Eli_6

We have had a main guest no show at the port before without issue and they didn't charge anyone extra...BUT it was not on a casino rate. Just a regular VIFP rate. It doesn't keep the ship from sailing. I don't know if they would change the rate once you are on board or not because it is a casino rate. I would *think* it would be unlikely they would do that.

I saw a post in a facebook group where a woman was complaining that she went on a Carnival cruise and had "DOU" everywhere. She thought it applied to her and a guest (because that was the deal she had had in the past...also what I have had had in the past) but then she and her guest found out once they were on board that the DOU everywhere ONLY applied to her! I am guessing this is something new Carnival is doing to save money. Only the one with the casino offer gets the free drinks everywhere, I guess. Sigh.

And to each his own, but I would be pretty put out if I paid $2k a week for one of the cabanas in the Loft 19 area. The one thing I DID think was worth the money, though, was getting the aft corner excel suite with its own hot tub on the balcony. The balcony and room were huge and really nice. No point in really leaving it, frankly. The view was better, too.

I sailed in an excel suite on the mardi gras. No point in getting a cabana in that instance. There are loungers all around on the deck/Loft 19 that you can use including ones nearby the little pool/spa area. The service is the same. As an aside, I really wasn't blown away by the loft 19 area. The Serenity area is really nice, though. The pool/hot tub is really shallow. Sort of like a bath tub.

As an aside, if you want to use the online gift cards to get a balance on my cruise ahead of the cruise, what is the best way to do that...buy cruise cash? Overpay? Do they take the online gift cards on board if you just print out the information?

The holds finally came off of my credit cards from AARP. If there were discrepancies, I have no idea what they were because the cards that didn't go through were in my husband's name and it was his AARP account. We have had the same address for nearly 15 years so it wasn't that either. He has had the same email for nearly as long and the same cell phone number for 20 years. Ironically, the only one that did go through was when I used my credit card on paypal...so when there actually WAS a discrepancy in the name on the card. I am guessing if there was a discrepancy, it was something like "Rd" vs "Rd." Or they have those extra digits in my zip code after the first five that no one uses in real life or something like that. Regardless, I am sticking with Allstate now who I have not had these problems with. I have my insurance through them and have a ton of points anyway from my "safe driving." Although, I have to sometimes go on the app and put I was a passenger when I ride with my husband because he is apparently not a safe driver and has speeding and braking events, lol!

I realize a better deal on a holiday weekend is pretty unlikely to happen which is why I went ahead and booked it awhile back. But I suppose I will keep checking back just in case. The cheap rates have spoiled me such that now when I pay full-price, I feel like I overpay.

Yes, I was asking about price protection, but also asking about rebooking. Either one. I did not initially book under a casino rate for this cruise, but we do sometimes get casino offers. My thought process was because we sometimes have gotten free rooms, $99 balconies, etc. and this room was pretty much full price, losing the initial deposit (which is all you lose up until 56 days before the cruise and day 55 will not occur until after we get back from our next cruise) would be well worth re-booking under a casino rate should we get a casino offer when we get back from our next cruise. With that said, I sometimes think that if you have several cruises booked, they don't send you casino offers...

Who was the cruise director on Pride this past summer? He was terrible. Never saw him. Rarely heard him. Had no clue what was going on.

Thanks for the review and will know to definitely do Yacht Club if we try MSC.

I meant price protection. I always try to book a rate with price protection. If the rate of the cruise goes down or you get offered a better rate later, then carnival gives you the difference in on board credit.

Haven't read all the responses so I apologize if someone else has said this, but my understanding is usually if you get DOU, it applies to you and 1 guest in the same room. So, I think your husband would get the DOU, too. I am not sure, though, because I have only gotten Drinks on Us while in the casino and not all over the boat...but I know that it applied to the first two people in the cabin in my instance. If it doesn't for some reason, maybe ask the casino if they can extend it to your cruising partner.

The original offer I am on is not a casino offer. I was hoping to get a casino offer.

I booked a cruise over the Easter weekend a month or so ago that was more than I would prefer to pay (with price protection) hoping we might get a casino offer later on. The price is even more now. My TA said new casino offers were coming out in January. We didn't get any...so I was hoping maybe we might get one after our next cruise in early February if we gamble on that cruise. We didn't really gamble on our last cruise because it was in Europe and there wasn't time and we haven't gotten any casino offers since then. Final payment on our Easter cruise is due before our Feb cruise. Has anyone gotten lucky and had their cruise go down after final payment? I am going on it regardless but was just wondering.

My husband also is a similar gambler to you (maybe $100 or less per cruise) and he sometimes gets offers (other times doesn't) and I gamble more than him and very rarely get offers. He seems to fit into a different demographic than I do. We have never taken a cruise without the other so that is not it.

Well, I won't be buying cards through AARP anymore. If Allstate doesn't have them, I won't be using gift cards.

I am so annoyed. I still have over $600 pending on my credit cards from AARP that didn't go through! When I called, they said it would fall off in a couple of days. Only it hasn't and it has been 4 days.

Yes, I read their post. And I also recently got passports for a European cruise and in some parts of the country they are VERY behind from Covid shut downs and worker shortages. When we got ours, it took months even paying the expediated fee. We had to renew two adults and get new passports for two kids. I started in January and barely got them in time for a late July cruise.

You can use a future cruise credit for the fare. On board credit is different from a future cruise credit. And, yes, you can use it with a casino rate.

You don't need a passport for that cruise. Birth certificate and driver's license will suffice. Allow plenty of time to renew your passport for that Europe cruise.

When I was switched over from another boat to the Splendor on a cruise last year, Carnival canceled me and I had to rebook excursions that were the exact same excursions on the same day.

I have wondered about this, too. On one boat that I was on back in May, they had them but another one further back they didn't...and some people on here say they aren't doing them.

I thought that John Heald recently announced that priority boarding was resuming for platinum and diamond...

@BlerkOnesaid above that the "priority" also was not showing up for diamonds. Is that correct? Because if they are showing up on Diamond boarding passes but not platinum, my guess would be that Carnival plans to announce only diamonds will be getting priority boarding. But if they aren't showing up for anyone other than suites, my guess is that it is just a tech issue.

Wait - So are they going to make it where platinum no longer has priority boarding? If so, I am going to be pissed because we are fixing to go platinum.