david55

We have never cruised before.

We are looking at an Oceania TransAtlantic cruise for next late March.( 24 days) The ports are many places we have always wanted to visit.

Already it looks like it is booking up and many cabin classes are waitlisted.

My question....what is the best way to book? Oceania direct? Travel Agent? AmEx Platinum Travel services? Virtuoso?

Thanks for any input.

dogcanyon

On the plus side a cruise like this can be a great way to conveniently see a lot of destinations on your bucket list, but since it's your first cruise, get ready to be nickel-and-dimed to death on more-or-less-mandatory room gratuities, charges for beverages (even soft drinks), internet fees, and on and on and on. I have not sailed with this cruise line, but for the ones that I have been on (Holland America, Princess, Carnival) the shore excursions were generally priced at about double what I deemed they were worth. There's no way around any of this, so I'm just saying ...

Randyk47

i would recommend a travel agency/agent who is experienced with cruising. I'm personally not in favor of booking directly with the cruise line as I want somebody with my interests in mind and not the cruise line's.

fozziedoggie

If you're worried about cabin category selling out, book now via Oceania. Once booked, you are allowed to transfer your booking to a travel agent of your choice. Virtuoso travel agents have very good partnerships with Oceania, so that would be my travel agency of choice. Depending on category booked, you may receive nice on-board ship credit that may be applied towards shore excursions.

I cruised French Polynesia on Oceania last February,they are a very good cruise line; Jacques Pépin is their Executive Chef.

747FC

Aloha Randy,

Can you speak to how a TA can be expected to keep their client's interests more in line? What might that mean for a client?

Thanks!

YVR Cockroach

It'd appear that your cruise is made up of a TATL portion followed by a European cruise. I'd wager the TATL is not as sold as the European portion is. You might want to look into pricing the two cruises separately vs. as single cruise (may be differences in fares, taxes, etc.), though you might have to change cabins. Might be able to get a better cabin for the TATL that way.

As for where to book, I attended an Oceania presentation by supposedly one of their largest agents in Canada. Some cruisecos may give cruises purchased in Canada a break on the exchange rate (I've see up to 10%, e.g., pricing the cruise at parity when the CAD was trading at USD 0.9, etc.).

HMPS

I agree about booking with a cruise line and then dragging it to a TA.
I then shop 2 or 3 agents ( have two I have used multiple times) and see who gives me a better deal ( they can always !) and service.

A good TA is in business to make money but a real good one WANTS you back for more trips.
S/he will kick back some of the commission , keep you alerted of prices fluctuations, upgrades available etc.

ranles

Get on to Cruise Critic. Read the reviews of your proposed trip. For a first cruise, this is aggressive. I book with an internet TA. They do not hold your hand! A first time cruiser needs a TA to help shop to make sure the cruise "fits" their desires, and styles and budget. You will have a lot of questions. A TA can help. Just make sure to use one dedicated to cruises.

bigbuy

Put it up for bids on www.cruisecompete.com
I saved $2,000 on a 32 day Seabourn cruise compared to what Seabourn charged on their own web site. There is a section on the website where you can add that you are an AMEX Platinum card holder. My experience is that there will be one or two agencies that will be able to offer that benefit. Usually, I get an average of 6 bids and they come in very quick, usually within 24 hours. Some bids will show up within an hour.

Randyk47

For me personally, as you know, I look for the best/lowest cost. My TA rebates a part of their commission in cash and I typically save 10-12% over the cruise line's published (printed or Internet) fare. No cruise line in-house agent/cruise consultant is going to do that. Another example, especially for the unexperienced cruiser, is an experienced TA will, or at least should, know about the cruise line, their ships, cabinet categories, cabin locations, etc., and will be more forthcoming about what is or isn't a good choice. An in-house agent might say cabin 123 is great while an independent TA would say cabin 123 is under the galley and is going to be noisy. The point is an in-house agent is going to sell you the cruise line's products from cabins to add-on packages to flights to travel insurance. Now those all may be fine you may not be getting the best advice. Again, my wife and I have 24 years of cruising experience all over the world. Won't say we've done it all but we've certainly done enough that we don't need or want a lot of help or what we call "hand holding".

david55

I appreciate all the responses. I got a headache yesterday weighing this possibility of our first cruise.


We woke up this morning and decided against it. Primarily because of the length. 24 days having never cruised before...ever.... seemed a gambl. If after 3 days we say..." huh this is not fun"...and we have 3 more weeks of it.....that makes me nervous.

There was another reason as well. This would put us in Athens 2 days before we meet friends for a 3 week driving trip around the Peloponnese and I am concerned that a multi- port cruise might jade and tire us a bit for our journey in Greece....which is most important and something we are really looking forward to.

We will fly over on award tickets BA First class as original planned.

Randyk47

While at some level I think you're missing out on a wonderful experience I also agree that starting out with a 24-day cruise as your first cruise maybe isn't a good idea. Twenty plus years ago my wife and I took a 4-day "try it, you'll like it" cruise. I had been pushing to try cruising for years but she was afraid she'd get seasick, feel claustrophobic, etc., etc. Long story short she loved it and it was the start of many great cruise vacations. That said it's not for everybody. I probably know as many people who have cruised and won't ever again as I do folks who are hooked on cruising. I'd suggest you try something a little shorter and closer to home as a first cruise sampler.

YVR Cockroach

While personally, I think a TATL sea voyage is the best way to get to Europe (even premium class TATL tires me these days), going on a TATL as a first cruise probably isn't the best idea if you haven't been on vessels in open ocean before (not knowing if you haven't or have).

If you are open to it and have sailed across oceans before, I'd still recommend taking the ship to Europe and continuing by land, just using the TATL portion as transportation.

david55

I did two transatlantic voyages as a kid....47 years ago. I remember getting pretty seasick and have been "off" boats ever since. So this is a bit of a gamble.

I did talk to a TA today whose specialty is Oceanic cruises..... he gave me some pointers and helped pinpoint a location on the ship for a cabin to mitigate sea sickness....but I think we have opted to fly as originally planned and try a shorter cruise another year.

ktremor

If you book directly with the cruise line, the reps that handle your reservation is an employee of the cruise line. They have no loyalty to you as the rep is an hourly employee of the cruise line.


A travel agent is an independent person in the process. The cruise line pays the commission to the agent only after the cruise is paid in full. With that neither the cruise line or the agent get paid until the client pays in full.

A travel agency can use the leverage of the sales they have with the cruise line to get things done. We also have cruise line sales representatives assigned to our agency that only get paid based on the amount of sales.

For being in the industry for 15 years, I have relationships with key executives with many of the lines. If needed I can reach out to them for assistance with matters if it comes to that point.

Those kind of things are not going to happen with a call center rep that is making $12 an hour.



On the topic of a first cruise, I would recommend a shorter sailing for a first time cruise. This will allow you to sample to see if cruising is good for you. I recently had a client who has been on 30+ cruise but nothing over 10 days. She and her husband went on a 24 day Cunard sailing and they regretted it as they said it was too much.