Cruise Carnival, Get Paid? Carnival Cruise Lines Now Offers Cash Back!

Carnival Cruise Lines announced a few days ago a new promotion offering "cash back" of up to $240 per stateroom for a wide range of the line's "Fun Ship" departures this summer.


The new promotion is available in conjunction with virtually all three- to eight-day summer departures, including voyages to the Caribbean, Bahamas and Mexico from fourteen (yes, 14!) convenient North American homeports. Bookings must be made between March 9 - May 10, 2009, to qualify for the promotion, which is valid with the line's "Fun Select" advance purchase discount fares.


The cash back option is provided in the form of a shipboard credit that can be redeemed once on board. Guests will receive a $100 per stateroom shipboard credit on three- and four-day cruises; $150 per stateroom shipboard credit on five-day voyages; and $240 per stateroom shipboard credit for six-, seven- and eight-day sailings. $240 is quite a bit of money to spend, so this is a great deal!


The shipboard credit is automatically applied on guests' Sail & Sign accounts when they board their cruise and can be redeemed toward shore excursions, spa treatments, supper club reservations, gift shop items and a variety of other shipboard purchases. Any unused funds at the end of the cruise will be returned to guests on debarkation day in the form of a check. And that's the greatest part about this promotion, because usually shipboard credit is not refundable, so if you don't spend it, you lose it.


"A 'Fun Ship' cruise is already an affordable vacation option for today's value-conscious consumers and this new promotion - which provides guests with cash back that can be used toward any shipboard purchase -- makes the value of a Carnival cruise even more outstanding," said Lynn Torrent, Carnival's senior vice president of sales and guest services. I heartily agree!


The new promotion is capacity controlled and applies to new individual bookings for stateroom categories 4A to 11. To book, give me a call today at (630) 868-6719 or
(877) 823-8597, and you'll be on your way to getting some bucks back from Carnival!

Carnival Pulls out of Europe; Who's Next?

Carnival Cruise Lines just announced that the Carnival Liberty, which was scheduled to begin sailing in Europe for the summer of 2009, will remain in the Caribbean instead, doing 7-night sailings out of Miami. The decision was based upon the economy and high airfares to Europe, and Carnival execs state that their customers would prefer to sail out of domestic ports which are close to home.

This unfortunately is not surprising news, as we are beginning to see cruise lines shortening or removing cruise options to far-away ports, such as Australia (see a previous blog post regarding Celebrity pulling out of Australia) and now, Europe. I believe that while it is true that many Americans would prefer to save on airfare by cruising from a domestic port, pulling ships out of Europe, especially on the contemporary lines, is a mistake. With the U.S. Dollar so weak right now, it makes more economic sense for Americans to visit Europe by paying for their vacations in advance in U.S. Dollars, and we all know what a great value a cruise vacation is compared to a land-based vacation. Taking away an opportunity for someone here who always sails on contemporary lines, such as Carnival, to cruise to Europe, is really sad. Now those of us who are on tight budgets but who still would like to travel to Europe will have one less opportunity to do so.

I know our economy is struggling right now, but people still need to take vacations for their peace of mind and mental health. The cruise industry has weathered the storm pretty well so far, but I pray that the entire cruise market does not change as a result with hardly any ships visiting exotic and far-away ports of call, because that has always been one of the best parts of a cruise vacation; visiting beautiful and wonderful places that are far away, and having to unpack only once!