Specials for repeat customers?

[dude_hdt]

My family just did a last minute booking for a sailing date 21 days out. This is our 2nd Carnival cruise in 2 years. I recall reading before about some special things Carnival does for repeat customers but the "search" feature on this board is not very good at finding that topic so I'll ask the question here.

What do 2nd timers get? Does it change as your number of repeat sailings gets higher?

thanks,

[Floridanamaw]

I think all you get is an invitation to a past guest party. Free drinks and finger food. I had an invitation in my cabin our last cruise, which was our second. I really don't think there is much offered until you hit your 10th cruise, then you get VIP check-in and a few other perks. We have #3 booked and I "might" get an upgrade on the cabin, but that's not sure thing. Enjoy your cruise.

[cruzaddict]

You may not consider this as a special, but I enjoyed it very much...

because your sail & sign card is gold on your 2nd cruise instead of blue/red on the 1st, I got a lot of "thank you"s when using the card. "Thank you for sailing with us again", "Thank you for choosing Carnival again", "Thank you for coming back", etc etc. I felt they went out of their way to appreciate our loyalty

past guest party as mentioned before

and ship pins (maybe you get these on first cruise too, but we didn't)

[skymaster]

Yep, the previous posters have pretty well summed it up. The past guest party, and a gold sign-n-sail card is about all. But wait until you get to #10. That's when the FUN starts. Lots and lots of really good perks. You won't believe the difference. It's well worth the wait.

Ken
"Sky"

[ferrangi]

You mean I'm going to be a "gold" member now??
That's wonderful..... oh yeah, they didn't do the past guest party for my friend last year, I think because it was only a four day cruise.... does that sound right?

But hey, I'm going to enjoy every "thank you" every "free" drink etc the carnival can give me, this go around.... 7 wonderful glorious days.... ahhhh, can't wait.

[skymaster]

Originally Posted by ferrangi

You mean I'm going to be a "gold" member now??
That's wonderful..... oh yeah, they didn't do the past guest party for my friend last year, I think because it was only a four day cruise.... does that sound right?

But hey, I'm going to enjoy every "thank you" every "free" drink etc the carnival can give me, this go around.... 7 wonderful glorious days.... ahhhh, can't wait.

YES /ferrengi,,,,,you're GOLDEN! Congratulations!!

Ken
"Sky"

[CajunCruiser]

All the previous replies are correct....the past guest "party" which includes drinks, finger foods just like the Captain's Party, but the past guest party also shows the history of the carnival fleet/movie/film type thing...very interesting, but it is offered on 5 day or longer cruises.

[debbyedoops]

did you ask your travel agent for a past passenger discount?
That is a big plus. I had never sail Carnival, but had sailed her sister company Princess therefore all in my cabin receivedthe past passenger
discount, it was about $ 150-200 each (ior more)

That's a perk to me! I rather have that than a free drink or finger sandwiches.

debbyedoops

[SharHite]

Past passenger discount is not available on all sailings, but make sure the person booking your cruise knows if you are a past passenger on Carnival or one of the sibling lines like Princess, HAL, Cunard, Costa, etc.)

The gold card was nice, but the platinum card was great. On my last cruise, I was in a long line at the checkout in the gift shop. I had already pulled my card out while I was waiting. One of the guys from the gift shop saw it and walked me over to the jewelry shop where there was no line. A couple of others started to follow, but he told them that it was a courtesy only for VIP guests. Don't know if I'd get that same kind of courtesy on other sailings or not...

[skymaster]

Originally Posted by SharHite

Past passenger discount is not available on all sailings, but make sure the person booking your cruise knows if you are a past passenger on Carnival or one of the sibling lines like Princess, HAL, Cunard, Costa, etc.)

The gold card was nice, but the platinum card was great. On my last cruise, I was in a long line at the checkout in the gift shop. I had already pulled my card out while I was waiting. One of the guys from the gift shop saw it and walked me over to the jewelry shop where there was no line. A couple of others started to follow, but he told them that it was a courtesy only for VIP guests. Don't know if I'd get that same kind of courtesy on other sailings or not...

YEP, that's the kind of courtesy I'm talking about. We ALWAYS get that treatment aboard Carnival ships, and yes, I'm Platinum aboard Princess, RCI, Celebrity, and some of the others, but never get the same respect that we receive from Carnival. That's one of the reasons we've been sailing Carnival almost exclusively, lately.

Ken
"Sky"

[misguidedangel]

I've got #5, 6, and 7 bookeed (booked #7 last week) and didn't get any upgrade. I didn't book any on an upgrade sale, so too bad so sad for me--not that I am complaining!!!!!!

You get a gold card and that makes you that much more special!!!

[dude_hdt]

How many cruises until you can get Platinum, is it 10?

By the way, thanks for the answers above.

[SharHite]

Originally Posted by dude_hdt

How many cruises until you can get Platinum, is it 10?

You will be Platinum when you sail your 10th Carnival cruise.

[upsman1986]

Just booked 4th on Carnival ,also a shareholder, checked previous posts, may be correct or not ,but we booked oceanveiw Riviera and got bumped up to oceanveiw Lido. Part of the upgrade is booking very early and being previous cruisers.

[REDZONE]

My next cruise will be our platinum cruise. We are so excited we made it back to back.

[Deakon]

We just got a past guest flyer in the mail for 3-5 days cruises. Frankly, the deals they were offering weren't that great--nothing we couldn't find online anyway.

We get treated very well by Carnival when we're on board but I wish they would offer us better discounts to come back. You pretty much get an extra $1000 from me over the course of the cruise anyway--Just make it easier for me to get on board in the first place.

[katlady]

Shoot the Carnival site is down. Okay what you want to do is get your past guest number and put on your reservation that shows you as a past guest so you recieve your past guest party invite.

Also the discount people are talking about is on Past Guest Reunion Cruises. If you log in with your past guest number then the site lists on the past guest reunion cruises. If you book any of these your rate will be lower. I tested it in Travelocity I pretended to book a past guest reunion cruise without being a past guest and the rate was higher I think it was about $200 per person on a 7 day cruise. Because the site is down now I don't know for sure if this link will work. I hope it does just be sure you are logged in. http://www.carnival.com/CMS/static_t...n_cruises.aspx

[dottiel]

Along with the gold card and the invite to the Past Guest party we were given pins (one for each of us) when we sailed the second time with Carnival.

[lollipop78]

When I booked my second time recently the carnival lady asked me if I had sailed with them before. I said yes and gave her the date. She said since I had they were going to upgrade me. I was upgraded one floor. It could have just been a special going on but she made it seem like it was because I had sailed with them before.

[BobMiller]

We have booked our last few cruises directly through Carnival and on the last 3 out of 4 cruises we were given upgrades within the class we booked. Usually we buy in for a Balcony guarantee price (where Carnival assigns you whatever cabin is left) and then they let us pick our cabin on any deck up to the deck below the Lido. One of our cruises was during the busy season (while school was out in the summer). We were able to still pick our cabin for the price of the guarantee but were not upgraded to a higher deck.

We didn’t get past guest pins on our last cruise (Fascination). The purser’s desk said they had been discontinued. I don’t know if that is just on the shorter cruises that don’t have the past guest party or if that is true of all Carnival cruses now? Has anyone received a past guest pin in the last couple of months?

[ragtiki2005]

Bob, I received my pin on the March 30, 2008 sailing on the Destiny. Bob

[DeepSpace]

We recieved our pin on the Liberty 2 years ago, and an upgrade.

GOOD TIMES.

[huffca]

Originally Posted by ferrangi

You mean I'm going to be a "gold" member now??
That's wonderful..... oh yeah, they didn't do the past guest party for my friend last year, I think because it was only a four day cruise.... does that sound right?

But hey, I'm going to enjoy every "thank you" every "free" drink etc the carnival can give me, this go around.... 7 wonderful glorious days.... ahhhh, can't wait.

My friend just want to advise you to get to the parties with freebies early... don't want to miss a single drink. :-)

[Chacooe]

I am new to crusing, so I have to ask this, is being higher on the ship better, I have a cabin on the Pride and the deck I am on is the Veranda, is that a good deck to be on. I am in the middle of the ship. This cabin was assigned to me from the gty cabin selection.

[dottiel]

You will feel the least movement in the middle of the ship.

I think you're in fine position!

ENJOY your cruise and welcome to a new addiction!!!!

[spencercoop]

You also get a past guest discount. On most cruises, but not all. I have got a past guest discount on Mexico and Caribbean cruises but not Alaska.

[BobMiller]

Originally Posted by Chacooe

I am new to crusing, so I have to ask this, is being higher on the ship better, I have a cabin on the Pride and the deck I am on is the Veranda, is that a good deck to be on. I am in the middle of the ship. This cabin was assigned to me from the gty cabin selection.

I have not seen any personal advantage to having a cabin on a higher deck.

The Veranda deck does allow quick access to the Lido deck so a quick run to grab some ice cream or coffee becomes easier. Some people like it because it is closer to “the action”. My preference is to get a cabin with cabins above and below to reduce the noise from public areas. My wife likes a balcony cabin as close to the water as she can get. Overall cabin location has very rarely affected how much we enjoyed the cruise.

Once we were on the Veranda deck just below where a metal set of stair attached to the deck above us so we could hear the people on the stairs, plus the crew stacked and slid the deck chairs under those stairs at night. Even that was just a minor annoyance. If we had been late night partiers we probably would have noticed that.

[mehawk]

As repeat customers, there are some, and I repeat, SOME discounts on certain cruises in regards to the fare.