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.
Benefit of owning shares – free money!
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
Buying your 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?
Claiming benefits is easy
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.
NEW DEALS JUST RELEASED!
Don’t miss the latest P&O Cruises offers…
Related posts
- Carnival Shareholder Benefits Explained
- Cunard Shareholder Benefits
- What’s Included in a P&O Cruise?
Jenni Fielding is the founder of Cruise Mummy. She has worked in the cruise industry since 2015 and has taken over 30 cruises. Now, she helps over 1 million people per month to plan their perfect cruise holidays.
Hi,
How did you get your eToro stocks registered with Stockperks I’ve tried and have been told they do not recognise etoro shares? Any help would be great.
Hi Shaun. I had no issue myself so sorry to hear you’ve been struggling with it. I just downloaded the statement with proof of purchase from etoro and sent it to Stockperks. Worth asking them again I think. Jenni
Hi Jenni,
I’ve tried agin with same results now in email contact where they seem to confirm it won’t work with eToro on the app? (Obviously not the case for all) Now trying via my email contact with them to get it sorted, I’ll post an update in case anyone else is having difficulties.
Hi,
Does the cruise have to be booked direct with the cruise line i.e. P&O Cruises to get the benefit, or can you book the cruise through a travel agent and still claim the benefit through Carnival?
Thank you
Hi. You can book either direct or with a travel agent, it makes no difference. Jenni
Hi Jenni, if I book a P&O cruise and pay for 3 staterooms do I get shareholder benefits for each stateroom?
No, you can only get it once per shareholder. Someone in each stateroom would need to hold shares to be able to put in three claims. Jenni
Hi, my question is if you already have onboard spend included in your cruise as an offer, will the shareholders benefit still be applied? I saw a note in the terms which state can’t claim in conjunction with any other offer.
So for example, I recently booked a cruise in November with an offer of £550 on board spend, can I still claim the £150? Is the on board spend of £550 classed as an offer?
I haven’t bought any shares yet, but considering it as this will be our 2nd P&O cruise this year and only found out about it from someone I was talking to on our last cruise.
Thanks, Chris
Hi Jenni
I am interested in buying the 100 CCL shares through e toro. I don’t want to buy any other shares and have a portfolio. What fees are applied for buying just one set of shares or do you need to be buying and selling shares on a regular basis to use this platform.
Thanks Judy
Hi Judy. I didn’t have to pay any fees when I bought mine and I don’t use it regularly, I just bought the shares and they sit in there. I check on them time to time with the app to see the value but that’s all I do. Jenni
hi, never bought shares before, so looking a etoro and seeing the ccl shares, how do I know what price a share is – uk
Hi Jenni,
Am planning my first cruise with P&O this June. Still waiting for some last minute offers but I did purchase 100 Carnival shares based on your advice.
I know you mentioned it but is it mandatory to send the details before 4 weeks?
I might need to purchase the tickets and sort it early next week which gives me about 4 weeks before the cruise.
Thank you for your advice.
Hi Paul. It takes a few weeks for them to process it so I would try to do it as soon as possible. 4 weeks should be fine, sometimes it’s a little quicker. Jenni
Hi Jenni
We are looking at buying shares from Carnival so we can claim the on board credit with P&O but if we pay the Select price they give you on board spend would we still be able to use the £150.00 as a shareholder? alongside this
Yes, you will get both lots of onboard credit on your account. Jenni
Hi Jenny, we are considering purchasing carnival shares, currently we get onboard spend as my husband is a forces veteran. Will this any onboard spend we would receive as shareholders
Many thanks
Hi Susan. You should get both lots of onboard credit. Jenni
Hi could you tell me do you get share holders OBC if you book early saver price?
Regards
Aaron
Yes you do.
Hi Jenni I’m trying to buy 100 shares from etoro, I’ve deposited funds but can’t work out how to buy the shares, can you help please
Pauline
Hi Pauline. The ones you want are Carnival – CCL. In the etoro app or on the website, search for CCL and then click ‘Invest’ to buy the shares. I hope this helps. They also have a Live Chat if you’re stuck. Jenni
Hi Jenni, my question is carnival showing a CCL and CCL.L and confused about which one to use to buy stock? Can you advise please?
Thank you
You can use either. One is US and one is UK but it doesn’t matter which you pick for the purposes of your onboard credit.
Hi
I’ve just purchased on etoro but having an issue with finding the evidence of ownership that I need to claim these benefits, could you point me in the right direction please
Hi Shaun. In Etoro, click on ‘Settings’, then ‘Account’ and then ‘Account Statement’. Click on ‘Account Activity’ and you’ll see your purchase. Save this as a PDF file and you can send it to Carnival. That’s what I did and it was accepted. I hope that helps. Jenni