Squadleader

I haven't really explored the AllState Rewards website to see if there are other discounts like hotels and airlines that I might like to use, but if there other things you want to use these points on, then I think having a spouse, friend, sibling, or child sign up can very quickly multiply points you can earn for more than just cruises. 

Perhaps most people already found this feature like me, but if you click on account at the top of the website when you are logged in, you'll find a complete history of all the codes you've successfully used already. 

This means you could take photos of all the codes on your phone, then use those photos to enter codes for any other account that family or friends have set up.

That would be a super easy and fast way to earn points to use.

Some people on here have gotten very good at guessing hidden codes. One page back is FALLTRENDS19 for 1,000 points, which I also got an email for from Allstate, but someone either got a different email or simply made some different tries and figured out FALLTRENDS2000 also existed and yielded 2,000 points. Playing around with putting the year in front of, or in back of the phrase, with the year expressed both by 19 and 2019 sometimes works. Then sometimes, like in this case taking the emailed FALLTRENDS19 and trying FALLTRENDS2000 also turned out to work. Using 2k or 1k before or after the phrase also has worked. 

It's great that people are sharing their code finds here.

My family really enjoyed afternoon teac, the clotted cream especially, but boy it's a tough one if your dinner is at 6pm, something has to give, and it's usually your appetite for dinner. Haha just goes to show Carnival is giving us great activities and food, we just have to try to find a way to enjoy as many as we can. 

That's a good point Greg. I did in fact use them to pay the gratuities on our cruise. I take the kids mostly for the weather, warm water, the beaches, and that I can actually get to have breakfast and dinner with them in the dining room, but I don't drink, buy excursions through the line, gamble, or really spend much extra money, so I didn't do that, but other people can use the discounted gift cards if they do those things. I'm probably Carnival's worst nightmare!

This probably comes under the heading of being a bad dad because when my kids were younger, I'd book us on long Holland America cruises (10 to 12 days) because they were so incredibly cheap on a per day basis. 

On one of these cruises during the school year,  there were only four kids on the entire ship (all mine). They had the run of the kids club and the one crew member who ran it. 

They're all much older now and to get them to want to go on cruises, I end up having to book Carnival because it's a lot younger crowd and there's lots more fun.  

When school is out, families do fill up Carnival ships. Certainly it's a lot less during school, but Carnival or Royal Caribbean are going to probably have at least some kids no matter when you sail.

If you really want to avoid children, hit a Holland America cruise of 10 or more days during the school season. Maybe some kids onboard when schools out, but on one of those long cruises during school season you could have no kids onboard. Most parents are too young to feel they fit in on Holland America and on top of that, most parents can't leave work for that long, while most kids can't miss that much school either, which is why that is such a safe bet on no kids.

As I recall, I got 5,000 points for signing up and 10,000 points for installing the app on my phone that tracks by driving (which also awards small amounts of points as you drive, typically 200 every few days). That plus all the codes here got me over 50,000 points in a couple of hours. For the sake of clarity let's say my cruise bill I owed Carnival was $5,000. It takes 50,000 points to purchase $5,000 in $500 gift cards, that I only pay Allstate Rewards $4,500 to buy. I paid for and ordered the gift cards from Allstate rewards (took 5 days to arrive). When they arrived, I called Carnival, gave them the gift card numbers and they applied the cards to the $5,000 I owed them. That saves you $500 off a $5,000 bill and uses up 50,000 points. You can also buy $100 gift cards in the same manner. 

Let's face it, Carnival forces us to pay in full 90 days in advance of the cruise, it's nice to pull back a discount of 10% from them on a bill I thought I'd have to pay in full anyway.

If you need more points for another cruise, I'm pretty sure you could use a wife or child to gather that many points together again. Heck, I've already built up another 30,000 points in the last few weeks I can use on another cruise for next year. If you're going on a cruise anyway, using these points is a no-brainer, free money really.

Great codes! Thank you very much!!!

I had never thought about it, but I think it would make economic sense for cruises originating and terminating in San Juan to use the out of the way Pan American Piers on the other side of the harbor, next to the air strip, while ships stopping for the day to use the piers downtown to dump all their passengers directly into Old San Juan, in order to make it as easy as possible to grab as many dollars as possible, from the transient traffic. 

Anyone happen to know if that theory holds up in the real world?

Aside from the expense and trouble of getting to San Juan (though San Juan cruises are usually a little cheaper though to defer the air fare cost), I've always felt San Juan was the very best port for cruising. Most seven day cruises out of San Juan are going to only have one sea day with six days in ports. Unlike some people, I feel port days are far superior to sea days because you can go to the beach and have a great time, or stay on the ship and have it practically to yourself, especially the pool area.

We prefer the Eastern Caribbean because it's cooler and less humid than the Western Caribbean, and San Juan is right on top of all the Eastern Caribbean ports, making those six out seven day port day cruises possible. While St. Thomas and St. Marin are around a 100 miles from San Juan, Miami is 1,100 miles west of San Juan, which is why an East Coast departure has so many sea days. 

I'm very pleased to see the cruise lines changing the dynamics of that equation by opening so many cruise dedicated ports in the Bahamas area which can be as close as 100 miles from Miami. All the private islands that have appeared and the new construction at Amber Cove and Grand Turk are game changers because they are so close to Miami.

I've probably gotten jaded after so many cruises and hitting my sixties, but I only cruise now to grab warm weather, warm water and beautiful beaches, and I really enjoy only having to unpack once to enjoy so many different places the ship goes. That feature sets cruises apart from any other form of travel. At this point, I couldn't care less about all the crazy tours and attractions people are putting on islands to make them more interesting, to me it's all about the beauty and gorgeous weather of the Caribbean. It's an incredible blessing to have ships going to one of the most beautiful places on earth, all within an easy drive of almost everyone living on the East Coast of the US.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread. I signed up last Saturday evening at Allstate Rewards, went back through this thread, applied all the codes I could find, some codes worked, some expired, but in a couple of hours racked up over 50,000 points.

I used 47,000 points to buy $4,700 in gift cards I was going to have to pay in the next couple of weeks to Carnival anyway, and saved ten percent on my final payment ($470) thanks to all of y'all. 

I ordered and paid for the cards online at allstaterewards.com on Saturday night. UPS delivered them this afternoon (Wednesday). I also signed up for the free UPS delivery app for my address, so starting last Monday I was able to track the progress of the cards as they worked their way to me. 

Thanks again!

Thanks for sharing!

Your level of detail was wonderful. Your debarkation details were especially appreciated.

By the way, do yourself a favor if you use butter, and get one of these glass butter dishes, and for goodness sake leave it on the counter all the time! 🙂

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007VGS1C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&th=1

It's a clear glass butter bowl with a glass top that's a perfect fit for the 8oz double stick size of Kerrygold butter. There's even enough length to slide in the next slab when there's still an inch of the old one left. The glass top is molded with a nice cow on it too, my kids love that.

Keep it on the counter next to the stove. There's nothing better than soft butter ready to go whenever you are!

In case you're wondering, Kerrygold is the best butter you can buy. It only comes from grass-fed cows in Ireland, and is many shades a darker yellow than Land-O-lakes, which looks lily white next to Kerrygold. The gold color comes from the beta carotene in the grass, which is very healthy. Regular butter is from grain-fed cows and isn't nearly as healthy. 

If you have to be an expert on something, you could do worse than choosing butter! 🙂

A couple of years ago I got curious about butter and did some checking. 

It turns out unsalted butter is fine stored at room temperature for up to two weeks. Even better, salted butter is fine for up to 30 days. 

I grew up in the 1960s when doctors told people to eat margarine instead of butter. Of course, margarine is made with what is now known to be one of the unhealthiest things you can possibly eat, hydronated oil. Hydronated oil (Crisco) is a man-made oil that has an extra molecule of hydrogen added. To keep it simple, think of hydronated oil as very soft plastic, that you eat. Remarkably, hydronated oil refuses to rot, usually a bad sign of how healthy something is (think sugar too). The not rotting attribute of hydronated oils is how packaged cookies could have two-year shelf lives, and why it was so beloved to the packaged food industry.

Getting back to the point, there's no cook on earth that wants to use refrigerated butter or eggs, room temperature is far better and the flavor is better too. 

So sign me up for room temperature salted butter regardless of how you want to serve it! Soft butter and a croissant are about as good as it gets.

This from Carnival's website.

Guests may enjoy one last breakfast or relax with a cup of coffee.

• The main dining room serves breakfast 6:30am-8:30am (open seating)
• The lido restaurant serves breakfast 6:30am-9:15am
• Cafe on the Way is open 6:30am-9:30am

We need every possible second for the 14-hour drive facing us, so we're getting what we can in Lido and then getting off ASAP.

If you aren't in a rush and aren't trying to shoehorn in something before your flight, I wouldn't go near the buffet. Unless I'm just trying to fill the hole, they can keep the cafeteria.

Any time I have the luxury of the main dining room, I always take it. Relax, enjoy your free meal and then head out. 

In your case, even if I wanted to go somewhere else that day, the main dining room still opens at 6:30, just like the buffet, it'll just take a little longer, but be WAY MORE PLEASANT!!!

Haha, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised, that's not going to be an issue at all. Your 12 and 5-year-old are going to want to be in the kids' program all the time. Your 17-year-old can crash in the other room in you need a little privacy, but she'll probably have things she wants to do as well. At 17, on Carnival, she'll probably have new friends herself and be as busy as the little guys.

Cruising is so popular because it is a break for mom's and if you and your husband still like each other, you'll have as much time as you want, I promise!

Haha, there's a reason at ports of call this old man gets off the ship as soon as possible, and is very happy to be back onboard at 2:30, even if the ship doesn't sail until 4:30. The risk-reward ratio on that equation is crazy steep in favor of not letting Murphy's Law turn you into a pier runner! I think the same thing applies to embarkation.

One thing's for sure, pushing things up to their limit, is always the best way to create the conditions necessary for great stories to be born! The heart-stopping kind that you laugh about later, much later! 🙂

Boy, if it's one thing my kid's have taught me, it's that everyone has to make their own mistakes, it's the only way some lessons can be learned. Man, the things I would have done differently!

The best way to learn not to miss a cruise, is to miss a cruise. That's a lesson that would really sink in!

Look on the bright side, if it all goes south, think of all the extra closet space you'll have on your cruise! She might get the hint if you share that little joke with her! 🙂

These are all great ideas, knowledge is power when it comes to cruising. 

Personally, I think the boards are a lot more fun when people aren't criticized for how they express themselves. There's nothing I enjoy more than a funny word picture or a clever way of expressing an idea. 

Saying blue cards hit a wall at the buffet is funny and actually true (good humor has to have a grain of truth). Just like everyone else here, my first few cruises revolved around the buffet because it's the easiest and most obvious target of opportunity when it comes to eating. 

So I encourage everyone to not to let other people govern how they express themselves. The fun of all this is seeing other points of view, we may not have even considered. These boards are an incredible wealth of information for making your cruise experience better by understanding how the complex picture of all amenities of a ship work together, and also understanding the behavior of the other passengers. Hopefully, we're all dodging left when they're dodging right! If I can't figure out how to dodge crowds, I just wouldn't even go.

I've gotten a lot older and hopefully a little wiser, and now I prefer the slower pace of the main dining room and any other food venue that's doing an especially great job like Guy's Burgers, Blue Igauana, Cucina del Capitano, and Mongolian Wok.

Haha, Grandmarnurse, please tell me you haven't forgotten our Sea Day Brunch date in the Main Dining Room?!!! Don't make me eat my steak and eggs alone!

All kidding aside, I think you're right, other than the Sea Day Brunch, I don't think the Main Dining Room serves lunch. I think some of the cruise lines do, but I don't think Carnival is one of them.

Yeah, being just a couple of hours away makes a huge difference, I envy that for sure. The other thing for me is lots of kids, the extra hassle, luggage, and trying to keep everyone happy. You've got a very good point, If it was just me and a significant other, it would be a completely different dynamic, and using a four-day cruise for a little escape sounds great.

Haha, over those holiday weekends sounds even better. I love Virginia Beach, but I wouldn't go within 10 miles of it on the Memorial Day, Fourth of July, or Labor Day holiday. They become so crowded, they're unrecognizable, other times it's very nice.

You're doing good then, have a great trip, and next January will be here before you know it for your next round of adventures!

Oh, just saw your reply.

Ask the school about unexcused absences. In our system it isn't unexcused if you tell them about it. 

You may talk to the counselor because most people in education agree travel days teach way more than school days. They give the children a larger sense of the world and expose them to other cultures. Most of the world lives in crushing poverty. I like for my children to realize how special it is to have the privilege of living in America. 

One other thing.

I haven't researched this, but my gut feeling is that the vast majority of all cruises are seven days. This bulge of capacity could make it possible that a seven-day cruise may actually be price competitive with a four or five-day cruise because they have so many more cabins to fill on seven-day cruises. 

So for fun, maybe check that out. Also, the first week of December is an absolutely super time to cruise price-wise. I've found the first two weeks of December to have some of the lowest prices of the entire year, so that could really give you the possibility of taking a seven-night for the price of a four-night, again I haven't done the research, but it's worth it to you to find out.

I have also found that the ten night and over cruises are much harder for the lines to fill because most people can't go for that long. We took an 11-night cruise for less than the cost of a seven-night cruise one time, and during Spring Break no less, a very busy, expensive season on the cruise calendar. 

I'm old and grumpy, so your mileage may vary, but I'd never book a four-day cruise. 

If it's at all possible, book a seven-day and a whole new world of possibilities opens up.

1. Shorter cruises almost always equals older ships.

2. The crew is more whipped from frequent turnarounds and there might be more service issues.

3. Newer ships have gobs of balconies compared to these older ships. Balconies are great for taking the pressure off the public outdoor areas because many people are on their own balcony. I don't believe the new Mega Ships could even exist without such a huge ratio of balcony cabins. Not having enough deck chairs would become a real issue. I think you'll probably find that's also an issue with the older ships that don't have a large number of balconies. 

Most important to me anyway.

4. All the hassle of taking off work, taking off school, driving down, embarkation hassle, unpacking, getting used to the new routine, packing up, debarking process, and the long drive home are the time and aggravation cost of a cruise, It's a fixed cost whether it's a two day or two week cruise.

5. I know you want to avoid Fort Lauderdale and Miami, but when we cruise in the winter, we like as much of the trip as possible to be from as far south as possible because it's automatically warmer. I love the convenience of Port Canaveral, distance-wise, but my personal experience is that because of availability, price, or ship, we always seem to end up out of Miami or Fort Lauderdale, and the two are only about 30 minutes apart, so I think either is as good as the other.

My mind is way more business oriented than most people's, so I always come across blunt, but I just think all that hassle is best spent on a longer cruise.

In the beginning, we did several shorter cruises, so I've been there, but it just seemed like we had hardly unpacked and we were getting off the ship again.

So maybe you just can't do a longer cruise, I get it. In that case I would go for the southernmost itinerary, especially if beach days are your thing. 

If it's any help, I've always struggled with the kids in school thing. I've gotten used to the idea that we're just going to have to lose one work week, for kids with AB schedules it's better since that's only losing 2 of one class and 3 of the other.

Most of the seven-day cruises are going to leave Saturday or Sunday, and we just get off the ship as quickly as we can, and straight shot it back to Virginia. We've gotten it so we actually leave the interstate twice, only for fuel, then every two hours at a rest stop we swap drivers and walk around for few minutes. We've gotten the time down to 14 hours flat for the 950 miles from Fort Lauderdale, which is pretty amazing since that is an average of 68 miles per hour over the 14 hours.

As I said, this may be useless information because of your circumstance, but perhaps it'll help those still figuring out the best way to get value from their cruises. 

I know you're going to have a great trip regardless!

Thanks for your service Corby!

There's a small but vocal portion of the population that doesn't understand the value of the thin blue line, that holds things together for the rest of us. People don't seem to realize a highly advanced civilization like ours, which offers benefits to everyone, beyond the wildest dreams of generations before us, is very fragile.

An angry mob can burn down what took hundreds of years to create in one afternoon. 

You guys are us, you represent law and order, without which, welcome to the stone age. The crazy loudmouths are so stupid, it never evens dawns on them that when they attack our police, the danger they are flirting with for all of us. 

We haven't been on Carnival in a while, so I'm looking forward to trying Blue Iguana for the first time. My kids do like Chipotle, which I've read Blue Iguana is similar to. 

For whatever reason, Chipotle's star has faded a little in the last couple of years. That's how the restaurant business is though, a real hot place almost always falls off some, if for no other reason than we've eaten there a lot and just aren't quite as eager to go back as before. The old saying in the industry is, you're either getting rich, or you're going broke, it's one or the other, there's very little in between in the restaurant business. 

Perception is reality in sales, so me not being able to get a Guys Burger, except on the ship, reinforces my desire to have one. Haha, score one for Carnival! People want most, what they can't have. That's a fact, Jack!

I don't know the right or wrong way to cook a burger, but between the fresh patty right off the grill and the fixins bar, Guys had me from hello!

I know it's stupid, but I can't wait to get back aboard and have another Guys Burger. I think this comes under the heading of do ONE thing very well. I think that credo is why Guys is the only food venue on the ship that really stands out in my mind, long after the cruise was over. 

I don't know if was an some kind of accident (Carnival has created dozens, if not hundreds of food venues over the years), or what, but Guys is the one thing about Carnival that really stands out in my mind. I wonder if corporate know just how much of a positive impression Guys has left with their customers.