Can I pay cruise fare/balance with VISA gift cards?

[mook1525]

Hello fellow cruisers!

 

Long story short- I have four $500 VISA gift card (debit card) totaling $2,000 in my bag lol

 

I guess this is two separate questions- 
 

1. Can I book Carnival cruise with generic VISA gift card?

 

2. if it’s allowed, can I pay my balance with additional VISA gift card?

 

for example, total cruise fare I am looking at is $3,500

 

can I pay $2,000 with VISA gift card and remaining $1,500 with my credit card?

 

I really don’t want to spend these gift cards for random shopping spree.

 

many thanks in advance!

 

 

[teknoge3k]

Yes, you can. 

[Pyxie]

You can, but it's possible that Carnival will try to place a hold larger than what is actually on the cards and it may decline. I tried to pay using a prepaid Visa recently and ran into this issue. I had to pay less than what was actually on the card for it to go through.

Edited December 14, 2022 by Pyxie

[serene56]

Do NOT throw the cards away because if you cancel that money goes back to the card that was charged 

 

[pe4all]

And just to add to the above - we always brought two $200 visa gift cards to add to our onboard account.  Did it for at least 10 previous cruises. (our kids would get them from relatives for birthday and we would give the cash for them as they hated using them).  On our first cruise after restart I brought the gift cards to guest services, who said they would not put them on accounts anymore.  Tried it on the second restart cruise and same thing happened.  Just beware.

[virginiab]

I always use any remaining balance on gift cards to pay down my cruise balance. It's a good way to use them up. I rhink you will find a difference between paying your fare with gift cards (probably still allowed) and using visa gift cards for onboard expenses (apparently not currently allowed). 

[redsox1584]

You could also buy Carnival gift cards with the Visa gift cards and then use those