rufflesmom

Onboard credit can only be used onboard the ship.  If you want to use it to pay for excursions you will have to wait until you are on the ship.  But go immediately after boarding in order to get the ones you want.

We did a Mediterranean cruise in August 2018 on Royal Caribbean.   Americans were definitely in the minority but everything was done in English.  All announcements, everything printed.  Many European countries teach English as a second language in the schools so many Europeans know English.  All prices were in US dollars on the ship.  In ports you will need euros to spend though.  That was easy enough, there are ATM's all over the place.  We got euros from an ATM in the Barcelona airport before we left the airport.

On 10/8/2020 at 7:20 AM, lrbashley said:

I have yet to get a refund from my two cancelled Carnival cruises. Jason, the PVP with Carnival (who is highly recommended on here), says Carnival issued my refund to my travel agent's agency in July. My travel agent says cruise lines never refund to the agency, they refund directly to the passenger. For those of you who booked your cruise with an agent, who gave you your money back - agency or Carnival? I have been checking my credit card for the past six months and there is no credit from either!

I would suggest going back to look at credit card statements for all payments you made to the TA.  It will show who the charge went to, Carnival or the TA.  If it shows the TA, I would call Carnival and explain to them that the TA has not refunded your money, stating that the cruise line never refunds to TA.  I would try to get something in writing (even an email would help) from Carnival stating that the refund was issued to the TA.  Then you can call the TA, tell them you have proof that Carnival refunded to the TA and you expect a check immediately.  If they refuse to refund your money, you might have to sue in small claims court.  Carnival just might be interested to know that a TA is keeping customers money.  Any details about the refund that Carnival can  give you will be helpful if you have to go to small claims court over this.

Our cruise was cancelled on Aug 5 and we got a full refund with 2 weeks. 

Our October 24 cruise was cancelled Aug 5, all four of us had a full refund by Aug 20

I love it!!!

3 hours ago, Host Carolyn said:

If this goes even slightly off topic .....it's about one specific cruise....or turns into a mask, vaccine, stats etc thread it goes. Enough of that on here already

Thank you for the prompt reminder.

I did the online checkin for our October cruise but just haven't printed anything yet.

You might be facing port side in one port but not in another.  The chance of a port side cabin facing the port when docking at every port is pretty much nonexistent.  If seeing the port when docking is important, up on an upper open deck is the best place.

We are booked under a casino rate for October.  It included a $500 OBC.  We got two price drops before the rate expired.  I did have to go thru the casino dept but it was super easy.  We stopped checking for price drops because any price match we found later would have to include the $500 OBC or we would lose that.

Of all the pier runners videos I have watched I have never seen a big group of people (like coming back from an excursion).  It is always just a few people.  And almost all have either shopping bags or beach bags.  Evidence of not paying attention to the time.  I don't feel the slightest bit sorry for those people.  They were given the same information I was about what time to be back on board and thousands of other people managed to get back on time. 

The only time we have ever NOT been back on the ship in time was on a Carnival excursion.  We were on the ferry from Carmen to Cozumel at our sail away time, along with over 100 people on the same excursion.  Yes, the ship did wait because it was  a ship excursion.  But when the ferry docked we all ran to get to the ship, not strolled along at our own pace. 

Last Carnival cruise was Sept 2017, the Miracle out of Long Beach.  In Aug 2018 we did a Mediterranean cruise but it was not on Carnival because there were no Carnival ships there at the time.

We booked a cruise for Oct 2020 using my sister's casino rate.  We have gotten 2 price drops since then.  All I did was call Carnival and spoke with the casino dept.  Her offer was good until 3/2/20 and offered $500 OBC.  Both price drops were before the offer expired so we didn't lose the OBC.  We booked a spa balcony cabin and they are sold out now so no more price drops.  BTW, we are not paid in full yet.

Some OBC do have some restrictions.  The OBC for booking and being shareholders can be used for anything.  I have had both in the past with no restrictions.  Also OBC for price reductions do not have restrictions.  Don't know about any other OBC.

41 minutes ago, lottiegreen56 said:

I know we're all here together because we like cruises or are  interested in cruising. As much as I love the activity, I'm going to be livid if they bailout the cruise industry. These companies have avoided taxes and hiring US workers for years and shouldn't take advantage of the American public fiske. Businesses shouldn't operate under the assumption that we are going to bail them out when they are on the verge of failing. Pull yourselves up by the bootstraps.

 

Am I the only one thinking this way? 

Another cruise line tried to employ an all american crew.  It didn't work because Americans won't work the long hours that is required on a cruise ship.  It didn't last very long at all. 

President Trump asked the cruiselines to suspend operations for a time and they have complied with that request.  As another poster said, airlines have started charging for everything, some even for carryon bags.  So why should they get a bailout?  Auto makers are suspending operations too, do they deserve a bailout?  We the people (because it IS us that will be paying for it) can't bail out every industry that is suffering from this.  I don't want to sound heartless, I know people are suffering.  Our son has 2 jobs and both have been affected by this.  He will very soon have no job.  With 5 children to feed.  With all these companies that  are closing down, millions of people suddenly have no paycheck coming in.  Those are the ones who really need a bailout.

If you go to print the documents (choose 'additional documents' and then mark 'general information') then click print.  It will show that you have YTD confirmed.  I just looked at mine and it does show there.

The cruise cash for build a bear will be applied to the cost of the build a bear but may or may not cover it all.  There are different bears with different prices and then there are different outfits that can be purchased also.  Cruise cash is automatically applied to the onboard account.  The build a bear will be charged to the account and the cruise cash will be credited to that. 

We have gotten $160 in price drops for our October cruise. 

Was the OBC part of the booking rate  or is it from the Carnival CC?  If it is from the booking rate then you could lose it.  If it is from the CC you probably won't lose it.  If you do rate matching I would call Carnival rather than using the form.  You can find out if matching to the lower rate will cause you to lose the OBC.  The forms are much more convenient but aren't always the best way to get the price reduction.

Beware of price matching if you get the new price.  You will then be booked under a casino offer, no longer early saver rate.  The rules are different.  If you price match to an offer that does not include the $500 OBC you will lose that.  We are booked under the same casino offer and are being careful about price matching.  $500 OBC is a lot of money to lose.  Even with 4 of us that is still $125 each.

13 minutes ago, lazydayz said:

Not in and of itself.  Sometimes they add in extras, but those are usually communicated with the offer.  

 

You might want to call back and see if there is any on board credit, free play, or drink offers included.  Those don't show up on your invoice but the rep can see it on the screen.  

We are booked with a casino rate and a $500 OBC.  It does show up on the invoice at the bottom of the itemized charges.

15 hours ago, Jthomasou said:

I have 500 dollars of OBC from a Casino offer.  Can I use this credit for gratuities?  Im sure I can use it for Bubbles, but do I need to wait until we are on the boat to purchase for the OBC to cover it?  

My sister got the same offer.  OBC can only be used once onboard the ship.  If you purchase Bubbles prior to cruise you will have to pay for it when you purchase it.  If you didn't prepay the gratuities then you will be able to use the OBC for that.  Your onboard account will have a $500 credit on it when you board.  You will not have to pay the first $500 charged to your account.

We are booked on a casino offer for a cruise in October.  We found a price drop (for the exact same casino offer that we booked under that expires 3/3/20).  I called and got the price drop of $120 but was told that we could only do that until the date that payment was due in full.  After that we couldn't get anything.  That might be the reason.

We booked a cruise about a month ago and yesterday got a $120 price drop.

We had a similar, not as dramatic or scary, situation in Cozumel.  We wanted to go the Mayan ruins at Tulum.  This was an 8 hour excursion.  We booked through Carnival due to the length of the excursion, said it was an hour drive each way after a 45 minute ferry boat ride.  We weren't taking any chances with a tour that long.  At the time the ship was supposed to be leaving we were still sitting on the ferry waiting to leave for Cozumel.  Of course, there were at least 100 people from the ship on this excursion.  The ship waited for us and we were the last ones on the ship.  Didn't think about it at the time but we weren't being booed as pier runners either so the ship must have announced that they were waiting on an excursion to return. 

Sometimes we book thru the cruise line, sometimes an independent tour.  Just depends on many factors.