How many cabins before discount kicks in?

[rdrseller]

I will soon be planning a family vacation. How many cabins do you need to book, before you start getting the 1 person/cabin free? I want to try and get the best deal available and want all my peas in the pod before I call a PVP or TA.

 

Thanks for all the great advice I know I will get! These threads always turn out to be life savers!

[trigger]

I may be wrong, but I believe it is a minimum of 8 cabins.

[MelBCroozer]

Yes, it is 8 cabins. We split it up among our friends and family and everyone gets a cheaper cruise. We like organizing the cruises, but we share the free passage with everyone. Makes everyone ready to cruise again with the extra savings!!!

[cali-croozer]

You need 8 cabins to get a free berth (based on the lowest category booked in your group). However, we were able to get a group discount without meeting the 8 cabin requirement (we ended up with only 6); we also received $75 per cabin credit, $15 photo credit per cabin, champagne or sparkling apple juice (for the kids cabin), and a chocolate platter. Of course, perks do depend on the sailing. We sailed in June, a peak time, and were happy with our discount, and very surprised with the extra perks received with our documents. We weren't expecting any of them, besides the usual champagne from the TA.:)

[rdrseller]

Did you use a PVP or a TA? I was going to try and go straight through Carnival as I haven't been pleased with my TA's the last two cruises.

 

What way did you seem to get the best deal?

 

Thanks again to everyone for your advice!:)

[Cactuscruise]

As the other posters stated it's 8 cabins for a free berth (one person's fare) not a free cabin. We did this one year booking with Carnival directly but later learned we could have gotten lower cruise fare using a wholsale warehouse price club by one hundred dollars per person on balcony cabins. Now we book through a warehouse club travel service. It has been hassle free for the last few years. And we all know Carnival's customer service leaves a lo to be desired.

[cali-croozer]

I used a local TA and since she was so good to us, I'll be using her again.;)

[KristyTN]

We are sailing 8-14 with 9 cabins booked. The free berth is based on the most number of categories booked (4A, 6A, etc.). At first, we had 4 interior (4A), 1 oceanview (6A), and 4 balconies (3-8C and 1-8E). Although we had equal numbers of interior and balconies, the free berth was the interior rate since it was by category (the higher fare 8E threw it off). We then realized that to upgrade the oceanview to an 8C was about $300 but that also increased the berth discount by $240. (net difference of $60).

 

Short story, if you are really looking for a discount - try a TA or try booking rooms of the same category. Even if you book 5 different suites ($$$$) and 3 4A guaranteed inside ($), you'll only get the inside berth discount ($).