FTTF before final payment?

[mmtska]

The last time we took a Carnival Cruise it was fairly last minute, and we had to pay in full when we booked. This time, we're way out-next march hopefully-and I'm looking into getting FTTF. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm just wondering if we need to be paid in full before we book anything like that. The only other cruise we've been on is Disney, and we had to have final payment before we booked anything. Thanks!

[Purvis1231]

Usually, they start adding to the excursions about 9 or 10 months out so keep looking. Good luck!

[bury me at sea]

You don't have to be paid in full to book excursions (FTTF is an excursion under your home port) or buy items for your cabin or make specialty dining reservations (available only on certain ships.)

 

You do have to pay for these things at the time you order them.

 

Log in to your Cruise Manager to see what's available on your cruise.

[Joe817]

1 hour ago, bury me at sea said:

You don't have to be paid in full to book excursions (FTTF is an excursion under your home port) or buy items for your cabin or make specialty dining reservations (available only on certain ships.)

 

You do have to pay for these things at the time you order them.

 

Log in to your Cruise Manager to see what's available on your cruise.

We purchased FTTF about 2 weeks after we booked our Sept.13 cruise on the Freedom(back in August of 2019), with us only paying the down payment($250 total). So when you see it's available, you'd better jump on the opportunity. The FTTF offering does not last long. 

[Organized Chaos]

1 hour ago, mmtska said:

The last time we took a Carnival Cruise it was fairly last minute, and we had to pay in full when we booked. This time, we're way out-next march hopefully-and I'm looking into getting FTTF. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm just wondering if we need to be paid in full before we book anything like that. The only other cruise we've been on is Disney, and we had to have final payment before we booked anything. Thanks!

 

There's no exact time as to when FTTF will appear in your excursions. I'd say on average, it shows up about a year out from your cruise, give or take a month or two. Some have seen it well over a year out and others closer to their cruise, but a year is a good starting point. You just have to keep looking. Join a Roll Call, either here on Cruise Critic or facebook. They often post when FTTF is available.

 

The problem now is that they changed the way they display FTTF a few months ago. In the past, once it became available for a cruise, it was always displayed, even when it sold out. It would simply say "Sold Out." But now once it sells out, they remove it from your excursions completely. That can be a problem. For example, we booked our Jan. 2021 cruise last month. FTTF doesn't appear, but with their change, we have no idea if it was already made available, but is now sold out, or if it hasn't been made available at all yet. I wished they'd go back to the old way.

[mmtska]

On 4/23/2020 at 9:37 PM, bury me at sea said:

You don't have to be paid in full to book excursions (FTTF is an excursion under your home port) or buy items for your cabin or make specialty dining reservations (available only on certain ships.)

 

You do have to pay for these things at the time you order them.

 

Log in to your Cruise Manager to see what's available on your cruise.

Ok cool. Thank you!

[mmtska]

On 4/23/2020 at 11:01 PM, Joe817 said:

We purchased FTTF about 2 weeks after we booked our Sept.13 cruise on the Freedom(back in August of 2019), with us only paying the down payment($250 total). So when you see it's available, you'd better jump on the opportunity. The FTTF offering does not last long. 

I've been checking pretty much daily, but I wasn't sure I could get it unless I was paid in full. I'm close, but not completely paid heh. Thanks!

[reeinaz]

On 4/23/2020 at 11:23 PM, Organized Chaos said:

 

 

The problem now is that they changed the way they display FTTF a few months ago. In the past, once it became available for a cruise, it was always displayed, even when it sold out. It would simply say "Sold Out." But now once it sells out, they remove it from your excursions completely. That can be a problem. For example, we booked our Jan. 2021 cruise last month. FTTF doesn't appear, but with their change, we have no idea if it was already made available, but is now sold out, or if it hasn't been made available at all yet. I wished they'd go back to the old way.

It probably hasn't been made available yet. My September cruise shows FTTF as being sold out.

[Organized Chaos]

5 hours ago, reeinaz said:

It probably hasn't been made available yet. My September cruise shows FTTF as being sold out.

 

Oh, maybe they changed it back to the old way. In late Jan., there was a glitch on their website and everyone's excursions disappeared for a few hours. After everything else came back, FTTF never did...not even as "sold out." It was still that way up until the last time I looked shortly before our cruise last month, so I figured it was a permanent change. Hopefully it's back to the way it was.

[kelhag]

There is another post about FTTF. Carnival has suppended the program until they get all the changes that are going to happen with the terminals.

 

[Lee Cruiser]

15 minutes ago, kelhag said:

There is another post about FTTF. Carnival has suppended the program until they get all the changes that are going to happen with the terminals.

 

 

Yep, that appears to be the case.  There is a video talking about it on the other post.

 

 

[Joe817]

Lovely. Just lovely.   We were SOOOO looking forward to be some the first to board. *heavy sigh*  Looks like it's not to be. I wonder how it will be refunded? Credit back to original form of payment, or OBC? Anyone care to speculate? 

 

Talk about things up in the air!  It seems like EVERYTHING is! 

[2Shoes2Go]

2 minutes ago, Joe817 said:

Lovely. Just lovely.   We were SOOOO looking forward to be some the first to board. *heavy sigh*  Looks like it's not to be. I wonder how it will be refunded? Credit back to original form of payment, or OBC? Anyone care to speculate? 

 

Talk about things up in the air!  It seems like EVERYTHING is! 

Most likely it will be refunded to original form of payment.

[LotusLane]

I went to John Heald's FB page and looked up his response.  He said it's on Hold but should be returning. It's been listed as sold out for my cruise for awhile and I was able to purchase it today. His last response to this question was an hour ago (on his FB page of this this timestamp) and said there are no changes as of right now and if there are, there will be an announcement.  

[Joe817]

30 minutes ago, LotusLane said:

I went to John Heald's FB page and looked up his response.  He said it's on Hold but should be returning. It's been listed as sold out for my cruise for awhile and I was able to purchase it today. His last response to this question was an hour ago (on his FB page of this this timestamp) and said there are no changes as of right now and if there are, there will be an announcement.  

Good to know. Thanks Lotus! See? Like I said, EVERYTHING is up in the air right now. Grrrrrr.

[Organized Chaos]

That other thread wasn't discussing anything official. They were just speculating. There also isn't a video in that thread. I went to JH's page and looked through posts for the last couple weeks, but can't find anything about it...unless it's being talked about in the replies to a different post.

 

This is where all these speculations gets out of hand. One person thinks something has happen or something will happen, then it's picked up & spread around like it's official. It does more harm than good.

[LotusLane]

15 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

That other thread wasn't discussing anything official. They were just speculating. There also isn't a video in that thread. I went to JH's page and looked through posts for the last couple weeks, but can't find anything about it...unless it's being talked about in the replies to a different post.

 

This is where all these speculations gets out of hand. One person thinks something has happen or something will happen, then it's picked up & spread around like it's official. It does more harm than good.

I was really worried.  There was a video from a TA on Youtube (looks like the post disappeared).  She said John Heald's assistant mentioned something etc etc.  I tried to get to his blog but it wouldn't load. Long story short, I found a few other cruisers asking him questions about it and his response was what I posted.  I personally like FTTF and couldn't find anything official on Carnival's site.  You're right.  One person speculating made it sound like it was one and done when that's far from the truth.  

Edited April 29, 2020 by LotusLane

[Joe817]

Well, I just logged into Carnival's website to look at my cruise docs. Mainly to look at the luggage tags. I could have sworn that the luggage tag had the FTTF logo in the red circle when I checked it 2 or 3 months ago. But it's not there now on the luggage tag. Now it still shows on the booking details page, as being purchased, which we did back in Sept. 2019. But it's not on the luggage tags anymore....unless I was having another 'senior moment' when I thought I saw it a few months back, and I imagined it all. Isn't it usually there on the tags?

[Lee Cruiser]

46 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

That other thread wasn't discussing anything official. They were just speculating. There also isn't a video in that thread. I went to JH's page and looked through posts for the last couple weeks, but can't find anything about it...unless it's being talked about in the replies to a different post.

 

This is where all these speculations gets out of hand. One person thinks something has happen or something will happen, then it's picked up & spread around like it's official. It does more harm than good.

My apologies, but the video was there earlier.  It has since been deleted.  It was from a travel agent who discussed that it was being suspended until Carnival knows how port operations will be upon return.  I don't have my office computer with me right now to look at the history to post it myself.

[LotusLane]

38 minutes ago, Joe817 said:

Well, I just logged into Carnival's website to look at my cruise docs. Mainly to look at the luggage tags. I could have sworn that the luggage tag had the FTTF logo in the red circle when I checked it 2 or 3 months ago. But it's not there now on the luggage tag. Now it still shows on the booking details page, as being purchased, which we did back in Sept. 2019. But it's not on the luggage tags anymore....unless I was having another 'senior moment' when I thought I saw it a few months back, and I imagined it all. Isn't it usually there on the tags?

I was able to purchase FTTF when I booked my cruise a year ago.  My luggage tag never had the logo on it.  I thought that was weird since every cruise I had the logo was there.  Perhaps they are doing something different?  My boarding pass still says FTTF.  I know the system has been acting weird for me.  Super glitchy.  

[PhillyFan33579]

[PhillyFan33579]

The comments above were what I read. Sorry my skills at cutting and pasting comments from FB aren’t very good. 

[Joe817]

10 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

The comments above were what I read. Sorry my skills at cutting and pasting comments from FB aren’t very good. 

Without your efforts to cut/paste, we would have not known what he DID say, and a lot of us, were wanting to know. Thank you.  👍

[Organized Chaos]

19 hours ago, Joe817 said:

Well, I just logged into Carnival's website to look at my cruise docs. Mainly to look at the luggage tags. I could have sworn that the luggage tag had the FTTF logo in the red circle when I checked it 2 or 3 months ago. But it's not there now on the luggage tag. Now it still shows on the booking details page, as being purchased, which we did back in Sept. 2019. But it's not on the luggage tags anymore....unless I was having another 'senior moment' when I thought I saw it a few months back, and I imagined it all. Isn't it usually there on the tags?

 

If you bought FTTF, then yes, the logo should be on the luggage tags. Since FTTF includes priority luggage delivery, that logo is an indication for the crew to sort it along with the priority luggage. Ours had the logo as recently as last month. It could be a glitch or it could be that, since they've suspended it temporarily, your luggage tags have been changed accordingly. Maybe it'll come back if they decide to keep FTTF going for your cruise. Do you have FTTF on your boarding pass? The logo should be in the upper left corner and your boarding zone should be "FTTF."

[Joe817]

31 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

If you bought FTTF, then yes, the logo should be on the luggage tags. Since FTTF includes priority luggage delivery, that logo is an indication for the crew to sort it along with the priority luggage. Ours had the logo as recently as last month. It could be a glitch or it could be that, since they've suspended it temporarily, your luggage tags have been changed accordingly. Maybe it'll come back if they decide to keep FTTF going for your cruise. Do you have FTTF on your boarding pass? The logo should be in the upper left corner and your boarding zone should be "FTTF."

Welllll, low and behold it's back. The FTTF logo on the luggage tags. I promise it wasn't there last night! Oh. I was going to attempt to print the boarding pass, but it wouldn't give me that option. Probably, as I haven't done the online check in, and won't be able to until June 15. That's the only thing I can figure out.