dockman

Another benefit of back to back is if you like you can buy a bottle or two of booze onboard from the duty free shop and it is delivered to your room at the end of leg one allowing you to have your own bottle in your room for leg 2.....must be two different booking numbers which would be normal if book two 7 days back to back rather than one 14 day.

I think that the number of travel agents that really know the various products including cruises that they sell from first hand experience is dwindling. Once upon a time travel agents were treated to some very good agent rates and fam trips so they could actually experience the products first hand and thereafter provide their clients with their expertise. But those "perks" are rapidly either getting worse or disappearing and of course the younger agents likely can't afford to go on a bunch of trips to learn the products without getting big discounts/comps/fam trips.. On the flip side you can now go to you tube and watch all kinds of videos, some very well and professionally done, others just average people sharing their videos and opinions. Once upon a time if you became a travel agent you maybe did not make a lot of $$ but the perks were very very attractive. Now the pay is still lousy and the perks are a shadow of what they once were. I would guess that a lot of the outside/home agents are people who did go on a lot of cruises, liked it and thought i can share my experience and expertise and make a few bucks selling cruises. Many of them have been reasonablly succesful but a lot of them quickly find out that going on a lot of cruises and selling and booking a lot of cruises for the general public can be a real challenge. As it was once said in the travel biz, those that can sell will sell. Those who can't sell will rebate bug chunks of their commissions to "buy" bookings. Some do it to make a few bucks. Some do it in the hopes that their volume may get them invited on fam trips or get agent rates or worst case they make a commission booking their own and maybe families cruises. While there are certainly some very good travel agents left they are a dying breed and every year more and more of them retire, die,or just get tired of doing a lot of work only to have another agent offer to rebate a big portion of their commission to take "their" client. There are also plenty of agents who do a lot of work, give good solid advice based on years of experience and then the client never calls back and they later find they booked via an OTC or big box store who gave them a gift card or OBC etc. Some agents have tried charging an upfront fee that is refunded when clients book.....but it seems most people still think that travel agents provide a free service and are unwilling to pay a fee...more likely they ask for/demand a rebate.

Cruisers specifically are becoming more comfortable booking on their own. Phocuswright's U.S. Cruise Market Report 2021-2025 found that direct bookings increased to 22% in 2021, up from 10% in 2020, and direct offline sales increased to 27% from 14%. The report cited as causes reduced availability of travel advisors, shorter and more easily online-bookable itineraries, and past cruisers being comfortable booking directly. In a year of testing its platform, Cruisebound found that 91% of purchases were made on a mobile device and that the average customer was 36 years old.

When the airlines first began to cut travel agents commissions and later eliminate them there were many agent groups who thoght that it would not last. They were very wrong. Now the airlines have most booking online as well as doing their own seat assignments and other tasks that the airlines reps and travel agents used to provide. One major factor in the airlines decision to stop paying agents commissions was the number of agencies who were willing to rebate half or so of their commission to get the business that was going direct to the airlines. I believe it was Crandall president of American who opined that if agents are giving away half of the commission we are paying them then we must be paying them too much....it is not totally different from all the agents who now rebate a big chunk of their commission in order to get people to book with them instead of direct with cruise lines. Cruise lines are more complex but at the same time the technology as well as the desire/ability to book online is increasing. Every year the percentage of direct bookings increases a bit more. As the bean counters look at cruise expense/revenue lines in the never ending search to decrease expenses and raise revenues one expense that jumps out is agent commissions. IMO the cruise lines have done a horrible job of making their online booking engines/websites/technology user friendly...just look at the horrible roll outs of things like the medalions which after years still apparently is full of bugs and glitches. But....one of these days that will change and the cruiseline sites will be fixed to make online booking a simple process for anyone with even a bit of computer savy...which of course increases every day as more younger people book cruises and more of the not so savy older clients will pass away. I suspect in a few more years the direct bookings numbers will continue to increase.....a lot of the old time travel agents are fading away and not a lot of young people are choosing a travel agent career. ,,,and who can blame them as the pay is generally low and the old days of getting offered all sorts of special fam trips, comp or greatly reduced price agent rates are rapidly disappearing. Why the major cruise lines don't hire or buy the software used by the major online booking companies is a mystery. While their sites are not yet perfect they seem light years better than the cruise lines sites. Bottom line: The days of travel agents being paid to "take over" a booking that was made direct with the cruise line are numbered. Once the cruise line figures out how to properly use technology to eliminate a lot of cruise line staff expense as well as travel agent commissions they will do it. Eventually I suspect that the cruise sites will have virtual agents who with some AI help will be able to answer any and all questions, give an HD video tour of any room or area of the ship better than most any agent. United Airlines for years told travel agents over and over that we are "partners in travel"....then they found a way to eliminate them and they did it and have never looked back. Those who think nothing will change need to read "who moved my cheese".

would seem to me that everyone you dealt with at HA was indeed "doing" or at least attempting to do some work and they no doubt are paid by HA to speak direct with clients....if they are clueless that is even more reason to have a competent travel agent handle all the dealings.......still don't understand why your agent could not have handled the entire transaction dealimg with HA agents who are hired to deal with agents (and not necessarily direct with clients) as that is after all a big part of why agents get paid commissions.. my point is that sooner or later this commission payment to agents system will change and not be as agent friendly....you can;t have it both ways that your agent handles all the dealings and then say "except in this case or that case"....

so OP travel agent could not get the deal so the HAL rep figured it out and did all the work and now the booking gets transferred to the agent who will make a nice commission?? i guess the first question is WHY was travel agent not able to get on the phone or online and get the deal for OP and do the work? One of these days the cruise lines are going to get very tired of paying their agents for doing bookings and dealing with clients and then wham it all gets transferred to agent who gets a nice commission check after most of the work is already done....once upon a time travel agents got paid for selling a cruise and handling all the communications and questions with the client...fair enough as saves the cruise line from having to pay their staff to deal with it. But is if fair for an agent who has no involvment with client until after it is all sorted and booked to come in right before final payment and say give me a commission?

no idea where she stashed it as i only saw the bills....

my ex always seemed to find a place for a credit card no matter what she wore....as amex said...don't leave home without it.

seems always a place for a credit card though?

Me as well. Not a big deal but i often wonder why so many people like to wear their key or medallion on a lanyard around their neck? Reminds me of being a kid at summer camp. Key in pocket for me. Of course I also wonder why in the world people would spend $$ to buy special bracelets etc to hold a medallion but obiously they must sell as cruise lines sure like to push all the accessories. I have a drawer full of old key cards and don't need more memorablilia...but that is just me maybe.

He was on majestic mexico for couple of months few years ago...i went on 3 back to backs and saw leo presentations 3 different times and never got bored...he is also very nice guy to get to know...anyone who was/is a fan of fleetwood mac, the beach boys, and many other groups will love to hear his stories about his decades of managing and touring with some great bands...he also has lots of pics and videos and has a well organized series of several lectures.....he makes teh presentations about the bands and not about himself and explains he will not go into sorid details of their sex lives etc...in other words even though he saw a lot he doesn;t necessarily go there...but he sure has some interesting stories to tell....go see leo.

Eventually cruise pricing will more closely align with the way airfares are sold...an alogorithm will monitor it all and compute and forecast how a cruise is selling compared to past history or expectations and then prices will be adjusted in different categories to whatever the computer predicts will give the maximum return...there is no "refaring" on airfares (unless you want to pay a lot more for refundable fares) and eventually i would guess there will be no more refaring on cruises though maybe there will be much higher prices that do allow refunds or refare....but if you book early you will get to choose your preferred cabin, category etc while late bookers will get what is left if anything. They may also sweeten the spot for early bookers by throwing in a few extras like a shore excursion or transfer that is not avail for free to late bookers. There are lots of ways to fill last minute inventory like travel agent fam trips, interline rates, special military rates, teachers rates, etc that are not advertised or available to the general public. Bottom line I highly doubt that there will be zero last minute deals available as no way are they going to want to lock themselves in to no discounts and end up with bunch of empty rooms.

Is there a bad place to watch a sunrise or sunset while at sea? Outside on deck is always good.

The shoulda coulda woulda blues....been there done that.

Casinos and lotteries get tons of free publicity over and over online, tv, newspapers etc everytime somebody hits a jackpot. But only a tiny bit of coverage of the billions upon billions lost by people hoping to have lightning strike. The casinos are also aided by people who constantly lie about how much they win with nary a word about how much they lost. It is a great business model if you can convince the media to play along...and play along they do.

What a crazy world...drink yourself silly with a heavily promoted cruise drink package encouraging even more drinking and promoting likely the most abused drug in the world that has caused untold damage, violence, illness and deaths....but don;t dare bring a pill prescribed by your doctor to help you sleep or off to the slammer you may go.

poor layout and use of space in my opinion...plenty of room for way more books ...looks like a display case in a museum....a real library has a lot of books as well as lots of comfy well lighted seating areas...better than nothing but not exactly a great model

For those who were fortunate enough to sail on the prinsendam....what a nice library that was. Good selection of books, nice section of magazines, wonderful comfortable well lit chairs, lots of space for puzzles etc. Computers to use if you wanted.

Seems to me that it is someone's idea of a "display" rather than a library. Multiple copies of the same books all lined up to look good in a picture. I would rather see those shelves full of paperbacks rather than a photo op for a brochure. The overall "space" is fine but very poor utilization of the space.

Well to each his own but it certainly makes sense to me and many others. Not everyone shares your taste on kindles.

i have more books than that in the trunk of my car....hardly what i would call a "library" for couple thousand passengers.

Which ships? I would recommend you bring a few paperbacks along and then leave them onboard for others in case you are on a ship that basically does not have a real library which unfortunately is becoming more common.

Is it for only active educators or would retired after 35 years also qualify?

If everyone who has ever claimed to win in vegas actually walked away over time a big winner the casinos would have shut down decades ago. Most people always remember the wins but conveniently forget the losses. Casinos love that. A LOT. Just because someone got lucky and hit a jackpot or get hot at a table game etc means nothing. The question is did they quit and leave a winner or did they keep playing and lose that and more back to the casino? Casinos get tons of free press everytime somebody hits a big jackpot and pretty much zero press of the millions that consistently lose day after day, year after year. That is one reason casinos love to call it "gaming" and not gambling....gaming denotes "fun"....while gaming can be a lot of fun losing is generally not all that much fun. Add to that the fact that most players do not have even a basic understanding of odds and basic strategy which further increases house odds and guarantees the casino will always win over time. As we have all heard many times casinos don't build those big massive expensive casinos because they lose money.

with respect an experienced gambler would likely take time to find out what odds are offered onboard before getting on a cruise with odds not to his liking....that info is easily found with a basic search. Would you sit down at a Vegas table without knowing the odds?