Bait and switch from a cruise broker???

[ctkathchick]

Not sure if I can post this question here but here goes. I have been shopping around for a cruise on the Horizon for September of this year. As everyone knows Carnival does not allow their cruises to be discounted by anyone so anything that any other broker does cannot be done with a price drop from the standard price. So anyway I found a broker that was offering prepaid gratuities. It also said Earlysaver and reduced deposits just as Carnival would. It then said to call for free gratuities. I called and they said that to get the free gratuities that I would have to forgo Earlysaver as well as the reduced deposit oh and by the way 50 dollar onboard credit. Let me backtrack for a second and the other offers that they had listed for the same category and room also offered the gratuites as well. The person I was working with looked at the booking online and saw the same thing as I did and did not know what to do about it she spoke with her supervisor and the supervisor offered no actual explanation other than it was incorrect. I put a room on hold until today when she gets back to me as she said she was going to email the promotions dept. Today the whole Earlysaver rate is removed and only the other 2 options remain. Sooo should I or should I not be given the rate that was posted? I am waiting for the person to call me back now to make my final decision.

[bury me at sea]

I rarely respond to "should I" questions.  In this case I will say I would be very leery.

 

A TA can offer incentives not offered by Carnival.  If a TA isn't upfront about matching what is stated on the website I'd hang up and keep looking.

 

There are several ways to book a Carnival cruise.  Use one that makes you comfortable.

[Organized Chaos]

I agree with bmas. If it were me, as soon as I discovered that they weren't being completely honest and wouldn't honor their advertised rate, I'm out. Well, I'd probably give them what for first. 😁 In my opinion, having them pay gratuities isn't nearly enough to continue to do business with them.

 

Carnival has a lot of deals going on right now, and will probably continue to for a while during this hard time. Half off deposits, OBC, etc. You can call them and request a PVP, just be aware that their call center is swamped and wait times could be long. PVP's aren't necessary to make bookings, but when you find a good one, they come in handy, especially if there's problems. Or you could do it yourself if you're comfortable enough. If you'd prefer to use a TA, my vote is for finding a different one.

 

 

 

 

[firefly333]

I wou,d run.

[teknoge3k]

My thing is if there's an issue before you've even made the booking, what other issues are you going to run into down the line. What if you have a problem? I'd skip the broker and book directly with Carnival.