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Using gift cards to pay balance

dltvermont

By dltvermont,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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dltvermont

dltvermont

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4 minutes ago, FLCruise7 said:

It works very well - just select to make payment & when the options come up, you'll see "credit card" and "gift card" choices.  I've done this many times.  Can also use them to prepay gratuities.

 

Perfect, thank you so much!

 

 

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Nevada Jen

Nevada Jen

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Yep.  Totally works.  Buy enough for gratuities and cheers and any excursions you might want.  You can use them to pay anything pre-cruise very easily.  There are enough codes in the allstate thread to easily get $5000 worth.  Its a little bit more of a PITA to use them once you get on the cruise but no reason not to use them for prepaid stuff.  Just have them delivered to an address someone will be at to sign for them and whatever that address is, you will need it for fun shops purchases (cheers, bottomless bubbles etc. . .)

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Galatz

Galatz

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Keep proof of payment with the gift card too. I put a gift card balance on my OBC at the terminal once, and then they billed my entire account to my Credit Crad. When I called to ask why it didnt hit my gift card, they said there was no record of that transaction. I sent them the receipt and they fixed it, otherwise I would not have been able to use it.

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n6uqqq

n6uqqq

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2 minutes ago, Galatz said:

Keep proof of payment with the gift card too. I put a gift card balance on my OBC at the terminal once, and then they billed my entire account to my Credit Crad. When I called to ask why it didnt hit my gift card, they said there was no record of that transaction. I sent them the receipt and they fixed it, otherwise I would not have been able to use it.

You are 100 percent right. I applied a  500 dollar card at the terminal which was not credited properly. Had to go back and get it redone. Get a receipt at the cruise terminal and or guest services and hang onto it!

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n6uqqq

n6uqqq

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1 hour ago, CCRUZER said:

Sorry if this has been asked and answered. But, if I have gift cards that I want to use for onboard credit, can I do it on line pre cruise or should I wait and do it onboard at guest services?

You cannot directly apply gift cards online prior to cruise. This is too 21st century for Carnival apparently. They allow you to set up sail and sign account with credit card but gift cards are a no go. You can take your gift cards and buy cruise cash prior to cruise online, but then you are converting your money to non refundable use it or lose it credit and the limit is 500 dollars per room for general cruise cash.

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Joe817

Joe817

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1 hour ago, CCRUZER said:

Sorry if this has been asked and answered. But, if I have gift cards that I want to use for onboard credit, can I do it on line pre cruise or should I wait and do it onboard at guest services?

As soon as we boarded the Dream last July, I went straight to Guest Services to load 2, $100 gift cards to our Sail & Sign Account as soon as you board, and I mean immediately, there will not be a line and you can handle it pretty quickly. And then you can start enjoying the cruise! That's what I did and it worked out great for us. 

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PrincessArlena'sDad "Live from...." Rare

PrincessArlena'sDad

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1 hour ago, CCRUZER said:

Sorry if this has been asked and answered. But, if I have gift cards that I want to use for onboard credit, can I do it on line pre cruise or should I wait and do it onboard at guest services?

 

24 minutes ago, n6uqqq said:

You cannot directly apply gift cards online prior to cruise. This is too 21st century for Carnival apparently. They allow you to set up sail and sign account with credit card but gift cards are a no go. You can take your gift cards and buy cruise cash prior to cruise online, but then you are converting your money to non refundable use it or lose it credit and the limit is 500 dollars per room for general cruise cash.

 

You can also use the gift cards to pay for gratuities in advance, which would not count towards the $500.

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Joe817

Joe817

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39 minutes ago, Ellaleah said:

I am really confused about why you wouldn’t just load it with Carnival or your TA before the cruise?  Is there any benefit for waiting till you are onboard?

That's a good question worth asking. For us, I didn't trust myself with doing it online. I know it's easy, but that's just me. I took the gift cards straight to G.S. and let them handle it. No waiting line at all. Besides, I was able to get 2 drink coupons free, because I let it be known it was my birthday the next day. And in addition to all of that, when we booked our cruise through our big box online TA, we got $150 OBC, that was waiting for us when we boarded. With that said, YMMV. 

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Galatz

Galatz

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12 hours ago, CCRUZER said:

Sorry if this has been asked and answered. But, if I have gift cards that I want to use for onboard credit, can I do it on line pre cruise or should I wait and do it onboard at guest services?

 

18 hours ago, Galatz said:

Keep proof of payment with the gift card too. I put a gift card balance on my OBC at the terminal once, and then they billed my entire account to my Credit Crad. When I called to ask why it didnt hit my gift card, they said there was no record of that transaction. I sent them the receipt and they fixed it, otherwise I would not have been able to use it.

 

Take a look at what I suggested here. You can definitely apply it at the port while waiting to board or once you get on the ship, but keep the receipt! 

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PrincessArlena'sDad "Live from...." Rare

PrincessArlena'sDad

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11 hours ago, Ellaleah said:

I am really confused about why you wouldn’t just load it with Carnival or your TA before the cruise?  Is there any benefit for waiting till you are onboard?

You can't load it directly to your on board account. You can only use them to buy non refundable cruise cash. Which is fine, if you're 100% sure you'll use it. 

 

If you use the gift cards to fund your account at the port, or on board, and don't use it all, it'll be refunded to you via gift card. 

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CCRUZER

CCRUZER

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12 hours ago, Joe817 said:

As soon as we boarded the Dream last July, I went straight to Guest Services to load 2, $100 gift cards to our Sail & Sign Account as soon as you board, and I mean immediately, there will not be a line and you can handle it pretty quickly. And then you can start enjoying the cruise! That's what I did and it worked out great for us. 

Thanks to all for your valuable info. I think I'll go the route of Joe817 and load it to our S&S as soon as we get on board.

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dltvermont

dltvermont

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On 12/17/2019 at 12:38 PM, Sugar67 said:

where do you buy these gift cards please?

 

 

I was given a ton of info on a social media group about using Allstate Rewards. I signed up (not an Allstate customer), got up to 50k points in 4 days using promo codes and was able to buy various gift card denominations at a 10% discount which I will use for my payoff as soon as they arrive and the leftover put on my account when I board.

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edbro

edbro

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On 12/18/2019 at 8:55 AM, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

If you use the gift cards to fund your account at the port, or on board, and don't use it all, it'll be refunded to you via gift card. 

If you move that money to the casino then I believe you can cash out later for real money. 

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