Best way to book RCI?

[Cruisin'40]

We are looking to book a holiday cruise with RCI, usually book Princess with a TA but prices for Royal seem quite a bit higher than Princess. What is the most cost effective way to book RCI? I realize there probably won't be any great bargains to be had on a holiday cruise.

Any booking tips would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

[Baxters_DH]

We to have been sole Princess sailors..For this cruise we went with RCI and our "BEST" experience to date has been with Travelocity....we have been monitoring the prices on their website and have saved several hundreds of dollars even after final payment has been made.

[Tyler80]

I seem to enjoy booking thru a travel agent, especially an agent who's been on a cruise thru the cruise line you'll be traveling on. They can answer the questions you'll have about your cruise (because they've been there) and if anything happens to your vacation they can act as a client advocate for you, because after all, you put the responsibility on their shoulders to book your vacation for you and to make sure everything is done right. Yes you can do it yourself for cheaper on the internet, but if something goes wrong or you don't enjoy your vacation, then all you can do is blame yourself.

[Lewdog]

One word, Travelocity!

[ksoze]

If you are using this board, you already are capable of using the net to handle your quetions and concerns that a TA would answer.

 

I would book directly with RC, using the web site. Between this board and the 800 RC customer number, any qustions can be handled and at your convienence. I can find no benefit to using a TA for a RC cruise unless one is adverse to doing their homewrok on line. Bythe time i asked the TA the anser is here or available at all hours from RC.

[negc]

If you are using this board, you already are capable of using the net to handle your quetions and concerns that a TA would answer.

 

I would book directly with RC, using the web site. Between this board and the 800 RC customer number, any qustions can be handled and at your convienence. I can find no benefit to using a TA for a RC cruise unless one is adverse to doing their homewrok on line. Bythe time i asked the TA the anser is here or available at all hours from RC.

 

How often have you had occasion to call RCI customer service and how often did they answer your questions satisfactorily? In my experience, it is the luck of the draw as to whether or not the customer service representative who answers your call knows the correct answer to your question. Call back and another representative may give you a completely different answer. Then you have to figure out which answer was the right one. (The same situation prevails with most customer service department of any large corporation, so I'm not trying to pick on RCI). As to the information available on this board, while much of it is good and some is excellent, there is still enough misinformation bandied about that I wouldn't rely totally on anything I read here.

[Frick_&_Frack]

I booked my last RCCL cruise (Voyager, 9/9/05) directly with RCCL and had no problems at all with them. The pricing was terrific and customer service wonderful.

 

I booked my next RCCL cruise (Explorer, 9/8/06) while onboard Voyager. Again, no problems with shoreside customer service since the booking.

 

If you need assistance with cabin selection and itinary selection, then a TA who specializes in cruises is helpful. If you don't need the assistance, the best way to go is however you get the best price. I've been on 26 cruises so a TA doesn't help much unless it's pricing (like my NCL cruise next week - Cruise411.com got me a great deal - much better than NCL).

 

Heidi

[catnt2]

I would stay book through a TA (not online 'all in one' company) or RCCL.....

 

Cruise lines have put a stop to the discounts (unless RCI sponsored) and give aways some online companies used to use to get customers. If they are caught they will loose their account. Not worth it to me.

 

But also be careful about the "added" fees!! some of the online companies will charge for anything extra they do after the cruise has been booked and some charge a per person processing fee. If the price of your cruise goes down and you want the refund or upgrade to another cabin......they will charge you to do this.

 

Read the Fine Print before you buy!!

[ksoze]

As to the information available on this board, while much of it is good and some is excellent, there is still enough misinformation bandied about that I wouldn't rely totally on anything I read here.

 

One could probably say the same for many TA's.

 

As far as the quality of answers from RCI, I found it good enough for most questions. For someone with no knowledge of cruising or cruise lines, a TA can be a valuable asset. For those who do the research, I think the need is diminshed especially with no financial benefit from the TA's use. I have used TA's for other type of trips, but find the wealth of information on cruising and RCI's web site and cust service to be suffcient to make the decisons necessary to plan a great trip.

[GuyFromCalifornia]

... As to the information available on this board, while much of it is good and some is excellent, there is still enough misinformation bandied about that I wouldn't rely totally on anything I read here.

True. But these these boards do have one advantage and that is that when someone posts something as "fact" that dozens, or even hundreds, of eyes have a chance to comment on the accuracy or inaccuracy of the statement. That form of group validation is difficult to impossible to obtain when dealing with a single TA.

 

Having said that, I still deal with a TA for my bookings, but I have raised some "interesting" questions with them based on knowledge I obtained in this forum and others.

[smrtypnts]

Most of the time the price for RCCL is the same through anyone you use, from RCCL themselves to all the travel agents. That said, some of the travel agents are willing to give you other "gifts" as incentive for using them. Some might give you an upgrade or two, otheres may give you a bottle of wine each day. I used i cruise dot com and had a wonderful experience with them.

[Libracruzer]

I use a Cruise Only TA. Great every time.

[ilv2cruis]

I agree with you GuyFromCalifornia.This place is great for information, and after spending time on the board, you get a pretty good feel on what is to be believed and what is not to be believed. I also believe you can out grow a TA. The first few cruise we use a TA alot to get info, then you learn how to get your own info and get quicker by yourself. The next many cruise we booked on board after our own investigation and then had it moved to our TA, I guess out of loyalty. Many times we have learned something on this board and called our TA to do something and she has told us "Oh no that isn't true", guess what this board has been correct. We have booked our next 2 cruises directly from RCI and plan to leave it with RCI. Customer Service has been great, One warning about getting into your reservation, you can mess it up. Don't ask me how cause I still can't tell you exactly what I did, but I did do it,lol. The RCI rep even told me my log in, what time I was in and what time my husband was in and what pages we even viewed. If you are logged into your reservation and go and see what cabins are available and prices and click onto a cabin number you can change your cabin. We have an aft Junior Suite booked on the Splendor. I inadvertantly changed our cabin to a side Junior Suite. I never even knew I did it. My husband went in later and said our cabin changed. We didn't understand what happened, called RCI and the rep told us exactly what I had done. He changed it back for us, and asked me if I was just a little excited about the cruise. I said yes, why? That's when he told me how often I had viewed our reservation, ok, sometimes more than once a day. He chuckled and wished me a great cruise. What can I say, yes, I am addicted,lol.