Are the $0/$20 last minute deals normal, or a COVID thing?

[Joebucks]

I don't know how anyone could believe that this is some sort of long-term strategy by Carnival. Marketing exists to sell the product. They want people to try cruising again. From what I have noticed, it is not unlimited $0/$25 offers. It appears to be a one-time thing to get you back.

 

There are lots of activities that drive revenue and profit on the ship instead of just casinos. If you were a cruise company, and you knew a passenger on average spent $1000 extra onboard, would you want them to come back? Carnival needs to show they can drive revenue.

[cruisingguy007]

It looks like they are only there to lure folks back to give cruising a try. I booked a different rate and didn't use the free/$10/$20/$150 casino code offer because of a scheduling conflict. That conflict has resolved itself and I went back today to try and book one in March and all of those deals have been pulled now. It was there for a few days after booking. Guess I missed the boat, quite literally lol.  

[Itried4498]

8 hours ago, Joebucks said:

I don't know how anyone could believe that this is some sort of long-term strategy by Carnival. Marketing exists to sell the product. They want people to try cruising again. From what I have noticed, it is not unlimited $0/$25 offers. It appears to be a one-time thing to get you back.

 

There are lots of activities that drive revenue and profit on the ship instead of just casinos. If you were a cruise company, and you knew a passenger on average spent $1000 extra onboard, would you want them to come back? Carnival needs to show they can drive revenue.

 

Several posters who’ve sailed recently received the offer.  You’re correct, in 2019, the average Carnival passenger spent an average of $50-something a day in incidents charges.  It appears the offers are limited to those who hadn’t booked a cruise in the Q1.  
 

Ships have huge fixed costs, so rather than let a room go unoccupied, Carnival is giving the rooms away in hopes of attracting incidental spending.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the “trigger” is those who’ve spent large amounts of money onboard - obviously the casino is the most lucrative, since it’s almost entirely pure profit, but drinks, meal up charges and spa spending would be lucrative as well (and persons some excursions, although the commission is probably less than the other categories).

[Jeafl]

41 minutes ago, cruisingguy007 said:

It looks like they are only there to lure folks back to give cruising a try. I booked a different rate and didn't use the free/$10/$20/$150 casino code offer because of a scheduling conflict. That conflict has resolved itself and I went back today to try and book one in March and all of those deals have been pulled now. It was there for a few days after booking. Guess I missed the boat, quite literally lol.  

Same with me.  Once we booked a cruise all of those good rates disappeared.