Carnival Explains Cashless Cruising – But It Isn’t Required!
Carnival cruisers are very familiar with the Sail & Sign card, the personal card that serves as one’s room key, onboard identification, and personal charge card during the voyage.
Recent rumors have spread the word that Carnival Cruise Line will soon eliminate cash completely from its ships, but the cruise line’s official Brand Ambassador, John Heald, has repeatedly denied this accusation.
“No more cash!!! Why have you not informed anyone about this big shift John?” one commenter recently asked. “We prefer to pay the workers with cash if they provide top service. How are we supposed to do that now? What if we need to get change? Cashless is a game changer and not in a good way.”
It is true that some popular vacation and entertainment options, such as sporting events and amusement parks, have moved to a cashless operation. Depending on the venue, visitors might be able to use cash to pre-load a card for use, otherwise they must rely on a credit or debit card.
This is not the case aboard Carnival cruise ships, however. While guests are not permitted to use cash for individual transactions onboard, they can still set up their Sail & Sign card with cash on embarkation day.
“We have not made any changes,” Heald confirmed. “You can still use cash as a deposit for your Sail & Sign card. You can still use cash to tip our brilliant crew.”
While it might seem inconvenient to some guests to need to use cash for their onboard account, other travelers prefer it as a way to ensure a firm budget and avoid expensive surprises after they get home.
But how did Sail & Sign cards first begin, and why? Heald has offered some interesting insights from his decades of experience with Carnival Cruise Line.
Before Carnival Had Sail & Sign Cards
When Carnival Cruise Line first set sail in 1972 with the original Mardi Gras, cash was certainly king onboard. This system continued for many years, even into the early 1990s.
Heald noted that cash was required for every onboard purchase.
“I am old enough to remember working on board as a bar waiter and wine steward before the invention of the Sail and Sign card when everything was cash, I mean everything,” he said.
From cocktails and shore tours to bingo cards, souvenirs, bottles of wine, casino chips, and more, guests had to pay cash.
This created a lot of work for crew members from various departments, as all the cash had to be properly tallied and secured every day.
“Every night all the department heads would count the cash, bag it, and take it to the highly top-secret cash counting office (Deck 2 starboard side crew area with a sign on the door that said ‘accounting’),” Heald explained.
While the system did operate as efficiently as possible, Heald noted that it wasn’t perfect.
“Some people make ask why we stopped using cash on board. And I am here to admit that it was probably my fault,” he said.
“This comes from when I was a wine steward and when I was brought before the Carnival Head of Security – who we will call Joe Field because that was his name. This was before the days of CCTV, photos taken at embarkation etc.”
Of course, today’s Carnival guests are very familiar with so many photos and security precautions onboard, but decades ago, it was a bit easier to slip something past a younger, less experienced wine steward.
“The conversation went like this: Joe – Head of Security: ‘John Heald, you have taken $200 from passengers for bottles of wine and champagne, and it is all in fake $50 dollar bills. What did they look like?’” Heald reminisced.
Unfortunately, his answer might not have been what the security manager was hoping for, but it does explain why cash isn’t so widely circulated onboard today.
“John –Wine Steward ‘Ummm………..$50 bills,’” Heald recalled. “And that is why we have Sail & Sign today.”
Okay, so this may be another of Heald’s fun (FFS) stories, there is no doubt that counterfeit bills may have been a concern when cash was used so extensively onboard.
Read Also: Carnival Cruise Gratuities – How Much and Why?
Making correct change, securing payments properly, the time to count each day’s intake, and other factors were undoubtedly additional considerations and potential problems with a cash-based cruise ship.
The Sail & Sign card is certainly a more secure option, as well as more convenient for guests who no longer need to tote along fistfuls of cash for their onboard spending.
Yet to be clear once more – and hopefully put “PAID” on these rumors – Carnival cruise guests can still set up their onboard accounts with cash, no problems at all. Just make sure the bills are legitimate!
Carnival Explains Cashless Cruising – But It Isn’t Required!