MrPaulAR

I used my Chase Sapphire Reserve to pay for most of our cruise for free. 100k points sign-up bonus (worth $1,500 for travel) after meeting spend requirements. $300 calendar year travel credit ($600 automatically for any spend at a merchant coded as "travel"...like carnival, uber, etc). Downside is the huge annual fee of $450. Also pays for global entry or tsa pre check application.

Doing simple math

In November I made a $300 payment to my cruise ($300 credit showed on my account the day the transaction went from pending > posted).

In November I applied for Global Entry and paid for $100 for that. Again immediate credit.

--- at this point the $450 annual fee was pretty much reduced to $50 in my case considering the two credits

In December I met my spend requirement and got the 100k points credited to my account.

On Jan 1 I paid another $300 to my cruise balance and again got another $300 credit

This deal was so good instead of adding DW to my account we opened a separate account and doubled all the bonuses.

If you like this deal better sign up soon as the online bonus will only be 100k points until Jan 12. In branch until Mar 12.

Just google "Chase Sapphire Reserve" and read up on it. There are other benefits too. And the card is all metal so it's pretty awesome.

May want to look at the new sapphire reserve card from chase. Yes, $450 annual fee but you get $300 travel credit per calendar year that works on carnival and $1500 in UR points that can be used to book a cruise... Just have to book through chase. Other benefits too.

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

Do they post the daily schedule of activities in the kids clubs?

Haven't seen one online but you can get the weekly schedule when you sign up.

If he comes back great. If not that's fine too. No need to keep replying and bumping this.

I thought about how if this fort were in the US, the beauty of it would probably be diminished by all the fences and signs.

Technically you are in the US.

We'll be here in March and we're going to revisit a beach at a hotel we stayed at but this looks awesome!

The credit card loop hole for crashing Platinum Priority boarding was shut down awhile ago.

That's kinda what I'm thinking. Only one of our rooms says priority. If it works out for us great, if not it'll be ok.

Room 1 is me and my mom

Room 2 is DW, DS (11), DS (days < 2 at debark)

We'll move between rooms once on board. Booked this way for pricing reasons.

We have two staterooms but only 1 is platinum. Booked at the same time with our PVP and paid with the same credit card.

Does that count?

Go to the Wikipedia page for your airport and see what airlines fly out of it. Not everything shows on its, kayak, and Google flights.

Use the free carnival forums in the currently on board section. It's not voice but can do back and forth messages. Use wifi while on port days.

If you want a breakdown google carnival shareholder benefit. Stock price is pretty high now so keep that on mind if this is the only reason you are considering buying.

Check AARP rewards for good. When they are in stock you essentially get a 10% discount.

Instead of doing all the work for you I'll give you a website that'll cover most airlines. http://Http://flights.google.com. You can see most airlines, search multiple dates, and multiple airports. It doesn't cover southwest so you'll need to check their site directly.

I would book a couple Uber rides. One of you refer the other and use the referral credit to pay for your ride.

And keep an eye on the AARP & Verizon points programs. They often sell carnival gift cards for a 10% discount that you can use to pay for your cruise or inboard credit.

I used the AARP and for their program you need 1000 points per $100 card. If you are a member you earn points 2x as fast and all you need to do is take some quizzes.

Sign up for Google voice. You can then install their app and make calls and sms over wifi. It's all fee.

I use Google hangouts and Facebook messenger in this same manner. Those two are platform independent (android and jos) and you can send messages, voice, and video.

Another very good option if you have the right phone is google fi. All their plans include cell (voice text and data) in 120 countries. http://Http://fi.google.com

Sounds good. Not expecting silvercar

Has anyone used Firefly? Looks like they are a Hertz company.

I'm asking because I've got a a mini-van rented through them for 2 days at $25/day ($78 total). This is a fantastic deal but it's borderline too good to be true.

It's not just carnival, also US customs when you get back. Also consider the impact if something happens in a port and you miss the ship.

I would get all your legal documentation in line and a passport before leaving the country.

I had the Carnival card. Switched over to the Barclay Arrival Plus. You get 2x the amount on any purchase. I cashed in for $700.00 statement credit a few months ago and have 31,000 points again. I use it for everything. With your credit score you should have no problem getting it either. There were giving 40,000 extra points when I got mine. ;)

This is so much a better card for generic travel. 2 points on every purchase for any travel, not just carnival.

If you are on a prepaid plan (straight talk for example) you don't need to do anything. My wife leaves her phone on all the time and never gets service on the ship or in non US country. Also gets service sometimes while at sea when near land for long enough to get some queued text messages too.

You could use the carnival funville forms currently onboard section for free. You can access it from a kiosk, phone, or tablet. Just create a topic for your family to use and bookmark it.

You will need to "train" your loved ones at home and yourself on how to use it but if everyone checks it 2-3 times a day it works great.

Don't think so but you can hop over there now and give it a shot.

If you're really concerned about your conversation you can encrypt each post so only people with the key can decrypt it. Plenty of apps will do this for you... Just copy and paste the text. Probably more trouble than it's worth.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

Another issue with iMessage is it only works with apple devices. Get the google hangouts app. You can use it across platform (android, ios, apple, windows, mac, etc).

iMessage will work over wifi. The requirement is internet access. Unfortunately, the ships charge per minute so it'll be impractical to use.

You can use the funville forums which can be accessed for free from any internet enabled device (tablet, phone, internet kiosk, etc). It's just a message board just like here. My use case is a way to stay in touch with family at home for free but you can use it here too.

Looks like that was blocked. By to weatherspark.com and click the average button before searching.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk