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Best way to book a cruise?


mrscannc
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My first time on the forums. Please be gentle!!

Hubby and I are hoping to soon book our first cruise to the Med next year with P&O.

My question is how is the best way to book? Travel agent, direct with the cruise company on the telephone or book via the website?

When I picked up the brochures from Thomas Cook the young lady said they can get better deals then the cruise companies can. Is this true? If any of you well cruised people can help with advice I would be grateful.:)

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I would recommend you use a specialist cruise travel agent rather than a high street travel agent..

We are not allowed to name companies on here but Google "cruise travel agent" and you will get some. It is better to do your booking by phone rather than on line. On the phone the various options that you may not think about can be explained to you.

You can get prices on the P&O website. I believe the early booking offers for next year expire at the end of this month.

Brian

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Agree with Brian. Use a specialist Cruise agent. They will often give a discount on the total price. They have access to all the cabins. Don't forget what time you want to eat, early or late or Freedom. What size table do you want. We always choose a table for 8 and get to know some other people.

 

Choose your cabin in the middle of the ship and not too high up. Less movement lower down.

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We have booked one cruise direct with P&O in the past, had no problems at all. Also have used a cruise specialist agent, though at the time there were no discounts and where ever I looked everyone was charging the same price as apparently there was no discounts passed to agents by cruise companies. I would definitely book direct again but wouldn't rule out using a travel agent either. We are booked with co-op travel this year as my dad has booked for six of us. I guess sometimes you go where the best deals are or you stay loyal to a local agent if they give you fantastic service. I know our neighbours have booked with the same travel agent for a good few years now.

Sam.

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When we first started cruising some years back some agents had much better deals than others. But with the cuts in commission these seemed to dry up. For our last Britannia cruise we booked direct with P&O online BUT if you do this I recommend going through the Topcashback site to get to the P&O site as they pay 4.2% cashback on your cruise purchase from P&O. The cashback tracked on the site within a day and then was paid out about 8 weeks later. For four of us it was a chunky amount and a bit of a no brainer. Also if I remember correctly I dont think you pay a credit card fee if booking direct with P&O.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Most TA have someone who specialises in cruises. We always use a Travel Agent, after first finding what we want online. We have always paid online prices with our TA The advantage of booking with TA is the fact you are talking face to face - no crashing web-sites or premier rate phone numbers to deal with, and in the event of anything going wrong it's easy to pop into the shop.

Travel Agent every time for us.

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Most TA have someone who specialises in cruises. We always use a Travel Agent, after first finding what we want online. We have always paid online prices with our TA The advantage of booking with TA is the fact you are talking face to face - no crashing web-sites or premier rate phone numbers to deal with, and in the event of anything going wrong it's easy to pop into the shop.

Travel Agent every time for us.

 

One should also add that booking with P and O direct, they will require the balance 90days prior to sailing.

A TA would be a lot more than that. They need to have your money cleared into their bank account, before they pass it onto P and O.

I also feel that if there are any queries/problems you may get into Chinese whispers. You talk to the TA ,they talk to P and O. P and O will not discuss your booking with you , if you booked via a TA.

I don't ring a premium rate number when I contact P and O. I ring my cruise specialist direct and she has a normal number.

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And to add variety to the discussion, I always book direct with P&O as I prefer not to deal via a middleman. I have looked round all TA deals and have not found any better deal than what I have got via P&O. I book via my excellent Personal Cruise Specialist who is very helpful and easily contactable and any queries are immediately dealt with.

 

I am happy with their payment methods and I don't mind when I have to pay the balance.

 

Horses for courses I guess....

Edited by Scriv
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...just to add...if you book online with P & O they dont always give you the option of all the available cabins....sometimes it seems to be only the ones no one else wants! And their online booking system is good at telling you specific cabins dont exist...:eek:

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Agreed, Mysticalmother. My booked cabin still comes up as non-existant on line! I much prefer to book on the phone via a knowledgeable person and have always got the cabin I want regardless of whether it 'exists' or not lol.

Edited by Scriv
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One should also add that booking with P and O direct, they will require the balance 90days prior to sailing.

A TA would be a lot more than that. They need to have your money cleared into their bank account, before they pass it onto P and O.

I also feel that if there are any queries/problems you may get into Chinese whispers. You talk to the TA ,they talk to P and O. P and O will not discuss your booking with you , if you booked via a TA.

I don't ring a premium rate number when I contact P and O. I ring my cruise specialist direct and she has a normal number.

 

I also ring my cruise specialist but she has an 0843 number which is a premium rate number and is not included in our call plan so we do have to pay for it. OFCOM site information is :

 

These are used by large and small businesses for sales, enquiry and customer service lines and for some pay-as-you go internet access services.

 

0843 and 0844

How much do calls cost? Calls are charged between 1p and 13p per minute for landline customers, plus a call set-up fee. Calls from mobile phones are typically charged between 5p and 41p per minute, depending on the provider and the number called.

 

I have however managed to call P&O using (023) 8065 5000 which I got from directory enquiries and though it takes a while to go through the menus I can get to my cruise specialist and using this I don't pay for the call because this is a regular Southampton number which means it is included in our call plan..

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As far as I'm aware P&O are the only cruise line which do not allow agents to discount their prices.

 

When we booked our cruise - we always compare the prices with The cruise line direct -- a high street travel agent - and specialist online agents - as are always after the best deal available.

 

On this occasion - (our first with P&O) - to be told across the board that nobody is allowed to change any of their prices or deals -- which in the interests of competition is shooting themselves in the proverbial foot methinks.

 

We have in the past booked with American agents offering the same cruise (different lines) - and had fantastic service

 

If you're prepared to be a little savvy -- you can save loads of dosh by shopping around

 

Hope that this helps

Kev and Jen

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I still maintain booking with Travel Agent is best - buying anything by telephone is not as good as sitting down with someone next to you, who knows everything about the product and even make suggestions to make your cruise better.

No need to worry about premium rate lines etc. Reading some of the posts just gets me thinking it's everyone too their own tastes - if no one used TA they would not exist - what would I do then.

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Ormy, I hear what you say - but I would have to drive miles to find someone to sit next to who can help and who I trust to help and don't actually know of such a person. My cruise specialist does it by phone, but he knows what I like and also thoroughly knows his product and also makes lots of suggestions to make my cruise better. Horses for courses again :)

Edited by Scriv
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As far as I'm aware P&O are the only cruise line which do not allow agents to discount their prices.

 

 

 

When we booked our cruise - we always compare the prices with The cruise line direct -- a high street travel agent - and specialist online agents - as are always after the best deal available.

 

 

 

On this occasion - (our first with P&O) - to be told across the board that nobody is allowed to change any of their prices or deals -- which in the interests of competition is shooting themselves in the proverbial foot methinks.

 

 

Hope that this helps

 

Kev and Jen

 

 

It used to be the case of no discounts but a few years ago P&O gave TAs more flexibility and now you will get a better deal with a TA, so after some searching we found one that gives us 7% discount on any P&O cruise :), yes they want the deposit 2 weeks earlier but so what it's got to be paid.

 

BTW

P&O do charge for using a credit card, same as most TAs but no charge for debit cards..

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Edited by Jason12
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We much prefer to book direct these days, but at first, as newbies, we chose to use a travel agent. After a couple of cruises, DH decided that there was no need to involve a middleman, he preferred to deal directly with the line.

 

He has never found a discount worth having, mostly our research shows that prices are very similar with agents and with the cruise line (not just P&O). But maybe we just don't look hard enough!

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Using a credit card usually incurs a 2pct , or so, extra charge but you do get extra protection. But you still get that extra protection if you use a cc for the deposit then pay the balance using a debit card. This is what we do. Just a thought.

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