much for that idea! LOL. J/K again ;)

[FunDayAtSea]

I probably won't use ES again. A friend isn't able to go on this upcoming cruise with us because we were unable to make the changes needed. I'd rather pay the extra $$ and be able to have the option to make changes.

 

Too bad for CCL, the person not going would have provided them with far more $$ in the casino, bars and gift shops than what they would have gotten by us not booking ES. It just seems to me, that if I'm asking to put another body on the ship to spend money - that would have allowed for a room change.

[Vanessa L]

You DO NOT get your deposit back, it is non-refundable. Carnival will let you change your booking for the $50pp cancellation fee and transfer your deposit to the new booking.

 

Sorry, that is what I meant, you get it back though it stays on file at Carnival for a cruise booked in the next year. As opposed to losing the entire amount for cancelling. You still have the money you paid, less $50pp, you just don't get it back in pocket, you have to book another cruise within a year. I knew what I meant, I just didn't say it too well. :eek:

[lillian marie]

I usually use ES but you can't make any changes without losing $50 per person. I consider that risk worth it because I like a cabin towards the middle of the ship and with ES you choose your cabin.