$50 cruises

[craigtompkins]

Over the past month or so I’ve noticed that carnival.com will show inside cabins for cruises departing in a week or less listed for $50.  These are 3-8 day cruises such as this one

 

 However if I try to book one it tells me it just sold out.  However it’s doing this for all sailings with a price of $50 and does so even if I check back hours later.

 

Does anyone have an idea of what is going on?  Is this something I need to call my PVP on if I want to book one?

TIA

[staceyglow]

I would.  At the minimum he/she should be able to explain this promotion to you.

[sammee]

I was able to get the January 3 sailing out of Charleston to work. Not booking it, but it worked.  No luck with the Miami sails. I've seen this happen in the past. They want to squeeze everybody in like a herd of cattle, lol.

[sfaaa]

I also have this last minute $50 offer for 4 day Mexican Riviera cruise in Jan & Fed 2023. Good deal but unfortunately, I can't go.

[Elaine5715]

These are "Pack and Go" offers that were common pre-shutdown.  Good way to fill cabins last minute since once the ship sails, the revenue is gone.  They sail out fast for the interiors so check the other categories for availability.  A PVP can tell you what is actually available. 

Edited December 31, 2022 by Elaine5715

[Joebucks]

2 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

These are "Pack and Go" offers that were common pre-shutdown.  Good way to fill cabins last minute since once the ship sails, the revenue is gone.  They sail out fast for the interiors so check the other categories for availability.  A PVP can tell you what is actually available. 

 

That $50 revenue doesn't come close to paying the cruise line's expenses. Otherwise, these deals would be available to the public. These are targeted offers. Perhaps to lapsed customers, big onboard spenders, who knows. 

[craigtompkins]

I’ve reached out to my PVP, but got auto reply that he’s out of the office for the weekend.

 

I’m definitely not a lapsed customer (did 2 cruises with Carnival in 2022) nor a big onboard spender as neither of us drink and we don’t do Carnival excursions.  My S&S bill is never over $200, it’s normally under $100.  It’s also not listed as a casino rate.

 

I like the offers and we’d like to take advantage of one in Jan/Feb.  I’ll post again when/if I hear back from my PVP or if I end up calling in.

 

Thanks for feedback.

[icft]

These days I don't know if the Carnival webmasters are incompetent or if Carnival is intentionally playing games.

 

A couple of weeks ago we wanted to take advantage of one of the casino offers we had. I went to the website, went to my offers and there it was. As usual, after I entered the number of guests etc. it took me to a page showing our various offers for that sailing (why can't they just stay with the offer you clicked on?) but the rate code we wanted didn't show, only the one identical but with less casino freeplay showed. I tried it from scratch several times, even logging out and back in, with the same results.

 

Just to see if it would work I started from scratch and picked that slightly less desirable offer from my list of offers. Again, after entering number of guests etc. it ended up sending me to that list of our offers for that sailing. But this time the offer I had been after from the beginning was listed and I was able to book it.

 

Usually I immediately get an order confirmation from Carnival. After not getting it for a couple of days I went to the casino web site and requested confirmation of the booking and offer terns and got confirmation from them. The booking does show on Carnival's manage cruise page, but after the booking hassle and not getting the email confirmation I had no faith that they actually used the correct rate code.

 

It isn't the first time they have made it difficult to book the better deals. So, are they incompetent or are they trying to push folks to the less desirable offers? I don't know.

[CajunOyster]

2 hours ago, Joebucks said:

 

That $50 revenue doesn't come close to paying the cruise line's expenses. Otherwise, these deals would be available to the public. These are targeted offers. Perhaps to lapsed customers, big onboard spenders, who knows. 

 

They ARE available to the public.  I see them and I know others that see them.  Like Elaine said, they are pack and go offers on last-minute notice.  I've actually seen them as low as $10 a few months ago.  And while you're right that the $50 doesn't pay expenses, an empty cabin doesn't spend money on drinks, food, excursions, fun shops, casinos, etc.  So yeah, they DO sometimes basically "give away" cabins in exchange for on-board spending.

 

[Elaine5715]

2 hours ago, Joebucks said:

 

That $50 revenue doesn't come close to paying the cruise line's expenses. Otherwise, these deals would be available to the public. These are targeted offers. Perhaps to lapsed customers, big onboard spenders, who knows. 

All offers are targeted.  "Pack and Go" good for people who can "Pack and Go"...locals, retirees, assumed retirees.  My sister gets a ton as a Tampa local.  Cruise lines make their money from onboard spend not cruise fares.  

[Illbcruzn4life]

4 hours ago, CajunOyster said:

 

They ARE available to the public.  I see them and I know others that see them.  Like Elaine said, they are pack and go offers on last-minute notice.  I've actually seen them as low as $10 a few months ago.  And while you're right that the $50 doesn't pay expenses, an empty cabin doesn't spend money on drinks, food, excursions, fun shops, casinos, etc.  So yeah, they DO sometimes basically "give away" cabins in exchange for on-board spending.

 

Not available to this general public. As soon as I saw this posted I went to check my pack and go deals and the cheapest one was for a 3 day Bahamas for $139.

[audcc77]

6 hours ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

Not available to this general public.

Me neither.  I checked my offers for Charleston and nothing for $50.

 

 I also checked incognito so that you can’t see my VIFP number. Again, nothing for $50.  

[mz-s]

Often there's only a handful of rooms available for these $50 rates. People will click on them and "reserve" a room in checkout but not end up booking. It shows as sold out for you, but if you check it a few minutes later you can book it.

 

You can also try calling Carnival or your TA/PVP, they may be able to see rooms that aren't showing on the web for whatever reason.

[Lisa3635]

Mine said it was a last minute casino offer.  I booked the celebration 1/15 for 50 pp with 100 obc. I’ve just noticed these the last month. They were always showing not available when I tried to book, but got lucky thurs night about 11 pm est. I already had southwest flights booked for that week and just wasn’t sure which cruise we were going to take so this worked out great.  My advice is keep checking and you might be able to snag one. 

[Joebucks]

12 hours ago, CajunOyster said:

 

They ARE available to the public.  I see them and I know others that see them.  Like Elaine said, they are pack and go offers on last-minute notice.  I've actually seen them as low as $10 a few months ago.  And while you're right that the $50 doesn't pay expenses, an empty cabin doesn't spend money on drinks, food, excursions, fun shops, casinos, etc.  So yeah, they DO sometimes basically "give away" cabins in exchange for on-board spending.

 

 

Can you show an example of this?

[CeleBrat]

13 hours ago, CajunOyster said:

 

They ARE available to the public.  I see them and I know others that see them.  Like Elaine said, they are pack and go offers on last-minute notice.  I've actually seen them as low as $10 a few months ago.  And while you're right that the $50 doesn't pay expenses, an empty cabin doesn't spend money on drinks, food, excursions, fun shops, casinos, etc.  So yeah, they DO sometimes basically "give away" cabins in exchange for on-board spending.

 

I have searched several times since you've posted this, and don't find anything that comes up for $50.  Clearly, they are only visible to select people.  The cheapest I've found is $134 for a 3-day BAJA from California.

 

???

[mz-s]

6 minutes ago, CeleBrat said:

 

I have searched several times since you've posted this, and don't find anything that comes up for $50.  Clearly, they are only visible to select people.  The cheapest I've found is $134 for a 3-day BAJA from California.

 

???

 

These are targeted offers, often to casino guests. Since they're giving away the room they want to make up revenue by giving the room to a gambler.

[Elaine5715]

2 hours ago, Joebucks said:

 

Can you show an example of this?

This was not logged in 

[resetjet]

Carnival’s website is a bit hard to use. Depends if you are logged in and or come in from an email link etc. especially if you have 2 users on the same computer(husband and wife ie.)

[CajunOyster]

2 hours ago, CeleBrat said:

 

I have searched several times since you've posted this, and don't find anything that comes up for $50.  Clearly, they are only visible to select people.  The cheapest I've found is $134 for a 3-day BAJA from California.

 

???

I literally posted this 16 hours before you "checked several times".  You do realize that these offers don't exist all the time, right?  I see them maybe once or twice a month.  "Clearly" you need to be more patient.

[CajunOyster]

3 hours ago, Joebucks said:

 

Can you show an example of this?

At the moment, no, because there aren't any out there.

[CajunOyster]

3 hours ago, Joebucks said:

 

Can you show an example of this?

At the moment, no, because there aren't any out there.

[craigtompkins]

My PVP replied to me that he had been out and would look into this "tomorrow" for me.  It's been 5 days and I have not heard from him again.

I still see offers at $50 but less than I was seeing before.  As soon as I click one of them I still get the message that it just sold out.  If I try to book a balcony cabin on any of these sailings with $50 inside offers, I still get the "just sold out" message.  There must be a coding issue on the back end.

[StephPS79]

On 12/31/2022 at 8:57 PM, CajunOyster said:

  I've actually seen them as low as $10 a few months ago.  

 

 

Ah, I remember those $10 offers!  I couldn't take advantage of any at time time, but I did book them out and they were correct.  Some nice cruises too.  That was fun to see.