Booking With Ta Versus Cruiseline

[LindaKay]

I have always booked a cruise with a TA. I started this summer with the TA I have used for several years and she kept dropping the ball (one recommended by Conde Nast specializing in cruises in Seattle). By the time she got serious, the time and deck we wanted was gone. It's partly my fault for not telling her to pay attention to me or I'm contacting someone else. For future bookings I'm wondering how the Seadream staff is to deal with or do you experienced hands recommend always using a TA? The reports on the board are mixed.

LindaKay

[Mr_Cruise]

Well, firstly let it be known that I am a cruise TA and work for a fairly big online agency.

 

The fact is that 90% of cruises are booked with a TA and not directly.

 

Why??

 

Personal service, so the client always has the convenience of consistently dealing with one person as opposed to a call centre and being "a booking number"

 

Big cruise agencies get preferred pricing from their preferred suppliers. My clients can not book fares lower directly through the cruise line than the cruise line will offer me to book for them.

 

It doesn't cost a single penny more to have me work for them. ( at least where I work, there are no service fees etc.)

 

24/7 contact by email directly to me, or 800#, to answer important questions along the way.

 

Price protection if fares drop before final payment. (rare, but has been known to happen).

 

An agency can "fight for the client" when the cruise line is being unreasonable (and we have more leverage due to having a lot of bookings with them etc.)... therefore alleviating the stress and pressure of them having to do it themselves.

 

 

Of course, ultimately everyone's different and free to make their own decisions. Some people enjoy doing all of these things themselves, and others are not aware that for less money someone else (like me) can do it for them.

[Verystormy]

I would also like to add something regarding agents in the UK. It is normal for large cruise agencies in the UK to receive a commision of 14-17 percent of the cost of the cruise, this is then partly used to discount the cruise for the customer, usually by about 10 percent from the best fare the cruise line offers. Its also not unusual for a TA to actually know more about a ship than the person you speak to at the cruise line, particularly for the UK where many ships that concentrate on europe are booked with a line in the US where the telephone operator has never even seen the ship. Or conversly with many ships that operate outside europe, the cruise company may be based in the UK and never seen the ship, but most TA's receive the chance to regularly visit and cruise for free on ships as a educational programme - i have spent 6 days on 6 different ships recently and completed week cruise in the last few months

[surfklutz]

I recommend using a travel agent - but find one who goes beyond just simply booking the trip. I have an agent who anticipates the information that I will need when I get to my destination - and has arranged everything in advance. To give you an example - she knew that Pompeii in July would be hot - so she arranged with the cruise line to deliver a battery operated fan and a nice water bottle as a pillow gift from her the night before we took our excursion.

 

She also suggests trips to us - based on the type of trip we have enjoyed in the past- places we are not familiar with and would never know to ask for. A great example of that is an extension she arranged after a cruise in France - taking the narrow guage rail up the Alps and staying overnight in a hilltown called Entrevoux. We were transported back to Medieval times - but the place she found us to stay within the walled city was first class.

 

Certain travel agents also can offer shipboard credits that the cruise line directly will not offer. I have found that I can plan what I want to do - but a good agent will be able to pull all the pieces together in a way that it all becomes seamless.

 

I just had my agent book the SeaDream Carnival cruise in Brazil in Feb 2007. Wow! What a trip that will be~

[zqvol]

With SD, in spite of our issues with a cancled cruise due to a charter, there is no need to use a TA. The ships are so samll that the staff is fine to work with.