Carnival Vacation Club - What is it?

I have heard on the boards that there is a Carnival Vacation Club which one can belong to. I understand that there are presentations on board Carnival Ships and for just attending you can get great bonus gifts (like 2 for 1 air tickets). Has anyone heard of this and if so, what is it and what about the presentations??

Thanx

I went to the presentation on our Conquest cruise in Oct. At the present time they do not have the presentation on all the ships. We were on the Holiday last month and did not see anyone from the CVC although we did get to use the member benefits.

We did get 2 laynards for attending the presentation. We also received dinner at the Supper Club. All we were responsible for was the tip.

They have different packages. The one we purchased was $5000.00

What is does is gives you cruise points. The silver pkg (the one we purchased) has 20,000 points to be used on future cruises. They have a website for members only that you can go on to check to see how many points it takes for a particular cruise.

Some of the perks for being a CVC member are:

Priority embarkation & debarkation

Upgrades when available

Private party for members

Priority seating for the dining room, shore tours and supper clubs

Saving on other cruise lines-owned by Carnival but not Carnival ships (Princess, Holland America, Cunard, etc)

I used points for our cruise last month on the Holiday. I booked a specific cabin 6A but we were upgraded to 6D when we got to the ship. We also were able to use the Skippers Club. I used 3200 of my points for the cruise.

We also received 4 companion airfare (buy one get one free/continental US only) and 4 certificates for 7 day stays at resorts around the world. If the price of the 7 day stay is $1800.00 all we have to pay is $299.00. We also have a card we can use to get 50% discount on hotels and golf courses around the world.

I know for some people this probably would not be economical-but we cruise at least a couple of times a year and do a couple of land based vacations a year also. So for us it was worth the money we spent. I have already saved $1500.00 on a vacation to the Cancun. I saved $290.00 on airfare to Washington DC and $412 for airfare to Miami. Still have 2 certificates for airfare and 3 for vacations. Plus I still have 16,800 cruise points.

ETa

This was not a high pressure sales pitch. You either wanted it or you didn't.

I don't think it is worth it.

Were there other pricing categories or was that the only choice? Or is there somewhere we can go to get more info??

We went to the presentation on the Conquest in December, however we did not purchase the plan as I wanted to do more research on it, with the plan of purchasing it maybe in the future. I have not however been able to find out much about it. Some people rave about the benefits, others are so so about it. I am not really sure what the cost savings are, however I think the real incentive is the additional things they throw in for you.

There are 4 Packages

Platunum 40, 000 cruise points (with 4 airfare 4 resort cert) $ 9,995.00

Gold 30,000 cruise points same $ 7,495.00

Silver 20,000 cruise points same $ 4995.00

Bronze 10,000 cruise points 2 airfare/2 resort cert $ 2995.00

Like I said unless you travel a lot (cruise and land based) it probably would not be worth the cost. But it worked for us and when we use up all of our cruise points and resort stays I will be buying another package.

We usually book a suite and use the Skippers Club anyway-but being first off the ship (before the carry you own luugage off group) and your luggage being kept in a special VIP section (so much easier to find) makes it even better.

In the club you end up basically paying for your future cruises in advance. We have booked two cruises and used up our points in the first year. So basically the club had our $5,000 for less than a year. Overall we didn't save that much from booking elsewhere. I think it was about $300 for both cruises.

That jsut about equals what we would of made on the money in the bank for the same period of time.

So the club is not a great price saver for cruises, but as a result of being a member we do get the perks on these and our future cruises. The privledges extend throughout your 5 year membership so no need to renew to get the perks. For the next four years we get early embarkation & debarkation etc. on a book as you go method when we book through the club.

This is not considering the extra value of the resort stays at a discounted rate. Yes these are time shares and subject to availability. We have been constantly testing and there always seems to be a great place to go available.

I almost cancelled my membership after we got home this summer but did the math. It turned out to be buying cruises at the same price, with the resort discounts and perks for free.