I've been with the same cruise agency for 11 or 12 years now, I totally love them, they beat just about any price I can get on my own, they have incoredible knowledge about the industry, all they do is cruises, and there is a very good chance that one of the agents has been on the same ship I'm looking at (and we do lots of small 100 person ships).

And when things go wrong on a Sunday afternoon in a different part of the world, it's good to know I can call my agent and somebody will be there (only hapended once, but when it does, it's worth any amount of money)