While you can’t buy shares in P&O Cruises directly, you can become a shareholder in the cruise line’s parent company, Carnival Corporation. Carnival Corporation owns a number of cruise lines around the world, including P&O Cruises both in the UK and in Australia.
If you own enough shares in Carnival, then you are entitled to claim P&O shareholder benefits every time you sail – and not just on your P&O cruise, but on any cruise you take with any of the lines owned by the Carnival group.
I cruise with P&O Cruises a lot, so for me, buying enough shares in Carnival Corporation to get free onboard credit was well worth it! Now, every time I cruise, I get free money to spend, which is a great feeling!
Let’s take a look at the benefits of owning stock in Carnival, and how you make sure you can claim them when you cruise with P&O Cruises.
What Benefits Do You Get With Carnival Shares?
The Carnival shareholder benefits are available to anyone sailing on a cruise line owned by the Carnival group, as long as you own 100 shares or more. You can’t buy specific P&O shares – only Carnival Group shares. If you do, then you can claim the following on your P&O UK cruise:
- £150 of onboard credit to spend per stateroom on cruises of 14 days or longer
- £60 of onboard credit to spend per stateroom on cruises of 7 to 13 days
- £40 of onboard credit to spend per stateroom on cruises of 6 days or fewer
It’s important to note that the benefit can only be claimed once per stateroom. If you and your partner were to invest in Carnival separately, and both own 100 shares each, then you couldn’t double up on the onboard credit.
Also, there are a few other caveats. If you’re employed by the cruise line, or one of your immediate relatives is, then you won’t be able to claim it. You can’t claim it if you’re also claiming another offer that gives you onboard credit for your cruise.
And there are certain things you aren’t able to spend this free amount on – like the casino. Giving away free gambling credit to shareholders would open up some sketchy legal issues.
That’s the downsides out of the way. The good news is that this isn’t a one-time offer. As long as you remain a shareholder of Carnival, you can claim this benefit every single time you book a P&O cruise, or any cruise with another sister cruise line.
So if you were to book a British cruise with Cunard or Princess Cruises, you’d get the same onboard credit added to your account.
If you book with one of the other cruise lines, the values change slightly depending on the currency on board.
For US-based cruises on Carnival, Holland America Line, Costa, Princess Cruises and Seabourn, you’ll get $250, $100 or $50 depending on how long the sailing is.
Cruises in Australia have the same value, just in Australian Dollars – AUS$250, $100 or $50.
And cruises on Costa or AIDA that use Euros get you €200, €75 or €40.
| Cruise Line | 14+ Days | 7-13 Days | Up to 6 Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| US-owned | $250 | $100 | $50 |
| UK-owned | £150 | £60 | £30 |
| Australian-owned | $250 | $100 | $50 |
| European-owned | €200 | €75 | €40 |
Since I mentioned the benefits of buying Carnival shares in my weekly email, I’ve had lots of people email me to say that they’ve also bought shares and are happy to receive the free onboard credit. Like this one…
“We took your advice and bought 100 Carnival shares which cost £550. Two Cunard trips gave us £250 each extra onboard spend and another gave us $200 (£175) total £675, also the shares have gone up £175. Best investment I’ve ever made, thankyou, keep up the good work.”
Robert and Veronica Dennehy
How To Buy Carnival Shares
To buy shares in any company, you’ll typically need to use a stockbroker. This can be either a human being or an online platform. There are various fees involved with this, but an online platform is usually the cheapest and easiest way.
I can’t advise you which is the best, but I personally chose to buy my Carnival shares through an investing platform called etoro. I chose this one because it is one of the most popular platforms with 20 million registered users and has great reviews and low fees.
I’ve been very happy with my share-buying experience and found it really easy to do.
(eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.)
Read more: Should You Invest In Carnival Corp?
How To Claim Carnival Shareholder Benefits On P&O Cruises
It’s important to know that the P&O shareholder benefits you receive for owning stocks in Carnival aren’t applied automatically. You need to claim them by contacting Carnival.
You need to make your claim at least four weeks before you are due to sail, but the sooner the better. And you’ll need to provide:
- Your legal name
- Your booking number
- Your ship and sailing date
- Proof of your stock ownership
You won’t be able to claim if you miss your deadline, so try to be organised to provide this information as early as possible. And you have to go through this process every time you book a cruise with P&O or any other cruise line in the group – so don’t forget on each new sailing.
Important – Whereas P&O Cruises used to let you claim the credit via fax and then later email, now it’s all handled via an app called Stockperks.
You’ll need to download the app to your smartphone, then verify the stock you own by taking a photo of the key details.
Here’s a video showing you how the Stockperks app works:
You can get all the details you need from the shareholder platform you use – so eToro for me.
I received my On Board Account Statement at the end of the sailing and I could see that the credit had been applied. It was seven nights, so I received £60 of onboard credit.
Here’s what that looked like…
To Conclude
Making the decision to become a stockholder in a cruise line is not something to take lightly. Any kind of stocks and shares investment is risky, and the value of your investment could drop. Just look at what happened to cruise line share prices during the shutdown to see an example.
However, if you do invest and buy 100 shares, you will enhance every subsequent cruise you sail on. You might want to spend your credit on shore excursions, or speciality dining on-board, or put it towards a drink package.
Just make sure you claim your credit – it’d be a shame to miss out on that free money you’re entitled to just because you didn’t get your details to the cruise line on time.
Related Posts
- Carnival Shareholder Benefits Explained
- Cunard Shareholder Benefits
