New Carnival Promotion Provides Cash Back Of Up To $240 Per Stateroom

Carnival Cruise Lines is launching a new promotion offering “cash back” of up to $240 per stateroom for a wide range of “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 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.

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.

“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.

The new promotion is capacity controlled and applies to new individual bookings for stateroom categories 4A to 11. Guests must request fare code OCB when making the reservation.

For additional information and reservations on the “Fun Ship” vacation experience, visit www.CruiseCafe.com or call us at 1-800-788-2545.

Carnival Plans 'Drainpipe' Water Slide On Next Cruise Ship

Leave it to the "Fun Ship" folks at Carnival to come up with yet another way to fly down a water slide on a cruise ship.

Dubbed the DrainPipe, the company's latest watery innovation will be comprised of a 104-foot-long enclosed water slide that ends in a giant blue funnel that will swirl you around like you are going down a drain.

The DrainPipe will be one of a record four major water slides on the top deck of the 130,000-ton Carnival Dream -- the line's new ship debuting in September. It'll be in an area called WaterWorks, pictured above, that also will feature a four-deck-high, 303-foot-long enclosed corkscrew water slide –- the longest at sea –- and twin 80-foot-long racing slides. The area also will have squirting fountains, splash zones and dump buckets.

Carnival has been rolling out similar WaterWorks waterpark areas -- sans the Drainpipe -- on its eight Fantasy class ships over the past year during extensive drydocks to overhaul the ships.

As previously announced, the 3,646-passenger Dream also will boast cantilevered whirlpools that extend out over the ship’s beam, a larger spa than previous Carnival ships and other innovations for the line.

The Dream debuts on Sept. 21 with three 12-day Mediterranean cruises round-trip from Rome (Civitavecchia) before crossing the Atlantic to New York and the Caribbean.