AARP Gift Card

Made a payment towards our cruise using AARP gift card. How long before it is posted lowering the total amount left on your cruise?

it should be immediately if you input the gift card payment correctly. its a little tricky on how to pay with gift cards for those that have never done it before.

Same thing happened to me the first time using the gift card to pay online. After entering the gift card(s) and seeing the amount validated on the card, I had not continued on to the "SUBMIT" button. Once I hit "SUBMIT", I immediately checked the booking in Cruise Manager and the payment had been immediately applied. If you have a question about it though, you can always call Carnival and they will gladly check the card balance and even apply it toward your cruise booking if you want them to do so.

Always been immediately for me as well.

Should be instantaneous.

I am having this issue with one of the 5 cards I tried to use yesterday. It acted like it was deducting the amount from the amount due but it did not. I called to get it applied by phone and it said it was invalid. I am waiting for a call back from AARP Rewards for Good. Number is 888-842-2891. The good news is I have a year before the cruise ... so lots of time to get this corrected.

I am having this issue with one of the 5 cards I tried to use yesterday. It acted like it was deducting the amount from the amount due but it did not. I called to get it applied by phone and it said it was invalid. I am waiting for a call back from AARP Rewards for Good. Number is 888-842-2891. The good news is I have a year before the cruise ... so lots of time to get this corrected.

I had the same issue when I purchased multiple cards and then used them towards the cruise. One of the cards had not been validated but a quick call fixed it no problem

I had the same issue when I purchased multiple cards and then used them towards the cruise. One of the cards had not been validated but a quick call fixed it no problem

I am still going in circles with this. one -e-mail and two phone calls with a "back to you in 3-5 days" a few minutes ago. I asked them to just delete the one I have and replace but the person I talked to did not have that authority..... I am working to get my $50. on this one.

This happened to me last week while applying a gift card. If it doesn't show in your Cruise Manager after a few minutes. call the 800 number to get confirmation. They're very nice and helpful. Took me a few minutes to get it straightened out and have peace of mind.

I've never had a problem. Bought 5 cards yesterday (2 $500 cards and 3 $100 cards) in order to purchase 3 Cheers packages. All of them worked very well, and I applied the little bit that was left over to the cruise balance. Was instant and easy!

Still in the negative loop on this one. If I don't get resolution by Wednesday I will be doing a charge back to the credit card. Rewards for Good says good card. Carnival Guest Services and Carnival Gift Cards says no good. I have requested a replacement card since they did not give me a usable Gift Card and waiting response.

This will not keep me from purchasing them in the future... but not so many at one time to risk all that $$$. I bought $2500 of them this time and redeemed $2000 with no problem.

The end of my story....after almost three weeks of calls to Rewards for Good, Carnival Customer Service and Carnival GIft Cards the gift card issue was elevated to a supervisor at AARP Rewards for Good... who researched and made calls... said would get back to me in 2-3 days that this was a very unusual issue. He called back about 1/2 hour later and did a 3 way to someone in Carnival who finally fixed the issue and I got the credit for the $500. card. Even though it took some time the issue is now resolved and I will be purchasing from Rewards for Good in the future.

Thank goodness. And thanks for reporting the outcome.

If anyone's interested, here is Carnival's site where you can check the balance of your gift cards. https://carnival.ourgiftcards.com/

It will also let you check the balance during the payment process when making payments on your cruise. Instead of submitting the payment, right next to it is a link to check the balance of that card.

We just bought 6 e-cards on Sunday and immediately applied them, plus four more we already had, to the balance to finally pay it off. One of the cards kept giving me an invalid error. The balance checker said it was good. I tried three or four times, but Carnival wouldn't accept it. I ended up clearing the Carnival cookies on my browser and that did the trick. Just for one e-card out of nine, plus two physical cards. Very odd.

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We just bought 6 e-cards on Sunday and immediately applied them, plus four more we already had, to the balance to finally pay it off. One of the cards kept giving me an invalid error. The balance checker said it was good. I tried three or four times, but Carnival wouldn't accept it. I ended up clearing the Carnival cookies on my browser and that did the trick. Just for one e-card out of nine, plus two physical cards. Very odd.

Glad that worked out for you! Mine was more complicated but worked out in the end. We saved $250. on the trip.

Glad that worked out for you! Mine was more complicated but worked out in the end. We saved $250. on the trip.

Wow, this scares me. I've been buying cards but I don't want to use them for final payment, cheers, excursion until months from now, close to final payment date. (Just in case something happens and I don't want to deal with a refund situation)

Could someone please post a link to where you can purchase the AARP gift cards? I have searched their website to no avail. Thank you!

Could someone please post a link to where you can purchase the AARP gift cards? I have searched their website to no avail. Thank you!

https://rewards.aarp.org/gateway?t=marketplace

Wow, this scares me. I've been buying cards but I don't want to use them for final payment, cheers, excursion until months from now, close to final payment date. (Just in case something happens and I don't want to deal with a refund situation)

I'm thinking same thing. Was going to hold onto them and apply them at the end of the cruise to pay for drinks. Was going to check the balances but it requires scraping off the cover on the PIN number on the back and I worry about that invalidating them. Hoping if I bring them with me, there won't be a problem at the last minute.

I'm thinking same thing. Was going to hold onto them and apply them at the end of the cruise to pay for drinks. Was going to check the balances but it requires scraping off the cover on the PIN number on the back and I worry about that invalidating them. Hoping if I bring them with me, there won't be a problem at the last minute.

You can scratch off the back of the card to reveal the pin. That doesn't invalidate them. They are just like any other gift card you would ever buy for any store. If you want to scratch them off and check the balance before your cruise just to make yourself comfortable, by all means go for it.

Wow, this scares me. I've been buying cards but I don't want to use them for final payment, cheers, excursion until months from now, close to final payment date. (Just in case something happens and I don't want to deal with a refund situation)

I'm thinking same thing. Was going to hold onto them and apply them at the end of the cruise to pay for drinks. Was going to check the balances but it requires scraping off the cover on the PIN number on the back and I worry about that invalidating them. Hoping if I bring them with me, there won't be a problem at the last minute.

Don't let any of these instances scare you. :) Judging by how many people on these boards use the cards and how few times anyone's ever posted about having issues, I think it's safe to say problems are rare. Carnival gift cards don't expire. I have read a couple instances where someone's card had to be re-validated after a long period of time, but I think that's rare too. I bought two physical cards back in March of last year and three e-cards in April of last year. A year later, this past Sunday, I entered them into the system to pay down our balance. It was one of those three e-cards that gave me the trouble I described in my previous post, but considering clearing my browser cookies fixed it, then it wasn't a problem with the card itself. And don't worry about scratching off to reveal the PIN, that won't invalidate them. If it gives you peace of mind to check their balance periodically, then do it.

Also, one of the tips I learned from these boards is to squirrel away cruise money (or the gift cards) and wait until your sail date gets closer. That way you don't have a lot of money tied up in Carnival if you can't go. Because I've heard they sometimes take their sweet time to issue refunds. So you're doing the smart thing there.

I went to the AARP website and can’t even seem to find the gift cards for Carnival at this time

I went to the AARP website and can’t even seem to find the gift cards for Carnival at this time

Have you registered an AARP Rewards for Good account yet? You don't have to be an AARP member to use the rewards program. If you have an account, use the link posted in post #19 of this thread to log in. If you don't have an account, there's a button to "Register."

Once you log in, at the top of the page, hover your mouse over "Gift Cards" and click on "Travel" from the drop-down menu. Or click on Gift Cards, then click on Travel in the left side bar, depending on the device you're using. Once in the Travel section, look in the left sidebar for "Carnival" under the Cruise category. They're still available, both physical and e-cards, of both denominations ($100 & $500). If Carnival doesn't appear in the left sidebar, then they aren't available. Sometimes it appears, but when you click on it, they'll say "Sold Out."

After reading your post I have just gone on AARP and ordered a card. Both $100 & $500, mail and e-mail are available.

Are you logged on? If so go to the Rewards for Good link next to your name and points count, then the View Rewards Catalog link, click on Gift Cards in the header line, click on Travel in the left column, click on Carnival in the left column and there they are. Last week I told my daughter they had cards available, she told me that when she looked it was only the e-mail cards so I looked again and found that if you do not click the Carnival link in the left column you are not seeing all that are available.

Ken