Why do you sail Carnival and I don't think it's for the vifp benefits

We don't have a port closest to us being from Ontario

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Price Price Price. I hardly have any complaints about any of our cruises. Nothing is perfect every time.

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Carnival keeps luring me back with casino offers.

This!

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I'm confused by some comments about price drops. . .say I booked at a certain rate and the price for that cruise drops, can I somehow keep my booking and get a better rate?

That seems too good to be true but the only dumb question is the one left unasked, right?

I am in the Mid Atlantic region. So the top choices would be Pride out of Baltimore or Sunshine out of NYC. I have driven to Charleston for a 7 day on the Fantasy. For NCL it would be the Breakaway. RCL is the Anthem - the class of ship that was RCL's answer to NCL's Freestyle Cruising. Both of the typical 7 day itenerarys for NCL and RCL are Port Canaveral, Nassau and the Private Island. (Grand Stirrup or Coco Cay). Yes, Atlantis is something everyone should get to visit at least once - I saw it twice.

I have become a little spoiled with the Half Moon Cay, Grand Turk, Nassau / Freeport Itenerary. It is really awesome to be able to get off the ship at two ports and walk right up to the beach. Oddly enough the Pride has the best ports and is the best priced of all three options (RCL, NCL and Carnival) out of the Mid-Atlantic region. I do want to try some other itenerarys such as one that includes Amber Cove and Western Caribbean, so I am going to eventually have to bite the bullet and fly or make a drive to Port Canaveral.

I should make myself clear I really did want to like RCL. I really wanted to try Labadee and see have the "Oasis" experience. But my one trip had so many little things wrong that I haven't been able to even think about spending more to try another line. I feel Carnival has the perfect product for me, and as an added bonus they are the best priced.

I'm confused by some comments about price drops. . .say I booked at a certain rate and the price for that cruise drops, can I somehow keep my booking and get a better rate?

 

That seems too good to be true but the only dumb question is the one left unasked, right?

Yes you can. Most fares can be booked at the lower rate as long as you are before final payment, If you are past final payment you only get the lower rate (via OBC) if you booked an early saver rate,

I sailed Vista in April because I have kids, the ship has great pools, waterworks, and the ports were appealing. However the price was high and there was no real deal or value even booking 13 months out. For 2019 I searched for my Panama Canal cruise. 2019 Carnival Freedom (older ship 2006) 14 day for four inside cabin deck 2 is $6700 for everything (taxes, grats, vaca protection). Norwegian Bliss (brand new for 2018) 15 day (one more than CCL) family inside deck 11 also $6700. However that price includes unlimited drink package for a whopping 15 days that has a $2000 value to it included for us, the Carnival Cheers was $1500 extra! :o No brainer which was a better value and an extra day on a brand new ship. It's booked. Carnival offers the least perks with climbing prices and we will most likely never sail them for a while. We are on MSC in 2018. BTW, look at the laughable prices for the Carnival Horizon for 2019. $5000 for a simple inside for four on a basic 8 day eastern Caribbean, nothing included. That's about a million miles away from any deal or value what so ever .....

I've found the same recently. I've done 19 cruises with Carnival. As a solo cruiser now, I can do NCL with an included drink package (or other perk like specialty dining or shore excursions or free wifi if you aren't a drinker) for half the cost of Carnival. Add to that the slide in service on my last few cruises, American Table menus that don't appeal, the awful playlist shows.... I'm trying out NCl. Will see what I think. But after staying loyal to Carnivval for 10 years now - enough has changed that I've looked elsewhere.

The only real perk for platinum anymore is laundry service. Everything else can be bought with FTTF.

Ok, to put theory to practice here is what we just did. We are big fans of the RCI Majesty of the Seas since she was our first ship many years ago. She has a great crew and has a lot of good memories for us. We get our Diamond perks including the vouchers, etc. On another post a cruiser asked "Majesty or Liberty out of PC for a 4 day?". I recommended Liberty just based on the fact that the prices are basically the same but the Liberty is newer and bigger. Since there was no sentimental attachment for him it was a no brainer to me. I went to look at the Liberty and found that she had the 2.0 upgrades and looked really nice. We have the Carnival post cruise promo going right now so I priced an October cruise. I immediately called my TA and booked Liberty for October. Price is roughly the same as MJ for that period, but the value of the Funship 2.0 upgrades alone far outweighs (in our opinion) the Diamond perks on MJ. Bottom line: The loyalty perks are nice and at the higher levels add some real dollar value. We have no perks on Carnival with only one past cruise except for the rebooking promo which everybody gets. So we booked by overall value versus loyalty perks of points. So what if the VFIP program does not offer as much (at some levels) that Royal. If you are happy with the ships, the experience, and the value then just go with that.

I have to admit that my whole cruising world was rocked by our Carnival Sunshine cruise. It is by far not the most popular Carnival ship but we found a lot to like about it. We look at things differently now when planning. Happy Sails!

Basically the only reason that I sail Carnival is that they are almost always cheaper than other cruise lines. I have sailed on other cruise lines but I do enjoy Carnival. Since I now sail solo I wish that they would do studio cabins like NCL as I sailed on a 7 day Med cruise for $499 two years ago. I also enjoy the size of their ships and I always have a good time so if the same itinerary is offered on another cruise line but Carnival is cheaper than I will go with them.

We cruise Carnival for several reasons. Great crews, fun, casino deals, and my grandson actually prefers the kids club over Disney's

From research it does appear as though NCL's innovations are more successful than RCL. The studio cabin concept is an excellent answer to a common issue. Much more thoughtful than the bionic bar. Their Spa suite also looks very impressive.

Also, it appears as though NCL does have a an impresive food roster, albeit most of the onboard surcharge restaurants do seem a little too close to comfort to land prices (though the 4.50 Chow Fun looks like a good deal). Some of the other specialty menus do look promising, though Teppanyaki doesn't seem as appetizing as my local choices. The Brazilian Steakhouse The MDR menus do look good, but menus do not always convey execution.

At the moment I am a little too enamored with my experiences and my costs for comparible Carnival Cruises (sorry Grandeur of the Seas doesn't even get good reviews from my RCCL snob friends) to try anything else. I also feel as though the provide a much better food value for the money. That is looking to include specialty dining at the moment.

I do realize that the cost story might be different in other areas of the country - Such as in Texas and Florida where there are many choices compared to the Mid Atlantic region.

I'm confused by some comments about price drops. . .say I booked at a certain rate and the price for that cruise drops, can I somehow keep my booking and get a better rate?

 

That seems too good to be true but the only dumb question is the one left unasked, right?

Yes you can, and this is the primary reason people book EarlySaver rates -- price-matching is an integral part of the fare description. You DO have to be able to price-match, so if your cabin category is sold out, oh well.

The Fare Viewer engine is really handy for checking prices, but be sure to take port fees and taxes into account, too. https://www.carnival.com/BookingEngine/FareViewer#

I've been able to get a reduced fare (or OBC) twice using EarlySaver, but it seems like opportunities have been scarcer lately.

I love the value of Carnival, prices is good and itineraries. been with Carnival since 2011

also i'm a share holder and you get on board credits. I sell some of my stock for profits and go on a cruise.

We're booked on the dream for April 15 and noticed instead of having three sea days and three ports they added costa maya I wonder why

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It is usually the best value when booking early. I prefer to be able to book ahead of time instead of waiting until the last minute when there may or may not be a deal. I haven't compared balcony prices across different cruise lines because we always book interior... So it may be different for those. I don't really care about the VIFP perks, but it will be nice to have priority boarding when we reach Platinum soon.

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Just wondering why it seems Carnival has the worst benefit programs amongst the other cruise lines.i love carnival just as much as other people but is there a reason everyone stays loyal when other cruise lines treats their customers better and gives them better rewards

 

 

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We simply do not choose a ship based on loyalty programs. Nor are we loyal to any line....however we have sailed Carnival 9 times out of our 15 cruises. Why? Because when we narrowed down the ships based on our wants for those vacations, 9 times out of 15 a Carnival ship offered us the most of our wants at the price we were willing to pay. Since we have enjoyed all our cruises on Carnival, then we will continue to sail them when they meet our criteria and budget. Loyalty programs never even come to play in our decision making process.

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Before the introduction of included drinks packages, Carnival was always my line of choice the majority of the time, with 18 out of 29 on them. Only 2 of my most recent 8 cruises have been with them because of drinks packages on Celebrity and NCL. The positive feedback on the Havana area on the Vista was the impetus for me to book Horizon sailings in 2018 out of NYC and 2019 out of Miami. Our next Carnival cruise after those will not be until the second ship of the LNG 185,000 ton class comes out, which I think is 2022. Need to sail on the MSC Seaside, MSC Meraviglia, NCL Bliss and Celebrity Edge beforehand.

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Before the introduction of included drinks packages, Carnival was always my line of choice the majority of the time, with 18 out of 29 on them. Only 2 of my most recent 8 cruises have been with them because of drinks packages on Celebrity and NCL. The positive feedback on the Havana area on the Vista was the impetus for me to book Horizon sailings in 2018 out of NYC and 2019 out of Miami. Our next Carnival cruise after those will not be until the second ship of the LNG 185,000 ton class comes out, which I think is 2022. Need to sail on the MSC Seaside, MSC Meraviglia, NCL Bliss and Celebrity Edge beforehand.

 

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Edge January 2019.

We cruise on Carnival because we have fun. We tried RCL once and found that we didn't fit in with the crowd. They all seemed like they thought they were better than anyone else.

Worst part was when they had a midnight buffet but held it on the Lido Deck. The wind was blowing real hard and some of their rolls were falling on the deck. I talked to one of the chefs what was standing on the other end. He walked over, picked them up and put them back on the serving table.

We'll stick with Carnival. We have one booked for October of this year and it will put us at Platinum for the one after that. VIFP status has nothing to do with us cruising. We cruise for the fun we have on board the ship and the ports we see.

i sail with carnival because they are the only other cruise lines that sails out of NYC regularly..i dont want to fly to other ports

Understand where you are coming from. But this certainly limits the itineraries We like to go to different ports that are not available on cruises out of NY.

We cruise on Carnival because we have fun. We tried RCL once and found that we didn't fit in with the crowd. They all seemed like they thought they were better than anyone else.

 

 

I have to admit that we do see this on RCI sometimes. I don't think it represents that vast majority of the passengers though. We find lots of friendly people of all loyalty tiers and stateroom categories. In fact, we find that most Pinnacle members (the highest level and can only be achieved by virtually living on a cruise ship :)) are very friendly. The snobbishness seems to be in a small minority and is a phenomenon that used to be called "new money". I can understand that someone new who encounters this would be put aback by it though.

As for the rolls on the floor: "waste not, want not." :D

Seriously, that is really not good. I would be upset to see that. It would make me suspicious of what come out to me at dinner. I would hate to have to ask the waiter "how many times has this touched the floor?" before digging in.

Edge January 2019.

I know, you booked it a few months ago when bookings opened up. We are on the Horizon southern route in February 2019.

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I know, you booked it a few months ago when bookings opened up. We are on the Horizon southern route in February 2019.

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Well I was a little late to the party. I didn't get in right when they released itineraries, but was lucky to come upon a TA that had a couple large contracts locked in at opening day prices. He may have some cabins left, I'm not sure. What's wrong with cruising 2 months in a row?!

What's wrong with cruising 2 months in a row?!

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Would love to, but can't get the time off. In a position where I only get 1 paid week of vacation and can take another without pay. And it's one in the winter and one in the summer. That's the problem working for a very small restrictive company with less than 50 full and part time employees.

 

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I understand.