AARP Carnival Gift Cards

[mitsugirly]

13 hours ago, Petersonfcu said:

Yes, when you first go to the slot machine and set up your account, it will ask you if you want to charge the funds to your room.  You do that, and the gift cards on your sign and sail account will be used to fund your slot account,.

 

Awesome! Thank you!

[pamesacruisin]

I just bought $7,000 worth of aarp gift cards to book the Carnival Splendor departing Sydney. I put a lot of time and effort doing mock bookings and choosing just the right cabins.  No where was there anything that led me to believe that gift cards would not be accepted.  Why would I even question it when the booking is in USD? I have just been told by Carnival that I cannot use the gift cards for a ship that uses Australian currency on board. Has anyone found a way around this? I'm paying for this cruise in USD, but the PVP said I can't use the gift cards to pay. 

[ab19902]

8 minutes ago, pamesacruisin said:

I just bought $7,000 worth of aarp gift cards to book the Carnival Splendor departing Sydney. I put a lot of time and effort doing mock bookings and choosing just the right cabins.  No where was there anything that led me to believe that gift cards would not be accepted.  Why would I even question it when the booking is in USD? I have just been told by Carnival that I cannot use the gift cards for a ship that uses Australian currency on board. Has anyone found a way around this? I'm paying for this cruise in USD, but the PVP said I can't use the gift cards to pay. 

I'm not sure there is a way around this, unfortunately. Someone else can say if they have a work-around. But this is directly from Carnival FAQ's on gift cards:

 

"Carnival Gift cards cannot be redeemed on Carnival ships based in Australia."

[canes20]

24 minutes ago, pamesacruisin said:

I just bought $7,000 worth of aarp gift cards to book the Carnival Splendor departing Sydney. I put a lot of time and effort doing mock bookings and choosing just the right cabins.  No where was there anything that led me to believe that gift cards would not be accepted.  Why would I even question it when the booking is in USD? I have just been told by Carnival that I cannot use the gift cards for a ship that uses Australian currency on board. Has anyone found a way around this? I'm paying for this cruise in USD, but the PVP said I can't use the gift cards to pay. 

[pamesacruisin]

6 minutes ago, canes20 said:

Of course, it would have helped if the PVP would have told me.  She held the booking while I bought the cards.  She only learned when she tried to apply them.  Seems a Carnival PVP should have known and told me ahead of time.  Lesson learned for both of us.  

[ab19902]

10 minutes ago, pamesacruisin said:

Of course, it would have helped if the PVP would have told me.  She held the booking while I bought the cards.  She only learned when she tried to apply them.  Seems a Carnival PVP should have known and told me ahead of time.  Lesson learned for both of us.  

That's a horrible way to learn a lesson, that's a lot of money. Can you book another cruise (or 7) with that money in the meantime?

[ninjacat123]

Or sell a gift card or two to a good friend or relative that you know would pay you that also likes to cruise Carnival?  At least the gift cards don't expire. Sorry this happened to you.

[canes20]

13 hours ago, pamesacruisin said:

Of course, it would have helped if the PVP would have told me.  She held the booking while I bought the cards.  She only learned when she tried to apply them.  Seems a Carnival PVP should have known and told me ahead of time.  Lesson learned for both of us.  

It does stink that you have the money tied up in gift cards now. Maybe you can find a friend to buy the cards if you need to sell them like @ninjacat123 mentioned.

[mfs2k]

I suggest you initiate a chargeback with your credit card company. The PVP should have told you. They can credit your account and void the cards. Not that big a deal. It’s all electronic transferring. 

[canes20]

1 hour ago, mfs2k said:

I suggest you initiate a chargeback with your credit card company. The PVP should have told you. They can credit your account and void the cards. Not that big a deal. It’s all electronic transferring. car

The cards were not purchased though Carnival. It would not be a simple transfer.

[stjohnbeachlover]

On 3/27/2024 at 1:47 PM, pamesacruisin said:

I just bought $7,000 worth of aarp gift cards to book the Carnival Splendor departing Sydney. I put a lot of time and effort doing mock bookings and choosing just the right cabins.  No where was there anything that led me to believe that gift cards would not be accepted.  Why would I even question it when the booking is in USD? I have just been told by Carnival that I cannot use the gift cards for a ship that uses Australian currency on board. Has anyone found a way around this? I'm paying for this cruise in USD, but the PVP said I can't use the gift cards to pay. 

I am so sorry to hear this happened to you. I was just about to purchase the AARP gift cards for my upcoming Australian cruise. I didn't realize you couldn't use them on ships sailing out of Australia.

[n6uqqq]

On 3/27/2024 at 12:24 PM, pamesacruisin said:

Of course, it would have helped if the PVP would have told me.  She held the booking while I bought the cards.  She only learned when she tried to apply them.  Seems a Carnival PVP should have known and told me ahead of time.  Lesson learned for both of us.  

Did you try to apply them yourself on your carnival dot com account? The terms and conditions may give you a little wiggle room to pay for the cruise itself but definitely not for onboard expenses. Carnival reps have been known to be wrong once or a thousand times! 

 

 

Edited April 3 by n6uqqq

[n6uqqq]

I just did a mock booking on the Splendor out of Australia and the website was going to allow me to apply a gift card online

 

 

 

 

[pamesacruisin]

24 minutes ago, n6uqqq said:

I just did a mock booking on the Splendor out of Australia and the website was going to allow me to apply a gift card online

 

 

 

 

I told the PVP that there was the option of me applying a gift card.  She checked with her supervisor who said it would eventually not accept them.  

[n6uqqq]

Just now, pamesacruisin said:

I told the PVP that there was the option of me applying a gift card.  She checked with her supervisor who said it would eventually not accept them.  

I would try on your account then. It will take it or not take it. You are paying for the cruise in US dollars so it should accept it imho. 

[pamesacruisin]

Here is an update to my AARP gift card dilemma.  All is good now and we are cruising!  We put going to Australia on hold and instead we will be cruising on the brand new Carnival Jubilee out of Galveston.  We did learn another little tidbit of information when using the cards.  You can only use 9 at a time to pay for a booking. We bought 14 to pay for the whole cruise.  When we tried to put in the 10th card it said we had reached the limit for the number of cards allowed.  I have not been able to find anything about that in the small print!  Had we have known that ahead of time, we would have made 2 separate bookings instead of putting both cabins under one.  At least we can use the remaining cards for all the on board expenses.  So hopefully this will help others when using the cards.  That's what Cruise Critic is all about, right?  😎

[cxr133]

On 3/27/2024 at 12:24 PM, pamesacruisin said:

Of course, it would have helped if the PVP would have told me.  She held the booking while I bought the cards.  She only learned when she tried to apply them.  Seems a Carnival PVP should have known and told me ahead of time.  Lesson learned for both of us.  

you can try some of the gift card sales sites.. you might have to eat 3-5%

[n6uqqq]

1 hour ago, pamesacruisin said:

Here is an update to my AARP gift card dilemma.  All is good now and we are cruising!  We put going to Australia on hold and instead we will be cruising on the brand new Carnival Jubilee out of Galveston.  We did learn another little tidbit of information when using the cards.  You can only use 9 at a time to pay for a booking. We bought 14 to pay for the whole cruise.  When we tried to put in the 10th card it said we had reached the limit for the number of cards allowed.  I have not been able to find anything about that in the small print!  Had we have known that ahead of time, we would have made 2 separate bookings instead of putting both cabins under one.  At least we can use the remaining cards for all the on board expenses.  So hopefully this will help others when using the cards.  That's what Cruise Critic is all about, right?  😎

You can always go back a second time and add more later. They just limit the number per transaction and 9 is an upgrade from the previous limit of 5 at a time. 

[pamesacruisin]

10 hours ago, n6uqqq said:

You can always go back a second time and add more later. They just limit the number per transaction and 9 is an upgrade from the previous limit of 5 at a time. 

Our cruise is in June, so we had to pay in full at the time of booking.  That's ok though, as now we have plenty of $$ to pay for gratuities, exursions, wi-fi, and beverages.  Oh and cherry on top!😋

[Doribeans]

On 3/24/2024 at 5:52 PM, Petersonfcu said:

Yes, when you first go to the slot machine and set up your account, it will ask you if you want to charge the funds to your room.  You do that, and the gift cards on your sign and sail account will be used to fund your slot account,.

Peter - does Carnival have a service charge for charging your slot account to your room? I was recently on an NCL cruise and they had a 3% service charge for charging your slot play to your room account 

[mitsugirly]

28 minutes ago, Doribeans said:

Peter - does Carnival have a service charge for charging your slot account to your room? I was recently on an NCL cruise and they had a 3% service charge for charging your slot play to your room account 

No charge. I just did this the entire cruise last week

[Petersonfcu]

4 hours ago, Doribeans said:

Peter - does Carnival have a service charge for charging your slot account to your room? I was recently on an NCL cruise and they had a 3% service charge for charging your slot play to your room account 

What mitsugirly said.  Carnival charges nothing for you to fund your slot account from your room (sail and sign) account.  Strangely, Carnival does charge you 3% if you try to buy table chips using your room account.  I find this dichotomy odd because the other cruise lines under the Carnival Corporation umbrella (e.g., Princess and Holland America) have no charge at all when using your room account to fund either slots or table chips.

Edited April 12 by Petersonfcu

[mitsugirly]

5 hours ago, Petersonfcu said:

What mitsugirly said.  Carnival charges nothing for you to fund your slot account from your room (sail and sign) account.  Strangely, Carnival does charge you 3% if you try to buy table chips using your room account.  I find this dichotomy odd because the other cruise lines under the Carnival Corporation umbrella (e.g., Princess and Holland America) have no charge at all when using your room account to fund either slots or table chips.

 

Speaking of chips...my husband try to buy chips to play the craps table and they would not allow him saying that he had to have a credit card attached to the room in order to buy chips. We purchased (over purchased actually) aarp gift cards instead of using a cc this cruise so we didn't attach our cc to the room. I thought that was strange and a bit of a let down.

[mfs2k]

32 minutes ago, mitsugirly said:

 

Speaking of chips...my husband try to buy chips to play the craps table and they would not allow him saying that he had to have a credit card attached to the room in order to buy chips. We purchased (over purchased actually) aarp gift cards instead of using a cc this cruise so we didn't attach our cc to the room. I thought that was strange and a bit of a let down.

To avoid this issue, attach a credit card to your room for pre-arrival, for any outstanding balances, then have Guest Services post your gift cards to your folio so you have a credit balance.  You can then buy chips and charge them to your room. The credit balance will offset your charges.  Any remaining balance will be charged to your credit card at the end of the cruise.  Not sure what happens if you have a remaining credit balance. 

[ski_mom]

15 minutes ago, mfs2k said:

To avoid this issue, attach a credit card to your room for pre-arrival, for any outstanding balances, then have Guest Services post your gift cards to your folio so you have a credit balance.  You can then buy chips and charge them to your room. The credit balance will offset your charges.  Any remaining balance will be charged to your credit card at the end of the cruise.  Not sure what happens if you have a remaining credit balance. 

 

When we've had a remaining credit balance, I've received an email with a new gift card of the balance.  I believe if it's under $10, they donate it to St Jude.