Fttf, players club, cheers program

[Cruisegirl6]

We just got off the Fascination today, it was a last minute getaway for us which we booked two weeks ago...I will be writing a very lengthily review on her tomorrow.

 

FTTF- Its definitely worth $50 per cabin, our luggage was at our cabin when our rooms were ready at 12:30, we disembarked and they made sure we would have elevator service down to deck 3 where you disembark, no walking down the staircase. Our luggage was right next to the customs booth, you get a special line at guest services should you need to speak to them and avoid the large long regular lines and if you have specially dining available on the ship you get priority seating/reservations....definately worth every penney!

 

PLAYERS CLUB- Carnival sure knows how to treat their players club members special. My other half within 15 minutes entering the casino was approached by the casino manager (how she knew he was a member is beyond me but maybe something to do with when he put in his sail card in the machine she saw his points) and was given Drinks on Us program immediately. We also got chocolate covered strawberries one evening, pastries another night and a bottle of wine another in the MDR. She approached and spoke to us every evening and she even gave my father in law and myself some comp cocktails. They know how to treat their players...oh he got $150 credit too lol.

 

CHEERS PROGRAM- OMGosh definitely worth it!! If you drink 6 drinks a day you must get it, the average drink cost $8.00 (many drinks do cost $8.75 which includes the daily special). It gives you the availability of choosing a better wine (up to $10), it includes a variety of cognacs as well as other top brands of liquor. Your limited to 15 a day but I never went past 13 (reached it last night lol) but usually had 10 per day. The drinks were never watered down they were made as if we paid for each one without having the program. It also included soda.

 

CHEERS AND PLAYERS CLUB- We had the cheers program and my other half who is a players club member had his Drink on Us program too!

[kona_wahine]

How do you become a players club member? I play the slots when cruising, so know about signing in with my S&S card. Do you have to gamble a certain amount to get any benefit?

[LUVMYGSDOG]

Glad you had a great time! I remember you had lots of Fascination questions before you cruised. We cruise on her next month so I was following all your post!

 

Will be watching for your review!

 

 

Kim

[sassy0930]

I don't know the itinerary for that ship, was it a port-heavy cruise? Just wondering for Cheers, if you made good use of it even if you were in port for a good portion of most days.

[maldenmusic]

FTTF- Its definitely worth $50 per cabin, our luggage was at our cabin when our rooms were ready at 12:30,

 

I thought with F2TF you could go to your cabin immediately so I'm confused. That's the only reason I bought it for my June cruise.

[Cruisegirl6]

Kona-wahine- How it happened to my other half and myself is that we played and asked to sign up, but my other half always reaches the 1500 point mark during the cruise...three years ago he was given the drinks on us program and ever since we gone he automatically gets free drinks, but I believe it has to to do with the amount of points he has gotten and the fact we been on a few Carnival cruises the past three years...to Carnival, he is a high roller haha *(no way he is in fact he only plays slots). He received 150 dollars on this past cruise and I only got a lousy 20 lol but they treat him very well giving incentives for playing.

 

LoveMYGSDog- Yes, I did have lots of questions and many nice people answered them but I found that it was not the case from what they told me. I believe this is due to the fact that I just went, Carnival has more cut backs and things have changed. I went on her twice in the past year and half and I heard about the cut backs this is why I asked questions, but I myself seen that things have changed so much in the food area from my last cruise which was only 10 months ago, its a shame, Carnival thinks they are saving money when in fact the opposite is happening....I will explain and write my review today.

 

Sassy0930- We had the 5 night itinerary, went to Key West and Nassau. In Nassau we were docked from 12-8pm. We are not heavy drinkers by no means but on a cruise we tend to have our cocktails. If you think, being up since 9:30 am (having a bloody mary or a mimosa with breakfast) and going to sleep on average 1:30-2am, that is 14 hours awake...so even if I had 12 drinks thats only one drink an hour and certainly not enough to get to the head. The first day we had 9 drinks each, the sea days we had 11-13, Key West we were docked 7am-3pm we had 11, in Nassau we were docked 12-8pm and had 11 and the last evening was sea day we had 13. We hired our own personal tour guide for Nassau and were off the ship for 4 1/2 hours, in Key West we took the Trolley Tour which was 90 minutes then walked around for another hour. If you drink 6 drinks in the course of a day being that the average cost for a drink is $8.00 for cocktail...and 5.75 for a beer and 7.50 for a glass of wine (frozen drinks, drink of the day and many other drinks are $8.75 and martini's $9.50) and the fact it includes the tip (we always gave an additional $1 per drink but the 15% tip is included in the price of the cheers package and most don't tip extra) you will get your monies worth. It also includes soda too.

 

maidenmusic- Last time we had a junior suite and yes, we went right to our cabins but this time we were told and we checked ourselves, the cabin was available at 12:30. I believe if you have a suite or junior suite those cabins are available right away. We had the understanding that even without the junior suite or suite our cabins would be ready right away but they were not. We were going to bring our luggage on board with us thinking this and dropping off the luggage in the cabin right away, fortunately something told me to check the luggage which I am glad we did so we didn't have to lug it around for the hour time waiting for the cabin to be ready, and yes, our luggage was right there waiting for us.

[sassy0930]

Sassy0930- We had the 5 night itinerary, went to Key West and Nassau. In Nassau we were docked from 12-8pm. We are not heavy drinkers by no means but on a cruise we tend to have our cocktails. If you think, being up since 9:30 am (having a bloody mary or a mimosa with breakfast) and going to sleep on average 1:30-2am, that is 14 hours awake...so even if I had 12 drinks thats only one drink an hour and certainly not enough to get to the head. The first day we had 9 drinks each, the sea days we had 11-13, Key West we were docked 7am-3pm we had 11, in Nassau we were docked 12-8pm and had 11 and the last evening was sea day we had 13. We hired our own personal tour guide for Nassau and were off the ship for 4 1/2 hours, in Key West we took the Trolley Tour which was 90 minutes then walked around for another hour. If you drink 6 drinks in the course of a day being that the average cost for a drink is $8.00 for cocktail...and 5.75 for a beer and 7.50 for a glass of wine (frozen drinks, drink of the day and many other drinks are $8.75 and martini's $9.50) and the fact it includes the tip (we always gave an additional $1 per drink but the 15% tip is included in the price of the cheers package and most don't tip extra) you will get your monies worth. It also includes soda too.

 

Thank you for the detailed answer! That is really helpful. I keep wavering back and forth, so I think I'll bring some cash to cover it (our credit card is a low-limit to limit risk of fraud, so I don't want to tie the whole thing up with just the Cheers!) and if we want it, I'll put the cash on the account, and if we don't, the cash will stay in the safe.

[Cruisegirl6]

Perfect :)

[Anyislandwilldo]

With FTTF, your rooms are suppose to be ready when you board and your luggage waiting for you as well. That's the advantage of paying for it. We were on the Victory last month with FTTF and our room was semi ready and our luggage did not show up until 1:30 even though we were in our rooms by 11:15. I wrote Carninal and now have a $50 credit for our next cruise.

[cdamion]

With FTTF, your rooms are suppose to be ready when you board and your luggage waiting for you as well. That's the advantage of paying for it. We were on the Victory last month with FTTF and our room was semi ready and our luggage did not show up until 1:30 even though we were in our rooms by 11:15. I wrote Carninal and now have a $50 credit for our next cruise.

 

This is what I thought. I don't care so much about luggage arrival, but certainly - especially on the shorter Victory cruises - the advantage is having access to the cabin right away.

 

One note about luggage, I have heard that it is helpful to point out FTTF to the porters because they frequently don't see it and just put the luggage with the rest.

[Fitzget]

I have a (dumb?) question. The Cheers! program says it includes "spirits and non-alcoholic frozen drinks". I assume it includes alcoholic frozen drinks too? To me, a frozen drink is not a spirit, so I just want to make sure it includes those before I spend $385 on the program. :)

[sassy0930]

I have a (dumb?) question. The Cheers! program says it includes "spirits and non-alcoholic frozen drinks". I assume it includes alcoholic frozen drinks too? To me, a frozen drink is not a spirit, so I just want to make sure it includes those before I spend $385 on the program. :)

 

I can answer this! YES! It includes ALL alcoholic beverages 10 and under. You get up to 15 of those per day. You can ALSO get an unlimited number of non-alcoholic frozen drinks. So if you really love a Miami-Vice, but you don't want the booze, you can get as many as you can drink.

[Fitzget]

I can answer this! YES! It includes ALL alcoholic beverages 10 and under. You get up to 15 of those per day. You can ALSO get an unlimited number of non-alcoholic frozen drinks. So if you really love a Miami-Vice, but you don't want the booze, you can get as many as you can drink.

 

Awesome, thanks for replying. Then I definitely think it's worth it for me!

[aaw2407]

I have seen many posts about the players club, but no one has answered the question of how much a person has to spend on average to get the perks (such as drinks on us card, strawberries, etc)? My husband and I love to gamble and we mostly play table games, but I don't know if we will ever make it to some free things with how we play and I'm just curious.

[fishtaco]

With FTTF, your rooms are suppose to be ready when you board and your luggage waiting for you as well. That's the advantage of paying for it. We were on the Victory last month with FTTF and our room was semi ready and our luggage did not show up until 1:30 even though we were in our rooms by 11:15. I wrote Carninal and now have a $50 credit for our next cruise.

 

Carnival possibly took that $50 credit you got out of your room stewards share of Gratuities for being so blatantly slack and non understanding to your urgent luggage needs :D:D:D

[Cruisegirl6]

I don't know the cost to how much you spend to get the perks of the players club but anybody can sign up at the casino cashier, then when you hit 1500 points on a 7 night cruse you get the drink on us program...I believe if you get to 1500 points in a year you get the free drinks in the casino and if you take another carnival cruise within 12 months it carries over, if you don't sail within 12 months it may start over. I cannot answer this exactly for sure because we cruise a few times a year maybe somebody else can give you the definite answer. As far as the amount of cash needed to get to the points my other half always makes it, I bet a bit above minimum in the slots and never reach 1000 points so I never get the perks myself.

 

We had the FTTF program and our room was not ready until 12:30 and we didn't mind it because if we didn't have that program, our room be ready at 1:30 instead and we also got priority disembarkation and our luggage to our room was waiting for us when we arrived there at 12:30...I also would assume the person that received the credit it probably did come out of the room stewards tip.

[beachbaby2]

would the shots that they come around with at dinner time be included in the drink package? as well as shots at the bars?

[Out to sea!]

would the shots that they come around with at dinner time be included in the drink package? as well as shots at the bars?

 

As long as they are less than $10, they will be included in the Cheers program. They will also count against your 15 drink maximum.

[pops72106]

I believe if you get to 1500 points in a year you get the free drinks in the casino and if you take another carnival cruise within 12 months it carries over, if you don't sail within 12 months it may start over. I cannot answer this exactly for sure because we cruise a few times a year maybe somebody else can give you the definite answer.

 

Never heard of this, my wife almost always gets the drinks on us card and we took 4 cruises last year and she had to earn it every cruise