can a travel agent directly book a room

[fluffluf]

Looking to do a multi-family trip but not big enough for a group on Carnival and wondered if a TA can actually book a cabin. By that, by doing booking requests on Carnivals site it will show me available cabins in the deck area I am looking at. since we wanted to have our family together I wanted to be able to say ok this family in room say 7112 and know ok they are definitely booked in that cabin at the time on on the phone and not get a call back from a TA to be told that when I called Carnival to do your reservation, cabin 7112 had gotten booked and is not available

[6rugrats]

Yes, if it's available.

[paul929207]

My TA discusses the available rooms with me to select the one she books for me.

[leaveitallbehind]

Looking to do a multi-family trip but not big enough for a group on Carnival and wondered if a TA can actually book a cabin. By that, by doing booking requests on Carnivals site it will show me available cabins in the deck area I am looking at. since we wanted to have our family together I wanted to be able to say ok this family in room say 7112 and know ok they are definitely booked in that cabin at the time on on the phone and not get a call back from a TA to be told that when I called Carnival to do your reservation, cabin 7112 had gotten booked and is not available

 

The only reason they would not be able to book a specific room requested is if when they actually placed the booking, the stateroom was already booked by someone else who contacted the cruise line ahead of your TA.

 

There is no predicting when someone will put a hold or place a booking on a given stateroom as all available staterooms are just that - available - until someone books it. Its a matter of timing with first come, first served. But if at the time you are on the phone with a TA a given stateroom is available, they can book it at that time. So yes, TA's certainly can hold or book any available stateroom at any time on your behalf.

 

When we are planning a cruise with our TA, we will contact her with our choice(s) and she will tell me that she will check availability and get back to me. If our choice is available she will place a hold on it to secure it until we confirm the booking with her.

Edited August 13, 2016 by leaveitallbehind

[Hlitner]

The answer is absolutely. If you are dealing with a decent cruise agency, they have immediate online access to the cruise line's computer system and can immediately snag a specific cabin and get an immediate cruise booking number (so you can verify the booking on the cruise line's on web site). But most of our bookings (all through cruise agencies) are now done online where we choose our own cabin (the same as when booking via a cruise line site) and get instant confirmation. The only difference between booking on a cruise line web site and an agency site is that we generally save 7-10% by using agencies. As to booking online (as opposed to a phone call) we routinely do this with even long cruises...such as a recent 55 day HAL cruise. Our preferred cruise agency computers are directly linked to the cruise line...so you do get real time cabin availability and confirmation. If we feel the need to call an agent, they are also accessing the cruise lines system in real time.

 

Hank

[OCruisers]

Sure, our TA can book any cabin for us as long as it's available. :)

Edited August 13, 2016 by OCruisers

[Roz]

If the category you want to book is only available as a guarantee, then the answer is no. If specific cabins can be booked in that category, then yes, you will see a cabin # on your confirmation. If you don't want to be upgraded (which could mean a location change), then let your TA know that.

 

Roz