Organized Chaos

It's strange, Allstate Rewards made a few tweaks to their games to be a little better, but waited until they were shutting down. As of a couple weeks ago, the scratch-off game was responding to mouse swipes faster and the size of the cursor got bigger to make it easier to scratch off. They added Connect 4. Now the graphics on spin the wheel have been improved. Since these rewards program companies operate rewards websites for multiple companies, I wonder if it's just Allstate that's getting rid of it. The rewards site company might be making improvements because they still operate rewards for other companies. It wouldn't surprise me if Allstate decided it wasn't worth it anymore.

I would love to add up the total amount of savings we'd manage to get on a single cruise together. Once a week we get together with some of my g/f's family for supper and a game night. We play one game that involves quarters. If you lose, you put quarters into the pot and the winner takes the pot. Winnings & losses don't amount to much in a single night, but it's fun. I've been on a really good winning streak lately, which never happens because I have the worst luck. I really should be buying some lotto tickets right now. I won't complain if I hit that sweepstakes.

This website has a very helpful tool for checking this kind of thing. Go to the bottom of the page I linked below and click on the Cabin Check Tool. Choose a deck & cabin and it'll show you exactly what's above & below it. https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/Carnival-Magic

Did anyone enter the AARP sweepstakes for the $1,000 Carnival card? I did when I could remember to do it...only 4-5 days worth. They're not picking a winner for another couple weeks though. Allstate lets us submit a lot more entries per day than AARP, but it uses a lot more tickets. Up to 200 entries/day for 10,000 tickets. Even with over 900k points, they could go quick with that. I want to start entering, but don't want to burn through too many points in case something really good pops up before the end.

LOL I just hated to see it go. Long live this giant thread. A big thank you to the admins/hosts for doing it for us. AARP's going to owe us some kickbacks because I think we're about to push a bunch of new members their way. 😆 That's not a bad idea. Who knows, maybe some day. Discount Carnival cards unite!!

Yeah I've been doing Allstate & AARP cards since 2017. 10% may not sound like much on its own, but it definitely adds up. We had even passed the savings on to people who cruised with us but didn't participate in these programs. That's what I planned to do with my Allstate points, because I have more than we'll ever use, but not anymore. Unless they have a going-out-of-business sale on cards, it looks like I'll be entering a lot of sweepstakes. I have to give AARP credit, though. After they revamped their rewards program, their policy on Carnival cards was extremely lackluster. Limiting us to only 3/month. But to their credit, that changed to 5 and now 25/month. I feel like they recognized the demand and made changes to improve. So there's that.

This thread has been active for 6 1/2 years strong and has remained relatively free of the drama & negativity that is all too common on the Carnival forum. Thank you for a demonstration of that, by the way. There's something to be said about that for a thread this big for so long. That alone is worth keeping it going. We wouldn't keep it under the Allstate title; hence, why I requested to change the title to AARP. Yes, most of the content here is about Allstate, but it's more than that. For example, in the last few months we've included a lot of discussions about AARP. Beyond that, there are countless posts about discount Carnival gift cards in general. Overall, this thread has become a nice little community within the community for those of us interested in the gift cards. I'm sorry (not sorry) that offends you so much. If they change the title and keep it going, great, it deserves it. If not, it is what it is. Then I'd say RIP to what I'm guessing is the biggest, longest running active thread on the Carnival boards.

I put in a request to have the Allstate thread title changed to become the AARP thread. It's been a great thread for over 6 years, I'd hate to lose it. If they approve, they can merge this one into it.

@LauraS @Host Kat Not sure who to contact. Could we please have the title of this thread changed to AARP Carnival gift cards, because the Allstate program is ending later this year. We'd like to keep this thread going since it's so big, has been active for 6 1/2 years, and contains so much useful content. We've also been using it as the unoffical AARP thread for some time now. We love our little corner of the Carnival boards. 😄 Someone made an AARP thread a couple weeks ago here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2951542-aarp-carnival-gift-cards/ That smaller thread could be merged into this one if you'd like. User helene109 above is this thread's original author. Thank you very much.

In case you don't know, AARP's Carnival cards are members only. Your friends need to be paying AARP members in order to buy them.

There is an AARP thread that someone made on 7/18 -- https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2951542-aarp-carnival-gift-cards/ . A couple of Allstate refugees have posted there. Personally, my vote is to rename this thread...I guess I'm sentimental like that. 😁 They could even merge that other one with this one. Whatever happens, I'll be here...there...somewhere.

I tried posting, but for some reason it says it has to be approved first. Would anyone be interested in keeping this thread? It's so massive, I think it's the biggest active thread on the Carnival boards. I'd hate to lose that. After all, we've used it to talk about AARP, too. I think the thread creator @helene109 still comes around once in a while. She can request that the thread title be changed to become AARP if we want to keep it going.

Yep, we saw this coming. Things have been going downhill for a while now. @canes20 Click on the thumbnail image for each sweepstakes and it should let you enter. Over 900K points down the toilet. Looks like I'll be entering sweepstakes like a madman. I like @travelingtink's idea...maybe they'll have a going-out-of-business sale. Once upon a time, there was an AARP thread that was just as active as this one, but when AARP revamped their rewards program to be members only, that thread died. Would anyone be interested in keeping this thread going? It's so massive, I'll bet it's the longest running active thread on the Carnival boards. For that reason, I'd hate to lose it. @helene109 is this thread's creator and I think she's still around. We (she) could ask the moderators to change the thread title to become AARP. It's been done before.

For AARP users, if you want a bunch of points for entering sweepstakes or gift cards that take points, here's a quick way to get a lot (if you haven't already). Go into My Account, then the Newsletters tab. Subscribe to all the newsletters that give you points (it'll say it in the description). It gives you the points immediately, then all you have to do is unsubscribe from each one and you get to keep the points. I got 9k-10k points.

In the past, I liked using mostly physical cards. I don't know, there was just something about holding on to that physical card that made me feel more comfortable. But there were also times when something popped up and we needed a gift card (or more) fast and didn't have time to wait for physical cards to ship, so I liked a mix of both. Nowadays I'm fine with all e-cards, especially since Allstate's new shipping rates are so ridiculous.

If this thread is any indication, they're going to see a dip in business. It's a shame because the other companies that operated the rewards program in the past (at least 2 since I've joined) recognized the demand. Now it seems like they're going downhill. I know some people don't like the thought of joining AARP just for Carnival cards, but it really is worth it. Have a look at their other benefits, you might find some of them useful. Plus it's only $12 for the first year right now if you sign up for automatic membership renewal. You can cancel that anytime and it won't automatically charge you next time. You save $10 on a $100 Carnival card, which nearly pays for a year membership. If you still have doubts, $12 isn't bad to try it out for a year. And no, you don't have to be 50 yrs. old anymore.

That sounds handy, too. Dang, they didn't have any of these free gifts when I renewed last year, or any of the times before that.

Nice. I like that they're arranged vertically because that makes it a bit of a space saver with limited surfaces in a cabin. Looks like they're giving away an organizer set now.

You guys got a charging hub for signing up?

I know the feeling, but I've been doing Allstate Rewards for 6 years now, so at this point I think it's just force of habit to keep going. Well, that and when AARP had a small monthly limit, Allstate was nice to have. At over 900K points, even if I stop earning more, I'll never use them all. I've used points to buy cards for other people in the past and just had them pay me back the discounted cost.

To add to n6uqqq's post, each membership comes with a complimentary membership for one other person in your household (they get their own AARP membership card, too). If you ever need more Carnival cards in a month, you can create a separate website account for the second person and double your gift card limit. It seems they've been putting effort into improving it. In the beginning, there was a 3/month limit on Carnival cards. Then they upped it to 5/month. Now evidently 25, so they recognized the demand. Not to mention, I don't think they've ever ran out of Carnival cards that I know of, other than a short period of time not long after they revamped their rewards program.

Yep, Glen. An unbelievable PVP. He'd go above & beyond every time I talked to him. I'll never forget, I called late one afternoon with a problem, forgetting he was an hour ahead, so I got him at home. Him & his wife were getting ready to go out with friends for his wife's birthday. I apologized profusely, told him it could definitely wait until the next day, but he said no, let him have a look and to give him a minute to get on his computer. Again, I apologized and told him it'll wait, but he absolutely insisted on helping. I was shocked when I found out he passed. I hadn't talked to him for a couple years because of covid. He always said, "The website's for looking...Glen's for booking." 😄 I don't think anyone can replace Glen.

Just won 1,500 from scratch & win! It scratches off much faster than it did before and I'm pretty sure it scratches off a wider swath, too. Makes it much quicker. Struck out on the wheel as usual. I'm not fond of bubble shooter. It's pretty laggy for me. I got a voicemail from a PVP a couple days ago. We used to have a fantastic PVP, but unfortunately he passed away a couple years ago. They referred his clients to someone else, who I talked to once or twice, but never got to use him for a booking, so I never got to see if he'd work as hard for us. The guy who called the other day was a different one yet, so I guess the other guy isn't with them anymore. He knew my name, so he's obviously been given someone else's list of clients.

I got three X's, so I think that means I won a mystery prize. I expect to be contacted any day now. 😋 I tried Pacman. The first game I didn't even move, I just let them come get me (which took longer than it should've). It didn't give me any points for that, but it did let me play 3 more times. I got killed as quickly as possible and it gave me the 200 points for each one, so you at least have to move to get the points.

The rewards website is owned & operated by Intride Loyalty, LCC, as show at the bottom of the page, but no idea how to contact them. When you click the "contact us" link, I think it goes to Allstate. If I'm not mistaken, they have a customer service division that specifically handles Rewards. I've always been curious where they purchase the cards in bulk and how much they pay. Well duh, $500 weighs more than $100. 🤪 Seriously though, the question is, did their cost to ship them via USPS & UPS go up to justify such a big price hike? Doubtful. The shipping fee used to be the same regardless of how the cards were shipped, so I think it's ridiculous.