To answer OP's thread title question, yes, travellers should use a TA to book cruises, though as a 13-year TA I'm a little biased.
But in all seriousness, please let me dispell some unfortunately erroneous information that's crept into this thread.
First, there aren't any cruise add-ons such as pre or post cruise hotel nights nor tours or shore excursions that are not available through your TA that would be online. Plain & simple. In fact, using a TA opens up
more choices beyond the narrow and often more expensive options the cruise line offers. I booked clients pre hotel nights in BCN last summer at the same hotel as the cruise line was using at a fraction of the cost as fellow travellers were horrified to learn while dining with them on the Med. cruise. A good TA is much better because of the experience than some 2-D website.
TA's pricing isn't always higher than online and agencies within chains or consortia often have group cabins blocked at discounted rates that are not only are below online pricing but do offer onboard credits or free upgrades as a bonus.
Some of the cruise lines, such as Carnival, sought online inquiries direct from the public and even offered MyPoints as incentive as was mentioned in
this SPAM forum thread but called and emailed repeatedly to the point of annoyance in some cases.
So, while I'm glad to hear many in this thread use TA's for cruising I wish more would for these and other reasons. Happy sailing.
