I agree cruisecompete.com is a good place to start looking at prices. However, I have never actually booked via cruisecompete. I have always been able to find even better fares by doing just a little more research. The trick is to know exactly what you are looking for, be flexible on the dates, and be ready to put a deposit down immediately.

I recently used vacationstogo to book a cruise to Patagonia. I worked with an excellent agent who was able to get me the last mini-suite at a very good rate. Prior to calling vacationstogo, I had called NCL directly and was told the category was sold out, but vacationstogo was able to prevail and get me the cabin I wanted for the advertised price. Bookings/cancellations can happen very quickly when inventory is tight.

I have also found that booking direct provides no benefit. In fact, sometimes the result is counter-intuitive. On a cruise I was booking this summer, my direct call to MSC resulted in a quote $500 higher than an agent was able to obtain. The only explanation for that is that cruise lines may prefer you use a travel agent so they can reduce costly staffing and administrative expenses.

Your best success lies with the combination of the person you work with and the allowances available within their organizations contracts with the cruise lines.

My experience with vacationstogo and their land based resortvacationstogo is that when a quote is generated, they will honour that price - just remember to record the quote number for future reference.

Vacations To Go
 

Vacations to Go should not be trusted! I lost $3600 in connection with them and a sales organization they were using some years ago and after reading some of the threads I don't see how I could ever trust them.

I've currently got a cruise booked with vacationstogo.com. They had a clearance price (a week if not 3 after the final payment window) which at the time was some $400 or 22% lower than the fares available to almost all other agencies and the cruise line itself. One of the ones that the cruise line dumps inventory through had the teaser online but one couldn't find it when making an online booking. The agent I talked to at VTG managed to find it. He's also quite responsive to requests.

love vacations to go. I have used them for my Honeymoon and 5 subsequent cruises. No problems ever.

I generally (not always) find when people complain about cruise agents it is because of a change, late arrival, mistake, or rule breaking by the customer.

Book the cruise, confirm with the line, then show up on time (early!) to the dock with required documentation. Nothing can really go wrong if those 3 things happen.

Used Vacations To Go once, for an Azamara cruise to Norway in 2011. We were completely satisfied with the service, with our agent, with the price (which I readily admit might also have been available elsewhere) and everything else. We expect to use them again.

VTG has a great search engine. Prices/incentives are beatable with a little effort.

3 cruises booked...satisfied....great OBC and service....their pricing is for the cheapest rooms which arent always midships....of course thats more

I agree.... vacationstogo is legit and has good deals

E-mailed my VTG consultant reminding him to contact me if the cruise line decides to send upsells my way and he called them and got a free upgrade from N (cheapest bowels of the ship inside) to a decent window cabin (F that would have cost nearly $1,000 more each at the prevailing rates (rock bottom as it is)

My husband always looks at VTG for cruise prices, but I've found United Cruises prices pretty much the same as VTG offers. The added benefit of United Cruises is you get UAL miles for it.

THIS. I've used VTG with absolutely no problem. They were great.

The next time, I found the sailing on VTG and forwarded it to the travel agent. They matched price and added an upgrade and some extras. It's a very easy commission since you've done all the research and selection.