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Though, without an AARP membership, you’ll miss out on our special stash of members-only rewards. Lines like Princess and Carnival are more lenient on when and where you can use the card, but it’s still smart to understand the rules about the cards before buying. Be sure to join my email list for my best cruise tips and handpicked deals each week. It works out at around 6% using that math, but it may be easier to buy the cards elsewhere and just get a discount.
Convenient Port Canaveral “Park & Cruise” Hotels
The cruise departs from St. Maarten and calls on the British Virgin Islands, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Guadeloupe and Martinique before ending in Barbados. On Seabourn's website, verandah suites for this itinerary started at $3,419 per person. So, the AARP price did offer a savings of $150 per person — plus the $100 onboard credit. 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.
How to save on cruises with AARP Travel
That’s a small price to pay for the ability to save up to 10% off your cruise. While the discount isn’t as big as with AARP or Verizon, it may be an easier option for you if you want to buy your gift cards in-store. She has worked in the cruise industry since 2015 and has taken over 30 cruises.
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Choose from discounted gift cards, local deals, sweepstakes, magazines, charitable contributions and more. In addition, AARP Rewards offers discounted gift cards for purchase for travel including cruise lines, hotels and airlines. You can also find discounts for restaurants, grocery stores, box stores, clothing stores and more. AARP Rewards is a program that lets you enjoy thousands of discounts, including 10% off $100 and $500 Carnival gift cards. You do need to pay to be a member and access the discounted gift cards, but membership costs around $12 a year. As long as you’re buying more than one $100 gift card, you’ll save money.
I remember feeling insulted when right before my 50th birthday I received an invitation by mail to join AARP. "I'm nowhere near retirement," I thought as I crumpled it, mumbled something about ageism and tossed it in the trash. This was years after AARP (pronounced A-A-R-P with the letters sounded out) officially changed its name to its acronym. It was founded in 1958 as the American Association of Retired Persons, but as leading-edge baby boomers began retiring in their 50s, AARP started to engage with them to encourage younger membership. Redeem AARP Rewards points by logging into your AARP online account. From there, you can view your points balance and browse rewards to redeem your points.
Are the Gift Cards Physical or Digital?
Offers include saving up to $100 per person on river cruises booked via Grand European Travel. These are aboard luxury river cruise ships in Europe operated by Uniworld, and the $100 discount per person is off prices comparable to those listed when booking directly with Uniworld. It’s easy to use your points to redeem rewards like sweepstakes entries, gift cards, magazines, and discounts on top brands and everyday essentials such as gas, groceries and more. If you apply a Carnival gift card to your Sail & Sign account and then don’t use all of the money by the end of your cruise, you’ll be refunded in the form of a new Carnival gift card. All Sail & Sign refunds are processed to the original payment method, so you won’t be issued cash or a bank credit – you’ll get a new gift card to use instead. Kroger is another store that offers Carnival gift cards, and while they aren’t discounted, you can save more money.
Allstate Rewards and Carnival Gift Cards – Defunct
Or if you have a cruise coming up and want to use the discount to save money, you can do that too. 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. Target sells Carnival gift cards, and provided you’re a Target Red member, you get the same 5% discount as you would on anything else purchased with the card. To access the cards, you need to log onto your Verizon Smart Rewards account on the Verizon website.
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Got an AARP card? You now can get a lucrative perk when booking a Holland America cruise - The Points Guy
Got an AARP card? You now can get a lucrative perk when booking a Holland America cruise.
Posted: Mon, 24 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
When I searched for Caribbean cruises during the period from Jan. 1 to April 30, 2024, the booking engine returned more than 800 options offered by 13 cruise lines. This Western Caribbean itinerary calls on Cozumel, Mexico; Roatan, Honduras; Costa Maya, Mexico; and Harvest Caye, Belize, with two sea days. AARP Rewards points can be redeemed for sweepstakes entries, gift cards, local deals and discounts to your favorite stores. You can also purchase discounted gift cards to top brands and save on everyday essentials, travel, dining and more. Members who sign up for AARP Rewards — which lets you earn points by taking knowledge-boosting quizzes or using fitness-tracking or money-crunching tools — can also purchase gift cards for five cruise lines at a 10% discount.
Do members get more with AARP Rewards?
One of the biggest groups of deals, however, is dedicated to discounted gift cards. There’s a way that you can purchase gift cards for Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Princess, and other cruise lines… all for a sharp 10% discount off their face value. This deal means you can save potentially hundreds of dollars off your next cruise. You can get discounted Carnival gift cards from select retailers and rewards programs. You pay a reduced rate for the gift card and can then apply that card to your Carnival account.
You do need to be age 50 or older to reap full benefits, but Americans ages 18 to 49 can also join AARP. Folks under 50 can receive most member benefits, aside from those restricted by law or contract, such as certain insurance products. AARP Rewards is a free loyalty program that rewards you for the things you do every day. Earn points when you take health quizzes, watch videos, play fun games and exercise.
Each cruise line seems to have different rules regarding usage. So if you were to purchase a cruise costing $2,500, you could buy five of these cards for $2,250, saving yourself $250 off the purchase. This blog helps over a million people to plan their cruises each month. This earns you 4 fuel points for every $1 spent – so a $500 gift card earns you 2,000 points. With similar pricing, it probably depends on whether the onboard credit is a better bonus than perks offered elsewhere. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine.
Applicable lines include Carnival Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, Holland America, Princess and Royal Caribbean. Of all those discounts, it’s the cruise gift cards that seem to offer some of the best deals. Given the cost of a cruise, that can save you potentially hundreds of dollars. Here, the group offers all sorts of deals from discounted magazine subscriptions to book deals to sweepstakes entries.
Now, she helps over 1 million people per month to plan their perfect cruise holidays. Just be aware that you can only use a maximum of nine Carnival gift cards at once. The best discounts you can expect to get on a Carnival Cruise Line gift card are 10%, with some retailers and schemes offering less – typically 5% or 6%.
Here you’ll be able to find $50 and $100 gift cards, which are physical gift cards – you’ll need to wait for them to be mailed to you once ordered. You might save the most money by booking a pre- or post-cruise hotel stay with one of AARP Travel Center's dozens of hotel partners, most of which offer a 10% discount off the best available nightly rate. The list includes Hilton, InterContinental, Radisson, Holiday Inn, Best Western, Embassy Suites, Wyndham, Waldorf Astoria, Conrad, Kimpton and Hotel Indigo. The cost of the four-day rail/hotel portion of Vacation by Rail's 12-day Glacier Express & the Majestic Rhine cruise-and-rail tour also seems to account for about half of the overall cost for one-third of the days. AARP members also have access to specific deals on river cruises offered by AARP-preferred travel providers.
Here's what I learned about how to save on cruises with AARP Travel. 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. You’ll find specials for gift cards entailing everything from restaurants to grocery stores. For instance, there are $25 gift cards to movie theater chain AMC for $23 — about 8% off the face value.
Some of these schemes cost money, but the amount you pay will be less than the value you can save on the gift card, so it still makes sense to sign up. But where do you get discount Carnival gift cards, and how do those discounts work? When you choose to apply (and are approved) for a new credit card through our site, we may receive compensation from our partners, and this may impact how or where these products appear. Please view our advertising policy and product review methodology for more information.
