Organized Chaos

Now use your Allstate points to load up on sweepstakes. 🤔**Wait a minute...one more person means less chances for me.**🤔 Oh wait, nevermind. Their sweepstakes are closed. 😈

Carnival's military appreciation event is really nice and I've seen many people say they do it best. But as much as I appreciate their effort, I wouldn't complain about $100 OBC. LOL

Hey you, get off my lawn! I get along just fine with seniors. I wouldn't mind it at all. Fewer kids, calmer crowd, and they'd be a lot quieter. Dang, now that made me sound old. Speaking of old (just kidding my friend), is @Joe817 still lurking around this thread? Been a long time, Joe. Stop in and say hi.

Yeah, that seems like an annoyance. I have friends who're going on NCL for the first time next month. I'll have to ask if they did it.

See if this works: https://www.aarp.org/rewards/ Then just click Login at the top right. If you're logged into the regular aarp.org side of the website, click on the red toolbar at the top of the page where is says AARP Rewards and your points.

@happy cruzer I was a little thrown off when you mentioned other lines requiring photos. That's why I wasn't sure if you were talking about online check-in. Do other lines require uploading a photo ID during their online check-in?

Just to clarify, we're talking about online check-in prior to the sail date. Yes, you can do online check-in at midnight eastern on the night of Aug. 26 (using your example). You'll choose your Arrival Appointment (the 30 minute window in which you'll arrive at the terminal), set up your Sail & Sign account using a credit card, gift cards, etc. Or you can choose to set it up as a cash account. As jsglow said, you'll enter your passport number (no photo required during online check-in) and answer some basic travel questions, like if you're Carnival's transport service to the terminal, etc.

Did you check your spam folder? Sometimes they end up there. You can call customer service: 800-764-7419

It's best not to. We have to be nice to it so it cooperates, but only for a couple more months. 😉 I did get 1,500 from the wheel today.

I could enter the 10k point max for one sweeps every day of Sept. and only use 300k points. That'll leave me nearly 600k. I gotta get a move on. But we still have Oct., too, so I'll get 'er done. Unless they throw us a curve ball and stop the sweeps at the end of next month. 😬

There are days when the website is very very fickle. Delete your browser's cookies for Allstate, restart the browser, and try again. And make sure you're using this URL: https://myaccountrwd.allstate.com/anon/account/login?campaign=145

Gotcha. I forgot about those. 👍 Some travel agents will keep an eye out for you. The first cruise we ever went on, we used someone else's travel agent (the only time we ever used an agent) because we were going with them and they had cruised before. She did get us one price reduction, but we looked ourselves and ended up catching one or two more that she didn't. So if you do find an agent who'll look for you, don't rely on them to look often.

Spin the wheel and scratch & win on the same day and I still get bupkis. I entered some sweeps. Only 905k points left. LOL Everyone's going to be maxing out their daily limits trying to burn through points. These things are going to be a massive shot in the dark.

You're just trying to get double the OBC, aren't you? 😛 J/K Hope you get it straightened out.

That sounds like you're referring to a 48-hour hold on a cabin. If you look up a particular booking on the website, then try to exit the booking, it'll ask if you want to hold the room for 48 hours at that price. Or a PVP/cust. service rep. can do it, too. Our PVP put a cabin on hold for a week one time. I didn't know it was possible to hold them longer than 2 days, but he offered to do it because we were waiting on some Carnival gift cards to come in the mail.

Have you joined AARP, Megan? It's odd. I know the best thing to do is start dumping points into sweepstakes, but after 6 1/2 years of accruing points, I'm having some kind of mental block. Every time I log on, a little voice says, "Stop. Don't spend points recklessly." 😝

Good question. There's nowhere to enter the current date on the form, but I'd think they could see when it was filled out. Even then, I don't know if they look to see if the request was submitted before the category sold out again. When it happened to me, I called our PVP right away and he processed the claim, so it was instant. If you have the opportunity to call your PVP (if you have one) or customer service, that'd be best.

I WON! 😃 I didn't win the $1,000 Carnival sweepstakes like I'd hoped, but I won a $500 Carnival card from their cruise contest on their forums. Exciting stuff, I never win anything. If it weren't for bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all. I got the email yesterday and thought it was fake at first, but it had all the right credentials. I replied to confirm that it was me and they sent me the e-gift card less than an hour later. This will go a long way towards my next cruise. Thanks again, AARP!

This is true, but if someone with the same category cancels, then price match opens up again. That is, until that cabin gets booked again. So for those watching out for price matches, it's important to know the two-character code for your cabin. It'll be 2 letters or a number & letter. For example, an Ocean Suite on Vista is either a SS, OS, or JS. There has to be cabins available for your specific code in order to be eligible for a price match. I've gotten price matches after the cabin category had sold out, then someone cancelled, but you have to check often to catch that because it usually sells out again soon.

I used to work in a casino many years ago and according to slot techs back then, they could be programmed according to the number of spins. And in recent years, I've heard that same determining process still exists. The main point I was making was, regardless of the process, the casino can program the machines to pay out more often. It's used as a marketing ploy ("loose slots") by many casinos.

I do remember asking them if I would get the Cruise Cash back since it's normally non-refundable. I was told I would since they cancelled the cruise. I probably made a mental note that it was the last of the refund I was owed and then simply forgot about it. Better late than never, I suppose. But if it is an accounting error, I'm not saying a word. 🤐 LOL

I got one today, too, but here's the odd part. We had 2 cancelled cruises (due to covid) back in Jan. '21 and March '22. I thought we got all the necessary refunds for both, but this new gift card amount just so happens to be for the same amount of Cruise Cash I bought for the Jan. '21 cruise, so I have to assume that's what it's for. I just don't know why it took them over a year and a half. But back then, they sent multiple return gift cards and I could've swore I did the math at the time and we got everything back.

OK this is weird. I got an email today with an attached "Carnival Merchandising return E-gift card" and I'm not sure what it's for. We did have 2 cancelled cruises back in Jan. '21 and March '22, but as far as I know, we were refunded everything we should've been. I did buy some Cruise Cash for the Jan. '21 cruise and it was for the amount of this return gift card, so I have to assume that's it. Back then, they told me the Cruise Cash would be refunded since it was cancelled. I thought I already got it, but maybe not. If this is it, why the heck did it take over a year and a half?

I checked again...it says on or around Aug. 16. They still haven't posted the winner yet, but then again, they haven't posted any of July's winners. If they can't reach the Carnival winner, I'm available. 😉

The machine's computer adjusts how much power is applied to the grip strength of the claw and how long that power lasts during a play. And it's all determined by settings that are adjusted by the machine's owner. Much like modern slot machines...the computer is set to pay off after so many spins, which is set by the casino. If slot machines are considered "loose," it's because the owner has set them to pay out more often. In the end, the house always wins.