Who did you book your cruise through? TA or website?

[Dbld777]

OK, so I understand that specific online TA's can't be mentioned by name on this forum, however there must be a way to find out which are the most knowledgeable and reliable online TA's. These forums are full of help with respect to value for your money on comparing various cruise lines, shore excursions, airlines and hotels. So..... is there another website that rates online TA's that can be referenced here, or does one have to learn by trial and error?

[Hlitner]

OK, so I understand that specific online TA's can't be mentioned by name on this forum, however there must be a way to find out which are the most knowledgeable and reliable online TA's. These forums are full of help with respect to value for your money on comparing various cruise lines, shore excursions, airlines and hotels. So..... is there another website that rates online TA's that can be referenced here, or does one have to learn by trial and error?

 

Using a little research enhanced by trial and error seems to be the best method. We actually have grown to agree with the CC policy of not allowing recommendations of TAs (no way to police those recommendations). CC seems to take pretty permissive position when they see experienced posters make recommendations for tour companies, but there is just no way they could ever allow the boards to recommend TAs. I have posted this before and will say it again. If you do not have friends that you can truly trust to give you good advice you need to spend a little time until you build your own list. Use a good search engine such as Google to pull up a bunch of major TA web sites. Go to those web sites and read about the agencies, their background, etc with the knowledge that they might not be telling the entire truth. We like to focus on agencies that have an on-line booking engine (these are usually tied directly into the cruise lines own computer) so that you can quickly compare cruises, categories and get the actual prices. If you cannot easily do those comparisons look for a better web site. Check to see if the agency is a member of CLIA (generally displayed at on their web site and can also be verified at the CLIA website). If they are also a member of other recognized travel groups such as ASTA this is a plus. And finally (we think this is very important), take a few minutes to look up the agency on the Better Business Bureau web site and see what they have to say (they are truly objectivie). The BBB will tell you if they are a member (a good thing but not a must), how many complaints are on file (not always relevant) and most importantly how well they resolve complaints. Stuff does happen, things do go wrong, and how an agency handles the problems is what, we think, is the most important factor of all.

 

Now I will add a personal observations. We used to utilize more then 6 different TAs for our cruises (we do book a lot of cruises) and they were all very legit and competitive. Over the past 3 or 4 years our personal list has been shrinking to where we are now only looking at 3 (sometimes 4) agencies because we find they are all pretty equal. The ones we favor the most are simply the ones that answer their phone (if we have a problem) and quickly (with a good attitude) resolve any issue. Our favored agencies are certainly not "handholders" and actually try to discourage phone calls by giving lower prices for direct online bookings, but they are always there for us when we have a question, need to make a change, or want to correct our own stupid booking errors. When we used to deal with some smaller agencies we would generally expect to get an answer to an issue within a couple of days. The ones I deal with now generally resolve most issues while I am on the phone ("hold on and we will call the cruise line now") or within a few hours.

 

Hank

[K-Roo-Zers]

As an example, today we got an unsolicited phone call from a large Florida-based TA offering us balcony cabins for some 7 day cruises on the Celebrity Solstice for under $575.

 

Hey Hank,

 

Wow, I am green with envy!! To hear that you guys can secure a balcony for that price or even $80 per day is unbelievable!!

 

We Aussies occasionally get what we call a bargain - a balcony cabin for $A130+ a day and we think we are lucky!!

 

Oh well, at least we can go cruising!!

 

Nicki

[cruiserbryce]

if we can book through the cruise line while on board we do...but otherwise the 3rd party sites usually offer on board credits or pre paid grats that end up saving you $

[Hlitner]

As an example, today we got an unsolicited phone call from a large Florida-based TA offering us balcony cabins for some 7 day cruises on the Celebrity Solstice for under $575.

 

Hey Hank,

 

Wow, I am green with envy!! To hear that you guys can secure a balcony for that price or even $80 per day is unbelievable!!

 

We Aussies occasionally get what we call a bargain - a balcony cabin for $A130+ a day and we think we are lucky!!

 

Oh well, at least we can go cruising!!

 

Nicki

 

We have long been curious about why the prices of AU cruises seems to be so darn high. There are some cruises that go around Australia and when we look at prices they are quite high when compared to other cruises. We are not sure if this has anything to do with the tipping habits of Aussies or perhaps an Australian tax issue. In the US we have no VAT so we do not pay a tax on a cruise booking.

 

Hank

[baldercash]

I have been using the same large on-line company for about 7 years now and have always got reasonable prices. However booking a cruise is like buying stocks you need to know the market and recognize a deal when you see it and buy on the spot.

The agency we use offers loyalty points and ship board credits plus ship board credits for recommending their services to new clients who book and reduced deposits. They have been able to beat the price of any other company whose price I have quoted. They have offered gift cards to loyalty members in the past to be used on future cruises, I bought a $5,000 card for $4,000 and a $3,000 for $2,500. If they sell a 100 cabins on a cruise they put a rep on board. They will have a rep on the Constellation transatlantic crossing Nov 6. The rep on that cruise was our original agent with the company. The last time we were on a rep cruise they offered us the opportunity to purchase $200.00 pre-cruise deposits that would be worth double at time of a future cruise booking which could be combined with the cruiseline future deposit offers.

We have a personal friend who is a TA and she can rarely come close to matching their offers and often she cannot believe the prices.

Though the agency has never upgraded our bookings they did get us a step aside that was worth about $7,000.00.

So not all agencies are created equal.

[richstowe]

All great info. One tip for the newbies (which I am) is to realize that TAs , especially the huge internet ones, still offer discounts off of what the cruise lines will offer direct BUT they will not offer the discount on their sites. You seem to have to contact them directly by phone or e-mail to get a discount. We got $100 off Carnival rate. This was only offered when I spoke direct to TA.

 

Am I wrong?

[cravingthis]

Not totally correct....Example: CCL... transfer booking from cruiseline to travel agency must be within 30 days of initial deposit. ;)

 

I don't undertand the acronyms yet? Is it Celebrity Cruise Lines, just a wild guess?

 

Also, does Royal Caribbean have the same policy? I didn't read it anywhere on my email following my initial deposit. I may have to call and ask them.

[travelteach326]

We are traveling in November to the Caribbean. We booked our cruise though our TA. We received a phone call from our TA. The price of the cruise went down a month before final payment was due. We saved $138 per cabin because she checked their site and found a new price code.

 

I would rather deal with a local person that a "company" rep on the phone.