Travel agent vs. Direct booking

[Cathyjane]

Since TA's have lost some of their ability to offer discounted cruise prices, which is the least expensive way to book a cruise now.

[Nliedel]

I state this a lot. It's a group cruise. No doubt in my mind. Great prices and you can hang out with the people in the group or not. Some of the people from my last group have become lifelong friends and I will never book on my own again. Ever.

[SRQfireman]

you can find the answer to this by doing a search...comes up several times a week--->travel agent is the way to go!

[dougp26364]

After our recent experience with poor service on disembarkation that went wrong (long delay, almost entire ship missed their flights) I think I'll be using full service TA's exclusively when booking RCI. We had a lot of trouble getting home from Spain and, initially at least, RCI was less than responsive to our calls and needs (that has since changed). If there's no difference in price I'm now begining to think that a full service TA who knows who to call to complain when things go wrong is the way to go. Plus, they'll be able to help with pre and post cruise hotel stays when I don't know the hotel's very well.

[lv2bcruzin]

This thread was started about 24hrs before yours.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=255221

[phantom728]

For our cruise's we used a TA, except for our airfare because I've been able to get that cheaper on my own. Our TA is able to follow-up on any issues/problems that we have. They get the same rate that I find anywhere else.

The other benefit I find is that you have some variation in payment choices before final payment is due. For our very first cruise, I was able to make monthly payments up until my final was due. This was a great option to have instead of putting on credit card.

[lv2bcruzin]

For our very first cruise, I was able to make monthly payments up until my final was due. This was a great option to have instead of putting on credit card.

 

I'm confused. This is how it works with any TA and with RCI directly. You can make any size payment and any amount of payments up until the final payment is do where then no matter how much you still owe it has to paid.

 

I usually book at least a year ahead for the more expensive cruises so that I have time to get it paid off. Granted the cruises I have booked for next year are already paid off.

[steve20832]

I booked directly on RCCL website and it was very easy to do. No middle man or TA to confuse any details. I was also able to pay $200/month on the website till it was paid off so I didn't have one large credit card bill just before the cruise.

[dougp26364]

Wow, I just put the money in savings, collect a little bit (very small amount) of interest and then put it on my rewards credit card when final payment is due so I can get the rewards points. When the bill from the CC company comes in, I just take the cash out of the savings account and pay it off before interest charges are tacked on.

 

By doing it this way I can earn a little bit of interest on my money and earn rewards points on whichever CC I'm using at the time. Presently, I'm using a Choice Hotels rewards card and the price of a cruise can sometimes add up to enough points to pay for one night at a Choice brand hotel. In the past I've used cards with FF miles for different airlines or other hotel rewards cards to help pay for hotel rooms.