Early Saver Rate...Worth It?

[MissDiva1]

I am taking my family on the Magic in December 2012. I have NEVER booked this far ahead and I can't imagine what will happen in 1 1/2 years. The rate is good, but the no refund deposit scares me (10 people). I can get a military rate for a bit more, with a refundable deposit, but I don't get the price drop guarantee. For those of you who have purchased the Early Saver Rate, did you see that the risk was worth any additional savings?

 

Thanks

 

 

You just answered your own question. Go with the military rate and yes you will get price drops up until final payment is due.

[karinad]

I'm up in the air with either the ES or PP rate. The PP rate is about $70.pp more then the ES. As I understand, with the Past-Passenger rate we could get up-graded from 7A, but the 7A with the ES you won't be. Is that right? Also, because we have to fly, I usually book my flights when booking the cruise. We are locked in from the beginning if we're satisfied with the rate of the cruise and where we're going. I'd never book my flights when the price of the cruise is high. Maybe the cruise rate wouldn't drop. JMO.

[Director of Family Fun]

Help me understand how you get "exactly the cabin you want" with ES? It appears to be restricted to specific cabins. I need connecting so that shortens the list even more. My dates are firm so ES seems to be the way to go for me, but I'm a little uncomfortable with the short list of cabins. Are these the "bad" ones they would have to discount to sell, regardless?

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Help me understand how you get "exactly the cabin you want" with ES? It appears to be restricted to specific cabins. I need connecting so that shortens the list even more. My dates are firm so ES seems to be the way to go for me, but I'm a little uncomfortable with the short list of cabins. Are these the "bad" ones they would have to discount to sell, regardless?

 

If you want specific cabins you need to call as they only show 10 cabins per category max.

 

Just because it doesnt show up on the booking site doesnt necessarily mean a certain cabin isnt available.

 

Bill

[Director of Family Fun]

Check those ES rates on a regular basis! Ours has gone down twice for a total of $80/person since we booked for next March last May. I don't feel like we rushed to book since we are going for spring break and it is, when it is. We looked at all the cruises offered during that time frame and this one met our needs the best. Am I correct that the chances of any "additions" to what was available for that week are unlikely? Also, we can spend the fall and winter looking forward to plans already made. My kids are really enjoying that part.

[Dannzzigg]

With over $200 in OBC waiting for us on September cruise, I can say the ES has worked for us. We booked the cruise right after it appeared on the list of bookable cruises. I believe it was nearly two years out from our sailing date.

 

If you anticipate the possibility of cancellations, I'm not so sure that I would be looking at ES, but I guess it all depends on if you want to gamble on that chance.

[bythehex]

Help me understand how you get "exactly the cabin you want" with ES? It appears to be restricted to specific cabins. I need connecting so that shortens the list even more. My dates are firm so ES seems to be the way to go for me, but I'm a little uncomfortable with the short list of cabins. Are these the "bad" ones they would have to discount to sell, regardless?

 

It was my understanding that the early saver program just means you're committing to your booking, thereby locking it in. And the "reward" for that is getting lower prices, OBC, and the ability to submit requests for upgrades or OBC should the price go down.

 

We booked the exact cabin we wanted on the Pride via early saver. I've never before heard that any cabins are restricted when you book early saver. That certainly wasn't our experience. Where did you hear that the cabins are restricted?

[Alliezona09]

From my experience, I would say, Yes it is worth it. ES is always the lowest price guaranteed until 2 days from sailing. That is potentially a big saver and always more than the $50 it costs to cancel. The nonrefundable deposit is not an issue if you are frequent cruiser.

 

The only thing from the OP's question I would worry about is the group thing. We are considering taking our whole family, 5 Cabins and we are paying for everyone as a gift, so if someone cancels, the nonrefundable deposit would be in their name, not ours. If I knew they would use it, it would be ok, but since they may not cruise again for a long time, I would hate to lose that money. They should have the deposits for canceled cruises go to the credit of whoever paid for the booking, not for the person who was going it use it. That would ease my mind a lot for a group.

 

This is my worry! We are taking our kids who absolutely can not afford to cruise on their own. They are young, with children, and don't have the resources.

 

I seem to recall people saying that if you paid for someone elses cruise and they cancel that you can get the deposit refunded back to you. Carnival has a form to fill out for that purpose, you have to call and ask for it. Anyone else remember hearing (reading) that? Or have I completly lost it~:p

[okwriter]

Help me understand how you get "exactly the cabin you want" with ES? It appears to be restricted to specific cabins. I need connecting so that shortens the list even more. My dates are firm so ES seems to be the way to go for me, but I'm a little uncomfortable with the short list of cabins. Are these the "bad" ones they would have to discount to sell, regardless?

 

I realize this is an older post, but I wonder if you thought there was a "short list" of cabins based on the ones you could choose from on the Carnival website? They only pull up like 10 at a time for you to choose from, but there are usually many more available if you contact them by phone.

[Director of Family Fun]

Sorry for the long delay in my reply, it appears my e-mail notices of posts have stopped. Not sure why. Anyway, cabin restrictions were quoted by our booking agent but it may have been more about connecting than ES. Just wanted to update all that now that ES has "closed" for our trip, it looks to have been the way to go. Current cabin prices can be found within 40 of what we paid but no connecting remain. We got both the best price and the cabins we wanted. If your dates are fixed, I say ES is the way to go.

[agabbymama]

I would never knowingly book ES again. I booked a short 2 day cruise for myself and my granddaughter. I didn't even know what ES was, as I had not cruised Carnival since 1989 and never heard of it. The agent didn't explain it either. About a week after my booking it, my son-in-law took off, leaving a note. I had no way of getting a passport or letter of permission to take her out of the Country, so I cancelled the cruise. Imagine my surprise when told that the deposit was non-refundable. In my 7 other cruises, deposit were always refundable up until Final Payment Date.

 

Here on CC, I found out that the whole deposit was not lost, only $50 pp and the $150 pp would sit at Carnival for use on another cruise.

 

Again, I found another short "cruise to nowhere", went through all the forms needed and booked the cruise for a friend and myself. While the $150 is there, they will not accept that toward the deposit on the new cruise. So I pony up another $200 pp for the cruise. When the rep sent me the invoice, it said departure San Diego, arrival Vancouver. I called and stated that wasn't a cruise to nowhere if it ended in Vancouver. A cruise to nowhere starts and ends in the same port. The rep said, it was really a repositioning cruise, not a cruise to nowhere.

 

Long story short, I wrote to Carnival and received a refund of my money for the 2nd cruise. They do still have the original money I paid for the 1st cruise, and I will probably not ever use it, so indeed the $200 pp deposit is totally lost to me. I know I COULD use it, but I don't cruise just to cruise.

 

So while you may save some $$ ES isn't enough of a discount with all the restrictions FOR ME!

[cv322]

Heck yeah it's worth it :D! My Verandah deck balcony on the 4/12/12 Miracle cruise is up $420 since I booked it in August. And the 4/20/12 2nd leg of my B2B in the same cabin is up $20. Haven't check the Gem cruise in a while, since it's so far out.

[Gin60]

We leave in 7 days and booked with ES because it was my daughters wedding and she was not changing the date. We have $210 OBC since we booked and are excited to be leaving next Monday.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Heck yeah it's worth it :D! My Verandah deck balcony on the 4/12/12 Miracle cruise is up $420 since I booked it in August. And the 4/20/12 2nd leg of my B2B in the same cabin is up $20. Haven't check the Gem cruise in a while, since it's so far out.

 

I'm not following your thinking here.

 

You say heck yeah it's worth it but your prices went up and not down.

 

While you still have to deal with the restrictions but you haven't saved anything.:confused:

 

Bill

[mystone99]

I'm not following your thinking here.

 

You say heck yeah it's worth it but your prices went up and not down.

 

While you still have to deal with the restrictions but you haven't saved anything.:confused:

 

Bill

 

 

Since the early saver rates are lower than normal rates, he saved when he signed up for the cruise by locking in a cheaper price. Just didn't get any OBC because the rates didn't fall.

[moesyk4]

[quote name='agabbymama']I would never knowingly book ES again. I booked a short 2 day cruise for myself and my granddaughter. I didn't even know what ES was, as I had not cruised Carnival since 1989 and never heard of it. The agent didn't explain it either. About a week after my booking it, my son-in-law took off, leaving a note. I had no way of getting a passport or letter of permission to take her out of the Country, so I cancelled the cruise. Imagine my surprise when told that the deposit was non-refundable. In my 7 other cruises, deposit were always refundable up until Final Payment Date.

Here on CC, I found out that the whole deposit was not lost, only $50 pp and the $150 pp would sit at Carnival for use on another cruise.

Again, I found another short "cruise to nowhere", went through all the forms needed and booked the cruise for a friend and myself. While the $150 is there, they will not accept that toward the deposit on the new cruise. So I pony up another $200 pp for the cruise. When the rep sent me the invoice, it said departure San Diego, arrival Vancouver. I called and stated that wasn't a cruise to nowhere if it ended in Vancouver. A cruise to nowhere starts and ends in the same port. The rep said, it was really a repositioning cruise, not a cruise to nowhere.

Long story short, I wrote to Carnival and received a refund of my money for the 2nd cruise. They do still have the original money I paid for the 1st cruise, and I will probably not ever use it, so indeed the $200 pp deposit is totally lost to me. I know I COULD use it, but I don't cruise just to cruise.

So while you may save some $$ ES isn't enough of a discount with all the restrictions FOR ME![/quote]

No offense, but this seems to be a lot more of you not doing the research than a fault of the Early Saver. Carnival has it listed several times on their website what an Early Saver was and I can pretty much guarantee that the agent stated the deposit was "non refundable" as that's the main thing about an Early Saver rate. And seeing where a cruise started and ended is about the easiest thing to see.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

[quote name='moesyk4']No offense, but this seems to be a lot more of you not doing the research than a fault of the Early Saver. Carnival has it listed several times on their website what an Early Saver was and I can pretty much guarantee that the agent stated the deposit was "non refundable" as that's the main thing about an Early Saver rate. And seeing where a cruise started and ended is about the easiest thing to see.[/QUOTE]

how can you guarantee what the agent said? Do you have a tape of the conversation?

There are plenty of phone reps who don't even know the rules of the ES rate.

You're also a little hard on the poster about the cruise to nowhere. The OP isn't the first person who was confused about this cruise.

If I see a cruise to nowhere and it leaves from San Diego I'm not clicking on itinerary to see where it ends.

Put a little of the blame where it belongs and not 100% on the OP.

Bill

[Leeroy-Jenkins]

[quote name='queenteacher']For those of you who have purchased the Early Saver Rate, did you see that the risk was worth any additional savings?[/quote]

Yes.

[genegri]

For me, no.

I don't like being locked into a particular cruise. At least not more than half a year ahead.

[cv322]

[quote name='S.S.Oceanlover']I'm not following your thinking here.

You say heck yeah it's worth it but your prices went up and not down.

While you still have to deal with the restrictions but you haven't saved anything.:confused:

Bill[/quote]

You're misunderstanding post. I said I was happy because I booked my cabin, and am locked in, at $1978. The current asking price for the same cabin category is $2398. ;).

[S.S.Oceanlover]

[quote name='cv322']You're misunderstanding post. I said I was happy because I booked my cabin, and am locked in, at $1978. The current asking price for the same cabin category is $2398. ;).[/QUOTE]

Yes that's what I thought you meant but you would be locked in no matter what rate you booked at although as someone pointed out you did save some by booking the ES rate.

I was only out of bed about 10 minutes when I posted and the cobwebs hadnt cleared yet. I am just used to people saying heck yeah ES is worth it because I got $240 OBC.

I'll never learn not to post so early in my day.:p

Have a great cruise:)

Bill

[agabbymama]

[quote name='S.S.Oceanlover']how can you guarantee what the agent said? Do you have a tape of the conversation?

There are plenty of phone reps who don't even know the rules of the ES rate.

You're also a little hard on the poster about the cruise to nowhere. The OP isn't the first person who was confused about this cruise.

If I see a cruise to nowhere and it leaves from San Diego I'm not clicking on itinerary to see where it ends.

Put a little of the blame where it belongs and not 100% on the OP.

Bill[/quote]

Thank you for understanding.

I received a refund from Carnival, so I'm taking it they checked what was said and wasn't said to me. I KNOW I wasn't told about ES. Didn't even know that was what was booked until I cancelled it. And the itinerary on Carnival website stated: Departure San Diego; Ports visited San Diego. Again when I was talking to the rep I stated "short cruise to nowhere" just to use the credit. He did not state it was a repositioning cruise to Vancouver.

I'm not totally blaming Carnival, I do accept some responsibility. I should have asked more questions when I spoke to the rep.

My main point was to state ES was not worth it for me.

[cv322]

[quote name='S.S.Oceanlover']Yes that's what I thought you meant but you would be locked in no matter what rate you booked at although as someone pointed out you did save some by booking the ES rate.

[COLOR=Red]I was only out of bed about 10 minutes when I posted[/COLOR] and the cobwebs hadnt cleared yet. I am just used to people saying heck yeah ES is worth it because I got $240 OBC.

I'll never learn not to post so early in my day.:p

Have a great cruise:)

Bill[/quote]

Hahhahaaha...no problem! CC is often MY first stop in the morning also lol.

[osubuckeye5]

We are military, with my husband training to leave for a deployment; when we booked, we did not do the early saver. We didn't do es because he will be leaving shortly after our expected cruise, so we would be unable to go on a different cruise within a year if we had to cancel. Also, they don't cover "training" for a reason for canceling, is what we were told; only will accept official orders. This is my 2nd cruise and my husband's first, so a cruise credit would not be of much use for us. I think the es rate depends on your situation and other factors. :)

[S.S.Oceanlover]

[quote name='osubuckeye5']We are military, with my husband training to leave for a deployment; when we booked, we did not do the early saver. We didn't do es because he will be leaving shortly after our expected cruise, so we would be unable to go on a different cruise within a year if we had to cancel. Also, they don't cover "training" for a reason for canceling, is what we were told; only will accept official orders. This is my 2nd cruise and my husband's first, so a cruise credit would not be of much use for us. I think the es rate depends on your situation and other factors. :)[/QUOTE]

This probably won't help you but it is 2 years from the date you cancel to use the credit.

A big Thank you to your husband for his service.:)

Bill