I think this thread should be read by all cruise line decision makers because they need to understand a guest (not travel agent) perspective of what matters to them when choosing a cruise. A significant proportion of guests at this point in the market are educated travellers for whom browsing and research is fundamental to their buying decision. The agent only comes into play after that research if indeed at all. This is particularly true for European guests where travel agencies are either remote internet operations or high street shops focused on selling package holidays and where you will wait some time to be served by a non knowledgable person.
The problem is MSC and some other lines have got into bed with Seaware as their booking management software. It is travel agent centric and does everything it can to keep the guest out of the information loop. Other lines are finding the same problem with this software.
Here is a further example of how this management system wrecks the guest experience - buying shore excursions. Yes, despite their costs, some of us want to buy excursions run by Explora. Eventually after quite a few non sensical clicks (someone has forgotten the 3 clicks to a commitment byword of the noughties) I find the excursion I want.
I am booked though a travel agent and as I have done in the past with other lines, I just want to book 2 excursions and pay for them using my credit card. I cannot do that, I have to track down my agent to get them to pay for it and get the booking confirmed or, if I find the right agent on the phone I have to persuade them to take the payment direct. So we add an unneccessary layer of interactions in the transaction because I am doing a "money thing" and all money things on Seaware cannot be done direct by the guest if an agent is involved.
This is barking mad, Explora please decouple part of the software, let the guests browse options at their leisure and book their own shore excursions or other add ons without restrictions.
Until you do that, there are other much more customer friendly lines out there potential guests can go to.