The Best Deal

[papae]

Who do you think has the best deals?

Internet travel agency's

Hometown Agency's

Rccl

 

Just wondering.....

[firefly333]

RCL does not allow discounting, but some TAs offer perks. Hometown TAs are probably so small they cannot afford to offer as many perks as a large TA?

 

RCL agents dont work on commission so they cannot take money out of their commission to give you a perk. In fact I hear if they do, they would probably be fired

[Twice_a_year]

RCI offers some super deals. I recently saved $2,500 on two cabins with a toal of 7 people. It was a 2 day sail by RCI that my T/A found for me. You can do the same thing by following the published prices.

[KMagz]

I find the cruise fare prices are close to identical.

 

The value from TA's (Internet based) are the perks they throw in (pre-paid gratuities, ship board credit, etc...) Local TAs give some perks (face-to-face interaction, gift bottle or wine in the cabin or robes to keep, etc...)

 

There is some value IMO to book myself on RCCL's website so I can control the reservation myself (changing cabins online at 2:00 am for example.) And RCCL does occasionally offer ship board credit specials too.

[lindalo5032]

In my experience, booking VERY early gets me the lowest price. Then I watch closely for any price drops or discounts (senior, military, etc.). Right before final payment date I go to the website with competing travel agents and see who can give me the best deal for OBC.

 

For my Allure cruise in September, I booked over a year ahead of the sailing date on a WOW sale, got $100 OBC from RCI, got a D3 cabin for $1089 pp, then got another $240 OBC from a TA. Current prices are much higher for that sailing date.

[Desert Cruizers]

I also book our cruises early when they first open the dates, get the cabin we want, then watch for price drops. If I see a drop I can contact our TA without any worries of missing out. Once thinking there was a reduced rate several months into the booking, and when she checked, factoring in all cost, cruise, insurance port fees, we would have actually paid more, because the overall cruise price had gone up for our category, $200. Some did save becasue they booked later but still paid more then we did.

[Merion_Mom]

RCI offers some super deals. I recently saved $2,500 on two cabins with a toal of 7 people. It was a 2 day sail by RCI that my T/A found for me. You can do the same thing by following the published prices.

 

(ppppsssssttttt...........there's no such thing as Port Liberty. It's Cape Liberty. ;))

[krewzin]

Internet travel agencies. They'll give you the same quoted rate as the cruise line, and normally a generous OBC (some much better than others). And depending on the travel agency, you can often times use the OBC to reduce the price of your cruise right up front.

 

We used to book early....now we book 3-6 weeks before the cruise.

[Merion_Mom]

Internet travel agencies. They'll give you the same quoted rate as the cruise line, and normally a generous OBC (some much better than others). And depending on the travel agency, you can often times use the OBC to reduce the price of your cruise right up front.

 

We used to book early....now we book 3-6 weeks before the cruise.

 

Many of those internet agencies charge change fees and cancellation fees. They also reduce or remove the "perks" they offer if you get a price drop or use a balcony discount or C&A coupon.

 

Ask those questions BEFORE booking.

[krewzin]

Many of those internet agencies charge change fees and cancellation fees. They also reduce or remove the "perks" they offer if you get a price drop or use a balcony discount or C&A coupon.

 

Ask those questions BEFORE booking.

 

 

Excellent advice; if you do your homework and choose carefully, you can get exactly what you want with a very generous rate reduction.;)

[Texmike]

We have always used local small town travel agents in Texas-We cruised on carnival last Summer and got a $200 on board credit which helped a lot

 

We have never gotten an onboard credit using Royal Caribbean

 

But we need to check out more travel store websites instead of staying local- But they are very knowledgeable for the most part and easy to deal with on a first name basis

 

Guess you have to do a lot of leg work (on the internet) to find good deals. I'm not that good at that but will have to when we cruise again