Is This For Real??

[purplefrog1111]

i emailed ccl earlier in the week asking them to provide my past guest number. we cruised for the first time in feb 2004, and are booking another cruise for nov 2004. i had hoped to have already begin receiving my "currents" magazine, but so far haven't. anyway, i got an email from ccl stating that they were adding me to their system and it will take approx. 6-12 weeks!!! are they serious?? i can get a mortgage in less than 12 weeks. how on earth does it take 12 weeks to add my name to their database?? i provided them with all info, names, dates, ship, cabin#, booking #, etc. anyone else have this happen? did it actually take up to 12 weeks??

[kristikae]

Currents only comes out 4 times a year so that makes sense. The summer issue has already gone out so the next issue isn't due out till fall. You aren't missing much in my opinion...just a lot of ads.

[Cruising89143]

quote from Kristi:

 

 

 

You aren't missing much in my opinion...just a lot of ads.

Ain't that the truth. Of course if you think the Currents is bad, you should see RCI's Crown and Anchor magazine. :p

[cjar855]

Evidently it must. I sailed in January of this year,and wanted to update my profile on the website to reflect all my past cruises,but Jan.2004 still is not shown. I have contacted them twice by e-mail.

[kajsb]

I was trying to get my recent cruises added into my profile. I was already a past guest so my profile had my cruises from 2002 and 2003. Here is the E-mail that I received from Carnival this past week:

____________________________________________________

 

Thank you for visiting Carnival Cruise Lines on the World Wide Web. We are advising all guests that have sailed with Carnival in the past that has already a past guest number to please be patient as we are in the process of updating everyone's past guest profile on to our new data base. For guests that has sailed and has received their permanent past guest number are eligible for a complimentary one year subscription (4 issues) of our Currents magazine. You will receive random mailings offering special discounts as a token of our appreciation for your patronage. Additionally, on your next sailing you will be invited to a private cocktail party. The past guest party is conducted on sailings that is 7 or more days. Therefore, the cruise history does not entitle you to any additional benefits.

 

Just be sure on your next cruise that you do have your past guest number available to give to your travel advisor so that he/she can place it on your reservation.

 

If there is anything else I can do for you, please don't hesitate to ask and thank you for choosing Carnival Cruise Lines.

[glrounds]

In this silly got-to-have-a-gimmick World it really doesn't matter.

As others have stated the Currents magazine is okay, but mostly advertisements and "atta boys" for Carnival.

 

Carnival, for the most part, doesn't really have past guest perks. Quite frankly, they don't have to. Their return pax number is one of the highest in the industry. Their "first-time" cruiser ranking is the absolute tops.

 

Just going to the purser and telling them you are a past guest will get you invited to the PAST GUEST COCKTAIL PARTY ( do you think Carnival wants to risk offending a client who may give them $3000-4000 every year for the rest of their lives over $1-2s worth of booze ?). From my experience at these things they are usually packed with people trying to save 5-10 bucks on their sign'n'sail by getting an early start on their alcohol consumption, although the Whiskey Sours (very popular drink years ago) are FANTASTICO ! ! :D

[cjar855]

I got that same Letter 3 weeks ago. Still nothing has changed...

[judyjbest]

I too emailed them to update my records, because they had all our past cruises except the one in January this year. Received the same email as listed earlier in this post. I guess they're messed up since they starting posting them on their website. We just didn't know how long it took them to get our cruises listed for us before and now we know! You'd think that stuff would automatically get populated from your booking, wouldn't you?

 

Happy cruising on Carnival anyway! I agree with others ... the Currents is really only a quick browse!

[Beffy1167]

I took my SECOND Carnival cruise in Feb this year and had never been assigned a past guest number. I'd also stopped getting Currents because it'd been too long since my first cruise. Sooooo....when I got the email from Carnival, I scanned in a copy of my Sail and Sign card and sent it back to them. Within a couple of weeks, I'd been assigned a past guest number.....but haven't noticed any significant different in price quotes when using it for future booking estimates yet.

 

Good luck!

[Cruising89143]

quote:

 

Carnival, for the most part, doesn't really have past guest perks. Quite frankly, they don't have to. Their return pax number is one of the highest in the industry. Their "first-time" cruiser ranking is the absolute tops.

 

I have cruised quite a bit with Carnival over the years and since they choose not to have any type of past quest perks I have decided to see what else is out there. I am going to try RCI for a seven day cruise later this year. While their past guest perks are not huge at least they and other cruise lines take the time to show their past guests that they are important.

Carnival is no longer the cheapest cruise line out there. At times I have seen them higher than the other mass market lines. It's time that they get on the stick with some type of program IMHO.

[judyjbest]

We're also past guests on RCI, but we only sailed them once for a short 4-day with our kids. Had such a boring time we switched back to Carnival for six more. But, now the Paradise is gone as a non-smoking ship, one of the draws, the prices aren't better than the other lines, and RCI is looking funner. Additionally, we love the Caribeean, but we've cruised almost all the islands Carnival serves. So, we're probably going RCI in 1st quarter, 05. If nothing else, you get a free Cruise Critic cocktail party there!

[llanning]

RCI does have some perks for past guests. As a Diamond member, we can do air deviation without an extra fee ($50). There is also a concierge club on some ships. The club includes speciality coffee in the morning and drinks and snacks before dinner. The concierge can arrange speciality club dinner reservations, excursions, etc. Diamond members also have some type of special affair. Once it was a small cocktail party and once it was a special brunch.

[jerfl]

Carnival no longer seems to care very much about it's Past Pax like it once did. Keeping your sailing records striaght with them has become nigh on to impossible. Carnival does not want to support any more on it's website than is absolutely necessary as the incremental cost might negatively impact the "Quarterly Results Dance On Wall Street!" The only time I see Carnival interested about past pax is when their booking pace slackens and a stimulus is required to rev up bookings; so Carnival does a blitz ad campaign about special deals and offers for Past Pax. Carnival never seems to have a problem finding your past pax number then. If Carnival Personal Vacation Counselors spent as much time helping with your Past Pax records as they do in filling your email with offers, there would be a plentitude of more happy Carnival past pax. Even the past pax parties on the sailings are of variable quality.

[luvwater]

I agree with all about no past perks. I have cruised with them several times and have never received this Currents magazine. I have called several times and no luck. I was hoping to receive Currents for upgrades but it seems I have not missed out on much. I have sailed on NCL and they will give you a 20 % disocunt in certain lounges, 10% on perfumes and internet discounts .... at least it is something. I am going on the Legend and I wanted to book with Carnival direct and they would not match the price I got.

[dalech]

As an Information Technology person I find it very funny it would take Carnival so long to update their records. All that they need to do it feed the information into a database. This is something that could be written and tested in a few days and you could have real time information in the system. In fact if you tied it into the reservation/check-in system the information would be updated when you checked in for your cruise. The cost would be miniscule to implement something like that. I guess they don't care.

[cruzn buckeye]

The currents magazine is send out 3 times a year, it arrives in January, May , and September. However,I have always been able to get better deals than what is offered in the magazine.

 

So....tell me about the cruise critic cocktail party for RCI cruisers...