newbiecruiser-texas

my friend and i booked in March - for 5 night triumph out of galveston on Aug 30 sail date - we paid $569 each for Aft Balcony (8M) - for a total of $680 each with taxes and prepaid tips. I had the casino deal and received $50 OBC for just myself, apparently it's not per person. Each time i do a mock booking the rate is always higher...keep hoping for more OBC - but all in all happy with my pricing. But it is always nice to see the actual $$ when everyone keeps saying they now have $1000 in OBC which is really cool, but when you look at the whole picture it could be that when they booked the rates were really high and now they are finally dropping.

Just looked up pricing for KSF for my daughter and her family - for booking for 4 ppl rate = 2443.68

using the upgrade your summer program for same dates/ship for 4 ppl = 2501.00

So how in the heck is the KSF only a difference of $58.00....

certainly not much of a deal there.....

how do you find out if it is available for your sailing???

way to go - my pricing is still so low that no price drops at ALL - at least with the new offerings my cabin type is there - but it's still $100 more that I booked with casino offer..... maybe prior to departure i'll get lucky and get some OBC!!

i don't see the offers, is it because I am currently booked for a cruise using my prior Casino Offer????:confused:

thank you for answering my question! Would a mojito be considered a 'classic' drink?

secondly - if my friend doesn't want to gamble and such - can i use her receipts as well??

silly question - but let's say you have collected about $50 in receipts for drinks - do you take that to the blackjack table and use them (the actual receipts) as your bet? or do i need to take the receipts to the cashiers cage and trade for chips???

I tried that as well for a trip i've got booked and they told me NO - so i called the next day to get someone else at Carnival - same thing - i did NOT book early saver.... but right now even with the 123 Deal - my casino pricing is still better for the aft balcony we have.. Maybe closer to the date of the sailing ...but I'm not holding my breath.

I have meant to try those outstanding desserts...then get busy. but this time i will definately splurge - I mean really $2.50 for a piece of cake that 2 people can share...can't beat that with a stick..... I feel the weight gain already.....:D

no auto reply when i sent it in.....keeping fingers crossed.

I just sent it is as well - and said lots of pleases and thank you's.... goodness i hope this works - it's such a pain to log in every dang day to check....

So - i was reading some reviews of the dolphin swim in Coz ($129 per Carnival's website) which includes alcoholic drinks, food (although i hear the food is BAD) and transportation to and from the ship - so it appears that even if I purchased on my own for $99 + $7/pp taxi ($28 total round trip) + a couple of drinks while there (easily $30) - i would still be coming out ahead by going with Carnival, correct?

Regarding photos- reviewers say it's crazy expensive - but someone posted that Carnival offers your dolphin photos at a discount when you come back aboard the ship....is this TRUE???

trying to make sure I stay on budget and don't want costly surprises along the way.

Just to make sure i understand this 100% - since my cabin category appears to be sold out - I'm unable to do a price match/check to see if the price has dropped. So my only option is (probably closer to sailing date which is Aug. 30 - so maybe good time to call Carnival would be in July) to try and get upgraded?

If upgrading is the only option - is the category 9 really an upgrade for me, as i have the aft balcony now - moving to a regular balcony on a different floor is not an upgrade to me, that is. I would think the only upgrade would be to a suite - which as of today they are all still available...... Wonder what that would cost to upgrade to a suite....oh well. won't worry about this now I guess - it does save me time everyday as i don't have to log in and do a mock booking to see what the current prices are!!

Now if they would just release more FTTF so i can grab that.....

OK - so regarding price drops and such - I keep checking online and so far no drop - but I booked using my casino rate, my question is IF i notice there is a price drop PRIOR to final payment (July 1st is final payment) can I contact Carnival 1-800# and get an OBC for the price difference?

Secondly - I do mock bookings as well as fare viewer - my category is 8M (aft balcony - Triumph) and when i check - it's no longer available, so how can I accurately check price drops when my category is already sold out? Or is once your category is sold out do price drops not come into play anymore?

so is the best option to check your cruise about 2 weeks out to see if there are any available cabins above your cabin grade and then call carnival to see about upgrading? :rolleyes:

thanks - I also called Carnival just to triple check.....and since my room 7433 is a dedicated double - i won't have to worry about possibly getting bumped to a regular balcony if they need one of the aft's for 3 people in the room. so i feel better now..... sometimes doing too much research is a BAD thing as there is so much conflicting data. but thanks again for your help!!

Quick question - i've been searching here and seem to get conflicting info - which rooms on the Empress Deck that are AFT Balcony (Cat 8M) have the smaller cabin size - like no sofa or table?? I'm in room 7433 now, but have time to switch to another room if this is one that is smaller. Some say it's the cabins next to the wrap arounds, others says it the second cabins and others say it's the middle...so i'm really confused. thanks.