It's strange, Allstate Rewards made a few tweaks to their games to be a little better, but waited until they were shutting down. As of a couple weeks ago, the scratch-off game was responding to mouse swipes faster and the size of the cursor got bigger to make it easier to scratch off. They added Connect 4. Now the graphics on spin the wheel have been improved.

Since these rewards program companies operate rewards websites for multiple companies, I wonder if it's just Allstate that's getting rid of it. The rewards site company might be making improvements because they still operate rewards for other companies. It wouldn't surprise me if Allstate decided it wasn't worth it anymore.

3 hours ago, tw67 said:

That would be so much fun!  One big ALLSTATE/AARP Dysfunctional Family Cruise!!  Just think about it, we would all be getting 10% off the group price right off from the start...

I would love to add up the total amount of savings we'd manage to get on a single cruise together.

3 hours ago, tw67 said:

I did enter it a few times!  I am sitting back waiting for my email that I have won.  I have also been playing the lottery. I don't see me hitting either one of them!  But I dream!  

 

Yes, I want to keep from burning through my Allstate Rewards points in case they do have specials near the end!  Just in case!!  

Once a week we get together with some of my g/f's family for supper and a game night. We play one game that involves quarters. If you lose, you put quarters into the pot and the winner takes the pot. Winnings & losses don't amount to much in a single night, but it's fun. I've been on a really good winning streak lately, which never happens because I have the worst luck. I really should be buying some lotto tickets right now. I won't complain if I hit that sweepstakes.

32 minutes ago, wgeddings said:

Thanks.  I will get it switched.  

This website has a very helpful tool for checking this kind of thing. Go to the bottom of the page I linked below and click on the Cabin Check Tool. Choose a deck & cabin and it'll show you exactly what's above & below it.

https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/Carnival-Magic

Did anyone enter the AARP sweepstakes for the $1,000 Carnival card? I did when I could remember to do it...only 4-5 days worth. They're not picking a winner for another couple weeks though.

Allstate lets us submit a lot more entries per day than AARP, but it uses a lot more tickets. Up to 200 entries/day for 10,000 tickets. Even with over 900k points, they could go quick with that. I want to start entering, but don't want to burn through too many points in case something really good pops up before the end.

1 hour ago, ULCajunCruiser said:

Organized Chaos,  you win!!!    They changed the thread name!!

 

LOL I just hated to see it go. Long live this giant thread. A big thank you to the admins/hosts for doing it for us.

AARP's going to owe us some kickbacks because I think we're about to push a bunch of new members their way. 😆

1 hour ago, n6uqqq said:

Time for a group cruise! We can be one big dysfunctional family 😉

That's not a bad idea. Who knows, maybe some day. Discount Carnival cards unite!!

On 8/1/2023 at 4:30 PM, bar1068 said:

LOL!! Shoot, reading through this thread I feel...old or something or maybe I am..but whatever!!! We've been purchasing discounted gift cards from AARP for the last 3-4 years at least..maybe longer..pretty sure we got them before the pandemic. We did hook into Allstate also...I liked them because they offered $1000 cards which AARP is not currently. We've saved hundreds...maybe thousands...using the cards for a number of cruise balances...sign and sail accounts...funded CHEERs a handful of times..etc.....Sure hope AARP can handle the the onslaught of "new comers"!!!

Yeah I've been doing Allstate & AARP cards since 2017. 10% may not sound like much on its own, but it definitely adds up. We had even passed the savings on to people who cruised with us but didn't participate in these programs. That's what I planned to do with my Allstate points, because I have more than we'll ever use, but not anymore. Unless they have a going-out-of-business sale on cards, it looks like I'll be entering a lot of sweepstakes.

I have to give AARP credit, though. After they revamped their rewards program, their policy on Carnival cards was extremely lackluster. Limiting us to only 3/month. But to their credit, that changed to 5 and now 25/month. I feel like they recognized the demand and made changes to improve. So there's that.

1 hour ago, 2wheelin said:

What would be the point? All that useful content is about Allstate—-which is going away. How useful will that be?

There already have been several AARP threads started through the years. So merge and put them under the Allstate title. Very helpful——-NOT!

Furthermore, no one needs to look for AARP info and only find a thread with 230 pages of useless info.

This thread has been active for 6 1/2 years strong and has remained relatively free of the drama & negativity that is all too common on the Carnival forum. Thank you for a demonstration of that, by the way. There's something to be said about that for a thread this big for so long. That alone is worth keeping it going. We wouldn't keep it under the Allstate title; hence, why I requested to change the title to AARP. Yes, most of the content here is about Allstate, but it's more than that. For example, in the last few months we've included a lot of discussions about AARP. Beyond that, there are countless posts about discount Carnival gift cards in general. Overall, this thread has become a nice little community within the community for those of us interested in the gift cards. I'm sorry (not sorry) that offends you so much. If they change the title and keep it going, great, it deserves it. If not, it is what it is. Then I'd say RIP to what I'm guessing is the biggest, longest running active thread on the Carnival boards.

2 hours ago, tw67 said:

Thanks!  I feel like I have found the dark side of tiktoc....

 

I will miss our ALLSTATE REWARDS thread, but if we are all over here, it will be close to the same!!

I put in a request to have the Allstate thread title changed to become the AARP thread. It's been a great thread for over 6 years, I'd hate to lose it. If they approve, they can merge this one into it.

@LauraS  @Host Kat

Not sure who to contact. Could we please have the title of this thread changed to AARP Carnival gift cards, because the Allstate program is ending later this year. We'd like to keep this thread going since it's so big, has been active for 6 1/2 years, and contains so much useful content. We've also been using it as the unoffical AARP thread for some time now. We love our little corner of the Carnival boards. 😄

Someone made an AARP thread a couple weeks ago here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2951542-aarp-carnival-gift-cards/

That smaller thread could be merged into this one if you'd like. User helene109 above is this thread's original author. Thank you very much.

On 7/30/2023 at 10:33 AM, Heimey said:

Ok. I’m on the AARP website. Where would I find these cards?? Sorry for being a pain. 
 

Heimey

In case you don't know, AARP's Carnival cards are members only. Your friends need to be paying AARP members in order to buy them.

1 minute ago, helene109 said:

Do you just want to create a new Thread? I just bought a $500 Allstate card today for my cruise next month 🤣

There is an AARP thread that someone made on 7/18 -- https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2951542-aarp-carnival-gift-cards/ . A couple of Allstate refugees have posted there. Personally, my vote is to rename this thread...I guess I'm sentimental like that. 😁 They could even merge that other one with this one. Whatever happens, I'll be here...there...somewhere.

I tried posting, but for some reason it says it has to be approved first. Would anyone be interested in keeping this thread? It's so massive, I think it's the biggest active thread on the Carnival boards. I'd hate to lose that. After all, we've used it to talk about AARP, too. I think the thread creator @helene109  still comes around once in a while. She can request that the thread title be changed to become AARP if we want to keep it going.

Yep, we saw this coming. Things have been going downhill for a while now.

@canes20 Click on the thumbnail image for each sweepstakes and it should let you enter.

Over 900K points down the toilet. Looks like I'll be entering sweepstakes like a madman. I like @travelingtink's idea...maybe they'll have a going-out-of-business sale.

Once upon a time, there was an AARP thread that was just as active as this one, but when AARP revamped their rewards program to be members only, that thread died.

Would anyone be interested in keeping this thread going? It's so massive, I'll bet it's the longest running active thread on the Carnival boards. For that reason, I'd hate to lose it.  @helene109 is this thread's creator and I think she's still around. We (she) could ask the moderators to change the thread title to become AARP. It's been done before.

For AARP users, if you want a bunch of points for entering sweepstakes or gift cards that take points, here's a quick way to get a lot (if you haven't already). Go into My Account, then the Newsletters tab. Subscribe to all the newsletters that give you points (it'll say it in the description). It gives you the points immediately, then all you have to do is unsubscribe from each one and you get to keep the points. I got 9k-10k points.

8 minutes ago, tw67 said:

I have been AARP for years, my husband signed me up when he turned 50, then I was 50 a year later.  That was back in the days when you had to be 50.  We have been getting our Carnival cards from them. I need to start looking at their other gift cards.  I like that they are all e-cards.  

I do think this will hurt them in the end. People want things instantaneously, we don’t want to pay and wait for delivery.

In the past, I liked using mostly physical cards. I don't know, there was just something about holding on to that physical card that made me feel more comfortable. But there were also times when something popped up and we needed a gift card (or more) fast and didn't have time to wait for physical cards to ship, so I liked a mix of both. Nowadays I'm fine with all e-cards, especially since Allstate's new shipping rates are so ridiculous.

On 7/21/2023 at 10:34 AM, tw67 said:

Well here is our answer!  I contacted Intride Loyalty, LLC.  That is the name on the bottom of the web pages on the Allstate Rewards. AARP will be the way to go now for anyone needing e-cards.  

Reference # 230721-000024 Subject Allstate Rewards - Program Inquriy   Dear Member,   Thank you for your email. We would like to inform you that Egift cards will no longer be available on the Allstate Rewards platform. We would like to inform you that Egift cards will be offered only in the daily deal category.   Thank you for being an Allstate Rewards member. Customer Service

If this thread is any indication, they're going to see a dip in business. It's a shame because the other companies that operated the rewards program in the past (at least 2 since I've joined) recognized the demand. Now it seems like they're going downhill.

I know some people don't like the thought of joining AARP just for Carnival cards, but it really is worth it. Have a look at their other benefits, you might find some of them useful. Plus it's only $12 for the first year right now if you sign up for automatic membership renewal. You can cancel that anytime and it won't automatically charge you next time. You save $10 on a $100 Carnival card, which nearly pays for a year membership. If you still have doubts, $12 isn't bad to try it out for a year. And no, you don't have to be 50 yrs. old anymore.

On 7/21/2023 at 10:11 AM, CruizinSusan70 said:

When we redid our membership a few weeks ago, it was 45.00 for 5 years and the gift was a circular version of the charging station, but it was for plugs, not USB ports.

That sounds handy, too. Dang, they didn't have any of these free gifts when I renewed last year, or any of the times before that.

On 7/11/2023 at 8:35 PM, n6uqqq said:

I did indeed. Hopefully it will work well. Could come in handy on cruises. 

Nice. I like that they're arranged vertically because that makes it a bit of a space saver with limited surfaces in a cabin. Looks like they're giving away an organizer set now.

On 7/6/2023 at 4:03 PM, canes20 said:

Did you get the 5 port charging hub from AARP?

On 7/6/2023 at 4:04 PM, n6uqqq said:

Yes.  No mention in the email but in the sign up area it did mention it. 

You guys got a charging hub for signing up?

On 7/6/2023 at 11:21 AM, travelingtink said:

I’ve still been getting my daily points but I don’t even know why I bother since I have my AARP membership now. 

I know the feeling, but I've been doing Allstate Rewards for 6 years now, so at this point I think it's just force of habit to keep going. Well, that and when AARP had a small monthly limit, Allstate was nice to have. At over 900K points, even if I stop earning more, I'll never use them all. I've used points to buy cards for other people in the past and just had them pay me back the discounted cost.

On 7/4/2023 at 12:02 PM, n6uqqq said:

No points needed with AARP and you can now buy 25 digital Carnival cards per month plus 5 other non Carnival gift cards for restaurants, home improvement, etc. 

On 7/4/2023 at 12:05 PM, tennboy1981 said:

Awesome, great to know.  Thanks!

To add to n6uqqq's post, each membership comes with a complimentary membership for one other person in your household (they get their own AARP membership card, too). If you ever need more Carnival cards in a month, you can create a separate website account for the second person and double your gift card limit.

It seems they've been putting effort into improving it. In the beginning, there was a 3/month limit on Carnival cards. Then they upped it to 5/month. Now evidently 25, so they recognized the demand. Not to mention, I don't think they've ever ran out of Carnival cards that I know of, other than a short period of time not long after they revamped their rewards program.

On 7/1/2023 at 3:06 PM, canes20 said:

Did you happen to have Glen, who passed away as your PVP? He was terrific. The new guy I have now is sure not Glen.

Yep, Glen. An unbelievable PVP. He'd go above & beyond every time I talked to him. I'll never forget, I called late one afternoon with a problem, forgetting he was an hour ahead, so I got him at home. Him & his wife were getting ready to go out with friends for his wife's birthday. I apologized profusely, told him it could definitely wait until the next day, but he said no, let him have a look and to give him a minute to get on his computer. Again, I apologized and told him it'll wait, but he absolutely insisted on helping. I was shocked when I found out he passed. I hadn't talked to him for a couple years because of covid. He always said, "The website's for looking...Glen's for booking." 😄 I don't think anyone can replace Glen.

Just won 1,500 from scratch & win! It scratches off much faster than it did before and I'm pretty sure it scratches off a wider swath, too. Makes it much quicker. Struck out on the wheel as usual. I'm not fond of bubble shooter. It's pretty laggy for me.

I got a voicemail from a PVP a couple days ago. We used to have a fantastic PVP, but unfortunately he passed away a couple years ago. They referred his clients to someone else, who I talked to once or twice, but never got to use him for a booking, so I never got to see if he'd work as hard for us. The guy who called the other day was a different one yet, so I guess the other guy isn't with them anymore. He knew my name, so he's obviously been given someone else's list of clients.

3 hours ago, tw67 said:

SPIN WHEEL is back.  I still didn't win, but it is back!  Don't forget today is Tuesday!  Matching game is also live!

 

Carnival GC is still at the 8% savings.  

I got three X's, so I think that means I won a mystery prize. I expect to be contacted any day now. 😋

I tried Pacman. The first game I didn't even move, I just let them come get me (which took longer than it should've). It didn't give me any points for that, but it did let me play 3 more times. I got killed as quickly as possible and it gave me the 200 points for each one, so you at least have to move to get the points.

On 6/22/2023 at 8:03 AM, tw67 said:

Which company do they get them from?  I was thinking that is where I might reach out to next...

 

I also realize this is probably a waste of my time, but I feel like I have to try to get them back.  In the meantime, I really don't mind buying the AARP ones.  

The rewards website is owned & operated by Intride Loyalty, LCC, as show at the bottom of the page, but no idea how to contact them. When you click the "contact us" link, I think it goes to Allstate. If I'm not mistaken, they have a customer service division that specifically handles Rewards.

I've always been curious where they purchase the cards in bulk and how much they pay.

On 6/26/2023 at 3:29 PM, tw67 said:

Last time they changed it, they changed it back.  Why is shipping more for a higher denomination? Doesn't it cost the same to mail a card that has $500 on it as it does to mail a card with $100 on it??  smh..

Well duh, $500 weighs more than $100. 🤪

Seriously though, the question is, did their cost to ship them via USPS & UPS go up to justify such a big price hike? Doubtful. The shipping fee used to be the same regardless of how the cards were shipped, so I think it's ridiculous.