Cruise gift cards: What you need to know before buying

Table Of Content

• I’m Not Over 50 Years Old. Does That Mean I Can’t Get the Discount?
• Carnival Ship Rescues 27 People Adrift at Sea in the Caribbean
• Princess Cruises and Fincantieri Announce to Postpone Delivery of Star Princess
• Everything About Buying Discount Cruise Gift Cards via AARP (Carnival, Royal Caribbean, & More)
• The 1-item upgrade you need for a better cruise ship cabin experience (it’s already in your house)
• How to Use Carnival Cruise Line Gift Cards
• Are the Gift Cards Physical or Digital?

Here, the group offers all sorts of deals from discounted magazine subscriptions to book deals to sweepstakes entries. One of the biggest groups of deals, however, is dedicated to discounted gift cards. All gift cards are in U.S. dollars and not accepted on ships using a different onboard currency. You can transfer the gift card to another user since there are no names on the cards. You can use Princess gift cards to pay for your cruise, including fares with the Princess Plus and Princess Premier all-inclusive packages. It must be noted that Carnival Cruise Line gift cards are not valid on sailings that use non-United States currency onboard.

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I’m Not Over 50 Years Old. Does That Mean I Can’t Get the Discount?

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With no strings attached, hoops to jump through, or other headaches, you can essentially get 10% off the cost of your cruise by buying these gift certificates and then using them to pay for the trip. So a $2,000 cruise becomes $1,800 just with buying the cards through AARP. We’ll admit that it was a little confusing on how to find the discounted cruise gift cards at first. When creating a new account like we did, we suggest that once you register, go ahead and sign out, then close your browser. When we signed up, it seemed to not recognize our new account at first. If you have already booked your cruise but haven’t yet paid the fare in full, you can still apply gift cards to the remaining balance.

Carnival Ship Rescues 27 People Adrift at Sea in the Caribbean

Each cruise line seems to have different rules regarding usage. Princess will protect travel agent commissions on all bookings that have been paid in full. MONFALCONE, Italy, (April 19, 2024) – Princess Cruises and ship builder Fincantieri today announced the mutual decision to postpone the delivery of the next Sphere Class ship, Star Princess. Must be a merchandizing thing, putting the restaurant, department stores and such at the top of the racks.

Princess Cruises and Fincantieri Announce to Postpone Delivery of Star Princess

You can purchase up to $2,000 in gift certificates for someone that they can use towards the purchase of a cruise or onboard credit toward the spa, gift shop, bar, specialty restaurants and more. Shipping for traditional plastic gift cards can be slow and expensive. For example, Norwegian estimates that cards can take up to 14 business days when mailed. Expedited is $15.95 with 6 day shipping, which is pricey if purchasing a $25 gift card. Royal Caribbean's standard delivery costs $2.50 and is estimated to take 7-10 business days.

Cruises departing from Australia, then, cannot use gift cards. If you aren’t sure about the currency used on your cruise, you can contact your travel agent or Carnival Cruise Line to ask. Like most gift cards from major retailers, the cards are not redeemable for cash, and are not refundable or replaceable if they are lost, stolen or damaged.

A Disney Cruise Line gift card can be purchased online at Disney's website for a value up to $500. There's the option to select a physical card or send an eGift card via email. Like other gift cards, the cruise cards don’t have anyone’s name attached. So if you want to buy them as a gift for someone, you can do that.

Royal Caribbean

Unfortunately, Norwegian Cruise Line suspended their gift card program effective end of day on December 31, 2021. If you plan to cruise one of the lines offering the cards, we see no reason not to take advantage. These certificates can be purchased online if you know the recipient's reservation information, or you can call Celebrity's Store Customer Support team to place an order. Gift cards are activated upon receipt, and they cannot be resold. In addition, buyers cannot purchase an aggregate amount exceeding $10,000 in one day.

How to Use Carnival Cruise Line Gift Cards

Unless someone has generously given you a gift card to cover the cost of an entire cruise, you need to know how to use Carnival Cruise Line gift cards to enjoy the gift the next time you set sail. If you are headed on an expensive cruise, it may be that you have to purchase over multiple months to get all the gift cards you need. While AARP is known for being an interest group for older Americans, anyone can join, no matter their age. We were personally able to sign up for a membership and then access all the gift cards with no issue despite being under 50 years old.

Are the Gift Cards Physical or Digital?

Celebrity Cruises has an online store where you can purchase onboard credit to celebrate someone's birthday, honeymoon, anniversary or other memorable occasion while on their cruise. The pre-purchase window for certain products and activities closes between one and three days prior to the sail date. If you missed the purchase window, check with us once you're on board — we'll help you find what you’re looking for. Not all of the stores listed such as Lowe's, Kroger, always carry them. When we went on our February cruise, I tried all of those stores listed and none of them carried the Carnival cards. Every time I see a display of cards, I always check to see if they have Carnival cards and I've yet to find them in a store.

The only thing left I can think to check would be Target and Walmart, possibly Kohls. There might be a store very near to me that has them, but having already gone to 5 stores in order to find them takes the "not that hard to find" portion of you're statement out of it. Their loyalty card “ The Target REDcard” (a debit card) provides an automatic 5% discount on any purchase at Target, including gift cards. There are also Black Friday deals with Sam’s Club, with reductions as high as 10% off Disney gift cards.

You can purchase a physical card that's mailed and even have it wrapped and delivered in a tin for an additional $1.99 (for up to five cards). If you prefer, you can choose an e-gift card that's sent to the recipient online. Everything you need to know about Carnival Cruise Line Gift Cards. Where to find the cruise gift cards and how to use them on your next Carnival cruise vacation.

Classic Gift Cards cannot be mailed to Canada, so Canadian residents should choose the eGift Card option. The line offers one or two sales a year that feature an added perk, such as a $100 bonus card with a $1,000 purchase. More details on both Sphere Class ships can be found at /sunprincess. I just saw them for the first time (that I noticed) at Stop & Shop.

Celebrity and Royal Caribbean have the most limitations on what gift cards can be used for. Government fees, taxes, onboard gratuities, games of chance (casino) cannot be paid using gift cards. Gift cards for Princess Cruises are only redeemable for purchases onboard Princess' ships or applied as payment to a Princess booking. For instance, Royal Caribbean only allows you to use the card for a new reservation. And you have to book the cruise, pay a deposit, and then email in a copy of the gift certificate to apply to your remaining balance. Each gift card will come with restrictions on how many are able to be purchased at once.