Carnival booking and a few questions

[familyfun4]

Hi, I'm not sure what to do. We want to sail the Vista on 5/6/17. I started the booking process and was happy until I asked the rep if the deposit was refundable up to a certain amount of days, etc. He explained me that it would not be, that I'd have a credit minus $50. p/p toward future booking within 2 yrs because of my price point. I was booking deck 6 mid ship for $1399 p/p. He told me if I pay a higher price point, the regular deposit return applies.

 

This is so far away, yet I feel that I should book now because it's going to be a popular ship, but not sure what to do. If I paid the lower price point and the fare went down, could I still ask for that or only with a regular rate?

 

Any advice from experienced cruisers?

 

Also, do we have to be seated with other people in the MDR or can you request not to be?

 

Last cruise was NCL and they did not have any raspberry vodka which is my favorite, can anyone tell me if Carnival carries it normally? If not, can I bring my own onboard?

 

Thanks so much.

[Clarea]

I would also consider posting on the Carnival forum here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=215

 

You would likely get a larger group of Carnival experts to see your question that way.

[Essiesmom]

He was giving you what the lowest fare he saw was. But it is a special category called Early Saver. Special rules for those fares. If you cancel before final payment, you lose $50pp and the rest of your deposit is kept for use on a future booking. There are many other fare categories that have fully refundable deposits if cancelled before final payment. Do an experimental booking online and you can see what fares are available. Or to make it even simpler, there is a site called fareviewer:

http://www.carnival.com/bookingengine/fareviewer

 

It's a site used for those booked to check if their fare has gone down. but you can plug in ship, date, cabin category, etc. and see what fares are running now. Also, check into the Carnival forum here, under Cruise Lines A-O for lots of info from Carnival cruisers. EM

[paggs]

do other lines have that type of a site?

[Essiesmom]

I haven't heard of anything similar on any other sites. EM

[MCC retired]

do other lines have that type of a site?

 

 

No other cruise line has anything similar to CCL's Early Saver .

It has it's restrictions but for those that hate watching the deals pop up after Final , it's great .

[SadieN]

The Alchemy Bar might have Raspberry Vodka.

 

Any alcohol besides wine, brought onboard at embark will be thrown away.

Edited April 20, 2016 by SadieN

[Quilting_Cruiser]

In addition to what the previous poster said about the Early Saver fare, you do get price reductions right up until a couple days before sailing--that's the reason people typically book ES. If you're past final payment, you get on board credit when the price drops. I've booked ES a few times and always had on board credit by the time we cruised. On our Baltic cruise, I had about $2,500 in OBC! It's important to understand the restrictions and make sure you're comfortable with them. I have booked ES only when I was certain my sailing dates wouldn't change. The credits aren't automatic; you have to watch the prices and submit a form to get the reduction. BTW, the OBC is refundable, which means if you have a situation like I did with the huge amount of OBC and don't spend it all, you can get it back at the end.

 

As far as seating in the dining room, you can request a table for your party's size, but there's no guarantee you'll get it. You can also request Your Time Dining which means you can choose what time you eat and when you to to the dining room, you can request a table for two (or however many are in your party).

[familyfun4]

Thank you all for your help and advice, I really appreciate it.