Booking a Cruise with TA vs Carnival Direct

[rbabiak]

What are the advantages of booking a cruise with a travel agent over Carnival directly? or are there none.

[KruznKel]

What are the advantages of booking a cruise with a travel agent over Carnival directly? or are there none.

 

Nothing now I think with the new rules..

[rbabiak]

what new rules?

[Tapi]

Besides the possibility of maybe getting an onboard credit or a bottle of champagne, there's really not much of an advantage.

 

Call BOTH and ask many questions! That way you'll get a feel for who's more knowledgeable, professional, and with the best customer service. In the long run, you'll be greatful to be dealing with someone who can provide the better service, instead of the one offering you a free cheap bottle of wine.

[*Mach*]

what new rules?

 

 

Carnival's new travel agency policy prohibits them from discounting cruise prices more than Carnival's published fares...

:)

[Tapi]

what new rules?

 

TA's can't discount anymore, but they'll still try to lure passengers to book through them by offering some "perk" like a bottle of champagne (as I mentioned above)

[rbabiak]

Does a TA give you more flexibilty in paying the cruise. Meaning mothly payment or anything like that.

[KruznKel]

what new rules?

 

Carnival's new travel agency policy prohibits them from discounting cruise prices more than Carnival's published fares...

 

:)

 

What he said... Thanks Mach:)

 

TA's can't discount anymore, but they'll still try to lure passengers to book through them by offering some "perk" like a bottle of champagne (as I mentioned above)

 

If they are willing to take it out of their commission is the question;)

[KruznKel]

Does a TA give you more flexibilty in paying the cruise. Meaning mothly payment or anything like that.

 

You can do the same with Carnival .. so I don't know what other perks there are..

[golfadj]

Booking direct gives me more control and much faster answers.

[Tapi]

What he said... Thanks Mach:)

 

 

 

If they are willing to take it out of their commission is the question;)

 

My understanding is that if the Travel Agency (or agent) is caught, Carnival will ban them, and the agent won't be allowed to sell Carnival cruises ever again (I believe Royal Caribbean has a similar practice)

[Tapi]

BTW, if you choose to book directly through a Carnival agent, there are TWO ways of doing it:

 

• By calling the regular 800 Carnival number: You'll talk to a reservation agent (they take inbound calls and make reservations, but can't dial out. If you need assistance again, you call the number and any agent who picks up the phone can assist you)
  
• By calling the Carnival Personal Vacation Planner number: You'll talk to a Personal Vacation Planner, and you keep the same person from planning stage until you return from your cruise.
  

 

I personally deal with a Personal Vacation Planner (and have done so for the last 5 years).

[Kurbanfan]

The perks for me booking thru my TA is when I am looking at a specific itinerary she has the knowledge of all cruiselines and will give me the best deal on all lines not just Carnival......she has first hand knowledge of all sales.....

If for some reason our ship comes in late or we are rerouted to another port to disembark (like what happened in Galveston) she will handle all our travel details with one phone call such as changing flights, set up a rental car, hotel etc......If we need to desembark for any emergency she handles all the details etc......just saves alot of headaches. She even handles our insurance...

Her company has an allowance of what they can give for perks so none of it comes out of her commission. And by booking with her I am helping my community in this god forbidden econonmy. She is not the middle man she is the man:D She even prints out our fun passes and boarding tags and mails them to us.......we do absolutely nothing.....

[Synthetic]

Since I cruise exclusively on Carnival (and CCL sister lines) I deal only with my PVP. She knows my preferences and the customer service is awesome.

[KruznKel]

The perks for me booking thru my TA is when I am looking at a specific itinerary she has the knowledge of all cruiselines and will give me the best deal on all lines not just Carnival......she has first hand knowledge of all sales.....

If for some reason our ship comes in late or we are rerouted to another port to disembark (like what happened in Galveston) she will handle all our travel details with one phone call such as changing flights, set up a rental car, hotel etc......If we need to desembark for any emergency she handles all the details etc......just saves alot of headaches. She even handles our insurance...

Her company has an allowance of what they can give for perks so none of it comes out of her commission. And by booking with her I am helping my community in this god forbidden econonmy. She is not the middle man she is the man:D She even prints out our fun passes and boarding tags and mails them to us.......we do absolutely nothing.....

 

 

And this is after the new rules ??? If so you are lucky..but I deal with a personal friend who is a TA and its not that cut and dry for most:rolleyes:

[golfadj]

The perks for me booking thru my TA is when I am looking at a specific itinerary she has the knowledge of all cruiselines and will give me the best deal on all lines not just Carnival......she has first hand knowledge of all sales.....

If for some reason our ship comes in late or we are rerouted to another port to disembark (like what happened in Galveston) she will handle all our travel details with one phone call such as changing flights, set up a rental car, hotel etc......If we need to desembark for any emergency she handles all the details etc......just saves alot of headaches. She even handles our insurance...

Her company has an allowance of what they can give for perks so none of it comes out of her commission. And by booking with her I am helping my community in this god forbidden econonmy. She is not the middle man she is the man:D She even prints out our fun passes and boarding tags and mails them to us.......we do absolutely nothing.....

 

I used to have a real good TA and used her for our first 10 cruises.

 

She left and the replacement was slightly less than useless and the owner of the agency would not lift a finger to help with a problem the first time we had one so we now deal direct.

[KruznKel]

I used to have a real good TA and used her for our first 10 cruises.

 

She left and the replacement was slightly less than useless and the owner of the agency would not lift a finger to help with a problem the first time we had one so we now deal direct.

 

I agree a good TA should be able to be reached where ever.. and we have had some problems with the CC agent not being available when needed.. but we prevailed.. on our own.. where is my commission LOL:p

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Besides the possibility of maybe getting an onboard credit or a bottle of champagne, there's really not much of an advantage.

 

Call BOTH and ask many questions! That way you'll get a feel for who's more knowledgeable, professional, and with the best customer service. In the long run, you'll be greatful to be dealing with someone who can provide the better service, instead of the one offering you a free cheap bottle of wine.

 

since PVP's can't give you a bottle of wine one can only infer by your post that your saying PVP's are better and more knowledgeable.

 

In your case yes, but there are many post on here about bad PVP's just as there are good and bad TA's.

 

Bill

[Kurbanfan]

And this is after the new rules ??? If so you are lucky..but I deal with a personal friend who is a TA and its not that cut and dry for most:rolleyes:

 

Just booked 2 weeks ago for Dec.:D Not sure what you meant in my post by cut and dry:confused:

[KruznKel]

Just booked 2 weeks ago for Dec.:D Not sure what you meant in my post by cut and dry:confused:

 

The rules set in place by Carnival for other TA's.. whether your TA gives you the same service that is great but most can't do what they did because of it.. is what I was trying to say;)

[Kurbanfan]

I used to have a real good TA and used her for our first 10 cruises.

 

She left and the replacement was slightly less than useless and the owner of the agency would not lift a finger to help with a problem the first time we had one so we now deal direct.

 

That blows! We used a great one for the last 10 years and she retired:(

But she referred us to an absolute awesome co worker......so far we have used her with our last 3 cruises and a land vacation and she is great:)

[Kurbanfan]

The rules set in place by Carnival for other TA's.. whether your TA gives you the same service that is great but most can't do what they did because of it.. is what I was trying to say;)

 

What service would be lacking:confused:

[elcuchio24]

I've never found any reason (that mattered to me) that would make me book through a TA.

[Tapi]

since PVP's can't give you a bottle of wine one can only infer by your post that your saying PVP's are better and more knowledgeable.

 

No. The reason why I said "Call both and ask many questions" is because of the fact that there are good TA's and bad TA's, just like there are good PVP's and bad PVP's. I think that's why the search has to be taken down to the individual person.

 

I found the person that I've been dealing with for the last 5 years exactly by "shopping around". She happens to be a PVP. But before I found her, I used to deal with an agent from a large online travel agency who sold cruises only. ;). She was the best, but unfortunately, one day she was no longer there...

[AlwaysReadyToSail]

The perks for me booking thru my TA is when I am looking at a specific itinerary she has the knowledge of all cruiselines and will give me the best deal on all lines not just Carnival......she has first hand knowledge of all sales.....

If for some reason our ship comes in late or we are rerouted to another port to disembark (like what happened in Galveston) she will handle all our travel details with one phone call such as changing flights, set up a rental car, hotel etc......If we need to desembark for any emergency she handles all the details etc......just saves alot of headaches. She even handles our insurance...

Her company has an allowance of what they can give for perks so none of it comes out of her commission. And by booking with her I am helping my community in this god forbidden econonmy. She is not the middle man she is the man:D She even prints out our fun passes and boarding tags and mails them to us.......we do absolutely nothing.....

 

 

I completely agree, and prefer a TA if not only for the reason that I'm helping out an industry that has been shoved under the bus....before the times of everyone using the internet travel/tourism relied heavily on TAs now they feel that they have no use for them. The perks of becoming a TA are becoming less and less and if there is little or no benefit for by by going direct then I'd prefer help someone else out. I also feel that TAs are very helpful because they have unbiased (or less biased) information. They can help you decide whether you should do an excursion though the cruise line or independently as well as do alot of the busy work that comes with comparing and contrasting companies, etc..... and if something goes wrong it's always good to have a little bit of leverage vs being little you vs big cruise line.