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GranysT
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My past guest offers, or VIFP offers, are exactly the same.

There are 2 offers.

1 is free 2 category upgrade Which isn't an upgrade to me at all. I like a lower deck.

Or choose your cabin. Carnival says, "check back often for changes" well...

these offers haven't changed in months.

 

With my 22nd Carnival cruise coming up in Sept, you'd think they would offer a little more, or at least a chance for something else.

 

Guess I'm just not a VIFP after all.

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Carnival's VIFP program is a joke .... as are many others. People put too much emphasis on being diamond and platinum on such and such a cruise line. Who cares? I'd never be loyal to one cruise line (not saying you are) because in the end you aren't anymore important then the next guy regardless of how many times you've cruised with them. You can tell by how small or few the rewards are.

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Carnival's VIFP program is a joke .... as are many others.
I'm not sure I'd say the programs are jokes, but they are surely not intended to make cruising more affordable over time. If they're designed well, such programs would be designed to motivate customers to maintain a consistent, or better yet, increasing level of profit contribution, by way of benefits that cost substantially less than the amount of additional profit that they generate. The cruise lines have really poorly designed programs right now, just like the airlines did in the past. I'd be surprised to go to the grave without seeing a major shift in the cruise line programs to make them more similar to the current-day airline programs.
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My past guest offers, or VIFP offers, are exactly the same.

There are 2 offers.

1 is free 2 category upgrade Which isn't an upgrade to me at all. I like a lower deck.

Or choose your cabin. Carnival says, "check back often for changes" well...

these offers haven't changed in months.

 

With my 22nd Carnival cruise coming up in Sept, you'd think they would offer a little more, or at least a chance for something else.

 

Guess I'm just not a VIFP after all.

 

When you return from your next cruise, you'll have a new offer. They put the on boarding booking offer in there (OBC if you book within 2 weeks of your return).

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My past guest offers, or VIFP offers, are exactly the same.

There are 2 offers.

1 is free 2 category upgrade Which isn't an upgrade to me at all. I like a lower deck.

Or choose your cabin. Carnival says, "check back often for changes" well...

these offers haven't changed in months.

 

With my 22nd Carnival cruise coming up in Sept, you'd think they would offer a little more, or at least a chance for something else.

 

Guess I'm just not a VIFP after all.

....all of which begs the question, what is you would consider worthy?

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Same here and no, I do not have a cruise booked right now. I've not seen any meaningful VIFP offers in a few years. As someone will most likely chime in and say, Carnival is experiencing great popularity right now, so they don't have to have genuine sales to fill their ships. Free upgrades and reduced deposits are about all you'll see until sales slows. That said, there are still some decent prices available if one is flexible with sail dates, ships, and itinerary. The same can be said about most cruise lines.

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The only deals I have seen besides the ones for when you recently sailed, are the Casino Offers. My mom, sister, sister in law all get them. Since my mom was booked with me on Vista, she didn't the last few times. But this last round she did along with the other 2 girls which always do because they have only cruised twice with a long time in between and nothing on the radar in that timeframe. Me nada because I'm booked. I'm not talking the Premier or Ultra offers, just PTC which is a reduced rate and PTZ which is reduced rate and $50 casino cash. We'll see if I get one in the next couple rounds when I get back since I don't have anything booked after that.

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I would ask the Diamond/Plats of the world, what is your expectation? What exactly do you want? I believe it was another thread, one poster claimed that out of 2100 passengers, 1900 were Dias/Plats. I would have never guessed it was close to a majority that are Dias/Plats on a cruise. So if Carnival is sailing full most if not all cruises, so there isn't a need to get people on board, I would like to know from the Dias/Plats out there what should Carnival be giving?

Without looking it up Dias/Plats get:

Priority Boarding

Priority Desembark

Priority Tendering

Priority MDR timeslots

Private Party

Laundry Service

Guest Services Line

 

I am sure there are other perks that I didn't list.

What else do you want/think you deserve that Carnival isn't offering?

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What else do you want/think you deserve that Carnival isn't offering?
And I'd be especially interested to know which of these things are things that the fact that Carnival isn't providing them is prompting Diamond/Platinum passengers to not cruise Carnival.
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I would ask the Diamond/Plats of the world, what is your expectation? What exactly do you want? I believe it was another thread, one poster claimed that out of 2100 passengers, 1900 were Dias/Plats. I would have never guessed it was close to a majority that are Dias/Plats on a cruise. So if Carnival is sailing full most if not all cruises, so there isn't a need to get people on board, I would like to know from the Dias/Plats out there what should Carnival be giving?

Without looking it up Dias/Plats get:

Priority Boarding

Priority Desembark

Priority Tendering

Priority MDR timeslots

Private Party

Laundry Service

Guest Services Line

 

I am sure there are other perks that I didn't list.

What else do you want/think you deserve that Carnival isn't offering?

 

Don't forget the little gift!

 

I don't know that it would even necessarily need to be tied to being a certain status, but when it says to "Check back often for offers" and there aren't any, then it kind of gets to be disappointing. I would like to see a reduced deposit special that's not tied to ES. And it could be for anyone. Or bring back the Future Cruise Certificate.

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And I'd be especially interested to know which of these things are things that the fact that Carnival isn't providing them is prompting Diamond/Platinum passengers to not cruise Carnival.

 

Really none of those things, or lack thereof, for me are making me not as loyal to Carnival anymore. It's rather that I don't perceive it to be as good of a value as it was a few years ago. Used to be no one could come close to Carnival's pricing, now many times it is so similar that I would rather pay a little more and get what I consider to be a better cruise experience.

 

I really enjoy the Guest Services line, having my cabin ready at embarkation, and the little gift. I don't get those things on Celebrity. But I feel they don't provide the price point and atmosphere as they did in the recent past. Do I hate Carnival? No. Do I think they are terrible? No. Will I continue to cruise on them. Sure. As long as I continue to enjoy my cruises. But when it comes down to booking, they will no longer be the only cruise line I check.

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Hi there

 

I realize that it is somewhat disappointing going to that page on the Carnival site, but that disappointment left me years ago. It was obvious that generally it never changes. I also eventually realized that that is where the casino offers are posted. Since I don't gamble much, the offers I received were not very significant, but I have benefited monetarily. There have been times where the offers were just not worth changing plans, and currently I am just not able to take up the offer.

 

So, from my experience, if you frequent the casino on board, even if you don't gamble much, you will start receiving some offers.

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Really none of those things, or lack thereof, for me are making me not as loyal to Carnival anymore. It's rather that I don't perceive it to be as good of a value as it was a few years ago. Used to be no one could come close to Carnival's pricing, now many times it is so similar that I would rather pay a little more and get what I consider to be a better cruise experience.

 

I really enjoy the Guest Services line, having my cabin ready at embarkation, and the little gift. I don't get those things on Celebrity. But I feel they don't provide the price point and atmosphere as they did in the recent past. Do I hate Carnival? No. Do I think they are terrible? No. Will I continue to cruise on them. Sure. As long as I continue to enjoy my cruises. But when it comes down to booking, they will no longer be the only cruise line I check.

That about sums up my sentiments as well. Don't dislike them, just not as impressed as I used to be.
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My family had the same problem. We have cruised Disney and Carnival. With Carnival, we usually would get great offers but this year we didn't get any good deals. So we looked elsewhere for another cruise line to see if they had deals. We live in the middle of Florida literally so any port in Florida is easily accessible for us. We actually looked into MSC Divina. They had great deals and actually pretty ended up being significantly cheaper than Carnival even for a balcony with the Fantastica package which includes alcohol. They also do status match of any other cruise line. Another fun fact was that if your a government employee, like police officer or teacher, they receive 10% off per person. We are leaving for our week long cruise on Saturday and I've heard amazing things about MSC and it's more low key/relaxed than the "fun ships" of Carnival. Don't know if this helps or not. But maybe it's time to try something else.

 

 

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The best offers I see are casino-generated offers. The "bottom two" offers are always the same: two category upgrade and choose your own cabin.

 

Above those two, I usually have "Casino Offer" and "Premier Cruise Casino Offer." These are based on casino play, and are typically the only ones I ever look at.

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my family had the same problem. We have cruised disney and carnival. With carnival, we usually would get great offers but this year we didn't get any good deals. So we looked elsewhere for another cruise line to see if they had deals. We live in the middle of florida literally so any port in florida is easily accessible for us. We actually looked into msc divina. They had great deals and actually pretty ended up being significantly cheaper than carnival even for a balcony with the fantastica package which includes alcohol. They also do status match of any other cruise line. Another fun fact was that if your a government employee, like police officer or teacher, they receive 10% off per person. We are leaving for our week long cruise on saturday and i've heard amazing things about msc and it's more low key/relaxed than the "fun ships" of carnival. Don't know if this helps or not. But maybe it's time to try something else.

 

Would love to hear about your msc experience. Please come back and give us an update when you return.

 

Sent from my iphone using forums

😎😎😎
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It's been my and my family's experience that if you currently have a cruise booked you don't get any good offers. It may be different for others, but month after month, year after year this is what I have observed.

 

Could be something to that. The last time I had a good offer was while I was on a cruise with no future cruises booked....looking at 2018 and 2019 now but maybe I'll wait a couple months.

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I'll play... I'm Platinum and I book cruises now by combination of price and ports. When I was working I also considered dates, but now I can go pretty much any time. :cool:

As long as Carnival keeps prices down and I can go somewhere interesting I'll continue to sail Carnival. But I'm not totally brand loyal, as you can see by my signature.

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It's been my and my family's experience that if you currently have a cruise booked you don't get any good offers. It may be different for others, but month after month, year after year this is what I have observed.

 

I have nothing book and have never had an offer other than past guest upgrade offer, which is not all that great.

 

I always check, but there is nothing. That said, I don't cruise carnival for the offers. Maybe if I got a good one, I would. I cruise them when I want an inexpensive cruise. And if I have more to spend, I look other places too.

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