Organized Chaos

How about a checkered plaid tote for 16k pts.? 😁 I'm a guy and even I think it's better than that other doodad. I mean, c'mon, it's "spacious" AND "roomy." Great for stuff & things.

21 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

On elevator buttons I use my knuckle.👍

Yeah, it's a goofy little trinket, but I thought maybe someone would be interested in a free item. You get what you pay for. I don't want it either, but I'm curious if they charge shipping for points items like that. I imagine so.

For AARP members, you can get a free (I think) "contactless keychain" for 13,000 points. It says $0 Value, so I assume that means free with the points. I don't know if there's a shipping fee. The description says: The Contactless Keychain means you can safely open handles, use touch screens, and press buttons such as in an elevator without making contact with the surface. If interested, you can go to Redeem - Members Only.

22 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

So it’s scavenger hunt within the room, not throughout the ship? I’m gonna bring my night guard just in case😁

I've seen players go to people who were watching from the entryway of the lounge it was held in, or maybe even to people right outside the lounge, but otherwise yeah, it stays within the room. It's fast paced, it benefits the player to get back with an item faster than others, so there's no time to stray too far.

7 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

I've never experienced Quest.  Is it a game with running in it, thus the woman needing to change her shoes?  Thx!!

The times I've played, the CD divided the room into teams (usually just a group of seats/tables close to one another becomes a team) and someone is picked/volunteers to be the runner. All the runners start in the middle of the room with the CD, run back to their team to gather items that the CD calls out, then runs them back to the Fun Squad to be verified.

To give you an idea, on one cruise they asked for false teeth. I have a partial...it's just like a retainer, but has a few false teeth on it. No one on our team had dentures, so I gave our runner my partial. She didn't even hesitate to take it, saliva and all. LOL When it was all said & done, I realized it was probably a dumb thing to do on my part because it's a pretty expensive dental appliance. I'm glad it came back in one piece.

Yep, since we get the next status level starting at the beginning of a cruise, even if you technically don't hit the required number of days until further into the cruise, their system knows ahead of time how to handle the changes. They even change your status in your online profile before the cruise (or at least they used to).

3 hours ago, tw67 said:

I really need to start looking at AARP more often. I just haven't been checking it unless I need something. 

I do the 3 daily crossword puzzles, plus they have a 4th one every Thursday. Not just for fun, but also for the points. Then use the points for a few of the instant win sweepstakes, which only take 50 pts. each. I have a lot of points left over, so I should enter some of the regular sweepstakes, too.

7 hours ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

In theory you can run a six-foot-long item through there.

**guy walks in with a 6 ft. sub sandwich**

AARP's "instant win" sweepstakes are proving to be just as elusive as Allstate's wheel and scratch-off.

2 hours ago, n6uqqq said:

AARP hadn't run out of cards in quite some time. Must be all the Allstate refugees taking advantage now.

When can we expect our commission checks for sending them more members? I'll even accept Carnival cards. 😁

I haven't had any trouble. You can try clearing your browser's cookies & cache, that might help.

Also, try a different browser if you have one, just to see if it works. If it does, then you know something with your primary browser is stopping it from loading.

29 minutes ago, Jeafl said:

I have searched the AARP website and cannot find where to order the cards,  Can someone help? 

There's 2 sides to their site. The regular AARP side and the Rewards side. To make sure you're on the Rewards side, once you're logged in, click where it says AARP Rewards and your points at the top of the page in the red toolbar. This takes you to the Rewards side.

Scroll down a little bit, right under the 3 black boxes, and click on the "Browse Rewards" drop-down menu, then choose Redeem, Members Only. Carnival cards should be the first one you see.

29 minutes ago, tw67 said:

OMG!!!  I JUST WON!!!!!

 

I won a $20 Best Buy ecard on the spin game. I do find it amusing that they don't have ecards, but when you win, you get an ecard.  

 

I had kind of given up hope of winning!

Nice! I was beginning to think they were just messing with us.

I try for a few of the "Instant Win" gift cards on AARP pretty much every day, but haven't had any luck there either. Some of them are even "Super Play" that have 400 winners, so they must get a lot of players.

5 hours ago, glrounds said:

• I took a pic as the Jubilee sailed by, but haven't a clue how to get it into my CC account and post it.

The easiest way (if the picture is on your computer) - at the bottom of the post composition box, you can drag the picture where is says "Drag files here to attach"...or click on "choose files" to pick them from your computer. Keep in mind, this uploads pictures to your CC profile and, as far as I know, there's no way to delete them from your profile later.

My son saw this on one of his video games. I thought it was odd they used the trademarked whale tail, but gave it a generic name.

6 hours ago, sasandy said:

I'm a little worried they have been pulled from AARP's website because too many people were getting them. I hope they come back. I have been buying 100's just in case they don't have the 500's anymore. I am not sure how many I can use on Carnival's website for 1 cruise.

If you don't mind punching in all the numbers, you can use as many as you like. It's unlikely that they pulled them intentionally. Probably just ran out, and if demand is high, then that's a good reason for them to restock. I haven't been following AARP's stock very closely, but I doubt it'll be too long of a wait. A week or two maybe (just don't quote me on that 😉).

Much of San Juan is walkable, but you might be pushing the limits for your 5 year old. One fort is about 1/4 mile from the port, the other about a mile, and they're about a mile apart from one another. The free shuttle buses mentioned above go around the perimeter of the city and stop near each fort.

Amber Cove is Carnival's privately owned port area, so cruise ship passengers will be the only ones there. There's the typical port shops, a restaurant, and the really nice pool mentioned above. It's huge with quite a bit of seating, but I'm sure they fill up fast. It's located in an area kind of by itself with a main highway leading in/out, so walking isn't really an option. No beaches nearby. There will be a ton of cabs ready & waiting when the ship arrives.

We took a cab into Puerta Plata (about 15 min. drive) and took the Teleferico (cable car) to the top of Mt. Isabel de Torres. Is was beautiful up there. There's a smaller version of Brazil's "Christ the Redeemer" statue, some local vendors, and a really nice walking path that goes throughout the jungle. We had a guide that met up with us at the bottom, but it's not necessary. If you decide to do this, I recommend going as soon as you get off the ship, because when we were headed back down the mountain an hour or two later, big crowds of passengers had arrived.

4 hours ago, tw67 said:

Nah OC, I think most of us are ok with the name!!  My husband swears there was a time he could get them at Lowes with his Lowes credit card and get something off also.  

 

Terry

He's not imagining things. Now that you say it, I remember people used to talk about getting them from Lowe's, but I'm not sure about using the Lowe's card. Carnival even lists it as one of the retailers that carries the cards, but I could never find them around here.

1 hour ago, ab19902 said:

Well you can get them from Target with a Redcard and get 5% off or cash back or something. I don’t know, I don’t have the card.

I remember people talking about that, too. I think all gift cards are 5% off when bought with the Target card.

This isn't a Carnival card discount, but people used to say they could buy gift cards at Kroger and get a discount on Kroger gas. We don't have Kroger's around here anymore, and even when we did, they never had gas stations.

7 hours ago, bobbismith said:

I need a snack before bed when I drink. The pizza line is so bad on small ships. The way they did pizza on the Celebration was great! 

Do you mean the delivery method? Does the Celebration still have a Pizza Pirate to go to in person?

42 minutes ago, tw67 said:

I feel that somewhere down the line there will be other places that Carnival cards will be discounted, so I would hope that they can come onto this thread as well. While AARP is a great place for the cards, the whole idea of the thread is really just education. Maybe the name is just misleading and should be AARP and others?

I miss the days when there were multiple sources. Allstate, AARP, the Daily Getaways promotion from the U.S. Travel Association, PayPal Digital Gifts on eBay. Newegg still does them occasionally, but I think theirs are 8% off. I hope you're right about there being more in the future. At the time, I did think about a broader name, maybe like "Discount Carnival gift cards," but I figured since AARP will be the only one left standing, go with it. Don't look at me, I'm not requesting another change because it caused too much of a stir. 🤣

9 hours ago, canes20 said:

I never liked the popcorn meme until I saw this one...

😂

9 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

Then, true to form, you've helped to create organized chaos here...  😉

 

Tom

10 minutes ago, ChinaShrek said:

I just agreed with the other person's comment and do not agree that your decision is the best way to manage this forum. Until Allstate shuts down people looking for posts about AARP have to wade through posts about Allstate, which I understand is until the end of October. I suspect Allstate will start something new in a year and two and what will happen then? Keep all threads focused on one topic, please!

Tom-n_Cheryl, think what you want. You & ChinaShrek are the only 2 complaining that it's confusing. We've been doing this for years and no one's ever complained about confusion when we talked about AARP in the Allstate thread. When someone new comes along with questions about the program, we answer them. It's that simple. No one has to wade through anything. As tw67 said, AARP discussion is limited right now anyway, so why be so upset?

CC users don't manage threads. I simply put in a request, explained why, and it was granted. If Allstate creates a new rewards program with Carnival gift cards, then I'm sure a new thread will be created. Or maybe I'll request that this one be renamed back to Allstate. 😈🤣  But seriously, it's obvious it wasn't lucrative enough for them, so it's not going to happen. I meant it when I said this has been (and is) a great group of people who've managed to go for several years with hardly any negativity, so I've fed into this long enough. I recommend letting it go and enjoying the thread.

4 hours ago, ChinaShrek said:

I agree with this comment. It seemed to be a way to keep the post count going.

By post count, do you mean the number of posts (comments) within this thread? Yeah, that was something I mentioned when I requested the merger. I didn't try to hide it. I said multiple times that since this was the biggest thread that's currently active on the Carnival boards, it'd be nice to be able to keep it. A huge thread that's remained perfectly civil for 6 1/2 years, which is a nice accomplishment given that so many threads descend into negativity on here.

There used to be a large AARP thread years ago, but it died when they revamped their rewards program and Carnival cards became members only. Only a small handful of us were AARP members and most people weren't interested in joining, so we just used the Allstate thread to talk about AARP as well. There wasn't an AARP thread for years, so if it's such a big deal, where were the two of you then? The current size of this thread doesn't affect anyone's participation, so I don't see what post count has to do with it.

Now that Allstate is shutting down, and people realize AARP membership is a pretty good deal, more are willing to join. That's a good thing. This little discount gift card community we have here is actually a really good group of people. There's no reason to make it negative.

5 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

Merging the Allstate and AARP threads was not the best idea - most of the posts no longer have anything to do with what I subscribed to (AARP).

 

Tom

Users can still talk about AARP, which we do occasionally. The reason Allstate comes up a bit more right now is because of the activities they have running as part of their closure. It'll be gone at the end of October, as will any posts about it.

10:30 with FTTF, but I do remember one time we were on by 10:30 without priority of any kind. Judging by other comments, 10:30 seems to be the average early time. I love the times we've gotten on and put our bags in our cabin, went to Lido for lunch, and were finished eating by the time the big crowds came to eat.

4 hours ago, ULCajunCruiser said:

OK sweet, they changed to the Spin Game, same result but at least I can see what I'm not winning!!

Same here, 3 strikes and I'm out. With under a month and a half left, would it kill them to loosen their death grip on prizes?