Early Saver question

[TravelE]

Hi. I have cruised several times on Carnival but never booked early saver. Can I book ES and then price match it to my VIFP offer which is a lower price with onboard credit? Do I remain ES and stay eligible for future price reductions? Thank you.

[hockeyluver]

Yes, the only things affected are 1~ if you paid half price deposit, full deposit will be required 2~ if you originally booked and there was an offer of free OBC you will lose that. Yes you will stay ES and can continue to look for price drops.

[Dreamsrsweeter]

Typically unless you have a casino rate, you already will be on Early Saver. It sounds like you are like you are looking at a ViFP Early Saver rate which has the reduced deposit, 2 category Upgrade, and $50 onboard credit. This is a very normal offer and already has the price protection and there's no need to book something else and change to it to get the offer. Just remember, Early Saver deposits are nonrefundable.

[hookedoncruising99]

You can price match any offer that would be one you could get (regular advertised, VIFP, past guests, ect). As a matter of fact I was able to price match a cruise which I had booked 1 1/2 yrs ago with a 2 week exclusive "come back and cruise offer" sent to me a couple days after getting off a sailing. They even allowed me to keep my previous OBC from the original booking and get the reduced fare price with the 2 week offer for any future cruise. I didn't have to pay any deposit balance either. In the past I would almost always send in at least 1 if not several ES protection forms for every sailing. But over the past 1-2 yrs I've noticed it's become rare, I think it's because they aren't having trouble filling the ships up. There has even been a few times where my original booking had an OBC, the new offer had a lower fare and a OBC and I was able to get the lower fare but also keep both OBC.

[hookedoncruising99]

Typically unless you have a casino rate, you already will be on Early Saver. It sounds like you are like you are looking at a ViFP Early Saver rate which has the reduced deposit, 2 category Upgrade, and $50 onboard credit. This is a very normal offer and already has the price protection and there's no need to book something else and change to it to get the offer. Just remember, Early Saver deposits are nonrefundable.

 

You are right that the ES deposits are non-refundable, but there is a bit of a loophole to that. As long as you are able to sail eventually within 2 yrs, what you can do without losing all of your deposit is to simply "transfer to another sailing." Instead of cancelling your cruise and losing the deposit, call Carnival and state you want to switch sailings, it can be as much as 24 months into the future and can be any sailing (if it is a higher cost sailing, you'll of course have to pay the higher fare). You get charged $50 pp to switch sailings, but any deposit and/or fare you have already paid transfers. We have done this before based on a Carnival PVP's advice, and we have friends who have done it multiple times.