U.K. Members: How do you book your cruise?

[kelly@]

We were surprised by the results of a survey revealed last week at the U.K. Cruise Convention in Southampton, an annual event for travel agents. According to Capela Travel Training, which offers marketing training for employees in the travel business, 68 percent of customers who book a cruise through a travel agent don’t go back to that same agent because they feel 'unloved and uncontacted' after their holiday.

 

So where do they go and how do they book? We thought we’d ask you, our members, how you book your cruise holidays. Please let us know and vote in our poll!

[LoisGriffin1]

My first cruise was through a high street travel agent. They were helpful enough but I went for a cruise specialist and am much happier. Most of the time I am not going to want to book a package deal. I like arranging transport and hotel myself thats a little more difficult with high street agents

[N&PJ]

We have now done several cruises and always use a specialist cruise agent. We do tend to shop around for the best deal and at the moment are destination/itinerary motivated. We find that the 'specialists' are on the whole very customer focused and knowledgeable - we have had only a couple of minor disappointments with individual members of staff.

[dannysdad]

I booked our Caribbean cruise on RCCL with an American travel agent on the internet.

 

Our first and 3rd cruises through a UK cruise specialist by phone.

 

 

 

Are we there yet?

[jocap]

We research carefully, and have several TA firms (including CC) who e-mail us with last minute offers. The last one we took was at a minimal price.

We are concerned about eg. TV travel adverts, which go on and on about how cheaply they can do a deal, but never mention the gratuities, which have come as an enormous shock to new cruisers.....we know several who have been caught that way. I would never trust a TA again who forgot to mention the American way of tipping.

If we're not on a last minute deal, we go with a local TA who does transport from door to ship, which cuts down the stress of travelling to the ship or airport.

Jo.

[sandian]

Our first was booked through a high street TA who we were very happy with. Second for some reason I booked over the phone with a well known chain, not happy at all.

 

This time tried to book online with Cruise Company but was blocked so ended up phoning Cruise Specialist whom we booked with very happy with the service so far and will probably do the same next time

[John Bull]

We now have a preferred agency, a cruise specialist that we know & trust.

But they're still going to try to get their best price - that's their job - so we shop around before we contact them, then give them the opportunity to match or beat the best price/deal that we can find. They usually do.

We find that shopping around, then getting the one we like/trust the most to price-match, also works well with other purchases - cars, insurances, property repairs, etc

 

I have the same attitude as Jo

I do fret when I hear about newbies who book straight from a newspaper advert with an enticing ticket price - lambs to the slaughter :eek:

 

 

John Bull