Table Of Content
Please view our advertising policy and product review methodology for more information. The VIFP loyalty program doesn’t offer a ton of benefits until reaching Platinum status, which is reached only after 75 nights of sailing. For instance, even Red status members receive a complimentary bottle of water in the cabin that would otherwise be a charge. When it comes to perks, Carnival's loyalty program isn't as robust as the programs at some rival lines.
How many Carnival FunPoints do you need for a free cruise?
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Alcohol-free drinks in plastic and glass bottles aren't allowed. Activities here are less structured, and participants can come and go as they please. There's also a hot tub at Loft 19 on Deck 19, which charges a fee for access. Looking to find a group of like-minded travelers on your sailing? Check out meetups for solo travelers, singles, veterans and members of the LGBTQ+ community listed in the daily program.
Earning FunPoints
Take a few long sailings of 20 or 30 days, and you'll be well on your way. Elites also get unlimited free drinks from the Captain's Club menu each day except embarkation day between 5 p.m. This isn't quite the perk it used to be, though, since a basic drinks package now comes with all bookings as part of the line's new Always Included fare structure. Say you have 20 nights sailed, giving you Red status in the VIFP Club, but you are embarking on a seven-night cruise.
Carnival Players Club
The Bolt roller coaster, a minigolf course and a basketball court are also found in the SportSquare area within the Ultimate Playground zone. Both serve the same menu for dinner, but only the larger Pacific Restaurant is open for Sea Day Brunch on sea days and breakfast (but not lunch) on port days. Fully accessible rooms are stair-free, flat-threshold cabins, which offer wider (32-inch) doorways, turning space and bathrooms equipped with grab bars and shower seats. I arrived 15 minutes early for a magic show at the Punchliner Comedy Club, and I couldn't find a single available seat in the entire place. On another night, I showed up on time for Family Feud Live in the ship's theater, and it was a standing-room-only situation.
Carnival Jubilee itineraries and pricing
This provides the same email benefits as Blue, plus a complimentary 1.5 liter bottle of water on the ship. At the Two Star level, customers get all the above plus a 5% discount on shore excursions and beverage packages (again, the latter discount does not apply to the line's All-Inclusive Fares). They also get a $50 per person onboard credit for every cruise they take. While convoluted, this system actually works to your advantage, as you have two ways to reach higher tier levels.
With increased cruise days come increased benefits, and this is where things start getting good. You can access your account information and profile once you’ve signed up for an account. You can also find out what benefits you’ll get based on how much you’ve cruised. The Carnival VIFP Club loyalty program also is one where it is relatively easy to reach a high-level tier.
The suggested attire for women on such nights is cocktail dresses, pantsuits, elegant skirts and blouses. Passengers who wish to avoid dressing up can enjoy dinner in any of the casual eateries aboard. During the evenings, the official dress code is pretty laid-back. Most nights are designated "cruise casual," which means just that — khakis or jeans, polo shirts, sundresses and the like. Super casual items such as cutoff jeans, men's sleeveless shirts, T-shirts and gym shorts are supposedly not permitted, but I saw plenty of them in the dining rooms during dinnertime on Carnival Jubilee.
Dining and Beverages
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Carnival adds an 18% service charge to your bill whenever you order a drink at a bar or pay for a meal at an extra-charge restaurant. In addition, the extra-fee Night Owls group babysitting (from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.) welcomes junior cruisers as young as 6 months. Parents can use these services to get a break or a night out away from their toddlers and tykes. Carnival puts special emphasis on live music, and you can often find a solo artist or small ensemble performing in the atrium, casino, bar areas or by the pool.
Cabins and suites
The Platinum tier also brings matching status in the loyalty program of Royal Caribbean's sister line, Celebrity Cruises. Passengers link credit cards to their onboard accounts or put up a set amount of cash to charge against, using their keycards as a means of making purchases. The only time you might want to have some bills handy is for tipping your room steward, bartenders, room service delivery people, luggage porters or shore excursion guides. Excel Suites, Carnival Jubilee's highest-level accommodations, receive all standard suite perks plus additional ones. At the top Four Star tier level of the Yacht Club program, passengers get free laundry service and free Wi-Fi on every sailing, both valuable perks.
(But please, shake the crumbs out first.) Some crew members are more talented dancers than others, but everyone loves to join in the fun. However, if you lean toward a more plant-based lifestyle, you can still indulge in burgers topped with onions and mushrooms from the toppings bar. Carnival cabin walls are magnetic, so bring magnetic clips and hooks to keep baseball hats, lightweight jackets and shore excursion tickets off the desk and couch and neatly hung on the walls. A couple of evenings will be deemed Cruise Elegant, but you don't need a tux.
You'll also find Carnival ships in such secondary cruise ship ports as Baltimore; Charleston, South Carolina; Mobile, Alabama; and Jacksonville, Florida. Carnival is one of the world's biggest cruise lines by passenger capacity, with 25 ships that together offer nearly 80,000 berths. The self-described "fun ship" line is the king of short, affordable, fun-focused cruises from U.S. ports to the Caribbean, Bahamas, Mexico and other nearby destinations.
Unlike some lines, Carnival has resisted the trend of big-ship operators carving out whole sections of deck-top areas for the exclusive use of passengers staying in suites or willing to pay hefty access fees. Meanwhile, for passengers hoping for quiet time away from the kids, many Carnival ships also have an adults-only Serenity retreat area on their top decks with padded loungers, daybeds, hot tubs and often a bar. Guy's Pig & Anchor Smokehouse Brewhouse, notably, has its very own in-house brewery you can see behind glass walls — something still relatively rare on cruise ships. It makes house beers including Parched Pig West Coast IPA and Parched Pig Toasted Amber which you'll find on many Carnival vessels in kegs and cans. Carnival is the only cruise line to keg and can its own beer. BlueIguana is a Chipotle-style restaurant, with yummy made-to-order burritos and tacos.
Some purchases — future cruise deposits, cash advances and casino charges — are excluded from the onboard purchase bonus. All other onboard purchases count — even the hotel service charges, beverage service charges and taxes that show up on final bills. Holland America's Mariner Society points-earning system is also a relatively simple one.
If you're looking for a voyage to the Caribbean, Bahamas, Bermuda or the west coast of Mexico, you'll find an unparalleled array of choices from Carnival. Easily convert your FunPoints to dollars when redeemed for cruises, flights, hotel stays, and more using our Carnival FunPoints Value Calculator. FunPoints are worth either 1 cent or 1.5 cents per point based on the net cost of your Carnival purchase. Note that three of the line's newest ships — Mardi Gras, Carnival Celebration and Carnival Venezia — do not have launderettes. Carnival fans are quite peeved about this, and you should be, too.
