Independant booking or TA?

[cobaltbluechaser]

Hey cruisecrazies, i know lots of questions coming out of this one man. Heres another one: Do most of you book your cruises independantly through a company or website; or do you use a travel agent? I've been looking on websites, expedia, priceline.....ect...and all the prices seems the same...royalcaribbean.com is the cheapest so far. The main thing is I wanted to see what all of you do....suggestions please

chase

[JoeyandDavid]

Chase Great Question

we book ourself.. we like to adopt a "take charge" attitude when planning vacations, while others prefer to use the expedites of the internet to book and then others prefer a TA who specializes in customer service.

It really all depends on what your comfort level is..

Bottom line you get to go on a cruise :grin:

joey

[mercedes]

I agree with Joey, I always booked my own cruises.

[SCIROCCO]

Hello Chase! :wink:

Yes I book myself as well so I can deal directly with the Cruiselines and also I book my Hotels myself as well! :wink: Yes RCCL is cheaper but it depends on where your cruising to! :wink: Just personal preference as all of us have! :grin: Glad to have you here and posting enjoy whatever you decide to do! Best regards! :wink:

[elfed]

Hello Chase,

After a few bookings through agencies we decided we would book through the cruise lines themselves. You usually get a more "in depth" service and better hours of operation. (Here travel agencies close at 5 p. m. and are not open on weekends.) Also in our experience, cruise documents arrive earlier which makes your cruise feel even closer! Yes you may save a couple of hundred dollars through an agency but having had a few problems in the past with them, we will stick with the cruise lines.

Regards,

James.

[KeithnRita]

Chase, we have booked on line, booked direct with cruise lines, and booked with travel agents. They all worked fine, however we now only book with our travel agent. She is very good and gets us price reductions, and on our last cruise, got us a upgrade. We found a keeper so we don't plan on tossing her back!

[schatje]

Booked several ways but have decided to go with a trusted TA...our own John G

[sailingrose]

I've used an agent for years. I've had great ones and awful ones. I have started booking my own cruises with RCI since it's so easy and I like control of our reservation. It's not for everyone.

It depends on how much work you want to do. On RCI if the price drops they will give you the difference if you catch it. You can check on their website and then you just call them. A good travel agent will find those price drops for you and make sure you get credited with them. If you use an agent you have to go thru the agent for everything, RCI will not talk to you about your booking.

As far as price, RCI has universal pricing, no one can offer you a better deal except RCI. Agents usually sweeten the pot with some extras like free cruise insurance.

If you go with an agent make sure they will honor price drops!

Also buy cruise insurance through a 3rd party, not the cruiseline.

Good Luck!

[Gregswife]

If you buy thru priceline, expedia, orbitz, etc, you have to pay the full amount then, whereas if you deal with the cruise line directly or a travel agent, you pay a deposit ($250 per person on 7 night cruises) and then have until 75 days before sailing to pay the remainder. We have always dealt with an agency, Cruises Only, until this upcoming sailing, when I decided to try Canrival directly as Maria and several others here had dealt with Jennifer there and spoke highly of her. I am very pleased with the service I got thru Carnival and guarantees of any upcoming promotions being applied to my already booked trip, something that I didn't get thru the agency. I guess it all depends on what you are looking for....

[s73645]

I book through my TA. She recently spent two hours on the phone with USAirways getting our first class upgrades for our trip to Europe this fall. She did not get a dime of commission on that one, she just opened her own agency and will not be eligible for a few more weeks. Now that is customer service! :smiley: