Goldiemom

I have use cruise compete several times. The first two times I got OK service but opted not to use the agencies again. On the third time I booked with another agency. I have used that agency for several years now. I book enough cruises that when I call, the agent knows who I am.

I have found that I get the best deals on RCI, Celebrity and Princess. It all depends on which category I am booking. The higher the cabin (price of cruise), the higher the onboard credit. I recently booked a cruise on Celebrity with their 123 promotion. I transfered it over to my agent and got an additional $450 onboard credit. Sometimes they have "group" space that lowers the cruise price.

Bottom line, compare the offers. Check to see if the agency charges to cancel (beyond what the cruise line may or may not charge) and if when you use your credit card to pay deposits and final payments it is charge by the cruise line, NOT the agency.

DanJ

Well, after all that, we finally decided on which cruise we are going to take, and as usual, I plugged the info into cruise compete just for info's sake. Got one offer that I decided to go with. Oasis of the Seas for next January, balcony cabin and an inside right across from it (which my snoring self will probably be banished to lol). Price was about $900 less than the RCI website and a couple hundred less than the other offers, which were pretty similar when you factored in the fare and on board credits. I was a little hesitant, but I checked the agency out online, saw their real storefront on google streetview and they replied to my questions timely. I don't need a lot of hand holding anyway with cruises, although I might call them every so often with some dumb questions just so I can hear her cute southern accent lol.

bigbuy

Mind sharing what agency this is? I have used cruisecompete numerous times and almost every time, it is a different agency.
As for the cute southern accent, my family is Georgia born and raised. My sister worked for AT&T in Atlanta and she often had to have phone conversations with folks up in the northeast. She told me that the guys up there would call her with some silly questions and she finally got one of the guys to fess up. He said they just wanted to hear her talk with that accent.

DanJ

Yes, it was Skyscraper Tours out of Arkansas. Don't recall seeing them in many of my past searches on that site. It was funny with this search though. The prices and credit offers were all over the map and I had to really look through them to see what the best deal ultimately was. This agency had the lowest price, and the lowest on board credit offer. While having $500-600 in obc sounds nice, I would rather a lower fare to begin with, and I'm still getting 100 per cabin obc from the Royal Caribbean promo anyway.

BamaVol

I've always booked cruises with on-line agencies, or in the last instance directly with the cruise line. I'm ready to book for next year - Norwegian Epic in May and decided to try CruiseCompete.com. here's what I got back:

Jun 25 at 9:11 PM

Greetings, BamaVol! Quote requests for Norwegian Cruise Lines operate differently than requests for all other cruise lines on CruiseCompete, here's some important info.:

1. Norwegian does not allow multiple custom quotes to be displayed on our site (sorry: their choice, not ours). Instead, you can click through to get live pricing from our Norwegian Cruise Lines top-producing travel agencies:
Crown Cruise Vacations, Cruise Vacation Outlet, and Cruises-N-More.

2. Please take the time to read and select the special offers on the first screens of each of the agency web sites, as these greatly impact the value of the offers. Please know that we are working with these agencies and their web technology vendor to improve the online experience on these sites.

3. In some cases, you may get better results through contacting the agencies directly for a custom quote. We've tried to make this as easy as possible. Just send an e-mail to:

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

So, it looks like I'm limited to 3 agencies and that seems a little fishy to me. I went to the "live pricing" and all 3 were hard to compare. All showed the same cabin charge per person. I think it was identical to the NCL website. One listed port charges, the other 2 did not. One had me select an OBC of $125, but that seemed to exclude the NCL promo offer. The third offered a 10% OBC; that's more than double the $125 offered by the other TA. I'm going the suggested route and will submit to each via email. I have a few other questions to ask like are there additional booking fees, will my payment be made direct to the cruise line, will they monitor pricing and petition the cruise line for OBC or ??? when the price drops. I'm not sure what else to ask.

I guess my question here is does anyone have recent experience with any of the 3 TA's I'm limited to?

Thanks.

ken98230

For NCL I use bestpricecruises.com. A pop up will offer to send you a link for better pricing. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn't but it has consistently saved me money on NCL.

BamaVol

I got a competitive quote from them but didn't like the general tone of the reviews I read on Yelp.

I've heard back from the first of the three Cruise Compete TA's with a quote that's about 15% off the NCL website price. I prefer that to OBC. I'm still looking for any feedback on the three TA's before I pull the trigger on any of them.

DanJ

In all the quotes I have done over the last 10 or 11 years there, I get the impression they only have 6 or maybe 7 agencies in their stable, and only the 3 you mention seem to always have "live pricing" available through that website. You could try emailing the travel agent I used, as they are members of Cruise Compete as well. [email protected] Lori Friese is my agent.

Goldiemom

I have used Cruise Vacation Outlet for several years. Todd Elliott (President of CVO) is my agent. Can't say enough about him.

bigbuy

I have used all 3 agencies with no problems. In my experience, usually Cruisecompete trumps other ways to book a cruise, EXCEPT if you are booking Norwegian. In this case, it becomes merely a referral service.

BamaVol

I heard from the second TA this morning with NCL prices, plus approximately 10% OBC. Both quotes beat the usual on-line agencies. I was not impressed with the CVO quote; a little sketchy and slightly unprofessional. Did not quote the cabin I requested, leading me to believe they have an inventory to dispose of. Better pricing, but not a match. Also did not like the Yelp reviews - mostly negative. The CCV quote is clear, concise, complete and professional. I will call this agent for a conversation after I have the 3rd quote in hand. All reviews I have read on-line have been positive. Rated A+ by BBB. I will also contact skyscraper. Thanks, DanJ.

boboqui

I asked Paru Madhav at CVO for a quote, let's see how it compares to cruisecompete...


CVO $ 2520.14 with $ 150 OBC

BamaVol

After speaking with TAs from all 3 agencies, I went with Crown. The gentleman was far more professional in his email and on the phone and appears to be someone I can work with. I got the AARP price, free ultimate beverage package promo and $250 OBC. Basically, that's $250 better than if I had booked with the line direct, about a 10% difference, and about $200 better than the general offer from the big on-line agencies. I could probably have paid less if I cared to work harder at it but I am satisfied.

The UBP is worth about $750, although god help me if I drink that much. It will be interesting to see how much the cabin price drops after the promo period ends July 31.

DaveBlaine

You CAN drink that much. You just have to try hard and believe in yourself.

BamaVol

I'll just need to stay away from the railings.