Early Saver - I wouldn't...

There are pros and cons to everything.

That said, as many of us have noticed the Fare Viewer is no longer available on the Carnival website. Many of us used the Fare Viewer regularly to be able to see what current fares and special discount fares were being offered and using it to compare to booked rates.

Today I received written confirmation that the Fare Viewer is no longer available.

That being the case, comparing rates becomes more and more difficult if not impossible. The only real benefit to booking "early saver" was to be able to receive price matching up to three days before sailing. But if you can no longer use a Fare Viewer, finding current rates is a more difficult and time-consuming task.

My current booking was only $20 per person more booked as past guest versus early saver. The $20 difference is not worth the aggravation to try to find specials and other fares. To me. YMMV.

I'm disappointed that Carnival did away with the Fare Viewer -

You bring up a good point. With improving economic conditions, Carnival may be looking for a way to phase out Early Saver fares, and at the very least, making it more difficult to price match.

I always did a mock booking. You could find more rates that way.

ES is good for people as long as you’re OK with the restrictions but it’s not for everyone. Seems like the good deals are booked far out lately. It used to be the opposite and I personally haven’t seen any huge price drops after final payment in a few years. For the average difference in fare of approx $20 pp, I’ve found it better for me personally to book Past Guest Rate just in case I need to change something around.

There are pros and cons to everything.

 

That said, as many of us have noticed the Fare Viewer is no longer available on the Carnival website. Many of us used the Fare Viewer regularly to be able to see what current fares and special discount fares were being offered and using it to compare to booked rates.

 

Today I received written confirmation that the Fare Viewer is no longer available.

 

That being the case, comparing rates becomes more and more difficult if not impossible. The only real benefit to booking "early saver" was to be able to receive price matching up to three days before sailing. But if you can no longer use a Fare Viewer, finding current rates is a more difficult and time-consuming task.

 

My current booking was only $20 per person more booked as past guest versus early saver. The $20 difference is not worth the aggravation to try to find specials and other fares. To me. YMMV.

 

I'm disappointed that Carnival did away with the Fare Viewer -

I've never had a price drop under Early Saver but it's not that difficult to do a faux booking from time to time to see if there's been a drop (which is what I've always done, I've never used fare viewer). There might only be a $20 difference now, but what if it's not a popular cruise time and they cut the fare closer to the sailing date?

You bring up a good point. With improving economic conditions, Carnival may be looking for a way to phase out Early Saver fares, and at the very least, making it more difficult to price match.

With all the money they take in on penalties and change fees, I don’t see ES going away. Especially since the Onboard Booking Rates are tied to ES now, but I agree with making it more difficult to price match. The CSRs don’t even want to do them via phone and try to get you to fill out the form online. Maybe they think some people won’t bother with it.

I always do a mock booking. The base price doesn't always tell you everything. The upgrade price for a particular room type and deck can make a "cheaper" cruise more expensive real quick. If you do those mock bookings enough you can go through it pretty quick.

It takes me no more than 3 minutes to do a fare check through a “mock booking” to compare price on a held ES reservation.

It is far from a cumbersome or “nearly impossible” task without Fare Viewer.

Sometimes if you want something, you have to work for it - even minimally. Carnival had decided to make you work for it... minimally.

I usually book Early Saver and find comparing prices is not that difficult for me. I have a spa cabin booked on the Horizon for $1644pp that dropped to $1330pp over several months and I enjoyed getting the price protection form approved each time.

I sometimes wish other cruise lines would offer a similar fare rate option.

We used to always book ES until last year after a promotion at work, I was told I couldn’t take vacation around the first of the year. I don’t remember what the exact price was to move the booking, but it was bad enough to make the shift to always booking the Past Guest rate now. It’s usually not that much more and doesn’t have nearly the amount of restrictions that ES does.

With all the money they take in on penalties and change fees, I don’t see ES going away. Especially since the Onboard Booking Rates are tied to ES now, but I agree with making it more difficult to price match. The CSRs don’t even want to do them via phone and try to get you to fill out the form online. Maybe they think some people won’t bother with it.

It's been interesting reading all these comments about current ES. The last couple years I've been blessed to be able to book free casino offers. I'm definitely following this thread to keep up with what's going on with ES. Thanks for sharing.

I used to use the Fare Viewer but not all the discounts available to us were not shown. I think the military rate wasn't on the Fare Viewer, so I would do mock bookings to see the prices that applied to us.

It didn't take much time to do it and I did it almost on a daily basis. It was worth my time when I saved money. Granted, there weren't price reductions all the time, but I was ok with that.

If I sail Carnival again, I will go back to checking to see if my rates go down. I wish another line I sail frequently offered the benefits of Early Saver other than charging a $100 fee per person if booking a non-refundable fare. There also isn't any price reduction after final payment. On Carnival, I'd be checking, but now, I don't want to know if the price goes down as I can't get a lower price. So, for me, losing the Fare Viewer isn't a problem at all.

For reasons already stated I am very disappointed that Fare Viewer has gone by the wayside.

My two currently booked cruises I used the Past Guest rate. $20.00 per person higher than Early Saver with fewer restrictions.

I also noticed on my last two cruises, both booked at the Early Saver rate, that price reductions after final payment date either applied to new bookings only, or put you into the guaranteed rate, thus forfeiting your originally booked cabin. Rendered Early Saver useless to me.

I held my nose and booked ES for my spring 2019 cruise. So far I've had a $40 price reduction.

My July 2018 cruise has increased considerably in price. My April 2019 hasn't changed.

It takes me no more than 3 minutes to do a fare check through a “mock booking” to compare price on a held ES reservation.

 

It is far from a cumbersome or “nearly impossible” task without Fare Viewer.

 

Sometimes if you want something, you have to work for it - even minimally. Carnival had decided to make you work for it... minimally.

Even though it is far from cumbersome or "nearly impossible to do a mock booking , " fare viewer " was certainly a more efficient and simpler method.

Doing mock bookings you have to search deck plans for the category . Say an 8E. Fare viewer cabin categories were on a grid, plain as day.

Mock booking forward/mid/aft and deck all changes pricing on cabins.

I was one who did mock bookings before a CC posters told me about fare viewer. And like many can/will adjust again. It's just fare viewer was easier.

My Journeys/repo cruise is down $1450 from when I booked it. That's worth a minute of my time to do the mock booking!

Doing mock bookings you have to search deck plans for the category . Say an 8E. Fare viewer cabin categories were on a grid, plain as day.

 

Mock booking forward/mid/aft and deck all changes pricing on cabins.

 

I was one who did mock bookings before a CC posters told me about fare viewer. And like many can/will adjust again. It's just fare viewer was easier.

This is what I was trying to say. Thank you "beerman2" :)

I booked ES for our first Carnival cruise without realizing it was a non-refundable deposit. It ended up working out, but I wouldn't do it again because I hate not being able to change my mind without a penalty. It's the same reason I don't take the lower price for nonrefundable hotel reservations.

I do mock bookings whenever I'm checking rates, but make sure to do it under each traveler. DH and I have both been on exactly one 4-day cruise with Carnival, but he had a better VIFP club offer than I had so we booked under that offer.

I use the Ship Mate app to track prices. I put in my cruise date, room, and how much I paid. They email me when the price changes with a link to where the lower price appears.

I take that link and put it in to Carnival's price protection form and get my reduction.

Easy peasy.

I booked ES for our first Carnival cruise without realizing it was a non-refundable deposit. It ended up working out, but I wouldn't do it again because I hate not being able to change my mind without a penalty. It's the same reason I don't take the lower price for nonrefundable hotel reservations.

 

I do mock bookings whenever I'm checking rates, but make sure to do it under each traveler. DH and I have both been on exactly one 4-day cruise with Carnival, but he had a better VIFP club offer than I had so we booked under that offer.

It can be worth the peace of mind to pay extra for a refundable fare especially if there are a lot of moving parts going on to make a vacation come together, but for me personally even though I've had to cancel 2 cruises I've still come out ahead by taking the lower fares on all my cruises and eating the cancellation fee on the 2 I cancelled.

I booked Early Saver many times and have always gotten OBC for any price drops. In fact, our April 2018 cruise has dropped $160 and that's been added to our OBC.

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I always did a mock booking. You could find more rates that way.

 

ES is good for people as long as you’re OK with the restrictions but it’s not for everyone. Seems like the good deals are booked far out lately. It used to be the opposite and I personally haven’t seen any huge price drops after final payment in a few years. For the average difference in fare of approx $20 pp, I’ve found it better for me personally to book Past Guest Rate just in case I need to change something around.

What's the difference in ES and Past Guest Rate? I've saved $200 pp since our original booking using ES. I do a mock booking to check for lower fares. It worked for me when the Fare Viewer didn't. So what would I gain by booking Past Guest Rate instead?

What's the difference in ES and Past Guest Rate? I've saved $200 pp since our original booking using ES. I do a mock booking to check for lower fares. It worked for me when the Fare Viewer didn't. So what would I gain by booking Past Guest Rate instead?

You aren't restricted or penalized as far as you can change names, downgrade, or cancel with no penalty up until final payment. You can still get price drops up until final payment with PG so what I'll do a lot of times is reserve a cabin with PG and then switch to ES once I know for sure I can go and there won't be any changes. However, within the past 2 or 3 years I haven't seen any real drops after final payment on my cruises unlike before. Sometimes I just stick with PG.

Here's my ES tale...

I am finally returning to Carnival after being away since the late 1990's. Because it has been awhile, when I booked my next 2 cruises (4-Day on Inspiration 2018 and 5-Day on the Valor 2019) I did not have the information needed to enjoy the option of PG even though I had taken 3 cruises with Carnival before (2 I paid for the 3rd my family). I booked under ES and was actually quite happy with how both pricings turned out (got $50 OBC with Inspiration and the lowest rate being offered which even Carnival's customer service person was impressed with when I called with a question; and I snagged an aft wrap Balcony on Valor for $1600 total under ES as well). I too would have liked to have had the option of more flexibility (which I didn't really learn about until after the dye was cast) but now that I know the differences it will just give me more "wiggle room" when it comes time to book the next adventure. Thanks for the info.

Just call them and have them check for you..BUT..make sure you tell them to just CHECK 1st..don't change..just check..😣. I have ES and have saved over 300.00 since booking in July..but 1 time the person changed it before asking me and it took over an hour to change it back..fyi..the change cost me my OBC and it would have only saved me 10.00 after that...