Booking first RC cruise suggestions

[jlm41]

We have been on 3 Carnival cruise before.  We are planning to take first RC cruise this summer. 

Where is the best place to book RC cruise?  

 

I see that expedia is offering some OBC on booking.  Do you guys have any suggestions for booking the RC cruise for this summer? 

I am looking to book a 7 night Bahama cruise on Oasis of seas out of New Jersey. 

[Biker19]

24 minutes ago, jlm41 said:

Where is the best place to book RC cruise?

Talking about TAs is frowned upon here at CC.

[stevea36]

Find a good TA that is very fluent in cruising (especially those from RCI).   They should be giving you a bunch of commission back as additional OBC (on top of what RCI may be offering).   Good TAs will also have group space available at a discount compared with the RCI site.  

 

Unfortunately, it is against the rules to discuss individual TAs or agencies on this site or I would help you out.

 

Steve

 

[emory2001]

I've only ever booked directly with Royal Caribbean. I want direct control over my reservation and it's not worth a little bit of OBC to me, to have someone else do it.

[thrifty99]

We have booked direct and through large agencies. One problem to be aware of going through an agency is they sometimes put you in some sort of a group booking. This happened to us once and we could not take advantage of a price drop later as it was part of a group booking that we were not aware of. 
 

We mainly just book direct with RC now to have complete control over the reservation. 

[awestover89]

1 minute ago, thrifty99 said:

We have booked direct and through large agencies. One problem to be aware of going through an agency is they sometimes put you in some sort of a group booking. This happened to us once and we could not take advantage of a price drop later as it was part of a group booking that we were not aware of. 
 

We mainly just book direct with RC now to have complete control over the reservation. 

You can still get price drops if in a group booking (there are a few special drops, like casino royale that don't work, but regular drops do) I've had two reservations that were in a group booking and had a price drop below the group rate and getting them repriced was no trouble at all.

[thrifty99]

10 minutes ago, awestover89 said:

You can still get price drops if in a group booking (there are a few special drops, like casino royale that don't work, but regular drops do) I've had two reservations that were in a group booking and had a price drop below the group rate and getting them repriced was no trouble at all.

I recall there were other perks they had offered as part of the group booking (free gratuities, specialty restaurants, etc.).  If we took advantage of a price drop, we were removed from the group booking that provided the extras so it in effect kept us from taking advantage of price drops. Just something to be aware of or ask if not going direct to RC. 

[awestover89]

8 minutes ago, thrifty99 said:

I recall there were other perks they had offered as part of the group booking (free gratuities, specialty restaurants, etc.).  If we took advantage of a price drop, we were removed from the group booking that provided the extras so it in effect kept us from taking advantage of price drops. Just something to be aware of or ask if not going direct to RC. 

Ok, yeah. You'll get the perks of whatever promo you're officially priced under, so you'd lose the group specific promos (although I'm pretty sure you'd still get the GAP allocations, just not the other group perks)

[vacationlover_mn]

I tend to book direct with RCI, cuz I like full control of my reservation #imacontrolfreak