Barclays recently announced a new Carnival Rewards Mastercard promising “a brand-new rewards program,” “enhanced benefits,” “highly competitive everyday earning categories,” and the ability to “unlock higher loyalty status levels faster simply by using the card.”
Does the new card live up to the press release hype, and should cruisers prioritize this new credit card?
The Good
The new Carnival Rewards Mastercard offers a 50,000 Carnival Rewards points welcome bonus after you spend $1000 in the first 90 days after card approval. My understanding is that points can be worth one cent per point and used for cruise fares (including deposits), onboard purchases (including Wi-Fi), excursions, and more, so this welcome bonus may be worth $500.
All spending on the credit card also earns one Status Qualifying Star per $1 spent. There’s also no annual fee, no foreign transaction fees, a 0% intro APR on “Carnival cruise bookings” for six months, and travel protections including trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance, baggage delay insurance, and an auto collision damage waiver. See terms for details.
Earn an anniversary bonus of 2,500 Carnival Rewards points each anniversary year “after spending $2000 on purchases” (each year?), but this is only worth about $25. Oddly, this isn’t featured on the official card benefits page, but is listed in the press release.
The Not So Good
Earn up to 6x points on Carnival purchases: “3x points from your card, plus up to 3x points from Carnival Rewards.” The Carnival Rewards 3x is earned even without this credit card, so it’s really only 3x coming from credit card spending on Carnival purchases. 3x points, only usable with Carnival, aren’t very competitive compared with other credit cards that bonus travel spending, including cruises. The US Bank Altitude Connect card gives 4% cashback, better than 3x Carnival points. The Chase Ink Preferred gives 3x Ultimate Rewards points on eligible travel spending. It goes on.
Earn 2x points at “eligible restaurants and grocery stores” (are there ineligible restaurants?) with the Carnival Rewards Mastercard. 2x isn’t competitive compared to many credit cards that offer 4x or more on dining and groceries. Many cards also give 2% cashback on all spending, and that’s not points tied to Carnival Rewards. However, 2x earning plus progress toward status can be somewhat interesting.
Earn 1x points on spending outside Carnival, restaurants, and grocery stores. This isn’t competitive either, but you also get progress towards status.
The Carnival Rewards Mastercard is also issued by Barclays, and other Barclays cards are likely more rewarding, especially Wyndham credit cards, which can be valuable for hotel stays, benefits, and the ability to transfer to Caesars Rewards Reward Credits (comps).
Barclays also released a Samsung Galaxy Card offering a $200 welcome bonus and 3% cashback on Samsung Wallet purchases. JetBlue Barclays cards may also be compelling to some. It’s best to prioritize signups of higher-value Barclays cards because they can be strict with approvals, and Carnival likely falls near the bottom of the list.
High spending is needed for meaningful status, and it’s probably not worth it
You can earn progress toward status in addition to “up to 6x,” 2x, and 1x earnings. $10,000 of spending on the credit card (or slightly less given other spending, especially in the casino) gets Gold status, which gives paltry benefits including a “gold member sail and sign card,” one comp beverage on a 5+ day cruise, and “one complimentary 1.5L bottle of water.”
Water is free on the ship, and you can bring an empty, refillable bottle onboard. A comp beverage isn’t worth much to me, but it may be worth a few dollars to you. A sign and sail card…maybe some aesthetic value?
Platinum status is more rewarding, but that would require about $50,000 of credit card spending! Status can be earned in a two-year status-earning window, currently September 1st of 2026 through December 31st, 2028, so this would be about $25,000 in credit card spending per year.
Carnival Platinum status also grants comp wash and fold, one to four bags depending on the “duration of sailing” (maybe a few dollars in value?). Platinum status also gives embarkation priority lines where available, early bag drop-off, and debarkation priority (water shuttle boarding and leaving the ship on the final day). Platinum members also get other benefits like priority dining times and two comp drinks, but these are underwhelming.
America Still Loves Math
Earn Carnival Diamond status with $100,000 (or slightly less) in credit card spending in the two-year status-earning window. Diamond status gets “access to a dedicated casino host,” 2-5 bags of laundry washed and folded, “member-only offers,” onboard events, and more. I still don’t find this very appealing to justify such high credit card spending, especially at only 1x and 2x.
Spending even $25,000 in a year on the Carnival Rewards Mastercard comes with significant opportunity cost. Low spenders would likely be better off getting multiple cards with multiple high welcome bonuses. High spenders would likely focus on signup bonuses with higher spend requirements and bonus categories on other cards earning better than 2x. Even high spenders earning only 2% cashback should value that more than 2x Carnival points.
Those pursuing status would likely get more value from casino, airline, and hotel status than from Carnival status.
Who is this card really for, then?
Casual credit card users who sail with Carnival at least somewhat often may like this card for its 50,000-point welcome bonus, but beyond that, it has little appeal compared to other cards offering more flexible rewards with value above one cent per point, cashback, and higher welcome offers.
This card may appeal to gamblers if charges to your room connected to the Carnival Rewards Mastercard count for 3x rewards, but again, 3x on cruises isn’t special compared to other cards offering the same 3x or more.
The final verdict
This card is a pass for me and likely many others. The signup bonus is decent for Carnival cruisers, but even frequent Carnival cruisers can do better with other cards. If Carnival enhanced the value of status, offered more rewarding earning categories, and lowered the spending needed for status, I could value this credit card more.
If a different bank issued this card, I’d be more interested. The new Carnival Rewards Mastercard…maybe 3 or 4 stars out of ten. While the answer to everything is usually more credit cards, this card probably isn’t one.
As always, use credit intelligently and gamble responsibly.
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