To use a TA or Not o use a TA

[Bostoncruiser35]

Hello Cruisers~

First let me begin by saying this is not a req for yor TA info , that is not allowed on this site. I just want to know what are the pros and cons to using a TA. Is it better to do it all on your own? I will have about 28 people travelling and wil need 13 cabins. on on the Norwegian Boston to Bermuda for a July vow renewal.:D

[Dancinblind]

I chose to use a travel agent because of the perks that my TA was able to offer (example 1 free birthing ticket for every 8 cabins booked, on board credit per stateroom, picture credit for formal night) and the shear number of people that are sailing after our wedding. We planned our wedding 2 years in advance as soon as Carnival released their sailing itenarary so that gave everyone time to contact our TA and secure their reservation and pay a little on their stateroom every month. Everyone who is going said it was a great idea to do it like that and a lot less of a financial burden because they paid out over time. It was less stress for me and easier on the guests. I stay in constant contact with my TA so I know who all is paid, what cabin number everyone is in, confirmed we are all dining together. I am very much a "need to be in control" bride, but handing this over to my TA was the best decision. Afterall, I'm an accountant... not a travel agent :O)

 

Best advice i can give is to compare, compare, compare!! Contact various TA's and even the group reservation department and work each to your best benefit. Don't be afraid to play one off the other and ask for perks. It is all negotiable and in this day... they all want the almighty dollar in the end and are willing to give you and your guests perks for your reservations. I should know... I have a completely free cruise (sans taxes and gratuities) that my husband and I will get to take less then 6 months after our wedding (as our official honeymoon) because of the birthing tickets we have gotten from everyone who has booked for our friends-n-family moon for our November wedding. And you can't complain about a free cruise :o)

 

Best of luck and congratulations on your vow renewal!!

[Artemis908]

I regret using a TA, but that's because I am an experienced traveler and I know what I need and where to find the proper information. She didn't add any value and my mother had some issues with her. She asked the travel agent to type up the info about the room options on the cruise for her so she could forward it to our relatives and the TA refused. I didn't even actually hear from her at all after we booked either.

 

From this point on I don't think I plan on using a TA ever again. Another thing to note, I've read cruise lines are more likely to give you an upgrade if you book through them. It's all about which passenger gave them the most money for their cruise, which makes sense.

[JulieRose]

My TA is completely useless. I emailed her the Friday before labor day and still haven't heard back.

[reggiesmommy]

Although I'm going on a different cruiseline, I weighed these same options and ultimately decided NOT to use a TA. First, I have several very savvy cruisers in my party who were willing to provide guidance to those who are first-timers, which helped. Second, I've never used one before and I wasn't impressed with the few who I spoke with and wasn't willing to just hope they would do a good job.

 

We opted not to even do a group booking. Instead we're giving everyone our cruise rep's contact info and she is linking our reservations together. We're not getting the group points everyone talks highly about, but when we did our research we learned that all of those "perks" cost our guests money - those fares are higher than the fares we got by not doing a group booking. Since price was a factor for a number of our guests, we didn't want to force them to do the higher rate group booking.

 

I think if you're willing to put time & effort into your website to give people enough info, you don't really need a TA. Good luck!!

[CPT Trips]

We had almost all first time cruisers sailing with us. The experienced cruisers had used TAs for their trips and so weren't going to be a lot of help. We knew our TA from church and he has done a lot of groups. He has a web site and put up all the key info there.

 

Many of the people traveling with us needed significant handholding. It would have driven me nuts, so it was great to be able to repeat the mantra "why don't you give Kent a call." He was invaluable in terms of "reminding" people that money was due, doing all the on-line registration and preembarkation paperwork as well as sending the boarding passes etc. to everyone. Once we were past final payment date he worked with us to take advantage of the line's price drops and get some of the people upgrades. In addition, he arranged a couple of group cocktail parties for us (even comping us one).

 

A GOOD TA is well worth the cost (zero) and saves the bride and her family a lot of aggravation, time, and (in the case of needing to nag for payments) hurt feelings. All that said, we did work with him on cabin selection once people decided on the type of cabin they wanted. The line seemed to just want to assign the next cabin - we made sure people got a "good" cabin in their category.

[HiSpeed LowDrag]

My wedding is in January on the Glory, we currently have 27 people booked to come with us with several more on the fence. We did not use a TA, being a first time cruiser we didn't really think of it when we booked. I definitely would have considered using one since it sounds like they can make things easier and make it easier to get perks for the group. With that being said, we have had no issues with not using one. We sent out wedding invites, educated ourselves and had a great point of contact at carnival to help our friends and family book. We are sending out some info in a welcome letter in the next couple of weeks that should fill in any information gaps that there might be.

[Cattie]

I didn't use a TA and still booked as a group and got the OBC's and free berth. It depends on the cruise line. We sailed RCCL.

[Lipz]

We used a TA and had only 12 sailing guest. In the end I am so glad we did because we didn't have to deal with anyone's booking issues which is great when you have your own wedding planning issues to deal with. I am also gald we used a TA because when the final payment was due someone in our party wasn't going to be able to pay it until the following week and the whole group booking would have been cancelled affecting everyone. With the TA handling it we didn't have to deal with 'saving' the booking and by the time we knew it happened it was already being taken care of by the TA.

[jebuell]

A GOOD TA can be very helpful. A bad TA can ruin an experience so do ask around wherever you can for a good referral.

 

Even if you are an experienced traveller you never know what could happen and having a TA could save the day. Like if your cruise gets canceled just days before you are scheduled to leave (just take a look at my siggy... that does happen!). You'll be stressed out enough as it is that you shouldn't also have to take on the responsibility of calling your guests to alert them to any changes you may be making. Let you TA handle that AND the new travel arrangements.

 

But, again, a bad TA will just add more stress, so it's important to find a good one AND one that specializes in cruise weddings.