Pros and cons to booking with the cruise line

[Hlitner]

Am smiling at the post about Disney cruises with 5 teens. We can quickly say that Disney is not among the 12 cruise lines upon which we have cruised, and will probably never be a line we would cruise (unless we got forced into taking Grand kids). But even when it comes to Disney, one can do better with certain agencies which will give you everything you get when booking direct plus more. In fact, you can actually do a booking with Disney and then simply transfer it to certain agencies that will add some additional "enhancements" but I guess we will not burst anyone's bubble :) Doing direct bookings while aboard cruises (where you often get some extra booking enhancements) and then transferring the booking to a favored TA is a very popular strategy among knowledgeable cruisers.

 

And as to why we have not (and do not) plan on cruising with Disney.... it is that we tend to favor much longer cruises (often over a month) and also seek out ships (and the right time of the year) that will tend to have fewer children and teens aboard.

 

Hank

Edited March 19, 2014 by Hlitner

[OCruisers]

We book with our long time TA. :)

LuLu

~~~~

[ehfl]

Pros to booking with the cruise line....no middleman!

Fewer parties mean less complexity.

Less complexity means less opportunity for something to go right.

If something does go wrong, there can be no finger-pointing between a TA and the cruise line.

[OCruisers]

While we've had very few things go wrong over the years, there have been a few and our TA takes care of it for us and we never have to deal with the cruise line. :)

LuLu

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[JimAOk1945]

We like having a TA, but there are times when I book a cruise on line. Those are the times when we plan to drive to and from the embarkation point.

[chinamama]

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I have now talked to 4 different agents, and MULTIPLE websites. I get lots of perks on the websites, BUT the price is the price on the HAL website PLUS the cost of the perks..... In other words I can get 849.00 on HAL with a baloney. I am being quoted a similar class balcony for 1299. with a 350 coupon book, and 200.00 in ship credits....

I'm thinking the low price and spend my money how I wish? Thoughts? Or am I missing something?

[dwjoe]

Is there a way to get the names of these "favored" on line TA/agencies? My head is reeling with all this great information.

 

Can anyone give a hint to point us in the right direction?

You can start by shopping around at Cruise Critic's advertisers.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/shipshop/

Edited March 20, 2014 by dwjoe

[JimAOk1945]

You can start by shopping around at Cruise Critic's advertisers.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/shipshop/

Thanks for the link. The fact that CC advertises these agencies is reassuring.

[Blamar]

My challenge with booking with a travel agent is that once we get a good TA - they leave. So it is hard to build a relationship with a real life TA. I haven't tried with an online TA, maybe next time. But I have such a bad taste from all the other TA's who were more interested in doing something to get a bigger commission than they were in helping up. the other real con I don't like about travel agents is that if I have a question I can call the company and usually get an answer, but with a travel agent - they are on their day off, can't get back in a short amount of time, or sometimes not at all. We lost out on a great cruise that way.

 

I am sure if we had a commitment of more than 4 or 5 cruises a year we may get better service, but that doesn't conform to cruising once every couple of years.

[JustinPlusLauren]

I have to say that while we've received little perks from booking with a TA (a little on board credit), I've never actually had a good TA before that answered my questions in a timely manner or really helped me in any way that I couldn't have accomplished on my own. In fact on our last trip our TA gave us the wrong info when I asked a question about our flights and I had to call the airline and figure it out for myself! I think if you can find a good TA, keep them! And let me know who it is lol!

 

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[ldubs]

Just went to one of the CC advertisers. Come on looked great. After entering everything, they actually cost $450 more for a lower class cabin. Additionally, we will get more OBC from booking directly with the cruise line.

 

I've shopped TA sites before and have never found anyone who could provide a better deal than we get going direct to the cruise line (both RCI and Princess). To be sure, we are booking one or two week cruises. We are not booking Suites or other top priced categories. It is understandable that higher priced cabins and longer cruises might present more discount opportunities.

 

PS: We book direct and never pay the "brochure" price. When comparing savings in general from TAs it is important that you not compare the TA's price to the brochure price (the TA's do this and it is misleading). Instead, compare it to the line's discounted price (there is just about always a discount of one type or another).

[sherilyn70]

Just went to one of the CC advertisers. Come on looked great. After entering everything, they actually cost $450 more for a lower class cabin. Additionally, we will get more OBC from booking directly with the cruise line.

 

I've shopped TA sites before and have never found anyone who could provide a better deal than we get going direct to the cruise line (both RCI and Princess). To be sure, we are booking one or two week cruises. We are not booking Suites or other top priced categories. It is understandable that higher priced cabins and longer cruises might present more discount opportunities.

 

PS: We book direct and never pay the "brochure" price. When comparing savings in general from TAs it is important that you not compare the TA's price to the brochure price (the TA's do this and it is misleading). Instead, compare it to the line's discounted price (there is just about always a discount of one type or another).

 

That makes no sense to me and I have to question if your really looking at the direct price before or after taxes and port charges. I have never found one lower when going direct or heard anyone else say that. What cruise are you using as your price example? Are you actually comparing apples to apples? Up until this upcoming cruise I only looked at carnival and royal Caribbean.

 

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[chinamama]

That's exactly what I am finding, higher prices after I factor everything in....

 

weird!

[sherilyn70]

Can you give examples of which cruise and date you're looking at? I really want to see this.

 

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[chinamama]

HAL May 3rd, leaving Seattle verandah cabin, 2 people. I joined their program and got another 50.00 pp off and they added 50.00 on board credit.

[LindaM]

I just reread the sticky about naming names, so I am following the rules. We got rid of our long time discount TA, who was one of the originals to discount, from back in the 80's. I liked her personally, although she really never did anything to help me. I liked her assistant even more and we had a lot of nice conversations, so I will miss her!!

 

This TA said she was not able to compete with big box stores that book travel as well. I stuck with her for a few more years until I came to my senses!! On our upcoming cruise, we have $950 in OBC. We have also received gift cards for cruises where everything was already included. We booked initially with the cruiseline, then moved the booking to get the Giftcard.

 

If you book with HAL, you will speak with a different rep. everytime you need something. There is no more benefit in that than how we do it now. Most of the time, those reps really don't know much, as they are dealing with many, many HAL itineraries and ships.

 

I agree that HAL may have some cheap last minute deals that a TA may not know about. But, if you are booking a regular cruise, where you may even want to choose your cabin, you are losing money by booking with HAL. While on Prinsendam, the cruise consultant tried to get us a cheaper price on our next cruise. She insisted she could do it. Nope....even she was surprised! She couldn't beat the price, let alone the OBC as well!!

 

If you have a great TA who is looking out for your best interest, that might be worth something. Ours never mentioned not flying in the day of the cruise....in Europe. Not good...

[taglovestocruise]

No matter how great a deal and perks and OBC you get from your cruise line, you can still call your TA, switch your booking over to your TA, keep all that was given to you by the cruise line and pick up all that is offered by your TA. The cruise line will never take anything away. There was a article on cruise critic a few weeks ago that explained in detail how to double dip, as they called it, and get both.

[sherilyn70]

HAL May 3rd, leaving Seattle verandah cabin, 2 people. I joined their program and got another 50.00 pp off and they added 50.00 on board credit.

 

Are you doing a guarantee or a pick your own room and in what category?

 

I just quoted the VH guarantee with both HAL and my online TA (for Westerdam, 7-day Roundtrip Seattle on May 3rd), both quote the same exact price of $2,266.78 USD after port and taxes are added, the TA is offering an additional $200 OBC. I didn't call them (only priced it online) but there is a note that there may even be more discount if you call them for a quote.

Exclusive Signature Sale Rates

(Save Up to $ 1000 over current cruise line pricing)

 

This is from one of the agencies listed on the Cruise Critic agencies page.

Edited March 22, 2014 by sherilyn70

[ldubs]

That makes no sense to me and I have to question if your really looking at the direct price before or after taxes and port charges. I have never found one lower when going direct or heard anyone else say that. What cruise are you using as your price example? Are you actually comparing apples to apples? Up until this upcoming cruise I only looked at carnival and royal Caribbean.

 

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Final price after taxes & insurance. Same number of passengers, past guest number, etc. For an upcoming RCI cruise. It is possible I made a mistake somewhere along the booking process, but I did try to be careful. I also would have expected it to be the same or similar. Point is, in past attempts I have never been able to get a better price going through an on-line TA.

Edited March 23, 2014 by ldubs

[bonsai3s]

For us it is not even a pro / con issue. We book with large reputable online cruise agencies because it saves us a lot of money! Our record savings, when compared to booking direct with a cruise line, is just over $3000 (and that is just the savings) on a single HAL cruise. We book about 70-100 cruise days a year and we just cannot justify losing thousands of dollars by booking with the cruise lines. Even when our favored agencies cannot offer a better price then the cruise lines (some of the cruise lines have imposed strict price controls) we can always get things like pre-paid gratuities, onboard credits, drink packages, free hotel rooms (pre or post cruise), etc. On typical shorter cruises (i.e.7-10 days) taken by most cruisers the savings will not be as great, but are generally several hundred dollars. Another specific example is an upcoming 14 day Celebrity cruise. We actually booked that cruise while on another Celebrity cruise because we could get an upgrade and a special on board credit for booking while on another cruise. We immediately had that booking transferred back to one of our favored cruise agencies and then the agency agreed to pay for our gratuities which are worth over $300. We also have an upcoming Princess cruise where we were able to get a very nice on board credit ($835) by booking with an agency. If we had booked directly with Princess we would have lost that $835 on board credit. Even if I enjoyed talking to the Princess reservation folks....I do not think my enjoyment would have been worth over $800 :). Because Princess allows the "stacking of onboard credits" we actually have total OBCs that total about 20% of our total cruise cost on this particular cruise.

 

I should add that all of the well known cruise agencies we use are directly linked to the cruise lines. When we book with them (either on the phone or online) the reservation is immediately available on the cruise line's online reservations system and our credit card charges are also processed by the cruise lines...not the agency.

 

There are also a few reputable agencies that will literally discount percentage of the cruise booking price (usually 5-10%). And there are also some major retailers (we are not permitted to mention names here on CC) that offer other booking incentives like substantial gift cards. We do not currently use any of these agencies because we can do better elsewhere....but it is another option.

 

Hank

 

Hank.......hope you read this....could you kindly email me at bonsai3s at yahoo dot com.........thanks! :)