Early saver vs standard rate

let me stop you right there LOL

 

ES is not great

 

If it were great then it wouldn't have penalties associated with it

 

 

Again, *MY* rule of thumb:

 

NEVER BOOK ES ... EVER :)

Well at least you know what rate not to book now.

No other Cruiseline that I know of (there could be one that I'm unaware of) allows you to get price drops after final payment so it's a trade off. You're willing to "risk" $50pp and have the rest of the deposit if there is any held for a future cruise should you need to cancel. If your plans are solid and you are willing to be bound by the terms, it can pay off. Sometimes substantially. Insurance can also mitigate some of the loss as well.

You only pretty much hear complaints about ES from those who book it without being fully informed of the stipulations. The rest of us that like it are willing to accept the terms and chalk up any penalties to under the "life happens" category.

I agree that for you, ES doesn't work. But for many it does. Bottom line - BE INFORMED BEFORE BOOKING. Ask questions either here or of the Carnival Rep, PVP, TA, or whomever you are booking through to make sure you are OK with the terms. Ask about penalties, change fees, etc. It is up to us individually to make sure we are getting what we want.

I always book ES, and it can be a gamble. But then again I don't gamble in the casino, or play the lottery, and I don't tell others that they should never throw their money away gambling. I would bet a lot of gamblers lose more then they win, but they never talk about that. So it's a choice for all of us.

I had 2 legs of 3 booked ES a few years ago and had to cancel because of daughter's pregnancy. Traveling solo, I lost $100 but used the remaining $700 on my final payment on the Legend to Australia in 2014. It was a nice chunk out of my final. Luckily, all my other cruises have worked out. When I sailed the Spirit to Australia in 2012, I ended up with $600 OBC after final payment on the 3rd of 3 legs. That was well worth it to me.

But remember, ES isn't always available. Somebody can remind me the time frame. 4 months prior to sale date? Can't remember. So keep that in mind if you want to change.

Well at least you know what rate not to book now.

Definitely. I would never book an ES or non-fully refundable rate again.

I am personally minus $400 because of life events and ES or ES-like sale rates with Carnival and have yet to step foot on a Carnival ship yet.

No price drop is going to cover that loss for me going forward.

While I was aware of the restrictions there are people who book every single day who are not since the Carnival website defaults to ES when booking.

Funny thing is that Carnival cancelled one of their cruise on me and when I informed them of the penalty fee for doing so they were not agreeable to it. LOL

I have in fact gotten significant price drops after final payment that didn't not involve switching to a guarantee.

Would love to hear details and figures on this (ship, dates, amounts, etc.)

Would love to hear details and figures on this (ship, dates, amounts, etc.)

The biggest one that sticks out in my head was on Glory (no surprise there) May of 2014. I had an OV booked by myself and I had ES. A couple weeks before the cruise they did away with the solo supplement netting me $448 :)

There were others as well but I would have to go back through all my emails and look.

The biggest one that sticks out in my head was on Glory (no surprise there) May of 2014. I had an OV booked by myself and I had ES. A couple weeks before the cruise they did away with the solo supplement netting me like $489 :)

 

There were others as well but I would have to go back through all my emails and look.

Yes, that would be a good drop. Non-applicable in my case but great for solo travelers. When they did something like that though they stuck to making non-ES people pay the solo supplement? Seems like that goes a little beyond a standard price drop. Interesting info. Thanks for sharing it. :)

Yes, that would be a good drop. Non-applicable in my case but great for solo travelers. When they did something like that though they stuck to making non-ES people pay the solo supplement? Seems like that goes a little beyond a standard price drop. Interesting info. Thanks for sharing it. :)

You're welcome. Yes. That's a perk of booking ES. Since it was past final payment, non ES solos did have to pay double. It's considered a price drop.

I edited my amount from my previous post as it appears I had received another price drop prior to the solo supplement being removed. My original rate was $978.

Although my case was a little unique, there have been good sized drops on cabins with 2 or more people as well. Like I said I have had others but I don't remember right off hand. If I have time to go back through my stuff and I see any that totaled like $100 or more, I'll be sure to post.

 

I am personally minus $400 because of life events and ES or ES-like sale rates with Carnival and have yet to step foot on a Carnival ship yet.

 

Glad I booked ES under the 49.00 pp deposit promotion then :cool: If life happens, Ive wasted 100 bucks on a lot worse :eek:

I have booked ES before (never got a price drop) but life is much more unpredictable for us than it was a few years ago so ES just won't work for us now. I'm not too worried about it since I can get price drops up to 75 days.

I do wish a new PVP would have contacted me, I called the other day and was told a new one would call me within 48 hours but that did not happen. This cruise may have some things that it may be nice to have assistance through.

Thanks

I have booked ES before (never got a price drop) but life is much more unpredictable for us than it was a few years ago so ES just won't work for us now. I'm not too worried about it since I can get price drops up to 75 days.

 

 

 

I do wish a new PVP would have contacted me, I called the other day and was told a new one would call me within 48 hours but that did not happen. This cruise may have some things that it may be nice to have assistance through.

 

 

 

Thanks

If you ever need anything feel free to email me at the link included on here. I would be more than happy to help you with any questions you have. If I don't know the answer I can find someone who does [emoji6].

Glad I booked ES under the 49.00 pp deposit promotion then :cool: If life happens, Ive wasted 100 bucks on a lot worse :eek:

But remember, if you apply for any price drops, you need to pay full deposit, unless the new offer has a reduced deposit also. Some people don't know that.

We book Military which is usually the same rate as ES. Then at some point we switch to ES for price drops up till 2 days before cruising. A few years ago we got some great price drops on both legs of our B2B after final payment date.

However, on our current B2B for 2017, the price keeps going up.

Next January when we book while onboard our B2B I will once again book Military. I might just still with Military since the price drops don't seem to be happening as much as they did a few years ago.

We have booked nothing but ES since its introduction and have gotten cabin upgrades and frequent OBC totaling as much as $360 on a single cruise. BUT - we know when we are going to cruise and do not deviate. It has always worked for us so a blanket "never book ES" is a bit overstated. ES absolutely has it's place but the rules must be understood.

Leon

We have booked nothing but ES since its introduction and have gotten cabin upgrades and frequent OBC totaling as much as $360 on a single cruise. BUT - we know when we are going to cruise and do not deviate. It has always worked for us so a blanket "never book ES" is a bit overstated. ES absolutely has it's place but the rules must be understood.

 

 

 

Leon

I should also mention that I use a popular cruise price tracking website so I have a decent idea of what the lowest prices might end up being unless something wacky occurs.

If you are very price sensitive then ES might be your cup of tea but there is a fair amount of risk involved with it. Booking a fully refundable fare may cost you a few more dollars but the risk before final payment is zero.

For example the price I am currently booked at for my upcoming Carnival cruise is $40 more than the lowest the ES rate has ever been for this cruise. I can live with that vs the chance of losing money before final payment.

I am looking at booking a cruise for Feb 2018 and I am a little hesitant to book an early saver fare that fare out with the fare rules about changing names or cancelling, but I do like the price protection.

 

Am I missing something here, but couldn't I book the standard fare and if the price drops just cancel my current cruise and rebook under the new price? Of course that is provided the price drop is before final payment.

ER has too many restrictions, the others are much better.

We have booked ES on most of our cruises. We got $60 OBC one and $140 OBC another time. But the time it really paid off is when the Triumph had its big problem in February 2013. We had the Breeze booked for April 2013, we ended up with $617 OBC. But lately there hasn't been much lowering of prices. That's why our next cruise is booked using Past Guest. It only cost us $20 more than ES. And that is $20 total not per person. Since then the price has gone up.

Oh boy, I think I booked our 2017 cruise with the early saver rate, now feeling very nervous about that. I guess I need to pay better attention to the differences next time. Hopefully I didn't make too much of a mistake. :confused:

Oh boy, I think I booked our 2017 cruise with the early saver rate, now feeling very nervous about that. I guess I need to pay better attention to the differences next time. Hopefully I didn't make too much of a mistake. :confused:

The only risk you face is changing your cruise plans. Changing a name, or even changing cruises will cost you $50 per person and a cancellation will cost you your deposit, but with a credit toward another cruise - insurance covers most of those contingencies.

If you cruise as scheduled you are guaranteed the lowest price (or comparable cabin upgrade) - just keep an eye on the fare viewer as it's your responsibility to keep up with the pricing. We book using ES only, but we know our schedule is set barring some unforeseen event, and it's been a rare occurrence that we've not gotten either a fare reduction or OBC. Just our experience - others differ.

Leon

We're booked on an ES fare for an August, 2017 cruise. Only some of the cabins on our ship had ES fares when I was checking, but the category we wanted was one of them. I'll admit I didn't really like the thought of the non-refundable deposit in case of cancellation, but the savings did appeal to us. We knew there would be no name changes, so cancellation was our only concern, and we did get travel insurance. With all that, we decided it was worth the risk to go ahead and book a couple of months ago, when Carnival was offering $49 deposits/person. I am glad we went ahead and booked, as all the fares on our cruise have already gone up.

It was my understanding on the price protection that, should the prices drop before the cruise was paid in full, we would get an adjustment on the amount owed. If the drop occurred afterwards, we would receive on-board credit. I admit, however, I was far more interested in price protection for rising prices. I'm not an experienced cruiser by any means (this is only our second cruise, with our first over 23 years ago), but it just seemed likely to me that a cruise over a year away would rise in price during that time, though there might be some last-minute sales. But we would have gotten that type of price protection with a regular fare, too.

Best wishes for a wonderful cruise, whatever fare you choose.

Blessings,

SiraJoy