AARP Carnival Gift Cards

[Calnev1]

8 hours ago, tw67 said:

My buying cruise cash with gift cards might have backfired on me...  last night my husband hurt himself.  I brought him to urgent care this morning, and he is seeing an orthopedist tomorrow.  It looks like he has torn his calf muscle.  We fly out Wednesday night, and go on a cruise Thursday.  I do have insurance!  He is non weight bearing because they are afraid that he could rupture it.  I don't think this cruise is looking great we will find out tomorrow.  So I don't know if my cruise cash will be refundable if we don't get on the ship....  I hope if it isn't refundable, my insurance would cover it.  

Dang.  I hope  you can go on your cruise or ,  failing that,  get  your $$$ back from the cruise cash!

[Eli_6]

20 hours ago, nklpikl said:

We are trying out Celebrity. The gift cards on Allstate & AARP state they can only be used on new bookings and can not be used for onboard expenses. Has anyone had any experience with using gift cards on Celebrity?

I am interested in this, too, as I am considering booking a cruise on Celebrity to go to Egypt.

[twopizz]

Hi, this is a silly question and I apologize for it, but this is the fist time we use a Carnival Gift card onboard, and you all are very helpful.

We have a $500 GC we want to use onboard to cover for a few drinks, espressos and a little slots gamble.

How do we add it when onboard to be sure these amounts will be deducted first from the GC and not from the CC on file.

Hope my question make sense. Thank you in advance!

[tw67]

22 hours ago, tw67 said:

My buying cruise cash with gift cards might have backfired on me...  last night my husband hurt himself.  I brought him to urgent care this morning, and he is seeing an orthopedist tomorrow.  It looks like he has torn his calf muscle.  We fly out Wednesday night, and go on a cruise Thursday.  I do have insurance!  He is non weight bearing because they are afraid that he could rupture it.  I don't think this cruise is looking great we will find out tomorrow.  So I don't know if my cruise cash will be refundable if we don't get on the ship....  I hope if it isn't refundable, my insurance would cover it.  

No worries!  Cruise is not canceled!  Orthopedist gave her blessing, and he is out of the mobilizer and on to a calf compression sleeve!  Lots of hot tub time!

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

1 minute ago, twopizz said:

Hi, this is a silly question and I apologize for it, but this is the fist time we use a Carnival Gift card onboard, and you all are very helpful.

We have a $500 GC we want to use onboard to cover for a few drinks, espressos and a little slots gamble.

How do we add it when onboard to be sure these amounts will be deducted first from the GC and not from the CC on file.

Hope my question make sense. Thank you in advance!

Just apply it to your account onboard, either guest services, the check in desk when you arrive, or at a kiosk.  It'll always use the GC before CC.

[twopizz]

1 minute ago, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

Just apply it to your account onboard, either guest services, the check in desk when you arrive, or at a kiosk.  It'll always use the GC before CC.

Thank you!

[n6uqqq]

1 minute ago, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

Just apply it to your account onboard, either guest services, the check in desk when you arrive, or at a kiosk.  It'll always use the GC before CC.

I have tried to do it when checking in, but at least in Long Beach they don't want anything to do with it and tell me to do it on board. The kiosk has finally been working for me after not working in the past. 

[tw67]

1 minute ago, n6uqqq said:

I have tried to do it when checking in, but at least in Long Beach they don't want anything to do with it and tell me to do it on board. The kiosk has finally been working for me after not working in the past. 

Years ago I used to apply it at check in, but we have found the same thing.  They only want you to do it on board.  

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

3 minutes ago, n6uqqq said:

I have tried to do it when checking in, but at least in Long Beach they don't want anything to do with it and tell me to do it on board. The kiosk has finally been working for me after not working in the past. 

 

1 minute ago, tw67 said:

Years ago I used to apply it at check in, but we have found the same thing.  They only want you to do it on board.  

Thanks for the update.  I know in the past I could.

[n6uqqq]

2 minutes ago, tw67 said:

Years ago I used to apply it at check in, but we have found the same thing.  They only want you to do it on board.  

In fairness I can understand why, they don't want people gumming up the boarding process. Too bad Carnival doesn't allow us to apply gift cards when creating our on board accounts. 

[tw67]

3 minutes ago, n6uqqq said:

In fairness I can understand why, they don't want people gumming up the boarding process. Too bad Carnival doesn't allow us to apply gift cards when creating our on board accounts. 

That is why I buy cruise cash.  It just makes it easier.  

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

7 minutes ago, n6uqqq said:

In fairness I can understand why, they don't want people gumming up the boarding process. Too bad Carnival doesn't allow us to apply gift cards when creating our on board accounts. 

It's probably intentional to help sales of non refundable cruise cash. 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

Just now, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

It's probably intentional to help sales of non refundable cruise cash. 

 

5 minutes ago, tw67 said:

That is why I buy cruise cash.  It just makes it easier.  

LOL

[I_AM_GROOT]

2023MemberSurvey for 1000 points. This is from their survey they sent via email.

Edited January 17, 2023 by I_AM_GROOT

[mkkao924]

8 hours ago, n6uqqq said:

I have tried to do it when checking in, but at least in Long Beach they don't want anything to do with it and tell me to do it on board. The kiosk has finally been working for me after not working in the past. 

When did you try it? I did it once March 2022 for Radiance at Long Beach and the agent helped me at check-in booth.

[tw67]

6 hours ago, mkkao924 said:

When did you try it? I did it once March 2022 for Radiance at Long Beach and the agent helped me at check-in booth.

August of 2019 I tried (not in Long Beach, probably Miami) and was told to do it on the ship.  After that I only did cruise cash.

[Organized Chaos]

On 1/14/2023 at 3:08 PM, tw67 said:

We cruised over Halloween and had no problem doing this.  I did it multiple times.  I will play slots and my husband plays the tables.  I use my GC and buy cruise cash.  This way it is one less thing I have to worry about once on board.  My husband will go to a slot machine to get money to play the tables.  I believe there is still a 3% fee if you charge your sign and sail card at a table, but not from a slot machine.  

 

You do have to make sure to spend all that cruise cash, it is not refundable.  

 

Thank you for all the responses to my question. Good to hear the casino "trick" is working again. When people said it wasn't working, I suspected (hoped) it was only going to be a temporary thing after they returned.

Yeah, I never buy too much Cruise Cash because I don't spend a lot onboard. If I do get CC, I try to buy only as much as I think I'll use so I don't have to mess with cashing out, but it's always nice to know the option is there.

 

On 1/15/2023 at 9:31 AM, Calnev1 said:

We started doing the separate account thing after Princess chastised us once for the amount of $$$ we were pulling from the casino cage. (For clarification, we have never had a problem aboard a Carnival ship . . . ).

 

From what I've heard, even though Carnival allows it, it's frowned upon. I don't think too many people know about it, so I've always wondered if more & more people learn about it and do it, would it draw enough attention for Carnival to put a stop to it.

[Organized Chaos]

19 hours ago, twopizz said:

Hi, this is a silly question and I apologize for it, but this is the fist time we use a Carnival Gift card onboard, and you all are very helpful.

We have a $500 GC we want to use onboard to cover for a few drinks, espressos and a little slots gamble.

How do we add it when onboard to be sure these amounts will be deducted first from the GC and not from the CC on file.

Hope my question make sense. Thank you in advance!

 

Your credit card will be the last thing to be charged if you have multiple funding methods on your Sail & Sign account. First it'll pull from non-refundable OBC (like Cruise Cash), then refundable OBC, then gift cards, then straight cash that you put on there, then a credit/debit card.

[Organized Chaos]

19 hours ago, tw67 said:

Years ago I used to apply it at check in, but we have found the same thing.  They only want you to do it on board.  

 

I've always set up a cash S&S account prior to sail date. No credit/debit card on it. It was never a problem until 2019 in New Orleans. They flagged me at check-in and forced me to add funds or a credit card to my S&S. I said I'd do it onboard, but they wouldn't let me. That had never happen to me before then and hoped it was an isolated incident. It wasn't. We went on another one a few months later out of Miami, so I got the idea of buying some Cruise Cash so it'd be on my S&S and they'd see it was pre-funded (again, no credit/debit card). Got to check-in, the girl saw it was a cash account, and she flagged me again, told me to go to Guest Services in the terminal. I told her I had Cruise Cash on the account, but she told me to go anyway and they'd straighten it out. The lady at Guest Services didn't even know what Cruise Cash was and supposedly couldn't see any funding on my account. I finally got to speak to a manager and they let me go.

 

We haven't been able to cruise since, but I hope they've stopped doing that. I don't have a credit card, just a debit card, so more than likely I'll just use that to avoid the hassle. But still use gift cards & maybe Cruise Cash so the debit isn't charged.

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

17 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

I've always set up a cash S&S account prior to sail date. No credit/debit card on it. It was never a problem until 2019 in New Orleans. They flagged me at check-in and forced me to add funds or a credit card to my S&S. I said I'd do it onboard, but they wouldn't let me. That had never happen to me before then and hoped it was an isolated incident. It wasn't. We went on another one a few months later out of Miami, so I got the idea of buying some Cruise Cash so it'd be on my S&S and they'd see it was pre-funded (again, no credit/debit card). Got to check-in, the girl saw it was a cash account, and she flagged me again, told me to go to Guest Services in the terminal. I told her I had Cruise Cash on the account, but she told me to go anyway and they'd straighten it out. The lady at Guest Services didn't even know what Cruise Cash was and supposedly couldn't see any funding on my account. I finally got to speak to a manager and they let me go.

 

We haven't been able to cruise since, but I hope they've stopped doing that. I don't have a credit card, just a debit card, so more than likely I'll just use that to avoid the hassle. But still use gift cards & maybe Cruise Cash so the debit isn't charged.

That should work, but you may wind up with a hold on your debit card for awhile. From the Carnival website (it looks like cruise cash is not listed as a way of the initial funding of an account, but I assume gift cards count as cash):

 

• Guests must deposit cash (USD currency only) or Traveler's Checks (USD currency only) at Guest Services on the first day of the cruise. The following minimum cash deposits are recommended:
  • 2 - 4 day cruise: $100 USD per person
  • 5 - 8 day cruise: $200 USD per person
  • 9 days or longer: $350 USD per person

[NanoGirl21]

My 2^nd cruise is 19 days away! The first time I did not have any gift cards and just added cash to my Sign and Sail account when we arrivied. At that time I was traveling with a child, and I was responsible for their expenses. This time I am traveling with another adult, and they are to pay for their own additional expenses. I will be the one checking us in online. How do I set things up so their Sign and Sail card is charged to their method of payment (I don't know what it will be) and mine is linked to my gift cards?

[tw67]

10 minutes ago, NanoGirl21 said:

My 2^nd cruise is 19 days away! The first time I did not have any gift cards and just added cash to my Sign and Sail account when we arrivied. At that time I was traveling with a child, and I was responsible for their expenses. This time I am traveling with another adult, and they are to pay for their own additional expenses. I will be the one checking us in online. How do I set things up so their Sign and Sail card is charged to their method of payment (I don't know what it will be) and mine is linked to my gift cards?

 

When you do your check in, they will put down their own credit card, debit card, or whatever they are using.  You just don't link both of yours to your payment method.  Each person can have their own.  

[n6uqqq]

14 hours ago, mkkao924 said:

When did you try it? I did it once March 2022 for Radiance at Long Beach and the agent helped me at check-in booth.

It was last November. I had created a cash account and brought my handy 500 dollar gift card from Allstate. I ended up boarding with no money on my sail and sign account. I don't know if it is official policy or a lazy person checking me in didn't know how or want to bother applying the GC.I would much rather apply the GC myself when I create the account online but it is not an option. The kiosk turned out to be easy enough though. 

Edited January 17, 2023 by n6uqqq

[Calnev1]

4 hours ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

 

 

Edited January 17, 2023 by Calnev1

[canes20]

wininwinter23 for 1000

Edited January 18, 2023 by canes20