Key Aspects:
- A new VIFP loyalty gift is coming soon across the Carnival fleet, and it might be a collapsible water bottle.
- Photos of the new gift were shared by a guest onboard Carnival Celebration this week and confirmed by multiple other guests onboard the Excel-class ship.
- This may be the last loyalty gift ever offered, as the logo gifts are not listed in the upcoming Carnival Rewards program.
One of the soon-to-be-ending perks of Carnival Cruise Line’s loyalty program is exclusive VIFP gifts on every cruise. For several months, the current gift has been a set of three packing cubes, but that gift is now running out and a replacement is in the works.
The cruise line’s brand ambassador, John Heald, confirmed that a new gift is coming soon.
“There is a new gift coming very, very soon and I think this will be another popular one,” he said. “Stay tuned!”
Guests may not have to stay tuned for very long, however, as multiple recent guests aboard Carnival Celebration shared what they got this week: a collapsible water bottle.
Carnival Celebration is homeported from Miami, offering 7-night Eastern Caribbean and Western Caribbean itineraries. The ship’s current sailing, which departed South Florida on Sunday, October 5, is a western route with visits to Celebration Key, Cozumel, and Roatan.
These are certainly warmer destinations where having water handy would be useful, and the new gift appears to be a very useful one indeed.
The dark blue bottles have a stainless steel cap and a red metal carabiner for easy attachment to a bag or belt loop, making them very portable. The bottle material appears to be silicone and the neck is expandable/collapsible, which is a useful feature for saving space as the water is drunk.
The bottles appear to have a koozie-like wrap on the main body, with Carnival’s iconic whale tail logo and VIFP Club printed on it.
The capacity is unknown, but these appear to be similar to a small, individual water bottle, perhaps 12-16 ounces.
With the VIFP loyalty program ending on May 31, 2026 as the new Carnival Rewards program begins, it is possible these water bottles may be the very last gift offered to loyal cruisers.
While the new program will still give a “member collectible pin” to guests who reach the Platinum and Diamond reward levels, branded gifts will no longer be one of the perks. The program is still being refined and full details have not yet been released, however, so future gifts may still be under consideration.
Not All Guests Like All Gifts
Several of Carnival’s VIFP gifts have been controversial over the years. Items that appear to be flimsy and inexpensive, such as the slap-koozie and the foam visor, have generated a lot of derision from Platinum and Diamond guests.
For some guests, style preferences play into whether or not a gift is loved or hated. In October 2024, a baseball cap gift got very mixed reactions with some guests loving it, but guests who don’t wear caps were less than impressed.
Other items, such as the valet bag (my personal favorite!), tote bags, and the current packing cubes, are almost universally enjoyed and appreciated.
Read Also: Which Cruise Lines Match Loyalty Programs?
Almost, but not quite. Heald recently had one guest criticize the packing cubes, not because they didn’t like them, but because they simply had too many.
“I met a guest today who wanted to swap her Platinum packing cubes for dinner at the Steakhouse because she has three sets,” Heald noted during his brief visit to Carnival Sunrise. “I didn’t give her the steakhouse and she isn’t happy with me.”
At current pricing, an adult dinner at the Fahrenheit 555 steakhouse aboard Carnival Sunrise (located midship, portside, on Deck 4) would be $52. While the packing cubes are a nice gift, they certainly aren’t valued at $52. On Amazon, sets of 4-8 cubes can easily be found under $20.
More From Cruise Hive
Under the current loyalty program, guests cannot swap gifts or choose other perks more to their liking. It is possible the Carnival Rewards program might offer such flexibility in the future.
What guests can do is simply not pick up gifts they don’t like or don’t want more of, or they can give the items away to other cruisers instead. One guest shares that they’ve donated extra packing cubes to a local homeless shelter, where the items are very welcome.
