Share your Cruise TA Experience
 

Since the most popular cruise review website won't permit discussions about travel agencies, please share your experience with cruise Travel Agents.

Personally, my process is as follows as I have no allegiance to one particular agency.
#1 - Start on Expedia to do cruise research and decide on 1-3 cruises.
#2 - Price the cruises out on the top online discount agencies, Cruise.com, CruisesOnly.com, Cruise411.com to get familiar with the various prices/categories.
#3 - Submit a request to CruiseCompete.com to do the price shopping for you.
#4 - Book by only paying the deposit and make final payment prior to due date.

In my 3 prior cruises, I used different TA's each time. The first was with Cruise411.com and I booked it with my parents. The second was with CruisesOnly who did NOT honor their low-price guarantee after lower price was observed after final payment was made. Recently, I used cruisecompete.com to do comparison shopping and found it to be extremely competitive. So much so that it saved me a total of $350 on a balcony cabin compared to my original booking.

Please share your Travel Agent experiences here as there is no other forum to rate TA's.

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)

I also use a real live breathing travel agent. First, though, I do my research online, find the cruise I want at a price that sounds reasonable, then I take all this information to her for the final arrangements. She can usually wrangle an upgrade or a perk not usually included by talking person to person with the cruise line. She's also pickier about cabin assignments than I am, making sure we're not stuck with a window blocked by a lifeboat and getting our preferred table assignment in the dining room. I have found her services to be invaluable. I don't think you can get that sort of personalization from a faceless online website. I tried it once. Didn't much like it.

Our family has used the same TA four upscale cruising for over 20 years. There is no substitute for a personal connection to a reputable agent/agency. I still do a lot of online 'looking' for a cruise itinerary I might enjoy, however. I would never switch, but if I had to, would only use a Virtuoso connected agency.

Jane in PHL

Which travel agents do you folks use?
 

Please post.

I use Danny at [email protected]
Never had a problem.

I have used cruise.com for my first cruise. It was ok but my preference is for a live person. For my cruise this year I used Cynthia @ AMEX travel.Tel: 212 640 9343
The price was competive and since I am arranging a trip for 40 people her help is invaluable. Plus if something goes wrong, I can call and get assistance while on my trip

My first few cruises I used CruCon. Stephanie was there and she was an absolute jewel. After Stephanie left CruCon, their customer service (as far as the level I was used to) evaporated. I had never questioned the CruCon pricing, as it always seemed about right to me (after doing other internet research).

When Steph left CruCon, I decided (after a couple of months of very poor service), that I had to look elsewhere, especially as I had a booking with CruCon and had no idea how that would finally be handled.

From the "other board" I knew of another TA who specialized in Princess (our line of choice), and who was raved about - Kim of KimKruises.com (she is a real TA who you can speak with on the phone any time). I called Kim and asked her to take over my booking - explaining how disappionted I was with the service I had been receiving. Not only did she take it over, but she repriced it, saving me over $160 pp.

I have since booked two more cruises with Kim - she has "always been there," and her pricing (out the door) is the best I have yet to find.

No one site or agent is best
 

If you do not know exactly what you want -destination, line, cabin type, date - find a good experienced cruise travel agency and expect to pay for their knowledge and insight. A good example of this type of agency is Worldview Travel in Costa Mesa, CA. It is simply unfair to ask a discount agent for a large amount of their time.

If you do know what you want, the key is to find out which agents do significant volume with particular lines. For example, I had an excellent discount agent in the Austin, TX area, who got me incredible pricing (better than cruise compete) on Holland America and Celebrity. When I wanted to book a Crystal Cruise, however, his pricing was awful; hundreds of dollars more than the agency I found through cruise compete. Turned out the agency that had bid my Crystal Cruise did a very large amount of business with Crystal, and could offer prices hundreds of dollars less than Crucon or others.

The best way to find out whether an agent does significant business with a cruise line is to ask them. Having taken over a dozen cruises, my conclusion is that no single website or travel agency is always cheapest. You have two choices - do quite a bit of research and pay less, or use a good cruise agency and pay more. Taking the lazy way - for example using only cruise compete - will give you neither the best service nor (usually) the best price.