Very aggravated with Early Saver

[Albums in the Attic]

Very satisfied Carnival cruiser. Getting ready for our 6th Carnival cruise. This is the first time we've booked Early Saver. It's worked well and I have no complaints as we had a good rate and have added $120 in OBC.

 

However, Carnival has made it nearly impossible to compare rates. Both booking engines fail to give you the category. It's hard to know what is eligible for OBC and what is not - even after going through as though you would book a cruise. Again - not complaining about the price we're paying. But not knowing if we can earn more OBC is VERY frustrating.

 

Am I doing anything wrong?? Anyone know how to search by category?

[rrraydon]

Very satisfied Carnival cruiser. Getting ready for our 6th Carnival cruise. This is the first time we've booked Early Saver. It's worked well and I have no complaints as we had a good rate and have added $120 in OBC.

 

However, Carnival has made it nearly impossible to compare rates. Both booking engines fail to give you the category. It's hard to know what is eligible for OBC and what is not - even after going through as though you would book a cruise. Again - not complaining about the price we're paying. But not knowing if we can earn more OBC is VERY frustrating.

 

Am I doing anything wrong?? Anyone know how to search by category?

 

I'm frustrated with it too.

 

I started going on travel websites like "the gnome" and checking the prices for my cruises.

[travelntreats]

Check the prices on other websites....they should be no different than at CCL's.

All else fails and you find a lower price on another website... give CCL a call and advise.

[rrraydon]

When I filled out my first ES form, I quoted the price I found on "the gnome's" website.

 

In the spot where it asks where you found the cheaper price, I put the websites name.

 

Got my OBC.

[MamaParrotHead]

There's a thread on here with a link to the older booking site that lists categories.

[spideyfam]

http://www.carnival.com/cms/find_a_cruise/findcruiseA.aspx?cid=DM_Post_39

 

Put this in your favorites. This is where we keeps ours.

[cruising211]

Its really frustrating. I'm currently booked on 2 cruises with ES rates. I just call Carnival every few days have have them check for me. If everyone floods them with these calls, maybe they will make it easier to check on your own....

[lee0070]

I go to carnival.com punch in my month and 6-8 day cruise comes right up. Takes about 2 minutes at most.

[Lady_Jag]

I haven't had any problems. When I booked my cruise, I did the standard search for it, then added it to my favorites on the web site. Now, when I want to check for price decrerases, I just hover my cursor over the "Saved Favorites" link and Bingo! Price.

 

No, this doesn't work for category, but I figure if the base "from" price drops, then my category will too. On occassion (like once a week), I click on the link in my favorites list and check my actual category price.

 

So far, my April cruise price has dropped 4 times! :eek: The first price drop even got my travel insurance rates down by $10 per person, so I saved an extra $30 there too. Yay!

[DanJ]

Not sure I understand the issue. I just went and did some phantom bookings, and when you get to the stateroom page, you just click the edit button beside the category and it brings them all up. This sounds to easy to me, so I'm sure I'm not grasping what you are actually asking.

[Kenito]

I love Carnival once I get on the ship, however, I have had the same experience as the OP, so perhaps it depends on when you are doing the search, in relation to your sail date.

 

Farther away from sail date, you can search the website, and all the categories are there so you can compare the EZ fare prices, etc. Closer you get, they don't even show an EZ fare and obviously no Early Saver. (It's no longer early, and maybe they don't do EZ now?) Now you can choose between Fun Saver or Fun Select. A few days ago it was Super Saver and no categories. Today it is the Fun fares, and the categories returned. The site even looked different. Yeah... it can be confusing, and I bet it may get confusing for even those who have used it before successfully.

 

If we are doing something wrong, they are not making it easy for us to figure it out.

 

I don't doubt that different people are having different experiences. I think they know we are getting better educated about how the system works, so guess what, they change the system.

 

My only guess is that they are trying to stay competitive (read 'profitable'), but it certainly begins to look like a shell game where we never find the pea.

 

Which is okay... they are supposed to make money. But some people do have a different experience doing these searches... and I doubt we will figure it out. It will just remain a trade secret.

 

Nevertheless, and frustrations aside, given my particular port offerings, I will remain a Carnival fan. :cool:

[k2excursion]

Not sure I understand the issue. I just went and did some phantom bookings, and when you get to the stateroom page, you just click the edit button beside the category and it brings them all up. This sounds to easy to me, so I'm sure I'm not grasping what you are actually asking.

 

Your computer just isn't pulling up the terrible new booking engine yet. Because of certain computer issues that I don't understand, it takes awhile for everyone's computer to change over to the new booking engine. Mine has changed over. Once you see it, you will understand what we are talking about, and why we all hate it so much. They did this a few weeks ago, but because of some errors and because of the insane number of complaints, they changed it back. But now they're trying it again. Under the new booking engine, you cannot pull up one page that shows you the per person price of all categories. There is no categories chart. So when researching for new cruises, you have to go through about 200 steps (and take tons of notes) instead of just one step to get the information you're needing in order to make a good decision. And that's just on one sailing. If you're trying to decide between multiple sailings, you better set aside an entire weekend to just get the price information you need. None of us have time for that.

 

Instead of seeing a chart listing a 4A at $499 and a 4B at $519, they'll show an interior on Riviera-forward for $499, and $2.86 per person per day to go to midship. Then, to go up to another deck, there's a different per person per day number. It just has your head spinning. Show me a chart, allowing me to see a $20/person difference for the sailing to move up a category is easy to understand. $2.86/person/day, then having to do other steps, and go backwards and change things, then go forwards again, and on and on, then repeat it all, making notes along the way, all for one sailing--that's not easy.

 

Us veteran cruisers will figure it out, understanding that Carnival still has the best prices out there, and continue to sail with them. But new cruisers will be totally lost. It is very user-unfriendly, but it also limits earlysaver people. If you're in a 4B (Riviera deck-midship), you can only compare to the price of an interior Riviera-midship. You cannot compare to an interior Main-forward/aft anymore (even though those used to be 4Bs also). That's the earlysaver drawback of this.

 

spideyfam, I tried you're link, and it didn't work. It's pulling up the horrible new booking engine also, on my computer.

[soccersharon]

Try cruise fish dot com. You need only select your cruise line, ship, and sail date. You can browse by fare code. Great site! Wish I would have known about it sooner.

 

As for Because of certain computer issues that I don't understand, it takes awhile for everyone's computer to change over to the new booking engine. I believe this is an Internet exlorer setting that needs changing. You have to make sure that your computer is checking for newer versions of the website everytime. I know this option is under "tools", "internet options" but cannot find it on this laptop. That may be the issue.

 

Hope this helps :)

[gargoyle999]

The link posted above is what I use to get into the old system so it does work. :)

[SueG]

The link posted above is what I use to get into the old system so it does work. :)

 

It works for me also, thank goodness. I do not like the new way at all.

[riffatsea]

I don't understand the issue?? I booked Earlysaver and have a balcony room. IF I search for my cruise and it comes up with the lowest price for a balcony(right on the first screen)that is HIGHER than what I paid, then it doesn't matter what category of balcony I booked because there will be NO price drop.

IF that lowest price ever drops below my price then I will go through a dummy booking to see what my specific category costs.

[mdrobtx]

Try cruise fish dot com. You need only select your cruise line, ship, and sail date. You can browse by fare code. Great site! Wish I would have known about it sooner.

 

This is what I use also. Set up the alert app and it sends you an email anytime your cruise cabin cat changes.

Unfortunately every time it's alerted me lately, the cabin price has gone up. To the tune of $200 so far.

No OBC for me.:o

[LHP]

I have not been brave enough to try Early Saver yet.....but "might" give it a try in May when we book the Victory.....

 

thanks for all the info about how to use it to our best advantage.....

[Mary Ellen1]

Based on my experience with ES and the new website, I'd recommend this: forget about cabin category, & focus instead of cabins that are on your same deck & same area. Category is irrelevant now.

 

With my upcoming cruise, new bookings (4A's) were getting upgraded to my deck (I was a 4C on Deck 2). I theorized that category didn't matter, since the new bookings were being put into identical categories in my same area of the ship. With that rationale, I put in for OBC for the price drop & got it! :D

[2sigs]

I was frustrated at first too but now that I've figured it out it's easy. I go the carnival website and just pretend I'm booking my same type room (ie. forward, deck 8) and check to see what they are selling for that day. I'm up to $220 OBC for a December Victory sailing.

[auburn77]

I booked a cabin category that is full and probably will not have an eligible cabin open up so that I can compare the current rate with my original. But I saved so much with early saver that I really don't care.

[Albums in the Attic]

I will use the third party sites.

 

I think the problem is compounded by the fact that we're sailing in three weeks. As best I can gather, our category is sold out. For me, the problem didn't occur until the pack and go rates came out. There does not appear to be many rooms left overall, so that may be some of the difficulty.

 

As I said - I am very happy with Carnival. I just don't like the fact that they've made it so difficult to compare rates. I'd rather them just say it's too close to sailing or you are now locked in. It's like - tell me no. Just don't drive me crazy making me stand on my head looking.

 

For those that still have the ability to search the old engine - be grateful!

[cruisinmeme]

Very satisfied Carnival cruiser. Getting ready for our 6th Carnival cruise. This is the first time we've booked Early Saver. It's worked well and I have no complaints as we had a good rate and have added $120 in OBC.

 

However, Carnival has made it nearly impossible to compare rates. Both booking engines fail to give you the category. It's hard to know what is eligible for OBC and what is not - even after going through as though you would book a cruise. Again - not complaining about the price we're paying. But not knowing if we can earn more OBC is VERY frustrating.

 

Am I doing anything wrong?? Anyone know how to search by category?

 

you really don't need a catagory. you should know what deck, what type of cabin (inside, window or balcony), location (forward, mid ship, or aft) then your price comes up... is it less than what you paid?

i have two cruise's booked. one has steadily gone up in price and the other one finally went down (20.00pp) i am not the pc whiz but even i figured out how to check my price...now it takes longer for sure.

[cruisinmeme]

I was frustrated at first too but now that I've figured it out it's easy. I go the carnival website and just pretend I'm booking my same type room (ie. forward, deck 8) and check to see what they are selling for that day. I'm up to $220 OBC for a December Victory sailing.

 

you said in two lines what it took me forever to say. correct catagory doesn't matter...it's what you booked...is it cheaper today?

[cuyahoga11]

I will use the third party sites.

 

I think the problem is compounded by the fact that we're sailing in three weeks. As best I can gather, our category is sold out. For me, the problem didn't occur until the pack and go rates came out. There does not appear to be many rooms left overall, so that may be some of the difficulty.

 

As I said - I am very happy with Carnival. I just don't like the fact that they've made it so difficult to compare rates. I'd rather them just say it's too close to sailing or you are now locked in. It's like - tell me no. Just don't drive me crazy making me stand on my head looking.

 

For those that still have the ability to search the old engine - be grateful!

 

Try this link http://www.carnival.com/cms/find_a_cruise/findcruiseA.aspx?cid=DM_Post_39