CruiseCompete

[CruiseGrL06]

Has anyone used *****.com, I just booked my cruise through there and it has to be the best thing ever created. Am I right? or was it too good to be true? Meaning how quickly did you get your cruise tickets in the mail and what travel agent did you use?

[chrysalis]

it is against the rules here to discuss or recommend travel agents or companies...having said that, I am very familiar with that service......

 

tickets will be mailed to you from whatever travel agent gets your business and you should get them about 2 or 3 weeks before your cruise

[mringenoldus]

It's a good process - but we had a bad experience with a low bid from an agency that later said it was an error and hiked the fare $120.

[DanJ]

None of the quotes from there were any better than what my regular local TA gave me.

[One4gip]

Great service and saved me $200. I negotiate contracts for a living so it was nice to put my requirement out for bid. All of my quotes came from well known TAs in the cruise business.

[Coral]

Service will only be as good as the agency you pick to deal with (Cruise Compete is associated with tons of agencies). One can have a great experience with Agency A while another not so good experience with Agency B.

[mringenoldus]

Coral is absolutely correct - our problem occured at the agency level, not with *****.

 

The situation has caused me to reconsider going for the best deal vs consistantly good deals from an excellent TA.

[Juliadlf]

I have used them to get quotes but have not booked with any of their agencies as we have found better deal elsewhere. Good process to use for comparing prices.

 

Also saw that the website was using incorrect itinerary information for the cruise we are planning to take in August. I had to recheck with the Princess website to be sure the itinerary hadn't changed and it was just ***** that was posting the wrong information.

 

Julia

[cruzin girl]

I also have tried to use cruise compete several times and have not followed through because the quote from the agent always seems to go up from their original quote even calling the same day as the quote. So be careful and make sure that the online quote does not creep up.

[Lynda90]

I booked one cruise through them (so far) and they did a terrific job for me. Price was quite a bit lower than my usual TA which was very unusual. Have asked for other quotes since then, but they haven't come close to my usual TA. Guess I hit it lucky the time I used them.

[RNay]

I have used them for my past two bookings and I will use them again! I did have some trouble with the first one, my agent left the agency and things got messed up, but straightened out. I did let ***** know about the problems, as I think they should be aware, and they were prompt in assisting me. This last one has been smooth sailing.

[hugger]

their site - have used him for the last 5 year's now.

It at least gives you a starting point and then you can check out the TA.

I used to be in the business so I know that you want a TA who is a CLIA member when booking a cruise.

Ask a lot of questions and be sure to ask if the price quote includes all port taxes and gov't fee's as this can be a sizeable fee that isn't include in some agent's rate quote's.

Good Luck

[Sillyjilly]

I've found some great deals through them and the tickets arrived 4-6 weeks before the cruise.

 

Jill

[yesitsfree]

I just booked thru ***** last night. I sure hope everything goes thru well. I save $20 per person which doesn't sound like alot but multiply it by all of us going it sure adds up.

[jetskier]

I used them to book a cruise and got an excellant price but more importantly I found an excellant TA. One thing not published, is that if you book any more cruises through the TA that do not go through CC, the TA still has to pay a fee to them for each cruise you book for up to one year.

 

Dave

[CruiseGrL06]

I got 6 quotes in total and saves $70 a person (2 ppl total) AND a free upgrade which on another travel website costs $125 to do. I think I have found my true match I <3 *****! ..byebye expedia!

[cloveygrl]

I found an awesome TA using this. While everyone pretty much has the same price for Celebrity cruises - this one threw in a bunch of perks and had reserved/bought some of the best cabins ahead of time for thier customers.

[VikingRob]

Booked our next cruise through them, saved over $150 per person, so far great service too.

[Coral]

I used them to book a cruise and got an excellant price but more importantly I found an excellant TA. One thing not published, is that if you book any more cruises through the TA that do not go through CC, the TA still has to pay a fee to them for each cruise you book for up to one year.

 

Dave

 

Do you know if the fee is a set fee ($20 per booking) or a percentage fee (3% of the cost of the cruise). I often wondered what the financial arrangement is - I thought maybe they just paid a set fee to work with Cruise Compete and didn't realize it was a per booking fee and lasts a year.. Interesting!

[jetskier]

Coral,

I believe it is a set fee. What surprised me was that they continued to collect on future bookings even if the booking did not go through them. The way they view it is that any future bookings through that TA was because of the original request generated by CC and that they are entitled to a cut.

 

Dave

[DanJ]

Kind of a residual finder's fee. I wonder how ***** knows you gave more business to that TA later on in the year?

[jetskier]

My TA said they had a way of finding out so she was not going to take a chance.

Dave

[Katie333]

I saved a whopping $400 pp vs what my TA offered me. After her last less than exemplary service I had no issues booking with the deal I found on CC, and saved $800 for the two of us.

 

I think perhaps it's because I'm located in Canada - our TAs can't seem to touch online prices and won't agree to match (or even come close).

[DanJ]

Has nothing to do with Canada, as my experience indicates. It has to do with perhaps greedy TA's, or ones who don't know how to get good prices for their clients. My TA here in Canada also booked the other 3 couples we have joining us, and 2 of them live in Kentucky, and were happy with our TA's prices after shopping there.

[jwitt2]

This is all very interesting to find out. We are booked on a cruise with an agent we found on *****. When we tried to book another cruise with her, things got messed up, she didn't get back to the cruise line in time, and we lost the cabin for the second cruise, so we booked with our usual agent. I think from now on we will stay with the agent we have used before.