Carnival Vacation Club / Vacation Rewards Club

[jammie123]

I would like to hear from anyone who has enrolled or has been approached & is thinking about enrolling in the "new" version of the Carnival Vacation Club, now called Vacation Rewards. Enrollment fee is $995, which buys you 10,000 reward points which you can then redeem in increments of 2500, 5000 or 7500 points when you purchase a select cruise or resort; membership is 5 years. Purchases you make earn you 2 reward points per dollar spent. For anyone who has enrolled, have you experienced any significant savings & benefits through this new club? Or are you basically paying $995 for VIP status on Carnival ships? As a repeat cruiser, I can buy a January sailing 7-day Western Caribbean cruise from the Carnival website for less than what Vacation Rewards is asking for enrollment fee. Many cruise lines are also now offering heavily discounted prices and early booking fares. Any and all comments would be appreciated. Thanks!

[klfrodo]

My Opinion Only

 

I was a member and did buy into the Carnival Vacation Club. It was one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made.

I know nothing about the Vacation Rewards Club

 

but here is my take and it's worth exactly what you paid for it.

 

1. If you are pressured to buy it and you can only buy it on the ship while the ship is in international waters.... BEWARE

2. If it is run by/affilliated with ICE or SAS (Solutions At Sea).... BEWARE

3. If they make promises regarding upgrades, XX number of cruises, or anything else and they cannot show you in writing where it says that.....BEWARE

4. If you are told that it's legal to buy upgrades in 1 State/Province but not another....BEWARE

 

Bottom Line

 

Use your spidey sense. If it sounds too good to be true or it makes your spidey sense perk up,,,,then do more research to ensure it's a good fit for you before signing anything.

[Cruzman]

I would run away from it as fast as I can!

[jammie123]

Klfrodo: Vacation Rewards is the "new" version of the Carnival Vacation Club, operated by Solutions At Sea out of the same Phoenix office. As previous Carnival Vacation Club members, we were contacted by letter & phone & provided with information. We were wondering whether other Carnival Vacation Club members have been contacted, given the "pitch", have bought in & are happy or fed up.

[klfrodo]

Klfrodo: Vacation Rewards is the "new" version of the Carnival Vacation Club, operated by Solutions At Sea out of the same Phoenix office. As previous Carnival Vacation Club members, we were contacted by letter & phone & provided with information. We were wondering whether other Carnival Vacation Club members have been contacted, given the "pitch", have bought in & are happy or fed up.

 

 

I have not been contacted since my Vacation Club expired.

If they were to contact me, I'd hang up on them.

Especially since, as you stated, it's still operated by the same ole same ole.

 

 

I'm not positive, but I believe this is also the same company that operates the Sea Miles Program that a lot of people are upset about when they finally try to redeem their miles.

[okgirl]

I was in the original vacation club, and we signed up primarily to get VIP status and prepay for a few cruises. Because we sail IS GTY we were able to take 2 7-day cruises and 1 9-day Med cruise (we booked a balconey for that one).

 

I wasn't paying too much attention to the Carnival prices, but I'm pretty sure that it would have been cheaper overall to book on my own. We didn't use any of the resort stay coupons.

 

I wouldn't join a club like that again.

[jammie123]

We were able to use all our points on cruises we wanted, got upgrades & enjoyed VIP perks. Service from the CVC agents was ok as well. Can't say we actually saved money. With the discounted travel deals out there now, I can't see the benefit of paying $995 to get a "discount" on select cruises. Point redemption would not be useable on the already low fares. Makes more sense to put the $995 on a cruise of choice. As you say, if it makes your "spidey sense perk up".... Thanks for your input.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

I love carnival i am bitter they got involved with that stough again i love carnival

[jammie123]

The new program does not have the Carnival name associated with it directly. However, my understanding is that point redemptions will be usable on most major ocean cruise lines & some river cruise lines. I hope that anyone who has bought into the new program & has been able to actually use redemption it will post.

[starfish007]

We were initially pleased with CarnivalVacationClub, the first two times we used the membership, it was nice to have early boarding and debarkation as well as the little 'free' social cocktail events and the trays of fruit and candy delivered to our stateroom.

 

However on our third cruise about 14 months ago, there weren't enough 'CarnivalVacationClub' members to warrant any of the little 'benefits' and when we spoke with the purser about the club, we were told at one point it was no longer in business and at another time, it just happened to not be on that ship (the Glory) at that time ....... And we had a terrible time diembarking early at the end of the cruise. Instead of the previous ealry debarkations of club members getting together in one of the venues and enjoying a nice selection of breakfast items and such, we were reluctantly 'herded' at the tag end of assorted 'Carnival VIP' memebers and guests.

 

The other day we decided to book another cruise for our 20th anniversary in the fall. Well guess what? When you visit the 'CarnivalVacationClub.com' site it still Doesn't Indicate that it's now 'Vacation Rewards.com' and when you attempt to book a cruise, you're instead shuffled to a very high pressure sales person telling you that your membership is about to expire, you can't use it to book a cruise when you planned and even if you opt to book before your membership would expire, sorry, but you can't use your remaining points UNLESS you pay a $299 'extention fee' AND you still can't use your points because you don't have enough and CAN'T make up the difference and or 'buy' points for cash, because sorry charlie, you lack a few points :D

 

But you can, however have your remaining points 'rolled over' into the new and oh-so-much better "Vacation Rewards Club" for eight years for a mere '$1,495.00 ......... Wow what a deal......... NOT!!!:mad:

 

After more than an hour over the course of two days we've opted to eat the balance of what we still have coming from the club (all three 7 day 'resort stays', all that we looked into were actually 'time share' places and most when I researched them, had very, very bad customer / guest reviews) and the several hundred points and just call is a pricey lesson in fast talking slime balls.

 

That said, Carnival is a very good cruise line in that we've found it to offer very good service and vacationing at a very decent cost and is a good value. In fact we've always been more than pleased with the outstanding care and help from all their crew and as my husband is disabled and needs to use a mobility device more often than not; the crew have always been more than helpful and wonderful!

 

But ...... CarnivalVactionClub.com AKA VacationRewards is a shame, in my opinion. They get you on the legal technicalities of 'high seas' contract laws and then basically tell ya to 'take a hike' when you don't fall all over yourself grabbing your checkbook to give them a couple thousand more dollars . Yeah, like at our ages, we're going to want to sign an 8 year contract .........

 

And the kicker?

 

The sales person we just finished dealing with was all smug about how the old CarnivalVacationClub had 'capped out' at 30,000 members so that's why they started up this new incarnation of the same tired deal.. But now they have "over 100,000 resorts to choose from' ..... yeah, and if they're anything like the ones we looked into, they weren't anything as advertised ....... At least that's our opinion; maybe some people haven't had a proble with them and or think they offer great deals.

[starfish007]

Well, we just recieved a return call for a person claiming to be Ryan Town, the CEO / Director / Owner of CarnivalVacationClub / VacationRewards ... and to be blunt, what a bona fida jerk.

 

From the start he was rude and only got more so when I explained we didn't like be 'hustled' by his other salesperson and being told that we couldn't use our remaining points unless we 'transferred' them and signed on with a $1,495.oo eight year membership in the 'new' VacationRewards club ........

 

When I finally explained he needed to remain quiet so I could explain our problem he told me he was a busy man, I asked for the name of his boss and or hte CEO of this little scam and he said he was the guy .... Yeah, right... Sounded like a minimum wage boiler room call bank worker IMO .......

 

However when I explained that despite what he and his employee claimed, they are agents or part of Carnival Cruise Lines, he denied this and when I tried to point out that even their website points this out, he got even more rude.

 

Again I asked for his boss and or the CEO's name and physical contact address and he hung up on me ..........

 

Ah well .. But I see that the VacationRewards site has the BBB online member logo ......... Suppose I could always contact them and file a comment about the business practices of this wonderful little bait and switch of the high seas, organization ........

 

Still will take our 20th anniversary cruise and in fact, if we opt to not use Carnival, there's still plenty of other cruise lines and the option of a day cruie to the Bahamas and staying at an all inclusive resort there, for a week or two :)

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

stay away

[Earle]

I would like to hear from anyone who has enrolled or has been approached & is thinking about enrolling in the "new" version of the Carnival Vacation Club, now called Vacation Rewards. Enrollment fee is $995, which buys you 10,000 reward points which you can then redeem in increments of 2500, 5000 or 7500 points when you purchase a select cruise or resort; membership is 5 years. Purchases you make earn you 2 reward points per dollar spent. For anyone who has enrolled, have you experienced any significant savings & benefits through this new club? Or are you basically paying $995 for VIP status on Carnival ships? As a repeat cruiser, I can buy a January sailing 7-day Western Caribbean cruise from the Carnival website for less than what Vacation Rewards is asking for enrollment fee. Many cruise lines are also now offering heavily discounted prices and early booking fares. Any and all comments would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

RUN, don't walk away... do NOT purchase anything from these people.

my husband and I purchased into the CVC, what a scam. I will NEVER buy into anything like this again. You will pay good money up front, and they will give you points "shop" for cruises with. You will regret it.

Just keep your money in the bank and purchase your cruise when the rates are agreeable to you. not to forget with the CVC there is also a $19.95 processing fee anytime you book a cruise, and this was not explained to me initially. It's not a huge amount of money, but I hate feeling so trapped. We have to go through them to book a cruise using points we have already paid for, and we have to pay them additional fees?

If you must purchase additional points to make up the difference in a cruise, they will probably be 2X the rate you purchase in with. This is what we have experienced with the CVC.

sheesh!

[Cruzin 1025]

I have one good thing to say about Carnival Vacation Club. That's what helped me to find Cruise Critic. :D

 

We were approached about CVC on the Glory a few years ago. We were on cruise number 8, almost Platinum already, so we wouldn't have gotten too much use out of that sales piece. I was wanting to buy into it but DH said no. So when we got home I googled Carnival Vacation Club and found some threads on here. After reading them, boy am I glad DH didn't listen to me!

 

Carnival now has on it's ships (or at least some of them) a desk to book your next cruise. If you book with them or if you buy a certificate for $100 that you apply to a future cruise (within 5 years), you get OBC on that next cruise. It's a great deal. I hope they sell them on our next cruise too!

[Love to Cruise9]

A couple of nights ago we got a call from Carnival Vacation Rewards to turn our resort coupons in and to get all of the information about the new Rewards program. We were part of the Carnival Vacation Club, we did use all of our points and got some nice cruises. And yes we probably could of gotten our cruises cheaper, who knows.

 

So my husband had them call back to talk to me and to give me the particulars, but if we did not take "advantage" of the program today, we would only get a 3 day cruise and a 7 day resort reward free. If we took it today we would of gotten a free 7 night cruise and 7 day resort. The cost was $1495 for 10 years. We would have to pay $299 today and for the next four months the same amount before we could take "advantage" of the the free stuff. Well we chose to put it on hold and he will call us back in a week or so.

 

After reading these comments, I think we are going to say "no".

[RoadTripFanatic]

I'm curious if you said no. I just got an e-mail trying to bring me back into the fold. :) It sounds like you pay x amount of dollars for a 5 year discount plan.

[Hutchgal]

This all sounds exactly what my mother and I have been going through. What a mistake this vacation club was. We only got one cruise out of it and it was honestly the most expensive Carnival cruise we've ever taken. We got the email saying our points were expired and then when I called I got the same pitch for the multi year deal. I gave them enough of my money! We will probably have to eat the points we never used and the '"resort certificates". However I did send an email to Gerry Cahill explaining all the trouble we've had with his program. I know it is with another company, but Carnival was selling the program on it's ships so I think they need to be aware of how upset we past guests are with what is being done to us. I'll let you all know if I receive a reply.

 

DO NOT get involved with this program!! Book through your TA or on your own. (I think I'll drown my sorrows the week of August 28th....Im on the Dream for 7 days!! Pass those margaritas baby!!:D)

[Hutchgal]

Update on my last post:I just received an reply back from someone in Guest Administrations stating I now have a $400 OBC on my account for my 8/28 Dream cruise! What a pleasant surprise. :D It does help to know Carnival is trying to do something to make up for the trouble this vacation club has caused. Will be having some fun come August 28th! :cool:

[Diva_Hap]

Karen,

Could I have the email addy you used for Mr. Cahill?

Please!!!

:mad:

 

Thanks,

Diva_Hap

ps... it is very hard to be a diva when you fork over $5000 and get NO return!

[azcruiser1949]

DON'T DO IT!! I got sucked in to the tune of $1499. They agreed to credit me with extra points for what I had left in My CVC account plus a certificate for a free cruise and a week at a resort. They also said they had fantastic specials, and sometimes even free cruises. Well the specials are no more special than you can get from any other discount cruise service, many of which are free. Also, I never received the certificates, and forgot about it because I had a lot going on at the time. When I finally went on line to book something, I ended up paying an extra $400 to extend the "free" cruise to 7 days. Well that was OK, but the resort week turned out to be only good for Florida, Las Vegas, or Mexico. That's not what I was told when I signed up for Vacation Rewards. The other thing they did not make clear was that you can't "buy" a cruise with points. You can only get a discount, and the discount depends on how expensive a cabin you book. I can get better deals from RCI. Another thing, after paying my $1499, I have seen ads online where you can join Vacation Rewards for free. Maybe its just a trial, I don know. I'm so mad at Carnival over this, I don't think I'll ever cruise with them again!