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Elite cruise information


picantel
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No matter how much I google I can only find a little bit of information about Carnivals Elite cruises. Because of this I will post my experiences as they come in. This is a work in progress of course.

 

Date of cruise: October 6, 2018

Cruise ship: Carnival Breeze

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September 10, 2018

 

Received email from carnival Carnival's global casino services. They are asking for information such as arriving/departing by air, parking at the port, and staying at a hotel. They are also asking for full details such as times, airline, hotel, ect.

 

The second part of the email is asking for the drink of choice for the invited guest and their companion. Each person gets 1 choice from the alcohol side and 1 from the soft drink side. They are asking for all information to be emailed back to them within 1 week in which time they will send out more information.

 

Drink list:

 

Bailey's

Coke

Tanqueray

Diet Coke

Absolut

Sprite

Bacardi

Sprite Zero

Sparkling Wine

Ginger Ale

White Zinfandel (Blush Wine)

Tonic water

Conundrum By Caymus (White Wine)

Orange Juice

Moscato (White Wine)

Pibb

Chardonnay (White wine)

Sparkling Water

Pinot Noir (Red wine)

Coke Zero

Merlot (Red wine)

Club Soda

Cabernet Sauvignon (Red wine)

Heineken

Budweiser

Bud Light

Corona

Miller Light

Buckler (non–alcoholic beer)

Malibu

Jack Daniels

Crown Royal

Dos XX

Patron Silver (Tequila)

Woodford Reserve (Bourbon)

Jose Cuervo Gold (Tequila)

Captain Morgan

Coors Light

Michelob Ultra

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September 11, 2018.

 

Received welcome email with further information.

1)automatically become platinum with priority access

2) free social wi-fi plan

3) 1 hour meeting 1:30-2:30. meet hosts. get activity plan. pick up drink card/lanyard

4) get information on free excursion in Amber Cove- Lifestyle Serenity VIP Resort Getaway

5) get information on casino events and drawings

6) get information on San Juan sail away party

I hope they do not mind me posting this. This looks like my last email before the cruise so I will put in more information when the cruise starts.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Day 1

Got on the ship at 11 and went straight to the room. The alcohol was waiting but nothing else as the room was not ready. By 11:30 the room was ready and one 6 pack of soda was available. Luggage did not come until 1 and the second soda package came around 3.

 

The welcome party started at 1:30. You pick up your excursion tickets, steakhouse invitation, and cheers package. They serve finger foods like tiny hotdogs, chicken wings, chicken salad, cheese, ect. Drinks were very hard to get as most of the time there was one bartender for roughly 80 people. After 45 minutes someone asked when the presentation started and we were told there was none so we left with half the people.

 

Elite drawing- there is one for one person and guests 18 and over are included so this was a total bust. With 70 to 80 people there is pretty much no way to win. The prize was $200.

 

From a personal view this cruise is not really for me. The value is in the cheers program and free balcony. I am in my late 40s and was either the youngest or close to it elite member. More to come. I am typing on my phone so please excuse any grammar errors.

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Day 2

 

Elite cruise draw- $300. If the person is not present they roll it over to the next day and do not redraw. They did draw $100 until they had a winner.

 

Room delivery- a bottle of red wine and a fruit supreme basket from cherry on top. It had various fruits and cheeses. I do not believe there are anymore elite events for this day.

 

I should mention they also delivered two bottles of water and a plate with chocolate strawberries and truffles. These are for platinum guests which I was already. Elites are given platinum status on the cruise so I can assume they will get the same platinum perks.

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Is top shelf liquor comped for elite cruises ? Or does it vary player to player or levels.

 

I honestly am not sure since I do not drink. They did say 15 of anything and it seems to be coded differently than the cheers program as some cashiers were confused and some said oh you are elite.

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Day 2 continued.

 

I was wanted to add that at 11 PM they played another elite game in the casino called dodge the bull. They ended up with 6 players because all the elites kept chanting one more person. You roll a die and that is how many wheel spins you get. You spin a wheel that is made up of cash amounts or bulls(roughly a third bulls). If u hit a bull your spins are over. If you hit cash then you spin up until the number of your dice roll. This is for freeplay in slots or table game only. It was a ton of fun.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Day 3

I will have to go from some memory here which is not saying a ton but I still have a list of activities so will do the best I can.

This was the day of our lifestyle serenity VIP resort getaway in Amber Cove. We took 2 buses over there and it was a nice day. Note to those who go on this- DO NOT get on a golf cart and let them take you anywhere. NO NO NO. I forgot my suntan lotion and needed to get over to their gift shop which is too far to walk. I never made it there. They took me on a 1.5 hour tour and refused to take me back. Unreal.

In room gifts- 2 large bottle of water(lol)

Elite draw- it was I believe for $500 but there was a rollover. This is freeplay of course

Cash Pong- bounce the ping pong ball and hope to get it in a bag containing cash. They drew about 5 names. They had a small glass worth 1k which someone actually got and the rest were for a few hundred. You get I believe 5+ balls each.

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Day 4

In room gift- box of 12 cookies(the ones they sell at the coffee bar so 4 flavors)

Elite draw- around $400

Tower of Cash- another interesting game with around 5 people called.You can to stack cups in rows and you had 60 seconds to do so. Each row was worth a set amount when completed starting with I believe $200 and going on up. If you complete the entire thing you get 1k freeplay(which somebody did)

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Day 5

In room gift- box of salted chocolate caramels(1 box for 2 people)

Sail away party(from San Juan)- free drinks which you get anyway and snacks. They did a drawing for 3 bottles of liquor(higher quality). People just sat around and drank. There was a DJ

Dinner- steakhouse. I did not go as I knew it would be a long dinner(3 hours to be precise) and was given 2 free dinners at cucina and a bottle of wine instead.

Elite draw- around $500

Lucky Card Draw- they had about a dozen cards and you picked and were given prizes which ranged from maybe $200-$500. I do not remember the exact amounts. More people got to play this one.

 

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Day 6

In room gifts- they combined today's gifts and tomorrows into one giveaway. Each person got an engraved hot/cold tumbler, a chcolate bar, an engraved stainless steel coffee cup, and split a french coffee press. They were very nice.

Elite draw- around $600. 1 winner as usual

Fill My Bag- they called 6 people who each picked a number. You held out a bag and they put a prize and freeplay(starting at $250). They then picked one number and that person was eliminated. You then got another prizes(we are talking towels, cups, ect) and another freeplay that gained value). The last person ended up with something like $1700 in freeplay.

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Day 7

In room gifts- none

Elite slot tournament- the usual they play on the ship only this was for elites. I have no clue what the prizes were as I flamed out in the first round as usual

Elite draw- around $700 but in pure cash this time

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My thoughts- This is still mainly a cruise for the balcony and drink package. The in room gifts were 'meh' at best. The games were nice but everyone would have preferred cash instead. Everyone I talked to got completely murdered on the slots which were even tighter than usual so any value was removed. The biggest complaint I got from talking to people were the drawings. I kid you not one lady got called on every single drawing while many people were not called at all. They should have excluded the guests from the drawing and only allowed the invited elite member to participate. The bounce back offers were the worst though. $100 for another cruise with $100 credit yet there was only ONE cruise at that price. The rest were hundreds of dollars. I thought when the elite cruises came out that Carnival had finally learned their lesson and were going to treat their casino customers like treasured guests but this did not happen. Elite cruises are nice but they still have a long way to go.

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Thank you for the review. It seems like a Premier cruise as far as the casino games but the other perks are nice. Did you see many hand pays on slots? Carnival has really downgraded the bounce backs. I would think that with Elite players they would want you back as often as possible so offer good deals.

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I saw one elite member get a 2.6k handpay the first night. She was up to nearly 6k in points so that probably got her even. I did hear about a 20k jackpot hit but I have no clue if that was an elite member or not. I also saw a 1.2k and 4k jackpot hit. On my last day I checked my offers and there were more elite cruises offered. The problem is there were only 2 left and this one(pardon me why I cry) was for elite cruise to Alaska, Panama Canal, and Hawaii. Those were sold out(sob). I got the brochure in my mail the day I got back but by then it was too late. My kid, who dreams of going to Alaska on a cruise, was heartbroken. A free balcony and excursion would have been incredible. I will be on the January 20th on the Horizon(elite also) but it is leaving out of my most hated port- Miami.

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Thanks for the information. Sounds like a bait and switch when they send you offers that are not available. I know now that I won't qualify for an elite, my fingers couldn't hit the buttons fast enough to get 6,000 points on the first night.

Enjoy the Horizon, my husband hates going out of Miami too. I grew up there so I like to see the changes. Thanks again for your review.

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On 10/17/2018 at 1:40 PM, picantel said:

My thoughts- This is still mainly a cruise for the balcony and drink package. The in room gifts were 'meh' at best. The games were nice but everyone would have preferred cash instead. Everyone I talked to got completely murdered on the slots which were even tighter than usual so any value was removed. The biggest complaint I got from talking to people were the drawings. I kid you not one lady got called on every single drawing while many people were not called at all. They should have excluded the guests from the drawing and only allowed the invited elite member to participate. The bounce back offers were the worst though. $100 for another cruise with $100 credit yet there was only ONE cruise at that price. The rest were hundreds of dollars. I thought when the elite cruises came out that Carnival had finally learned their lesson and were going to treat their casino customers like treasured guests but this did not happen. Elite cruises are nice but they still have a long way to go.

Elite cruises are great. I like the free transportation or parking. The chance to win the side games are greater too. However, I usually get less casino cash on elite cruise offers. The last elite cruise offers I received were on April 12 and October 9 of this year.

Carnival lately has given me the $200 bounce back offers in print at the end of the cruise, except once earlier this year I got a $200 bounce back for a suite. I usually wait for the email offers. I have so many premier, elite, ultra free/$200 balcony / $300/$1000 casino cash offers I couldn’t possibly take them all.

I’m signed up for six $200 future cruises in the next 12 months, I’ve been on 8 in the last 10 months.

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Edited by gmblr
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On 10/18/2018 at 2:01 PM, oxymoron11 said:

Thanks for the information. Sounds like a bait and switch when they send you offers that are not available.

The offers are emailed before they are sent in the mail. Since there are only a few spots open for each elite cruise those they fill up quickly, usually in a day or two, with the best cruises going in hours.

I received an email for the elite cruises on October 9th, and in just a couple hours the Alaska cruise spots were full. I made the March 17 horizon spring break and December 1 legend Panama Canal elite cruises. 

 

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