UK visitor, looking to book a cruise after arriving in US?

[Tinkerbellsparkle]

Hi, I have noticed on the US websites that the cruises are quite a bit cheaper and have more discount like 30% off at the moment with Royal Caribbean, and freebies like free champagne, free spa treatments, free paid for meals, more onboard credit etc.

Once you select that you are an overseas client the discount and freebies disappear :o:( So just wondering if anyone has booked at a travel agents after arriving and did you get all the associated goodies included?

Thank you

[Clarea]

I know several UK residents that book with US travel agents and get to use US booking rules and perks.

[iancal]

It may depend on the cruise line. We are from Canada. Two years ago we booked an Australian cruise with RCI while travelling. We saved over 30 percent, adjusted for currency, simply by booking with RCI in Australia. We phoned their office and it took all of ten minutes to complete the transaction. There was no issue whatsoever, they honoured our RCI status and gave us extra discounts for it.

 

Some cruise lines try to stop this. Others do not. DS booked her Baltic cruise on Celebrity with a UK travel agent two years ago. The UK price was 15 percent better than any price she was quoted by NA agents.

[navybankerteacher]

A U.K. cousin of mine had a couple of email accounts- one he opened while living in the US. He also has a US credit card - between the two he claims he is pretty well able to comparison shop and realize significant savings on lots of things - not just travel.

[martincath]

Booking through a travel agent this side of the pond should work for you without difficulty, but as mentioned above you should be able to do so from home too without having to spend vacation time sitting in an office!

 

I can't offer up the name of a specific agent - even if I knew one we'd booked from abroad with, board rules forbid it! - but like others I've booked directly with vacation companies that have multiple operations (e.g. bus tours with the Cosmos group we've booked with Canadian, US, and British 'branches' based on whichever currency was getting us the best deal).

 

Do remember though, that booking as a Brit you have a very solid package of rules & legislation that protects your vacation - while the US is much more of a 'wild west' affair. Not that I expect any big cruiselines to go bust in the near future, but make sure that you have insurance in place that will cover if e.g. you have to cancel for whatever reason - IIRC our British policies back in the day only covered what was NOT already paid out by ABTA etc., so there may be more uncovered loopholes if you book with a US company and have e.g. a current British annual travel policy.

[lostchild]

You don't have to wait until you get to the US. My cousins from UK and Australia all book thru an US website and the same perks/OBC as I (from US). I think you just need to call and ask and not use the automatic website system. It worked out great too because a few had to cancel the cruise and if they did it in UK, they would not have been able to get their deposit back.

[Eleteace]

I often book through US sites if it's cheaper, no problem at all! :-)

 

 

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[iancal]

It works the other way as well. We have purchased travel products from UK TA's that were priced considerably lower than the North American TA prices.

 

Never had a problem using our credit card. Some internet sites want a Europe address. We simply use the address of a hotel that we have booked. After trial and error we learned that some of the sites will only accept the booking with a Europe address so that is what we use. Our experience is that they do not seem to key in on where the credit card is issued. We recently saved about 30 percent on an internal flight in Argentina simply by calling their domestic call center instead of purchasing the ticket on an international web site.

 

We also have a couple of 'accomodation addresses' that we can use if necessary.