What I have done in the past, is a "little fishing." What I do is call Carnival and tell them what deck I am interested in and see if they have a room available in the balcony, window, or inner, of what I want at that time. (Of course they do not know that I have already booked my cruise.)I will then ask if they are giving an over 55 discount. Before they just happened to be doing that when I called, as I contacted my TA about it, and that was "another story." My TA told me at the time we booked that they were NOT giving any over 55 discounts at that time, which I'm sure was true. To make the long story short, she did come through, although it took a "nice" email from me to the owner of the company, explaining what had happen, and she did come through. More than likely she didn't like loosing some of her commission.
Islandcruz, since I am NEW to some of this area, you just mentioned (Neil had done as well)something about the "rate code?" To tell you the truth, I have no clue what you two are referring to when you talk about the "rate code", or where to look for it???
You need to look at the end price. Sometimes a better price can be found because they are selling group space rather than individual bookings. Sometimes there is a special arrangement for a particular agent or agency for a specific cruise or group of cruises. Carnival is not supposed to be routinely offering lower prices than those offered by the typical agent for the same cruise, given their policy of a couple years ago in which they said they were "leveling the playing field" and for X cruise the same price would be offered by anyone selling it.
Originally posted by brneyes:
Islandcruz, since I am NEW to some of this area, you just mentioned (Neil had done as well)something about the "rate code?" To tell you the truth, I have no clue what you two are referring to when you talk about the "rate code", or where to look for it???
Hi brneyes, Well it confuses me sometimes. Neil would prolly be better at explaining it, but I will try..and then he can correct me if I am wrong. Which I love, because I learn something each time.
There are different booking and promotional codes that cruise agents use. Some examples of the codes are; Best Fare Cabin Assigned, Best Fare Guaranteed Category, Super Saver, One Day Sale, Past Guest, Resident, Senior, Military etc.
When one books a cruise a code is used for what type of pricing and promotion they are booking under. It depends on the sailing date and the promotion offered for that sailing. And those rates can go up or down within the rate code.
All cruises don't have all the rate codes available. In your case you are looking for a Senior Rate to be added.
Also, some of the rate categories offer upgrades, some do not. So it can get complicated switching between them. You might get a lower rate for an original booking, but you might not get the upgrade if you change the rate code.
As far as the Senior rates, you really have to search for them as they are not as common. Unfortunately they are not listed on the CCL site. Most of the other Promotions are listed.
Click here and look to the right where it says View All Select a promotion. Then select Military or Past Guest as an example. Read the fine print at the bottom of either and you will find a "fare code" that has to be used to get that promotion pricing. No need to worry about the codes themselves, just tell whoever you book with which promotion you are looking at. Hope this helped a little with this confusing topic for most of us.
Dwayne, that was an excelent post and there is nothing I could add to make it clearer.
brneyes, the port charges, taxes and grats are on all cruises and all cruiselines regardless of promotion and will not vary on a particular sailing regardless of category (well, with one exception (Some lines have higher grats for suites to pay the concierge and/or butler). There are some places that you can with a single click, check on rate code promos and avoid all the calls and trying to get at whether they're available or added to a sailing. I however, have a vested interest in one such site so cannot elaborate.
It can be frustrating trying to identify when rate codes change that would be beneficial to you. Then finding out if they will allow such changes. They could easily program it where it was easier but that would ultimately result in a lot more clients getting their rates lowered after booking. That is not now and I doubt ever will be a high priority for the cruiselines to give back money, credits and other amenities as things change. Good luck with the process and it does often pay to do some checking.
You need to look at the end price. Sometimes a better price can be found because they are selling group space rather than individual bookings. Sometimes there is a special arrangement for a particular agent or agency for a specific cruise or group of cruises. Carnival is not supposed to be routinely offering lower prices than those offered by the typical agent for the same cruise, given their policy of a couple years ago in which they said they were "leveling the playing field" and for X cruise the same price would be offered by anyone selling it.
when i callethem direct they seen i cruised before, and got 10% off , which was cheaper than the travel agent price just 10 months ago , to the same place ?
Hi Dwayne, thank you for that information, that I "did not" know about. I did pick out the "past guest" information to look at. I went to the bottom of the page, and if I read it right , I believe the ship we are to take (Liberty) is covered with an "past guest upgrade." I noticed it mentioned something about 4A, but I have no clue what that meant, unless you mean that is the "code?"
As I said earlier, we have not paid the balance off, but is due next month. If I read this information right, should I mentioned something to my TA that it said if we book before December 31st, we should get an upgrade?
As you can tell.....this is all "Greek" to me.
Oh it just dawned on me, the TA did say we were to get a "past guest" credit of $30 or $50, I believe. Would that make a difference in this situation? Actually I would prefer having an "upgrade", than the $30 credit.
What I do is call Carnival and tell them what deck I am interested in and see if they have a room available in the balcony, window, or inner, of what I want at that time. (Of course they do not know that I have already booked my cruise.)I will then ask if they are giving an over 55 discount. Before they just happened to be doing that when I called, as I contacted my TA about it, and that was "another story." 
My TA told me at the time we booked that they were NOT giving any over 55 discounts at that time, which I'm sure was true. To make the long story short, she did come through, although it took a "nice" email from me to the owner of the company, explaining what had happen, and she did come through. More than likely she didn't like loosing some of her commission.
, I believe the ship we are to take (Liberty) is covered with an "past guest upgrade." I noticed it mentioned something about 4A, but I have no clue what that meant, unless you mean that is the "code?"
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