Prepayments & Preparations

[kmludwig76]

Hi All,

 

I am preparing for an upcoming cruise on the Legend, August 14th. Six of us are going, my parents, my two nieces, myself and g/f and I have taken the lead in preparation, planning, excursions, etc.

 

I am trying to prepay as much as possible. So far, I have prepaid gratuities for all six of us, ordered from bon voyage (liquor), and prepaid the excursions we've agreed to.

 

Aside from OBC or fun ship dollars, are there are places/areas that I can prepay that I'm not thining of?

 

Thanks :)

[firefly333]

Buy a FCC so next time you have free onboard credit?? I also have stock so thats another $100 of OBC .. so I have money to spend.

 

I have a RCL VISA card, that I just sent in points to get $150 more OBC .. I belive with the Carnival mastercard you can do the same?

 

I plan on how to get things paid for in advance .. but not out of my own pocket.

[Kitt Lady]

I plan from leaving our house until we are back at our house. I prepay and schedule everything. Air port parking, air port transfers (private and Carnival), Dog Kennel, envelops with tips (excursions, morning coffee delivery, taxi, etc). I also buy Fun Dollars. When we leave - there is nothing to think about or pay for - except what ever we want to buy on the islands. My DH made fun of me the whole year of planning. He LOVED having everything taken care of in advance. When we decided to go again - he wanted me to do it all again....stress free vacation...

[kmludwig76]

^^^ That's the approach I'm trying to take and as much as I read CC daily, I still feel like I'm missing something. I like to go on my vacations with all expenses accounted for.

[Kitt Lady]

I see your from Pa - So are we. If your flying out of Pittsburgh you may want to try Charlie Browns Airport Parking. That's who we use and they shuttle you back and forth to the airports. When your back they will have your car ready to go too. The have a website.

[JoyB]

You sound alot like me, I like everything paid for before I go. I pay for tips, speicality resturants, luggage express , tranfers and bag fees for the airlines. if I cant pre pay ,I but the money aside so it can be paid as soon I get there.

[kmludwig76]

I am from PA, suburbs of Philadelphia though ... so we fly out of Philly.

 

Also, I want to surprise my parents with a few things once we get on board...some OBC, but also some little tangible things that won't be too costly all added up. Any suggestions??

[ccruisequeen]

Go on the Carnival web-site-- they may have a "gifts" or shopping page for fruit plates, decoratons, etc

[Kitt Lady]

This year we are taking our kids (adults). One has a birthday the day we arrive and the other is the day we arrive home. So I am having the rooms decorated for their birthdays. I'm debating on a cake being sent too. You can see them on Carnival's website. They have Bon Voyage decoration ones too.

[crusinpsychRN]

Buy a FCC so next time you have free onboard credit?? I also have stock so thats another $100 of OBC .. so I have money to spend.

 

I have a RCL VISA card, that I just sent in points to get $150 more OBC .. I belive with the Carnival mastercard you can do the same?

 

I plan on how to get things paid for in advance .. but not out of my own pocket.

 

How much stock do you have to own to get OBC?

[serene56]

I am from PA, suburbs of Philadelphia though ... so we fly out of Philly.

 

Also, I want to surprise my parents with a few things once we get on board...some OBC, but also some little tangible things that won't be too costly all added up. Any suggestions??

 

 

I would NOT prepay for parking any more- did that once and it actually would have costs me less if I paid when I was leaving.

 

We use http://philadelphia.centralparking.com/Philadelphia-7601-Essington-Avenue-Parking.html

[taszmom]

Min of 100 shares is needed. I just submitted for my OBC for my upcoming 6 day cruise, I get $50. 7 days is $100 and then 14+ is $250 You can also get the OBC on Holland, Princess, Seabourm, Cunard, Costa. Google Carnival Corp Shareholders Benefits for info.

[mikesteg]

Buy a FCC so next time you have free onboard credit?? I also have stock so thats another $100 of OBC .. so I have money to spend.

 

I have a RCL VISA card, that I just sent in points to get $150 more OBC .. I belive with the Carnival mastercard you can do the same?

 

I plan on how to get things paid for in advance .. but not out of my own pocket.

 

Have you looked at Cap1? It's a 2% return when paying for travel, and you don't have to meet certain tiers of mileage to redeem. At least, I've used it to pay for Bon Voyage and partial payments to Carnival, which means you can effectively use whatever points you have available by making a payment in that amount.

 

There is an annual fee after the first year, but that's pretty quickly offset in our case by the extra 1%.

 

 

Min of 100 shares is needed. I just submitted for my OBC for my upcoming 6 day cruise, I get $50. 7 days is $100 and then 14+ is $250 You can also get the OBC on Holland, Princess, Seabourm, Cunard, Costa. Google Carnival Corp Shareholders Benefits for info.

 

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9MzUxMTh8Q2hpbGRJRD0tMXxUeXBlPTM=&t=1

(PDF file)

 

Anybody done this lately? Last fall I submitted and got an email response that it had been credited within a couple of hours. I submitted earlier this week, and so far nothing but the automated response. Can't view/print docs today, so I can't check to see if it's there. Do they reply by email these days, or maintain radio silence as they have done in years past?

 

 

OP: this isn't prepay per se, but start saving singles and five dollar bills. Much easier (and cheaper) to tip porters and such that way, and just setting them aside over time makes it sort of like free money. At least you don't have to go get it out of the bank before the trip.

[prchoudh]

Hi All,

 

I am preparing for an upcoming cruise on the Legend, August 14th. Six of us are going, my parents, my two nieces, myself and g/f and I have taken the lead in preparation, planning, excursions, etc.

 

I am trying to prepay as much as possible. So far, I have prepaid gratuities for all six of us, ordered from bon voyage (liquor), and prepaid the excursions we've agreed to.

 

Aside from OBC or fun ship dollars, are there are places/areas that I can prepay that I'm not thining of?

 

Thanks :)

 

On my second to the last cruise, i prepaid all my shore excursions that I wanted to go on. Then when I got on the ship I started to want to do some other things in the port. Some of these became difficult to cancel because of penalties and such. It also became a problem when I planned a snorkeling excursion for Belize and it was rainy, windy and cold that day. The snorkeling still happened but the water was VERY rough. I was able to swim through it but my wife could not.