Gift Cards from Raise

[amberdc87]

Saw recently someone mentioned to save some money, to get a Carnival Gift Card from Raise.  Has anyone done that before?  It's not much of a savings, seems like right now its 8%, but if its a good place to get cards from, I was going to go ahead.  Thanks y'all.

[RazorPokesHoney]

I have not used Raise but I did use Swagbucks to purchase my gift cards and got 7% cash back.

[csm5986142]

Yes, my family uses Raise gift cards all the time for both the cruise deposit and onboard expenses.

[amberdc87]

40 minutes ago, csm5986142 said:

Yes, my family uses Raise gift cards all the time for both the cruise deposit and onboard expenses.

 

Do you put the gift card on your account before you get on the ship?  Or do you have to wait until your on the ship?

[CarolSW]

10 minutes ago, amberdc87 said:

 

Do you put the gift card on your account before you get on the ship?  Or do you have to wait until your on the ship?

You have to wait until you are on the ship.

We have done it at the Guest Services desk, but some folks have successfully done it at the kiosks.  However, those seem to be a bit glitchy sometimes. 

Edited March 13, 2022 by CarolSW

[lizord]

I

9 minutes ago, amberdc87 said:

 

Do you put the gift card on your account before you get on the ship?  Or do you have to wait until your on the ship?

I've never heard of anyone applying them before they get on the ship, but we always apply them throughout the cruise, once my Sail and sign gets to a $1000, then another $1000, etc. There is a machine next to guest services, you enter the # and Pin and it applies it to your account. If the machine turns up an error I have GS apply it for me.

[cmichael1221]

We bought Raise gift cards the last night of the cruise, while we were onboard in January - once we knew what our balance was.

[amberdc87]

10 minutes ago, cmichael1221 said:

We bought Raise gift cards the last night of the cruise, while we were onboard in January - once we knew what our balance was.

That is really smart!  I may do that instead.

[acsfl]

I use them to pay for the cruise and for onboard stuff. I also get another 2% on the purchase at Raise by going through topcashback.com. Rakuten has 1%.

[heidiatmn1]

On 3/12/2022 at 8:53 PM, amberdc87 said:

 

Do you put the gift card on your account before you get on the ship?  Or do you have to wait until your on the ship?

You can buy up to $500 cruise cash per room on the website with gift cards prior to boarding. AARP has 10% off carnival gift cards as well. 

[Kanyon71]

11 hours ago, heidiatmn1 said:

You can buy up to $500 cruise cash per room on the website with gift cards prior to boarding. AARP has 10% off carnival gift cards as well. 

I just used AARP to pay for our entire cruise, our excursion in Grand Turk, water, some snacks and a full face snorkel mask for our daughter. $500 carnival gift card is $450. So we saved another $300, it's a pita to enter all those gift cards and you can only buy 5 per month but the process was super simple. I read about it on this site. Will be doing this moving forward. I think I paid like $12 for a 2 year AARP membership for myself and my wife on some special.

 

Cruise is in June so have thought about buying more next month to take with us for the ship.

[groundloop]

12 hours ago, heidiatmn1 said:

You can buy up to $500 cruise cash per room on the website with gift cards prior to boarding. AARP has 10% off carnival gift cards as well. 

 

The only problem with cruise cash is that it's 'use it or lose it'.  

[lions1995]

I have used Raise to buy Carnival gift cards. I buy them at full price but then get Raise money back. I just use that then to buy a grocery store card and redeem it. You have the card electronically within seconds. 

 

Example, bought $1000 carnival card at full price. Got a $95 in raise cash ( essentially credit). Bought a target card and used it at target. 

 

I could have gotten a 10% discount using my Citi account, but I did not want to wait weeks for the card since I was buying some excursions and steakhouse dining  reservations. 

[cruisingguy007]

Raise is legit. Used them plenty of times. 

[cruisingguy007]

15 minutes ago, lions1995 said:

I have used Raise to buy Carnival gift cards. I buy them at full price but then get Raise money back. I just use that then to buy a grocery store card and redeem it. You have the card electronically within seconds. 

 

Example, bought $1000 carnival card at full price. Got a $95 in raise cash ( essentially credit). Bought a target card and used it at target. 

 

I could have gotten a 10% discount using my Citi account, but I did not want to wait weeks for the card since I was buying some excursions and steakhouse dining  reservations. 

 

It never takes weeks in my experience. Usually about a week at most. Just used a Wells Fargo cash back offer to buy some booze for the cabin only a few days ago and already got the credit.