CruiseCompete and online Travel Agents versus booking direct?

[moretimeoffguy]

Anyone here used CruiseCompete? If so, what were your experiences pro or con? Would you use them again? Are there other online cruise travel agents worth looking directly at? Who are the best and most reliable? I've heard good things about CruisesOnly.com. And Frommer's used to recommend VacationsToGo.com a lot. Not sure if they still do.

Trying to assess the benefits of booking directly with a cruise line versus an online travel agent. Do you book direct or through a travel agent of some kind (brick and mortar or online) and if so why--for a given cruise line. Imagine the benefit may differ depending on the cruise line. Talking about your typical, mass-market budget lines here such as Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Holland America, etc. Not the luxury liners like Seabourne, Seven Seas, etc. What's the best way to book for the "lower end" / mass market lines?

[Guercifgal]

We used cruise compete.com for a cruise a few years ago and got some good offers. We ended up using one of the offer and have continued to use winning travel agent since then. We never would have found her had we not used cruisecompete.com.

[moretimeoffguy]

Originally Posted by Guercifgal

We used cruise compete.com for a cruise a few years ago and got some good offers. We ended up using one of the offer and have continued to use winning travel agent since then. We never would have found her had we not used cruisecompete.com.

Thanks G. Of the offers you received, what were they like? Any shared characteristics like ones local to where you live? Small mom & pops versus larger Brand Name agencies such as CruisesOnly.com, Cruises.com, etc?

How do you validate and vet the trustworthiness of the agents/agencies who submit offers? Does CruiseCompete.com have a rating system of travel agents? Does anyone? That would be a terrific resource. Like how Hotels are rated on Expedia and elsewhere. Or books/products are rated/ranked on Amazon.com.

How do you weed out any low-bidding / low-balling snakes? The ones that may provide too-good-to-be-true offers. Or vendors are rated on eBay for trustworthiness.

[tcook052]

Cruise Compete This good?