New Casino Offer

[winddawn]

I haven't been impressed with the bounce back and other casino offers I've received from Carnival this year, so I haven't booked a Carnival cruise this year. I've only booked HAL casino offers because they've been much more worthwhile. The past few years I've received several Carnival free inside cabin casino offers and I've taken advantage of them. Today for the first time this year I received an email from Carnival's Player's Club for a free inside cabin and there were 21 ships/sail dates available in the email. I looked online at my Carnival VIFP offers and the offer did not show there, so I called the toll-free number provided in the email immediately to book and the cruise I had picked was already gone, but I was able to book the only alternative from the same port. I booked August Dream from NOLA for $122 in taxes/port.

 

What was different about this free casino cabin offer is that the offer did not show I could call my PVP to book, but only listed an 800 number to call and book. The booking confirmation I received in email shows the "Booked By" listed as "Carnival Player's Club." My previous casino offers allowed me to book through my PVP and I've never seen the player's club listed as the "booked by" in the past. One other difference I noticed is that even though I was given a cabin assignment on the phone, the rep told me my luggage tags and boarding pass will not be available until the week of sailing.

 

I'm left wondering if there is a new system in place for casino offers, especially for casino offers other than the premier offers (which I always seem to have available online) and which I can see online today. Maybe the freebies are being offered differently now??

 

Anyone else receive this offer today or noticed changes to the free casino cabin offers?

Edited April 26, 2018 by winddawn

[USNUZULOOSE]

I have sailed 3 times and I have no offers of anything lol

[Port of Tampa]

My carnival casino offers took a turn from great to not good. Doing one last Premier in May then sticking with my MLife land based offers they are great and still have ocean views (well Gulf views). Cheers and good luck. Maybe I should give HAL a try sometime.

[MBP1]

How much do you have to gamble to get these casino offers? I feel like you'd have to give the house a lot of $ to get a free cruise.

[bobandsherry]

How much do you have to gamble to get these casino offers? I feel like you'd have to give the house a lot of $ to get a free cruise.

I usually find those who get "free" cruise either say the don't gamble much or won't say. Just off a cruise with couple who were cruising with casino offer, told us they don't gamble that much. Each time we saw them in the casino they each were feeding another $100 into the machine. We also saw they both had over 6,000 points on their card by day 3 of the 8 day cruise, so draw your own conclusion.

 

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[winddawn]

I usually find those who get "free" cruise either say the don't gamble much or won't say. Just off a cruise with couple who were cruising with casino offer, told us they don't gamble that much. Each time we saw them in the casino they each were feeding another $100 into the machine. We also saw they both had over 6,000 points on their card by day 3 of the 8 day cruise, so draw your own conclusion.

 

Sent from my LG-H872 using Tapatalk

 

I'd like to personally invite you to start your own friendly thread here on the Carnival board. My thread doesn't have anything to do with how many points are required to receive casino offers.

[Djptcp]

I have had 4 bounce back offers in the past 8 months from one free cruise to two $50pp with $100 OBC, which I booked right away, and many Premier Casino cruise offers, one of which I booked today. I have never received an offer with a phone number and that doesn't appear in my VIFP offers. I usually accrue 4000-6000 points per cruise playing slots, depending upon the length of the cruise. Hard to know how the casino bases it bounce back offers - on one cruise recently, the last night I received an offer with 4000 points and a woman with almost 30,000 points received the same offer. She was not pleased. I used to receive wonderful casino offers from HAL which allowed me to book four deeply reduced Neptune Suites, but haven't received anything from HAL since 2016.

[missquito]

More than likely they have outsourced to call center, that is why you can’t call PVP.

[Cruzlover7]

Windawn, we had to book the Elite offer the same way. No phone calls just email to accept and then waited for a reply with a phone number to call within 24 hours. This was not showing In my DH’s VIFP offers. I have not received an offer to date like yours, but will report back if I do.

 

 

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[winddawn]

Thanks to everyone for the replies and information! I also received an email today from Carnival Player's Club announcing their new program, but no details were provided. I see someone already started a thread on that. I don't know if the offer I received from them yesterday is part of that or not. The link provided in the offer I received in email yesterday has an address with cclpromos in the url where I can click to see all the sailings available in the offer, and I've never been sent that before.

[winddawn]

Windawn, we had to book the Elite offer the same way. No phone calls just email to accept and then waited for a reply with a phone number to call within 24 hours. This was not showing In my DH’s VIFP offers. I have not received an offer to date like yours, but will report back if I do.

 

 

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I'm starting to see a trend. I received in snail mail today some printed material with the usual announcement of the latest premier cruises. In that, there was a statement about the fall ultra premier cruise offers "coming soon" and invitations "will only be sent by email." It's starting to sound like email casino offers will be the norm, other than the premier offers which are more plentiful and available to view online after logging into Carnival's website.

 

I don't plan to change my Carnival casino habits. I'll continue to spend my usual amount in the casino and if Carnival rewards me for that, I'll continue to book casino offers and spend my usual amount. If my casino offers become less generous, which has seemed to be a trend lately, I'll take my casino dollars elsewhere.

 

It will be interesting to see what Carnival has in mind going forward with their newly announced Player's Club changes.

[Bobrunner]

NCL has a much better casino program then Carnival. We are taking the Sunshine May 5 cruise to see if things have improved when playing in the casino. From comments below does not sound like it.

[emm126]

I actually received an email the end of March for a free balcony cruise which surprised me. I have rec'd BB offers last night of a cruise but never out of the blue before. I hope this is the new trend. I didn't take advantage of it as I had just got off the Pride the end of February (also rec'd a bb offer) and wasn't really ready to plan another vacation. Just looked at the offer and it gave a number to call and also stated to call your local travel agent. Which I always book thru. I did also see the offer on the carnival website,

 

I have been on RC and NCL as well and by far Carnival treats me the best, that is why I stick with them. I will be on NCL Bliss soon, so we shall see.

[emm126]

I usually find those who get "free" cruise either say the don't gamble much or won't say. Just off a cruise with couple who were cruising with casino offer, told us they don't gamble that much. Each time we saw them in the casino they each were feeding another $100 into the machine. We also saw they both had over 6,000 points on their card by day 3 of the 8 day cruise, so draw your own conclusion.

 

Sent from my LG-H872 using Tapatalk

 

I never tell anyone how much I gamble. The Casino knows, I know and my accountant. That's about it :) On one cruise I had a guy watch my every move, like oh last night did you walk away with the $300 you won on the howling moon slot machine or wow you got only 300 points today. It was kind of scary.

[luckybecky]

I'd like to personally invite you to start your own friendly thread here on the Carnival board. My thread doesn't have anything to do with how many points are required to receive casino offers.

 

Well, to be fair, Winddawn, this person's comment wasn't entirely off base. You mentioned several issues regarding casino offers in your post, including communicating by email/PVP/800 number, getting your cabin assignment but not luggage tags, and you asked if there is "a new system in place" and if "freebies are being offered differently." It is not too great a stretch to wonder how one might access this new system of freebies. Especially for someone who is new here as is the person you were replying to. Just sayin'. :)

 

The responses have been enlightening to me. We play regularly in the casino but have never received a "freebie" or any kind of casino offer that I can recall. We are sorta small fish. :o

 

Anyway thanks for posting the question because the answers have been informative to me. And congrats on scoring a great deal on the Dream!

 

Happy cruising!

[mistycruiser]

My husband and I both got the offer for free cabins. I got offered a free balcony plus $600 cash and he got offered a free inside. We were going to book one of them but we're also having a house built and so it limits which cruise to pick from due to the dates so we ended up passing. Darn.

[caribnsnrklr]

I haven't been impressed with the bounce back and other casino offers I've received from Carnival this year, so I haven't booked a Carnival cruise this year. I've only booked HAL casino offers because they've been much more worthwhile. The past few years I've received several Carnival free inside cabin casino offers and I've taken advantage of them. Today for the first time this year I received an email from Carnival's Player's Club for a free inside cabin and there were 21 ships/sail dates available in the email. I looked online at my Carnival VIFP offers and the offer did not show there, so I called the toll-free number provided in the email immediately to book and the cruise I had picked was already gone, but I was able to book the only alternative from the same port. I booked August Dream from NOLA for $122 in taxes/port.

 

What was different about this free casino cabin offer is that the offer did not show I could call my PVP to book, but only listed an 800 number to call and book. The booking confirmation I received in email shows the "Booked By" listed as "Carnival Player's Club." My previous casino offers allowed me to book through my PVP and I've never seen the player's club listed as the "booked by" in the past. One other difference I noticed is that even though I was given a cabin assignment on the phone, the rep told me my luggage tags and boarding pass will not be available until the week of sailing.

 

I'm left wondering if there is a new system in place for casino offers, especially for casino offers other than the premier offers (which I always seem to have available online) and which I can see online today. Maybe the freebies are being offered differently now??

 

Anyone else receive this offer today or noticed changes to the free casino cabin offers?

 

I have been wondering same things. I used to get great offers with "true " free rooms with just port fees & taxes. No more. It seems they give crappy bounce backs which say 200 total for room with 200 obc but not really. Only a few cruises actually have that offer attached to them. I called them about it when I was trying to use the offer towards my Horizon sailing and they upgraded room and gave me a little bit of money off but not free room like offer makes it sound like. I asked why and guy on phone actually said "well those offers you used to get like pack and play offers are no more because people that they were giving them to weren't generating enough revenue" so I said I always play and have more than 5000 points each cruise and I had noticed on last few cruises in 2016 they were giving free cruises to people that only had like 1500 points at the end of a 11 night cruise (huge line of people on Vista cruise to hand pick up offers). People with that little points aren't going to be in the casino much. Before that it used to be 5k points or more to get a free offer. SO I am thinking they shot themselves in the foot there and the dedicated players are paying for it lol. It's a shame because they were great offers and I am not happy with this new system so far. I haven't gotten any emails from with offers so hoping they are realizing they left a lot of us out in the cold. I did try NCL and Royal last fall because of this and am getting free room offers from them but almost Diamond with Carnival. So hopefully the casino offers get better or I will be spending less time in the casino on carnival and more time on other lines as well.

[Elustriah]

I booked on a casino deal and when I called because the price had went down slightly they transferred me to what they called the casino dept. For my pricing change. The regular PvP said she couldn't see casino rates

[drvmywifecrzy]

NCL has a much better casino program then Carnival. We are taking the Sunshine May 5 cruise to see if things have improved when playing in the casino. From comments below does not sound like it.

 

This is very true. CAS is great to work with

[sgttami]

I never tell anyone how much I gamble. The Casino knows, I know and my accountant. That's about it :) On one cruise I had a guy watch my every move, like oh last night did you walk away with the $300 you won on the howling moon slot machine or wow you got only 300 points today. It was kind of scary.

 

Same here. And I would never ask anyone how much THEY gamble.

 

LOL...Drives me crazy when people hawk my machine checking my points and credits.

 

I've seen people cover the area where the points are with the DOU card....not a bad idea.:D:D:D

[evandbob]

Just off the Glory premier casino rate yesterday. Cabin fare was maybe 5% discounted on a PC3 rate. Same rate was available online and through casino phone #.

 

Big change that I noticed was that the room rebate, which used to be in $100 bills, was now put on my casino account as "free play".

[Elaine5715]

Same here. And I would never ask anyone how much THEY gamble.

 

LOL...Drives me crazy when people hawk my machine checking my points and credits.

 

I've seen people cover the area where the points are with the DOU card....not a bad idea.:D:D:D

Just use the privacy setting on the machine

[evandbob]

Same here. And I would never ask anyone how much THEY gamble.

 

LOL...Drives me crazy when people hawk my machine checking my points and credits.

 

I've seen people cover the area where the points are with the DOU card....not a bad idea.:D:D:D

 

 

Or they may want to alert the bar staff that they have the card and want to order?

[sgttami]

Or they may want to alert the bar staff that they have the card and want to order?

 

 

No, they told me they were hiding their points...LOL:D:D

 

Never thought of using the Privacy Setting!

[spiritkat090909]

My husband and I each have a $500/day per person budget. Sometimes we get offers, sometimes we don't. So THERE ya go!

 

FWIW... do not like the new casino program. Our current offers are $700 cash back and $200 cash back on Premier sailing. So... we booked MSC this year. The Yacht Club looks rather nice...and grilled lobster/steak daily on buffet in YC area. I hear good things about their casino offers, but you never know til you try.

 

The only thing that kept us on Carnival this long was those casino offers from Galveston. My favorite casino & program was actually on Celebrity, but we spent our vacay time on Carnival, lost status, and now they say it has changed. Oh well.

 

The money we 'save' on the cruise is spent in the casino. We don't chair hog AT THE POOL. ;)