Completely frustrated with ES.

[CamaCama]

I booked way out. More than a year from Spring break. I was already booked when the special came out for Veteran's Month ( Nov ) and could have gotten the 3 cabin total deal. But, because I was ES, I wasn't allowed to book the Military rate, and no other rates have even come close to the military deal.

 

Believe me, if I hadn't booked so early, I would have booked the 3 rooms in November and never looked back.

 

OK but how could you know that? Don't beat yourself up. You booked early for the cruise you want in the rooms you want (and i'm assuming you were happy with the price since you booked), if you waited those rooms may not have been available or the prices could have gone WAY up. You just never know and being ES you can still get price drops from now til you cruise, just check daily.

[CamaCama]

I'm confused or did I miss something. If the miltary rate is $100 less now then what you paid and you qualify for it, why aren't you getting the $100 OBC?

 

She said it was not combinable, so she got it for 1 room, not the other 2.

[kicia]

If you are booked ES and the military rate, or military friends and family rate, becomes available you can get the lower rate. You still remain an ES booking and if any other rate drops lower than your last price, then you can get the OBC. I know this for certain and in fact we did this in November.

[CamaCama]

If you are booked ES and the military rate, or military friends and family rate, becomes available you can get the lower rate. You still remain an ES booking and if any other rate drops lower than your last price, then you can get the OBC. I know this for certain and in fact we did this in November.

 

But if I read what she wrote right...

 

She said it was not combinable. She has 3 cabins. She was able to get the price drop on 1 but not the other 2.

[PaulMedik]

Well, you live and you learn. And I've learned my lesson. I won't ever book an ES again.

 

Now, to start off. I knew of the restrictions going in. But, I also know we'd be going on our cruise. We live in a relatively easy driving distance. It was my teen's first choice for her Spring Break trip.

 

So, I knew that it was the least flexible option, but I booked ES for the savings down the road.

 

So far.....not so impressed.

 

It started last November. When the Veteran's special ran and qualified military folks could book up to 3 rooms with one ID. My DH is fully retired ( with pension ) military. We qualified for the deal. But, because we booked an ES, it was not combinable. We got the discount for one of the three rooms we booked. The other two couldn't get the deal that was open to the public and cost me about $120 per room extra because we couldn't qualify for the price with the ES.

 

Yesterday, I got an email that my cruise is currently running a "pack and go" special. After getting the run around about whether ES qualified for that rate. ( I spoke to more than one Carnival rep ) I was told.."Yes, Early Savers do qualify, but since you're in an 8A balcony, you can't change to the pack and go rate, because it's a guarantee room and that's a down grade. If you want the pack and go rate you need to book a suite guarantee." Apparently I could upgrade my other two rooms from insides to OV guarantee's but who knows where they would have ended up, so I knew I wouldn't do that because I didn't want my teen DD on another deck. We currently have a balcony and inside across the hall, and I put my parents inside beside my DD.

 

So, the conversation went on and on and on...with the PVP putting me on hold to speak with a "resolutions person". All he kept reiterating was that if I wanted the price, I had to upgrade to the suite. Finally, I told the PVP, "Listen, I don't want to separate my family. I doubt very much that I'll take a guarantee suite, but let me talk with my DH about it. What is the price for the guarantee suite? Back on hold. He comes back 3 minutes later. "They're not available." :rolleyes: Really?

 

So, I just spent 20 minutes on the phone with you and you're trying to sell me a category room, you don't even have to sell?

 

Wow.

 

Anyway. I have our rooms, and I'm happy with them. I'm not, however, happy that I actually paid more money and lost all flexibility BECAUSE I booked an ES rate.

 

You live and you learn. But, I'll never do that again.

 

 

Tammymacb,

 

You state you knew the restrictions? General public rates for assigned rooms means no military since military rates aren't for general public and no TBA guarantee cabins since TBA isn't assigned. That's the majority of the restrictions of ES.

 

I love ES; it has saved me enough over the years to easily pay for an extra cruise.

[Vanessa L]

Well, you live and you learn. And I've learned my lesson. I won't ever book an ES again.

 

Now, to start off. I knew of the restrictions going in. But, I also know we'd be going on our cruise. We live in a relatively easy driving distance. It was my teen's first choice for her Spring Break trip.

 

So, I knew that it was the least flexible option, but I booked ES for the savings down the road.

 

So far.....not so impressed.

 

It started last November. When the Veteran's special ran and qualified military folks could book up to 3 rooms with one ID. My DH is fully retired ( with pension ) military. We qualified for the deal. But, because we booked an ES, it was not combinable. We got the discount for one of the three rooms we booked. The other two couldn't get the deal that was open to the public and cost me about $120 per room extra because we couldn't qualify for the price with the ES.

 

Yesterday, I got an email that my cruise is currently running a "pack and go" special. After getting the run around about whether ES qualified for that rate. ( I spoke to more than one Carnival rep ) I was told.."Yes, Early Savers do qualify, but since you're in an 8A balcony, you can't change to the pack and go rate, because it's a guarantee room and that's a down grade. If you want the pack and go rate you need to book a suite guarantee." Apparently I could upgrade my other two rooms from insides to OV guarantee's but who knows where they would have ended up, so I knew I wouldn't do that because I didn't want my teen DD on another deck. We currently have a balcony and inside across the hall, and I put my parents inside beside my DD.

 

So, the conversation went on and on and on...with the PVP putting me on hold to speak with a "resolutions person". All he kept reiterating was that if I wanted the price, I had to upgrade to the suite. Finally, I told the PVP, "Listen, I don't want to separate my family. I doubt very much that I'll take a guarantee suite, but let me talk with my DH about it. What is the price for the guarantee suite? Back on hold. He comes back 3 minutes later. "They're not available." :rolleyes: Really?

 

So, I just spent 20 minutes on the phone with you and you're trying to sell me a category room, you don't even have to sell?

 

Wow.

 

Anyway. I have our rooms, and I'm happy with them. I'm not, however, happy that I actually paid more money and lost all flexibility BECAUSE I booked an ES rate.

 

You live and you learn. But, I'll never do that again.

 

We booked ES (always do) for our cruise coming up in April and also qualify for the military rate. We recently upgraded from an OV to a 8B balcony using the military rate. Then, the resident rate came out so we were able to upgrade again to the 8M aft balcony (all told it came out to $200 total for 3 of us to go from the OV on Riviera deck to the 8M on the Empress deck). ES rates ARE combinable with just about any rate out there (as we've now used past guest, military and resident rates to either upgrade or get OBC for each of our ES cruises booked). I think the issue was that you wanted to get the extra rooms, maybe? Not sure.

[firefly333]

I didn't ask for a suite gty. I *did* miss that the pack and go was a gty booking, so when I called to ask if I was able to get the pack and go fares, I was told by the PVP that I couldn't go from my 8A to a gty balcony but I could go from an 8A to a suite gty. HE was the one who kept telling me it was the only way I could get the fare, all the while going back and forth with solutions and keeping me on hold.

 

The only reason that I asked what the rate was, was because the Carnival PVP kept suggesting it. And so when I finally bit, and asked for a rate to discuss it with my husband, it didn't exist.

 

So why did we have that conversation in the first place?

 

I will say it again, *for me* the ES is a crock. I'm paying much more that I would have paid had I used the military special in Nov, and the military rates are still more than $100 less now than I'm currently paying.

 

Would I tie up my money for good to pay more for something I could have gotten for less? No.

 

Did the PVP have any freakin' clue what he was talking to me about yesterday? I don't think so.

 

I can only imagine the PVP was talking in general terms and giving examples.. and then got caught in their own web.

 

Im glad I have such a good PVP who would know better than to try to pull that on me.

 

And I too have been there with the pack n goes at a lower rate, when I sure did not care what cabin I had, and would have gladly taken the lower rate with a gty. Im not very big on the ES rate myself.. dont book it unless I just see little choice .. like I was within a few days of it dissapearing on a 5 day, 3 months and 3 days out ..close enough I had little to lose. I dont book it way out like I used to now. I distrust it too, having been caught in the ES web.

[Cricket63]

I booked way out. More than a year from Spring break. I was already booked when the special came out for Veteran's Month ( Nov ) and could have gotten the 3 cabin total deal. But, because I was ES, I wasn't allowed to book the Military rate, and no other rates have even come close to the military deal.

 

Believe me, if I hadn't booked so early, I would have booked the 3 rooms in November and never looked back.

 

Why aren't you allowed to get an ES price drop from a Military rate? If you/your spouse is Military or past Military you should be able to. I do it all the time under ES.

[JohnSpo]

Why don't you just cancel and eat the $50 pp fee. You can then start a new booking and apply your deposits less the $50 pp fee and pay the lower price you are referring to. I have done this before and it worked for me when friends wanted to go on a different ship. I wound up getting a better cabin and price and saved some good money cancelling on the ES.

[tammymacb]

Why aren't you allowed to get an ES price drop from a Military rate? If you/your spouse is Military or past Military you should be able to. I do it all the time under ES.

 

What I couldn't do was book the November deal. Up to 3 rooms at the military sale price.

 

Right now, we have set up, balcony room- booked under myself and my teen.

 

Inside across the hall- booked under DH and second teen.

 

Inside also- my parents.

 

If I'd just booked in November, I could have booked all 3 rooms with the military rate ( each room at over $100 saving ), instead I could book one room ( the one in my husband's name ) at the military rate, and the other two were no able to get the fare.

 

So, currently, my DHs room is a lower military rate, but all of the others are much higher, because we were unable to book both the military F&F rate, and the ES together.

[buddylover]

I'm sorry. I never said I wanted to downgrade. I asked for the suite price guarantee that the PVP rambled about only to be told that there wasn't one.

 

I'm not asking for anything other than to be guaranteed the best rate. Which I don't have ONLY because I booked an ES.

 

It is not very often that another rate is BETTER than the ES rate....we have never seen that happen. Oh, CCL offers "sales" etc with OBC, upgrades etc, but if you read the fine print it is for the highest fare rate which has always been HIGHER than the ES rate. We have been very lucky, we know if we need to cancel we will forfeit $50 p/p, but generally the fare on an ES rate is well below a $50 p/p difference, so we would still be ahead. We just had a $250 price reduction on our Med cruise that we got due to ES, and the ES price was hundreds of dollars less than any other fare offered when we booked.....we have always booked ES and have had good luck with it being the lowest fare offered (even when compared to any and all sales).

[helicopter]

Confussed:confused: but have a question...Is your husband still ES rate...or did he lose that when he went Military Rate. Maybe your cruise will go down with ES rate before you sail:) and all will be well:eek:

[livestocruisetoo]

I'm confused or did I miss something. If the miltary rate is $100 less now then what you paid and you qualify for it, why aren't you getting the $100 OBC?

 

Wondering the same thing. Have gotten price drops in ES when Mil rate is lower.

[livestocruisetoo]

It is not very often that another rate is BETTER than the ES rate....we have never seen that happen. Oh, CCL offers "sales" etc with OBC, upgrades etc, but if you read the fine print it is for the highest fare rate which has always been HIGHER than the ES rate. We have been very lucky, we know if we need to cancel we will forfeit $50 p/p, but generally the fare on an ES rate is well below a $50 p/p difference, so we would still be ahead. We just had a $250 price reduction on our Med cruise that we got due to ES, and the ES price was hundreds of dollars less than any other fare offered when we booked.....we have always booked ES and have had good luck with it being the lowest fare offered (even when compared to any and all sales).

 

That's what happened with our Magic cruise too. ES was $300 lower than any other rate for our cabin and eventually we got almost $500 pp in price drops before it went back up to the original price by the time we sailed. :D

[Ken076]

Well, you live and you learn. And I've learned my lesson. I won't ever book an ES again.

 

 

It started last November. When the Veteran's special ran and qualified military folks could book up to 3 rooms with one ID. My DH is fully retired ( with pension ) military. We qualified for the deal. But, because we booked an ES, it was not combinable. We got the discount for one of the three rooms we booked. The other two couldn't get the deal that was open to the public and cost me about $120 per room extra because we couldn't qualify for the price with the ES. As I understand it, you were booked 3 cabins with Early Saver and along came the Military Family Special that allows Military to book extra cabins for Family. Since all three cabins were booked Early Saver, and all three cabins were at the time "eligible" for Military Rate -- I'd ask for a supervisor in get Guest Resolutions department on a Conference call, as I think you have a legitimate case.

 

 

 

Yesterday, I got an email that my cruise is currently running a "pack and go" special. After getting the run around about whether ES qualified for that rate. ( I spoke to more than one Carnival rep ) I was told.."Yes, Early Savers do qualify, but since you're in an 8A balcony, you can't change to the pack and go rate, because it's a guarantee room and that's a down grade. If you want the pack and go rate you need to book a suite guarantee." Apparently I could upgrade my other two rooms from insides to OV guarantee's but who knows where they would have ended up, so I knew I wouldn't do that because I didn't want my teen DD on another deck. We currently have a balcony and inside across the hall, and I put my parents inside beside my DD.

 

So, the conversation went on and on and on...with the PVP putting me on hold to speak with a "resolutions person". All he kept reiterating was that if I wanted the price, I had to upgrade to the suite. Finally, I told the PVP, "Listen, I don't want to separate my family. I doubt very much that I'll take a guarantee suite, but let me talk with my DH about it. What is the price for the guarantee suite? Back on hold. He comes back 3 minutes later. "They're not available." :rolleyes: Really?

 

You can't ES price-match to a Guarantee (Pack-and-Go) booking because they're not the same Cabin Categories. However, Carnival's "procedure" for price-matching to "Pack-and-Go" is (as the rep described) that if the Pack-and-Go Category (OV, BL, ST) above your ES Category drops below your current rate, then you can give-up your ES assigned cabin for a TBA cabin in the higher category, get OBC for the difference, and of course remain ES. Some have reported that they didn't have to give up their assigned cabin. If you had an ES Balcony and there were no Guaranty "ST" to drop below your ES rate, then you cannot price-match.

 

.

 

 

Ken

[tammymacb]

Confussed:confused: but have a question...Is your husband still ES rate...or did he lose that when he went Military Rate. Maybe your cruise will go down with ES rate before you sail:) and all will be well:eek:

 

My husband's room ( the girls room ) is still an ES rate even though they did price match his room to the military discount.

 

Wondering the same thing. Have gotten price drops in ES when Mil rate is lower.

Are you saying that ES rates will match military rates even if there is no military person in the room? Currently DH's room is matched to the lower military rate, but my room and my parents room ( both also ES ) have no military guest in the room.

 

And Ken, believe me, I did take the November issue to a supervisor. Basically I was told not their problem. You picked ES, so you have to stick with it, even though it's more expensive.

[Ken076]

And Ken, believe me, I did take the November issue to a supervisor. Basically I was told not their problem. You picked ES, so you have to stick with it, even though it's more expensive.

 

It's probably not straightforward, but I think you do have a legit case. This is probably beyond a PVP and even the average supervisor. If it's worth the time to you, ask your PVP/TA to put you in contact with the Guest Resolution Desk and try to talk directly with someone there - their job is to sort out non-standard situations, and in my conversations with them have always seemed willing to accomodate legitimate concerns. Let me know what you find, or you aren't successful? The point, to me, is that you were as eligible for a military rate (due to the November Family & Friends offering) in your other two cabins as you were in your cabin. ken

[girlscruise2011]

Wondering the same thing. Have gotten price drops in ES when Mil rate is lower.

 

Another poster stated that she got the Mil rate on one room only. She wasn't able to get the rate drop for the other "2" friends & family that the November rate was given.

 

Unfortunately, we all book when we want not knowing what the rates will be. I'm sure if the OP saved $200 per room with the ES rate the week before she sailed, she would be singing its praises. Unfortunately, it doesn't always happen that way.

[BrettH]

I'm really sort of confused. It was a long day at work so I'm going to blame that. The Pack & Go Rates are for a guarantee room. If you had 3 rooms as Guarantees wouldn't you risk having rooms all over the place (even if the same category) which would go against your original desire? I'm not sure if you have 3 rooms all as guarantees that Carnival would put them near each other. Would they? I guess that I don't know.

 

As to "downgrading" from ES to the Pack & Go Rate - they can and will do that as long as it's within the same category (8a to a Balcony Guarantee, for example). That I know for a fact! Of course as a component of that you will lose the room you're assigned which brings you back to my first paragraph where I got confused.

 

Too much thinking!

[BenjiRodney]

Sorry it didn't work out to your liking. We have booked ES for the last 3 and not had an issue.

[larkz]

I always book ES. I got lucky once, so far, and saved about $100.

 

But frankly, why work yourself up into a frazzle over not being able to game the system down to the lowest price known to mankind? If the cruise is worth purchasing at the price you pay when you first book (and if you're lucky enough to claim any discount at all after that point), then what's to complain about?