Best way to book a cruise

[cruiseanywhere2]

I booked this year's cruise online with P and O please can anyone advise is this the best way to book or have you used travel agents or internet companies and got a better deal.

Thank you.

[southwinds]

Strange you should ask this when you are on a cruise Travel agent web site that you can get a quote from to compare prices... You dont say if you did this before you booked...

For my past cruises... always in 15 years a TA has given a cheaper price than going direct. maybe you got a good deal.

I shop around and compare.. there is a new site for comparing prices but I wont upset this site by quoteing its name but its easy to work out but being new only a few agents are on there.

 

Some agents even do deals for past customers..

 

as with all things in life shop around..

[jeanlyon]

TA's in general give about 11-12% discount on P&O prices. I would never book with P&O direct.

[cruiseluvva]

We always book through the same TA. In theory, because we don't shop around, they could be more expensive than others, though in actual fact this has never been the case in any of our cruises.

 

However, a little extra cost would be worth it, for the superb service we receive, that goes way beyond what might be called usual.

 

I feel finding a TA you are happy with and sticking with them, is more important than saving a few pounds.

[Thejuggler]

A week ago we asked a TA to price up a week in the western Med on RCI - total cost for an inside cabin for three (2 adults, one child) £6,600!

 

When I had managed to get back on my feet after falling off my chair I asked if that was the best price, to be told it was the price coming up on their system.

 

I immediately came home and went on a cruise website and found the same cruise in a superior balcony cabin for £3,500.

 

Previously this agent had beaten everyone else, so shop around and play them off against each other.

[u2cruiser]

We check the online TAs, make a few phone calls then ring our usual TA to ask for a price match. They usually come pretty close.

 

Surprisingly, we went to the future cruise desk on Ventura in October to check out an Azura price for this year. It was some kind of sale and that was the last day of the sale, which we didn't quite believe. We were given quite a good price and the offer to move it to our regular TA (which they had details of on their screen from our last booking) in order to get their benefits and OBC too.

 

We didn't book it there and then as we wanted to think about it. The result is we've paid £200 more than that offer, for the same grade of cabin. So P&O direct isn't always more expensive.:(

[Quercus]

I think booking onboard is a lot different to booking online, which is what most mean by booking direct.

[PRIORY ROAD]

We booked our first cruise direct with P&O and discovered that we had paid slightly more than our fellow table companions who recommended a TA to us who gave good deals. Since then we have always shopped around. There are many web-based TA offering cruises, also look in the daily papers - particularly The Mail at the week-end, and also the High Street TAs. There is so much choice out there and they all want your custom so play them against each other.

[cruiseanywhere2]

Thank you for your replies, I am happy with the price we paid but for our next cruise I will be shopping around a bit more.

I find this site very helpful and am really looking tom our holiday, especially as our last holiday didn't happen as I fell and broke my leg the day before we were to fly to Kenya :(

[annieuk]

If you are talking about P&O may I suggest you look on the P&O site for their recommended cruise agents - not P&O themselves. I would say who we book with but I don't think you are allowed to on this site. Another point, although most of the cruise agents (not high street travel agents) will have websites, I have found that if you call them you may well get a better price than that on the internet. I also prefer to speak to someone in order to make sure I get what I want in terms of choice of cabin, dining sitting etc. There are often cabins available that are not on the internet of a particular agent but certainly the cruise people we use then get onto P&O direct to see which cabins are available.

 

I usually go onto the P&O site and start the booking process just in order to see which cabins are available so when I talk to my agent I have a good idea which cabin I can select.

 

Hope this helps.

[u2cruiser]

I think booking onboard is a lot different to booking online, which is what most mean by booking direct.

 

Is it known to be cheaper onboard than on the P&O website Quercus? I didn't know that.

[Lance1224]

Hello,

 

I am thinking of booking a P+O cruise . We are in the US. Should we go thru our travel agent , go online, or book with P+O? Thanks for your

help.

 

Lance1224:)

[jeanlyon]

Book with a UK online TA. Lots around. Search on Google.co.uk

[hooked cruiser]

I never book with the Cruise Line directly as you will not get as bigger reduction from them.

However when it comes to booking through a Travel Agent (on-line) NEVER book direct from their Web page but check 2 or 3 different companies for comparisons and then telephone each of them direct and get another quote as this can (and often does) provide an even cheaper quote.

 

I sometimes play them against each other and suprisingly you may get an even cheaper price.

 

We have to remember that in these times of recession even they are looking for better ways to entice new customers.

:)We have 4 future cruises booked and after bartering for a better price for all 4 we saved over £2000 for only an hours work.

[BrianI]

A specialist cruise travel agency is usually better than a general high street travel agency. A list of P&O "preferred" travel agents can be seen here.

http://www.pocruises.com/Travel-Agent/

Often you can get a better price by phoning them, rather than going by their website, as they dont want to disclose their real price to competitors.

 

The best deals seem to be either when the new brochures are released in April or about 8 weeks before departure when people have to pay the full amount and a few drop out and the cruise lines become more desparate to fill their ships.

Brian