Well, yes. Elite cruise offerings are capacity controlled and why there are not a lot of choices to choose from in any given promo period. For sure, SOME sailings in my experience will have lot's of Elite members onboard. Not absolute but many sailings 7 days and under CAN have hundreds of Elite's, Ultra's, Premiere's on board intermixed with several thousand other casino patrons at any given moment on any Carnival Cruise. Although eligibility for Elite offers may individually change every quarter, so do the overall # of eligible Elite cruises for any given period. Most of the time, although well qualified for Elite cruises, the specific cruises they enable as eligible Elite are often either NOT within date(s) I can vacation OR are ported in places that would require substantial additional costs for flights and pre/post hotel and added transpo/meal costs just to sail on, that I can't/don't ever take the plunge and accept one.
It has been a frustrating road with Elite status and after sailing with Carnival brand for 17 years, I don't think "Elite" offers, once achieved by whatever means it takes to be included in such offers, should be as painful and confusing for a brand loyal player to assess and book. Carnival's contracted partner (Global Casino Services) management and casino marketing company has made Elite offers under the Carnival brand convoluted and difficult to exercise the option. That statement MAY not be true for passengers that live within a 50-100 miles radius of a Carnival cruise terminal in the U.S. However, I do not. Therefore the complexities involved in planning/booking a cruise vacation, let alone an Elite voyage, are more in depth than for those within 50-100 miles of the port. I submit they should consider R/T air coupons/vouchers valid for the Elite voyage from the loyal passenger's home zip to any of the ports listed within the eligible Elite offer pages for that period. It would be an ELITE perk, and one that would ENABLE rather than EXCLUDE folks that do not have the inherent benefits of a home port <100 miles. Perhaps enable that perk if ALL of the following applies: Elite CASINO player status AND (not or) Diamond or Platinum cruise line status AND passenger residency >100 miles but less <500 miles from one port listed in Elite offers during the Elite eligible period. Even IF they only offered flight coupons to only SOME of the relevant Elite cruises offered. Let's say to ports within 500 miles of the passenger's home zip code. IDK for sure how to work that out, but it can be done, and absolutely would remove a lot of the otherwise voodoo planning and significant individual consumer cost barriers many of us loyal players otherwise have to deal with just to accept an Elite offer, while others don't (and just don't do it)...
In collusion, YES. The casino MAY be "packed" with casino hosted guests of varying levels at anytime and on virtually any cruise itinerary.