Carnival Vacation Club...Good or Bad??

[GTO-Girl]

Last week on our cruise we saw a couple with one of the Carnival Vacation planners. We saw them signing a contract in a bunch of different places and then handing over their credit card to her. I got the impression it kind of like a Time Share but please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Just curious if anyone had personal experience with this. Don't flame me because I didn't ask while on board, my husband REFUSES to listen to sales pitches.

[Guienevere_Arianette]

Try this; found using search function above

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/search.php?searchid=4571700

[LHP]

Here is another thread with comments from some people who have purchased these packages.

 

http://cruise-chat.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/452603081/m/5941066461/p/1

[mrBit]

The program has worked well for us and the points were cheaper for the two cruises I used them. I did the math on another thread. Simply use the search tool for CVC or Carnival Vacation Club.

There are others who like the program as well BUT many who do not. That is the trend on the internet, but it could be or not be used to gauge those that do not surf the net or report the problems.

 

I do want to add that while I came out ahead on the two cruises, they were off season cruises and we were very flexible, I have checked point values at high times and they were to high versus cash. SOOO take that into consideration if flexibility is an issue as that is key here.

 

But usually the story goes many try to cancel when they get home, in which a lot of second thoughts go on after the purchase or many find it hard to say no face to face. I almost did as well after reading so many bad comments, BUT I firmly believe in giving something a shot and so I did and it has paid off so far. Now I cannot vouch for air coupons as we did not get that in our package, nor have we used the land certs. yet.

 

The other complaints is that there has been some shady sales pitches for many and that is sad and unacceptable, but I cannot vouch for that either as our salesrep was upfront.

 

Another is that it is not Carnival, well that never bothered me and it was stated when I was sold, but many parts of cruising have the name of the line but are really third parties as well.

Then there is the legal side in that some states do not allow rental points and so it smacks of something shady, well a while back I could not purchase a car over the internet in the state of Texas but could in other states, now Texas allows the purchase.

We will renew one more time until we are platinum.

 

It keeps us cruising as well, I like the time allotment to get out there and cruise.

 

Hope this helps, wenfred is the guru for this though, find his posts.

[VentureMan_2000]

Be aware that this vacation club is not part of Carnival. It is an independant vendor that negotiated sales space on some of Carnival's ships.

[mrBit]

I find this odd why this comes up:

 

I just stated why would that be a problem, when there are 3rd party vendors for coffee, shore excursions under Carnival and so on.

 

NOW if one is lied to about that, then I agree that is not acceptable.

 

Moreover outside of cruising business many use names of others to push products, this is a common practice. Lying about it is not though.

 

 

I want to add after reading the cruise chat the CVC is not just points to get benefits, it lasts for a certain term, mine is 3 years and regardless of using points or not or even booking with someone else. Please call CVC to have the benefits extended to the cruise. They will be extended. I booked my latest Conquest cruise with military rate and paid cash, and I will still get the benefits.

 

I would say that as a hypothetical, that I would go for a better loyalty program such as RCI’s next cruise program where you are in a similar situation only as far as that you must book on the ship or limited time afterwards but extend benefits to those that do or they could categorize them into tiers. You get on board credit and some other benefits with that program.

 

Differences would be that it is Carnival running the show.

No time share taste

No lying sales pitches

And much more as too much to list.

[rico]

We met with a CVC rep on our cruise 3 weeks ago. Listened to the whole thing, had him pull out his laptop and we started running the numbers.

 

The pricing for Silver package would have bought us three cruises at the same rate I typically pay with my military discount from Carnival. So in that regard, we would have been even up for cruise fares. Add on top of that all the CVC perks (concierge service, priority boarding, debarkation, etc.) and they were adding 2 week long resort stays for $299 each, and we probably would have benefited from the program.

 

We chose not to sign up because we didn't have the extra $4,500 +/- lying around right now to give to CVC. It wasn't because we saw anything wrong with the program. I think you could make the program work to your advantage.

[rico]

Whoa... triple post. Sorry.

[rico]

Sorry...

[Mz CB]

My brother is a member and encouraged us to book our upcoming cruise through them as they could get us "great deals." The family booked 4 rooms under my brother's CVC account.

 

We ended up paying $769pp for a 4C room, which is the same rate Carnival was posting on their site. Now that same room is going for $649 ($110 pp less than we paid).

 

We have tried getting onboard credit for the difference, as many people here say is common practice. We've tried 2 different people at Carnival Vacation Club. Both were not pleasant to deal with, neither seemed interested in helping, but grudgingly said they'd call Carnival. Several days and several phone calls later and the answer is "No." I truly wonder if they even bothered to try to get the credit or just gave the answer to get us off their back. It seems that anyone who booked through a TA or through Carnival directly has not problem getting OBC in these situations.

 

So, if this is typical of CVC's service, I'll never be interested in doing any kind of business with them again!:mad:

[Mz CB]

My brother is a member and encouraged us to book our upcoming cruise through them as they could get us "great deals." The family booked 4 rooms under my brother's CVC account.

 

We ended up paying $769pp for a 4C room, which is the same rate Carnival was posting on their site. Now that same room is going for $649 ($110 pp less than we paid).

 

We have tried getting onboard credit for the difference, as many people here say is common practice. We've tried 2 different people at Carnival Vacation Club. Both were not pleasant to deal with, neither seemed interested in helping, but grudgingly said they'd call Carnival. Several days and several phone calls later and the answer is "No." I truly wonder if they even bothered to try to get the credit or just gave the answer to get us off their back. It seems that anyone who booked through a TA or through Carnival directly has no problem getting OBC in these situations.

 

So, if this is typical of CVC's service, I'll never be interested in doing any kind of business with them again!:mad:

[mrBit]

They are supposed to match Carnival's price, this happend once with me and got the credit, however I upgraded later so it washed out.

 

Keep calling until you get a good rep or ask for Kerry.

 

It's not right that this happens.

[mrBit]

Update on change points if price drops.

 

I just spoke to my CVC rep on this policy.

 

You can get a point refund up until the penalty period for cancellation. From that point on, the points are locked.

 

RCI does this as well with cash, no drops honored after penalty period starts.

[Cuizer2]

Be aware that this vacation club is not part of Carnival. It is an independant vendor that negotiated sales space on some of Carnival's ships.

 

So are the people in the spa. So what? :confused: