cruise_pirate

We are booked on the Liberty sailing in late September. For us it was a no brainier as we have been to most of all the other eastern and western ports so many times. We wanted to go to Aruba and Curacao, so we booked it!:)

anyone booked ES in your Group will not receive the Amenity.

I don't think this is accurate. We were group booked on our last cruise ES and got the amenity package. And on my group we have 14 cabins all booked ES and everyone is getting $100.00 OBC and the 1 hour open bar party.

This just may be what your TA is telling you. That is what mine was pushing on me and was not going to let us book ES rates. :rolleyes:

THANKS!!!! Great tips!. Trying to get people to get together for something next year. Give them time to plan ahead!

Yes great idea! find your 8 couples that are ready to put down a deposit then GO FOR IT! :D

Lonnie

has anyone ever planned one and that would be willing to give me some pointers?

 

i know we need 8 cabins, but do they need to be booked at the same time?

what happens if someone has to cancel?

what benefits do you get doing a group vs booking on your own?

Hello, I am in the process of running my first group through carnival directly. The TA I was using refused to honor early saver anymore so we went on our own. It was pretty confusing at first, but here is some of the things I have picked up in the one month today from starting my group.

1. Carnival gave me 2 weeks to get 8 cabins deposited. So before starting my group, I found 8 couples who were willing to book in the first two weeks. (this ensures your group). If you fill less than that the group goes bye bye. Bookings still apply but no amenities.

2. I set my amenities, a group coordinator can explain this to you. I opted to buy a few more amenity points so we could offer the one hour shared cocktail party, and $100.00 OBC. (cost was $20.00 more pp.) but you come out $60.00 per cabin ahead.

3. They give you a group booking number, and you have the people you have lined up call the carnival groups number and give the group booking number, or group name. Our group name is Firefighters and Sweethearts, as a lot of the guys I work with are going along with friends that are not firefighters. Also because we are sailing on Feb. 14th.

4. I also had groups set it up to add all gratuities into the pricing, so I could quote a out the door price with some cool amenities!;) When it sounds like a great deal more people who have never gone are more apt to go!

5. Promote your group! word of mouth and social media are great tools! Half of our bookings are friends who seen posts about this group on social media, and decided to join!

6. For every 8 cabins (double occupancy) you get one conductor credit. (free passenger in a nut shell). So fill 16 plus cabins and your room could be next to free! Incentive for bringing business to Carnival.

I was pretty nervous about booking it, but turned out to be pretty easy so far. I have noticed that whomever answers the phone at groups is a crap shoot. Some know what they are talking about, and others have NO clue! So some of my group bookings had a bit of a struggle with the carnival reps while others were easy as pie.

You can do this! :)

Lonnie

Love the Fascination! been on her twice and have another one booked for next year!. A bit older ship but in great shape and probably one of the friendliest crews I have sailed with!.

The only thing I am not thrilled with is the embarkation terminal and the way you get on the ship (bottom level). But that is small stuff!:)

Lonnie

One more thing on the elegant night give the rib's a try. They are so good last cruise we got just the ribs without the rest of the meal & the ol'man & I both ate them with our lobster dinner. They are the best kept secret on the ship.

 

Char

Yes the ribs are the best! Hoping they do not fall off the menu when it gets redone like the beef wellington did. :(

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Awesome video! I have rented a GoPro for our upcoming Breeze cruise. Any advice?

YES start practicing now!! Took me a few weeks and several videos to find the best areas to shoot and different options as far as frames per second, ect. The editing is where it gets real interesting!! LOL:cool:

The MDR is great on the Paradise, BUT.... DO NOT MISS the sea day brunch they offer! This has to be fairly new with Carnival but was the best!!:)

We got lucky and went on the first day, then told all our friends they HAVE to try it!! So they went on the last sea day, and were only disappointed that they did not go on the first sea day too.. LOL

Lonnie

Outstanding!! :) I have the GOPRO black edition too. still working on editing my videos from January. I got some great shots at stingray city! LOVE your editing skills!!!

Lonnie

So was the internet that we use to chat about this.;)

He also invented pants!:D

I've seen some post here with impressive price drops' date=' and others post their price never dropped.

 

I'm curious, for those of you who have done many cruises, about what % of cruises had a price drop at all?[/quote']

 

On mine (see list below Carnival only speaking) every one but 2 The first one and the Liberty. However the price would have to drop a lot on the Liberty to give up the $200.00 national cruise week OBC it came with.:)

 

Biggest price drop was on the Legend in 2007 dropped over $100.00 pp. on one day alone, along with a few smaller ones!

I have done both. I called and filled out the form this week. I prefer to talk with someone as well. You may have to wait on hold for a while.

Thank you I appreciate your help! :)

Lonnie

Sorry this may be a dumb question, but do you have to submit the price drop form? or can you call and have them do it? I know the form is online but would rather deal with a live person..:)

Thanks!

Lonnie

I will have to look and see. I was on the Paradise last month. I was pretty nervous as it is one of the only Fantasy class ships that has not received any of the 2.0 upgrades. However it was a GREAT ship and there were some things I even liked better than the upgraded ships. One being the water pressure in the shower!! No water savers so our showers were throwing a hurricane of water:).

It was a wonderful ship!

Lonnie

Yep I think they want out of the cocktail party business. We already had ours reserved and still took a lot of work to get them to honor the old system. But they did in the end. However, I do not see us doing that anymore:(

We noticed a whole lot more movement on our last cruise a few weeks ago.

Ours worked fine been on it twice. I think most of the doors are pretty much standard fleet wide:)

There are 2 category of cabins with portholes. The first is a 1A category, which is listed as interior upper/lower with portholes and the second is a PT category. If you book ES, I recommend the 1A category since there are more 1A rooms than PT rooms. 1A includes interior cabins, interior upper/lower cabins and interior upper/lower cabins with portholes:)

As long as you can talk your wife into taking the top bunk!;)

One thing I have learned on Cruise Critic is not to speak of what you plan on smuggling on the ship or now off the ship.

You got that right!!:cool:

Haven't left them but will cruise other lines.. But sure would love to see them bring back the FCC's those ensured we would be back and having them in hand made it so much easier to choose them when looking to book a cruise.:rolleyes:

Yes once in awhile... A couple months ago they had National Cruise Month and we got $200.00 obc for our booking plus an additional $100.00 obc with the group so all in all we ended up with $300.00 obc :)

Has anyone who has a party already booked talked to Carnival? We have ours booked, but they will not honor the open bar option only choice of 3 mixed drinks.

Anyone else get something different?

Curious, Did you find these in Playa del Carmen? Agree-Milagro Tequila Select Barrel Reserve Anejo rocks!

 

Thanks,

 

-Boomer

 

http://video.about.com/cocktails/Best-Tequila-Brands.htm

No bought in just a little gift shop in Cozumel around the port I scored the one with the glass agave plant blown in the bottom of the bottle that comes in a bell jar cover. Was being sold at other duty free shops for about 60 bucks I got this one for 23 dollars!!!:D

I am a Milagro guy as far as shops in Cozumel, It is a crap shoot. Best prices I have found have tended to be in some of the little gift shops. I just start taking note of prices and then go back to where I found the best price:)

I am turning platinum on my Breeze cruise Saturday, my docs have me listed as platinum and my boarding pass says priority, does your docs list him as platinum?

Congrats on your new status and have a GREAT CRUISE!!!:)