Little Elm Posted June 8, 2015 #26 Share Posted June 8, 2015 Are you talking about the gift cards that you find at Sams, Krogers, etc? If they run the promotion of the % are they specially marked? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N7786W Flyer Posted June 8, 2015 #27 Share Posted June 8, 2015 (edited) I've never seen them extend the gift card promotions to the retail outlets. To my knowledge, the promotions originating directly from Carnival (which excludes Verizon and AARP) have always been confined to the website below: https://www.carnivalgiftcards.com/Default.aspx Garnett Edited June 8, 2015 by N7786W Flyer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cessnabmw Posted June 8, 2015 #28 Share Posted June 8, 2015 If I were to buy the GCs, would I be able to play for a cruise that we are planning on booking? This would be through a TA. Would the travel agent be able to apply this towards a cruise payment? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N7786W Flyer Posted June 8, 2015 #29 Share Posted June 8, 2015 I don't see why not. I've used gift cards many times in the past to pay for cruises, excursions, etc. directly through the Carnival website. I've also used them while on board...applying them to my Sign and Sail account to pay for services, tips, photos, etc. I've never tried to use them through a travel agent, but don't see why this would be an issue. Essentially, in all my experiences, Carnival treats the cards like cash...even to the point of refunding me cash on our last cruise when I had a surplus (the surplus was created by adding gift cards to my SNS account) on my SNS account at the end of the cruise. Garnett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
volmoma Posted June 8, 2015 #30 Share Posted June 8, 2015 (edited) We just used GC's to pay our August cruise off. We use an agent that works for Carnival. Funny thing is each GC you apply you get an email with that GC credit. I used 4 and got 4 emails, the 4th one had balance paid in full. Thought that was rather odd. Edited June 8, 2015 by volmoma Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
belkin Posted June 8, 2015 #31 Share Posted June 8, 2015 Now that sounds like a deal!! I'd purchase from CCL instead of Verizon. To get the best deal you had to have a Carnival Master Card. There were some people who tried to apply for one when the deal came out but it was too late because you had to have the card in hand to make the purchase. I am hoping it comes out again on Father's Day or Black Friday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notsurewhatmynameshouldbe Posted June 8, 2015 #32 Share Posted June 8, 2015 The monday before Father's Day is the 15th. Hopefully that's the day the offer will appear! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WillWorkForVacation Posted June 8, 2015 #33 Share Posted June 8, 2015 To get the best deal you had to have a Carnival Master Card. There were some people who tried to apply for one when the deal came out but it was too late because you had to have the card in hand to make the purchase. I am hoping it comes out again on Father's Day or Black Friday. If I were to apply for the card today, how soon would I receive it in the mail? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadmoney Posted June 8, 2015 #34 Share Posted June 8, 2015 I would assume that if you used your carnival CC to buy the gift cards you would also get the 2X points. Correct? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picomullet Posted June 8, 2015 #35 Share Posted June 8, 2015 I would assume that if you used your carnival CC to buy the gift cards you would also get the 2X points.Correct? That is how it worked last year. $500 on Carnival MC=$100 Gift card Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkrchkr Posted June 8, 2015 #36 Share Posted June 8, 2015 If I were to buy the GCs, would I be able to play for a cruise that we are planning on booking? This would be through a TA. Would the travel agent be able to apply this towards a cruise payment? Thanks! Yes you certainly could.. I did this on our BC8 cruise and had no problems at all paying off our cruise.The bonus GC's I added the amount on board at guest services and was able to cash them out in the casino as the bonus ones are Non refundable obc.. which means use them or lose them.. Cheers/ Salut Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrennies Posted June 8, 2015 #37 Share Posted June 8, 2015 If I were to buy the GCs, would I be able to play for a cruise that we are planning on booking? This would be through a TA. Would the travel agent be able to apply this towards a cruise payment? Thanks! I just used gift cards to pay for our cruise through TA. The only catch is that the TA may not pay the full amount to Carnival. my cruise was close to 1000 per person with everything . I could only use 775 in gift cards for each person. Check with your TA on amount you can use before you go out and purchase a bunch. If you have purchased too much, you can put them on your casino account and cash them out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruizinisthebest Posted June 8, 2015 #38 Share Posted June 8, 2015 I just used gift cards to pay for our cruise through TA. The only catch is that the TA may not pay the full amount to Carnival. my cruise was close to 1000 per person with everything . I could only use 775 in gift cards for each person. Check with your TA on amount you can use before you go out and purchase a bunch. If you have purchased too much, you can put them on your casino account and cash them out. I don't know what your TA is doing, but this certainly sounds a bit fishy. My sister and I paid for 95% of our cruise cost using gift cards and we are booked through a TA. I had a problem one time months ago with a glitch in one card #. It was fixed within a day or two. Never any problems since. The entire amount purchased has been used on any card I've gotten and the updated invoice emailed to us soon after we make the payment. Just last week I prepaid the tips for our cabin using gift cards. No way should a TA only be using a portion of the amount of your card unless you specifically ask them to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stateroom_Sailor Posted June 8, 2015 #39 Share Posted June 8, 2015 Stateroom_Sailor, what is a journey cruise? A journey cruise, for the most part, is a 9-14 day reposition cruise headed to or from San Juan. There are a few round trips, extended Mexican Rivera, and Hawaii included too. Plus they have throwback features that were offered in the 80's. http://www.carnival.com/journeys.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N7786W Flyer Posted June 8, 2015 #40 Share Posted June 8, 2015 I don't know what your TA is doing, but this certainly sounds a bit fishy. My sister and I paid for 95% of our cruise cost using gift cards and we are booked through a TA. I had a problem one time months ago with a glitch in one card #. It was fixed within a day or two. Never any problems since. The entire amount purchased has been used on any card I've gotten and the updated invoice emailed to us soon after we make the payment. Just last week I prepaid the tips for our cabin using gift cards. No way should a TA only be using a portion of the amount of your card unless you specifically ask them to. Only thing I can think of that would restrict the amount paid is Carnival's seeming inability to take more than 9 gift cards during a single transaction. I had a bunch of $100 and $25 gift cards and was attempting to use them to make our latest reservation and ran into this on the Carnival website. Of course, it is only restricted to 9 per transaction...not 9 per booking. So, all I had to do was make my initial payment using the original 9 and then go back in and use 9 more in a second transaction. Hope this makes sense... Garnett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmmasNana Posted June 8, 2015 #41 Share Posted June 8, 2015 So, I just applied for the card. Can someone tell me how long it took to get the card in the mail? I am guessing about a week. I got in on the sale last year but do not recall how long it lasted? Anyone remember? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadmoney Posted June 8, 2015 #42 Share Posted June 8, 2015 I applied while on board on 5/11 and had the approval on 5/14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmmasNana Posted June 8, 2015 #43 Share Posted June 8, 2015 I applied while on board on 5/11 and had the approval on 5/14 I just applied online and was approved immediately. Just wondering how long it takes for the card to get here since I want to use it if they have the gift card sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stateroom_Sailor Posted June 8, 2015 #44 Share Posted June 8, 2015 I just applied online and was approved immediately. Just wondering how long it takes for the card to get here since I want to use it if they have the gift card sale. If I see the Black Friday deal pop up again, I might be applying for the Card too! We're good for a couple years, but for Hawaii, yeah I'll take the savings! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cessnabmw Posted June 8, 2015 #45 Share Posted June 8, 2015 (edited) Yes you certainly could.. I did this on our BC8 cruise and had no problems at all paying off our cruise.The bonus GC's I added the amount on board at guest services and was able to cash them out in the casino as the bonus ones are Non refundable obc.. which means use them or lose them..Cheers/ Salut I just contacted our TA. Her response was that for every $100 of GC that I use, she would deduct $25 of the OBC that the Agency was giving us :( (FYI - We were booking with TA as they were offering us $225 free OBC). So... Just asking - If I were to buy say $2000 of GCs. Can I just pay for my cruise with my MasterCard (earns 2% anyways), then take the GC's with me, load up at Casino and cash out? Would that work? Edited June 8, 2015 by cessnabmw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmmasNana Posted June 8, 2015 #46 Share Posted June 8, 2015 I just noticed an email that said my card would be here in 7-10 days, in case anyone wondered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmmasNana Posted June 8, 2015 #47 Share Posted June 8, 2015 If I see the Black Friday deal pop up again, I might be applying for the Card too! We're good for a couple years, but for Hawaii, yeah I'll take the savings! :D I figured I would get it for just such occasions. I notice it also said after the first purchase, I would get 10,000 points which is enough for $100 OBC. I don't think I would use the card for anything other than Carnival. I use my citi cashback card and get 2% back on everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sapperone40 Posted June 8, 2015 #48 Share Posted June 8, 2015 If I remember correctly...and I am going solely from memory...last year, if you bought a gift card, you received a second gift card worth 10% of the original. In other words, if you bought a $500 gift card, you received an additional $50 gift card as well. The original $500 gift card had no expiration date, but the $50 card did have an expiration date, but I can't remember how long they were good for (about 18 months I think, but I'm guessing here). There was another promotion...and it may have been last year's Black Friday...where the circumstances were similar, but with a twist. All of the above applied, but if you used the Carnival Mastercard to make the purchase of the gift card, they threw in another 10% discount on the price of the gift card itself. Someone with a better memory may remember all the particulars better than I. Garnett This was during the Thanksgiving Weekend last year they did this. If you purchased using a Mastercard they doubled the $50 to $100 and had a year to use it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparky2 Posted June 8, 2015 #49 Share Posted June 8, 2015 That makes the gift cards from AARP or Verizon much better. Getting a bonus card of 10% of your purchase is not as good as 10% off. Carnival's offer comes out to about 9.1% off. Also, the gift cards don't have an expiration. Unfortunately, they are not easy to come by. How do you buy gift cards through AARP? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pacer1 Posted June 9, 2015 #50 Share Posted June 9, 2015 I figured I would get it for just such occasions. I notice it also said after the first purchase, I would get 10,000 points which is enough for $100 OBC. I don't think I would use the card for anything other than Carnival. I use my citi cashback card and get 2% back on everything. You can shop online on their site through their 'Boost' feature and get bonus points too. Also, instead of using points for OBC, use them to pay statement. You have up to six months to accumulate more points and pay off any Carnival related expenses. That way you get double points for your S&S account and still use your points. More bang for your buck. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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