Questions to ask the travel agent

[pampaul]

Our travel agent called earlier and will be here Wednesday night to drop off our docs. He said to have any questions ready for him. This is our first cruise. I've already got a boat load of info from this site, but I'm still trying to write down some questions for him. What is something you would ask?

[imnance]

I would, and will, ask mine what time you must be off the ship when it comes back home.

 

We supposedly get into port at 9am and I want to know how much time I have to get off the boat.

[Keith1010]

Here's some items to think through.

 

Many times the cruise documents show what time that you can embark the ship but the real time is earlier. So, you could ask him to confirm the embarkation time with you.

 

In terms of clothing, do you know the breakdown of formal nights, casual nights and informal (some call it semi-formal) nights so that you know what clothes to take with you. If not, you can ask your TA to get you information on that.

 

Usually the documents come with additional information to help you prepare for the cruise. Be sure to read through all of that and then tell the TA that you may have some followup questions after you read through all of the information.

 

Enjoy your first cruise.

 

Keith

[Happy ks]

First off, how in the heck did you find a TA that will not only drop off your documents and offer to spend time answering a lot of questions! Either he is doing this as a hobby or you are spending a whole lot of $$ with him :) !

 

If you have been reading CC for a while, you probably know far much more than you think you do. I would only confirm the following with him:

 

Travel arrangements, including air, transfers, hotel and cabin accomodations

 

Dining times

 

Dress codes

 

Extra costs, such as gratuities

 

Any excursions he may have arranged for you

 

 

After that, I think you should relax, have a great time and leave some of the experience to your own discovery. Although he has probably come and gone (it's now Saturday and you asked on Monday, sorry I didn't see this post before now) he may welcome a phone call if you have any further questions.

 

Don't forget to take along his phone number, in case you have a travel problem en route. He sounds like a great TA!

[jcanino]

First off, how in the heck did you find a TA that will not only drop off your documents and offer to spend time answering a lot of questions! Either he is doing this as a hobby or you are spending a whole lot of $$ with him !

 

I have been doing that for over 10 years and don't do it for a hobby or only offer it to high paying clients. It is all part of customer service. If my client can't get to my office for whatever reason or wants to meet at their office, we deliver their documents. I have driven over an hour to get documents to a client rather than send them in the mail because I knew I was going to have to go over things with them. CUSTOMER SERVICE!

[Happy ks]

Gee, Joe, you don't happen to live in So. California, do you :)

 

Or, you could fly here to drop off my cruise docs :D

[jlp20]

>>>I have been doing that for over 10 years...CUSTOMER SERVICE!

 

Congratulations, sounds like you’re the perfect guys to deal with novice cruisers. To bad I didn’t know about you a few years back.

 

To the OP, we walked into a local T/A a few years back and bought a cruise. I then found these groups and started reading. After a couple of weeks, I started asking questions on subjects that had not been addressed on the boards.

 

About three months passed and we got the phone call to stop by and pick up the ticket package. Well, we went in and the T/A started a sepal about what travelers should do before getting on the ship. We sat there and after about the third time she gave us wrong information, I started correcting her. I then asked questions just to test her. In short, by reading these boards for two months, I knew more than the person being paid to answer questions.

[jcanino]

Gee, Joe, you don't happen to live in So. California, do you

 

No, but if you decide to relocate to Connecticut, I'ld be happy to help. ;)

[Jonah]

Beware booking with Cruiseship Centers or CruiseMust.com. The guy is all helpful and Mr. Wonderful until you book then he is too busy to answer your questions or help you in any way. We had a group of about 25 and EVERYONE complained about him except one person. He even told someone to just cancel - that he did not care! The person who got the group together said he will use a different travel agent next time. I was promised full view and got part obstructed, which was fine for us but that was not what he told us before we paid. His answer to everything is that it is "not a problem." There are too many good cruise companies out there to put up with being treated this way.The cruise was wonderful but pre-cruise was awful. Good luck and have fun.

[SLOduck]

I agree with Joe. I'm also a travel agent and I DO go over ALL documents with my clients. I don't want ANY possibility of ANYTHING going wrong or them misunderstanding anything!!! I want them to have the best time possible, knowing that if I have taken good care of them on one trip, I will take good care of them again and again.

 

Not only do I take the documents over and go over them with the customers, I fax them the weather for where they are going 2 days prior to them departing so they can pack appropriately, but before THAT, I also send them brochures on things to do prior to them leaving so their household can run seamlessly in their absence (such as calling your credit card co. and letting them know your itinerary), etc.

 

I WANT them to return. In a world of NO customer service, it's easy to actually WOW them with just simple stuff. I happily give customer service.

 

Smitty at Gulliver's in San Luis Obispo

aka SLOduck

[pampaul]

Well, things went well with the TA when he got here. He was here for probably a bit over an hour. He brought all our docs and some brochures (which I'm assuming is standard). I had a list of about 8-10 questions for him. He told us that he would go over all his info that he wanted us to know and said that he would probably answer a couple of my questions along the way. So at the end of his schpiel (sp) he asked me if I had anymore questions, so I looked at my list and he happened to answer all buy ONE question with all the info he gave us. And the last question was kind of a lame one anyways (just wanted some advice on where to get some great pictures). I was amazed that he was so thourough. He said that he was leaving for a 2 week land/sea cruise to Alaska but that he would call once he got back to make sure we didn't have any more questions. Then he told me that he'd call once we got back from the cruise to see how everything went. I was pretty happy with him.

 

~~Joe, I don't know what part of CT your from, but I'm also from CT. So I guess we know that we have some good TA's around here!!!:D

[jcanino]

~~Joe, I don't know what part of CT your from, but I'm also from CT. So I guess we know that we have some good TA's around here!!!:D

 

You would be surprised at the number of educated, knowledgable, customer oriented TA's there are in CT. BTW, I am just southeast of the capitol.

[lvtotrvl1]

There are also good TA's in Va:) Customer service is the key in any business.