Calnev1

19 hours ago, tw67 said:

You can add the gift cards to your onboard account and then take money from there to gamble with.  If you are sitting at a table and you want to pull money from your account, it will cost you 3% (I think this is still the amount, not 100% sure), but if you sit at a slot machine, there is no additional fee.  You sit at the machine, add funds and play.  When you are done playing, put it all on your card, go to the cashier and cash out.  IF you happen to take that money to the tables..... that is how you don't pay the 3%.

Just finished a cruise on the Carnival Miracle two days ago.  This is an accurate statement of the charges to your onboard account when using it for your casino play.  The 3% charge is still true for money pulled from your onboard account to buy chips while sitting at a table.  Obviously, loading to your slot account and then pulling the cash out at the cage -- at no charge -- is the way to avoid this 3% fee.

On 5/20/2022 at 8:21 AM, quack2 said:

Indoor mask mandates are about reducing COVID risks.  There is a segment of the population that just can't figure that out.

Agree one hundred percent.  But I have noticed on a couple of post-COVID cruises that even when there is an indoor mask mandate many folks don't wear them properly.  So my wife and I have taken to wearing N95 masks, and only N95 masks, when in indoor spaces with lots of people close by (like the casino).  Unlike most masks, a properly worn N95 will protect the wearer even if no one else around is wearing a mask or wearing it properly.  Of course, the N95 doesn't look very stylish.  But I don't worry about what others are doing, or not doing, when I have my N95 on.

My wife and I have cruised three times on Carnival since the restart.  We are generally happy with how our Platinum benefits are holding up.

1.  We always take advantage of the free laundry.   Between the two of us, at least four bags of laundry depending on the length of the cruise.  Yeah, we don't give them anything delicate to wash, that's not smart.  But on one cruise we even brought a bit of dirty laundry on board for them to wash.  Not particularliy proud of that, though.

2.  My wife and I have each gotten $25 in cash (or funplay) from the casino cage in lieu of the tourney entries on each cruise.  Can't argue with cash money.

3.  The free bottled water was in our cabin right next to the water for purchase.  I realize that this is different from ship to ship.

4.  We do roll-off debarkation.  On each cruise, there was a special debarkation lounge for platinums, and we were among the first persons off the ship.  That was fantastic!

5.  I am happy there is a dedicated platinum/diamond line  at the guest services.  Is it always faster than the regular line?   Not always, but still maybe 90 percent of the time.   And sometimes the dedicated line is WAY FASTER.

6.  Free drink at sea day brunch was OK

7.   Didn't go to the platinum parties.   Even so, was happy to be platinum on these cruises!!!

8 minutes ago, Badfinger said:

Why people choose to do the Casino 2-step is beyond me.  Just go to the Kiosk and get your OBC in cash right there.  I did this with $1400 OBC a few years back.   And yeah do this so your gratuities, etc. are charged to your credit card earning you more of the rewards your credit card offers.   

 

I do not think the kiosks are set up to dispense cash.  Has anyone else done this?

14 hours ago, MalteseFred said:

Got my 2000+ shares when they went public in the early 90s....$1.05 a share!

Even though I am well ahead, I mean WELL ahead, I still shiver when I remember my

$1 had gone up to $70 in early 2018 😞 

I know how you feel.   You are still way ahead, but if only somehow you had managed to sell around $70 how much better you would be now . . . .     Reminds me of my inlaws.   They owned quite a bit of Rockwell International stock since the dad worked there, and over the years Rockwell spun off small pieces, including in some tech company called Conexant.  Well, during the  tech bubble the price of Conexant soared so that my inlaw's stake in that company was, on paper, worth much more than their Rockwell stock.  Then the tech bubble burst, and the price of Conexant collapsed.  My mother in law used to wonder out loud how they had a million dollars in Connexant stock, and then it all went away.  If we all had a crystal ball.

13 hours ago, nycruise1 said:

I was concerned about this but have gotten the obc on a senior rate and heavily discounted rates using my vifp.  Almost wasnt going to try when I read the threads but went ahead and did and it went through.

Good to hear!

I have applied partial gift cards to my S&S balance many times without problem.

Carnival does have a potential limit on how many gift cards you can apply to your S&S balance on any particular cruise.  This limit has been described on the Allstate thread.   The exact amount of this limit is unclear, but it doesn't sound like the OP was anywhere near this limit on the cruise in question.

1 hour ago, paulco said:

My thought is I would like to own a hundred shares for the obc. Have traveled enough on the various carnival corp lines  to have made it worthwhile. I still have one of my $1200 stimulus checks!  If it hits $12.00 I’ll buy(maybe?).

Just keep in mind that carnival cruise lines (not Carnival Corporation) has been getting stingier in giving out the shareholder benefit OBC.  Multiple threads already on that topic.

11 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

 

Unless you're stopping in Canada. Then it's 2 days before for antigen or 3 days before for PCR

Yes  I realized after I wrote this that the Canadians could be layering requirements on top of Carnivals (relatively) straightforward US domestic requirements.

13 hours ago, csoud68 said:

This whole testing thing is a joke...in some cases its 72 hrs...in some cases its 48 hrs...in some cases its testing within 3 actual days and not actually 72 hrs,  in some cases its testing within 2 days and not not actually 48 hrs. 

 

In some cases you need a pcr, in some cases you need an antigen...there is also a naat...

 

In some cases you can go to a phatmcy, in some cases you have to self test..

 

This is insane..

IF you are vaxxed and boosted, its pretty simple.   Take the test anytime in the  three days before you cruise starts, and as for type of test, they accept .....  pretty much EVERYTHING. 

We just did the Radeas home test offered through a link directly on the Carnival website.   Got the kits in the mail three days after ordering.   Proctoring on Zoom was easy peasy, took 15 minutes, and then had results by email two minutes later.

On 5/8/2022 at 4:49 PM, Moviela said:

That is exactly the reason I ask mail to be placed inside or slipped under the door.

 

I always wondered about them putting my final charges outside my door on the last night.  I thought that should be more private.    If you ask the ship staff, will they slip that under your door too?

36 minutes ago, ChC said:

 

That is where we differ.

 

First you will have to define 'up'. Absolute in numbers might support your idea of UP. However, if you are talking about numbers of up or down motion (total number of ups and downs)-- let us be honest here, your opening sentence defined the markets will go up and will go down,  so this is possible--, then every up will have a down. If you want to compare numbers of waves that going up and down, good luck on that too. However, if you are talking about one year time period from opening to closing, yes, Dow Jones indeed have more up years than down years.

 

Then, we come to your affirmation of your thesis that markets is up from 1900 to now. That is a misconception. For one thing, one dollar you invested in, let us say 1929, is vastly different from the value of one dollar today. We have experienced multiple waves of high inflation, devaluation and shocks. One metrics we can use is that $1 in 1929 equivalent to $15 today according to some estimate. So 381 of Dow Jones in record high during 1929, is roughly 5715 points as of today.  Which is pretty close to 1996's value. 

 

So a better way to see the real chart, is to see the charts in a inflation adjusted way. And the bad news for you is up to until mid 1990s, the market is hardly up. Only in 2000s, with helicopter money and flood of QE, market was super inflated. Without going further off the topic, let me say this wave of up will have its down turn. If the stagnation is the medium term, there is a danger the market will go back to the late 1990's value in inflation-adjusted manner. I am not saying it will happen. But danger is there.

 

Finally I have not touched the expansion of the Dow and the expansion of economic sector that inflated the absolute number of the index. Let us not go on that route. But, I am sure many other more educated people here will correct me if I am wrong, or give you more details should you be interested.

Wow.  All this from my statement "but mostly up." 

44 minutes ago, ChutChut said:

I'm invested in the market and I, mostly, have bought low and sold high, but the economy is tanking (inflation and then a spiraling recession). The market will follow. Sure, it'll go up at some point - the question is it going to be too late for those close to, or in, retirement.

I am not a market timer.  I buy and hold long term. 

It sounds like maybe you are selling stocks now in anticipation of a recession (I apologize if I have misinterpeted you).   The problem, though,  with trying to time the stock  market is that you need to be right twice, in this case when exactly to sell if you anticipate  a bad recession, and then when exactly to rebuy before the stock market rebounds too much.  Complicating this is that the market and the economy do not move in lockstep, that is, for example, the market can rebound before a recession has actually abated.   I do think research shows that folks who market time don't make either decision (sell or buy) very well.   But if you can do it, more power to you.

58 minutes ago, ChC said:

 

The first sentence seemed to be very wise, then, what the two words after the BUT exposes the depth of your knowledge on economics. I for one would agree never take advice from this forum after reading the two words I highlighted. I could have written several doctorate's thesis based on that 2 words alone in explaining why it is not true. However, there are so many experts on this forum, who am I arguing with?  

Lol.  I'm didn't give any advice here about whether its a good time to buy stocks,   and I won't.  You write your theses, and I will stick by the stock market going "mostly up" as illustrated quite clearly by historical performance charts:

https://stockcharts.com/freecharts/historical/marketindexes.html

28 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 A lot of people are suggesting a stock market crash.

The market goes up, the market goes down.  But mostly up. 

Those people who talk about about a market crash probably 1)  Never participate in the market, or 2) buy high and sell low.   Not the best folks to take investment advice from.

1 hour ago, Itried4498 said:

 

-- My sole regret: we avoided the casino, but on the last day, the lion's share of rooms on our floor had a card on their door from the casino offering them a FREE cruise in an ocean view room.  Darn!

 

 

Did you go down the hallway opening the cards on the doors?  

3 minutes ago, tw67 said:

Oh boo!

Ha.  And now I see there is a big thread on this.  Folks rushing to purchase cruise cash and excursions.   Probably someone in Carnival IT messed up.  Looks like the IT folks have fixed it now, and I was just too late to get that mega-discounted cruise cash.  Oh well.

1 hour ago, tw67 said:

I am sure many of you have already seen this, but Carnival is having a Mother's Day promotion on some sailings.  You can buy spa treatments, internet, CHEERS, excursions, cruise cash, etc...  and get 20% off.  The code is MSPA22.  I hear that it is working on 2022 cruises, some say 7 days and less, others have had luck on longer.  

 

Remember if you use one of your Allstate or AARP gift cards, you are already getting your cards at a discount, so when you check out, use your GC and save even more.  

This is very interesting, particularly the possibility of buying discounted cruise cash with already discounted gift cards.   So I tried to apply the code to a purchase of $100 in cruise cash on my July five-night sailing.   Unfortunately, the website would not accept the code for a cruise cash purchase on that sailing.

A few months ago I went on a couple of cruises and because there were no BJ/Slot tourneys onboard they gave me my Platinum tourney benefit in the form of some funplay cash.   Going on another cruise next week.   Wondering if I can expect a BOGO tourney entry or some funplay money (or equivalent)?

3 hours ago, teknoge3k said:

 

The code WELCOMEBRANDS was originally posted here in May of 2020 so you've likely used it already.

Here is a list of old codes (lifted from post #4299) that don't appear to expire:

WELCOMECOUPONS    1,000
WELCOME2WINNING    2,500
WELCOME2AR    1,000
WELCOME2OFFERS    1,500
WELCOME2DEALS    1,500
WELCOMEBACK    1,000

WELCOMEBIDS    1,000
WELCOME2SAVINGS    1,000
WELCOME2REWARDS    1,000
WELCOMEREWARD    1,000
WELCOMEBRANDS    1,500
WELCOMEPRIZES    2,500
WELCOMELOCAL    1,500
10KANNIVERSARY    10,000
5KANNIVERSARY    5,000

Of course, you can only use these once, so folks who have been around for awhile have likely already used these.

On 4/21/2022 at 8:10 AM, tm_aw_love said:

Looks like e-gift cards are back in stock for those that have been waiting. 

I just ordered some of the newly available Allstate Carnival egift cards.  The Allstate purchase confirm arrived in my email inbox almost immediately.  But the actual gift cards did not.  After about 15 minutes, I checked my spam folder.  The egift cards were in the spam folder.   The subject line for the egift cards was "Your Egift Card is here."  No mention of Allstate in the subject line or the body of the delivery email.

5 hours ago, a3593 said:

Can you use points to purchase gift cards?

The points can only be used for the discount, which for Carnival gift cards is generally ten percent.  You have to pay for the remaining ninety percent of the gift card with your credit or debit card.

On 4/18/2022 at 10:10 PM, Ilovesailaway said:

Seriously the VIFP offers from Carnival are insane right now.... $30 for an Alaska cruise?

The offer is for a cruise that leaves from Seattle on 5/2 and I damn sure can't make that tight schedule but wow!!!

Lot's of other offers that are a little more and and have a little more lead time... I booked a great offer for a 7 day in Feb 2023.

Please someone tell me they are able to do this Alaska for $30 cruise

Please post the three letter code when you post about a great offer you received.   I get inundated with offers and its not always easy to tell what offer links are worth clicking through.  But if you include the code in your post, it would be easier for me to find the gem among the trash.  Thanks!

31 minutes ago, WendyVF said:

I've sailed Carnival, Princess, Norwegian and Royal Caribbean over the last 20 years and none ever did free drinks in the casino just for playing.  As others said, you can get it as part of a Casino deal or the pit boss will comp drinks at times.  

Ninety nine percent of my play on ship's casinos has been on blackjack tables.  I have been on a longer Carnival cruise where I did not have free drinks and then near the end of the cruise a pit boss informed me I would get free drinks in the casino for the rest of the cruise.  I am not sure how points are calculated for the table games, that is, what might be the equivalent table play of 1500 points on the slots.

Thanks for that post OP.  Will be on the Kdam later this year.  Looking forward to it!!