Thread: Travel Agent or Cruise Line?

I am having a big fluxuation in prices, guarantees, and taxes on the cruise I am planning,

Should I rely on the Cruise line instead of a travel agent.. even if it is $100 more (total for 5 people)

Does anyone have a travel agent they trust that I could talk to, or is there a Travel agent on the board that could help me with my cruise,
Thanks Jennifer

Originally Posted by DJMcNair

I am having a big fluxuation in prices, guarantees, and taxes on the cruise I am planning,

Should I rely on the Cruise line instead of a travel agent.. even if it is $100 more (total for 5 people)

Does anyone have a travel agent they trust that I could talk to, or is there a Travel agent on the board that could help me with my cruise,
Thanks Jennifer

We've had very good luck with Skyscraper Tours. Check online at Skyscraper Tours Cruises or use the toll free number from their web page. They can also help explain why you're seeing price variations - and there may be some confusion between "taxes" and "port charges", especially when they're not broken out separately.

Good evening,

You can PM me if you wish, claudeg@telus.net ...I'm a TA and can offer opinios ,even assistance .
The situation you describe is not at all unusual.

Cheers
Claude

We have new rules for TA's and you can find them in faq's, You cannot have your TA or travel agency name in you sig, but you can have it in your profile, and you cannot advertise!! You can tell anyone to email or PM you for info

I have also used Skyscraper Tours and have been very happy with them. It doesn't hurt to call around and get prices. Make sure you are getting the bottom line price with all taxes and fees included.... otherwise you are comparing apples to oranges.

Originally Posted by sue miller

We have new rules for TA's and you can find them in faq's, You cannot have your TA or travel agency name in you sig, but you can have it in your profile, and you cannot advertise!! You can tell anyone to email or PM you for info

Good evening,
That's why my signature does NOT refer to the agency I'm affiliated with, and that's why I suggested to the OP that she PM me if she wishes. If I still missed some of the guidelines , I'm sorry; didn't mean to.

Cheers
Claude

Another thing you might want to check when deciding on a TA is do they have a cancellation fee? Do they have a booking fee? I have traveled using one TA on the boards. He was very helpful. He has booked many cruises for my sister since then.

Here's a bit more that one might consider...

[Note: I used to book my own cruises directly with the lines, and although I now use agents exclusively for my bookings, I do all of my research beforehand, and call when I've come to a decision. Doing your homework up front will not only provide you with ideas, it will realistically set your expectations, even if you still need a lot of advice on selecting a cruise.]

UPSIDES:

The cruise lines usually won't admit that one cabin is better than another within the same class. On most lines, there are always cabins within a particular class that have a signficant advantage over others, and sometimes there are those with disadvantages as well. Examples include extra large verandas, cabins under noisy areas, etc. A GOOD TA will, between their own experience, those of their customers, and just plain 'word on the street', know which are the winners and losers.

While some of the lines have gone to great lengths in their attempt to create identical pricing between their agents, variations continue to exist. Agents willing to fork out some front money can and have cherry picked cabins, and held prices to the original release prices while the cruise lines themselves continue to crank them up on popular sailings. Forget what you've heard about uniform pricing. SHOP!

Book with a line, and it'd be a rare day indeed that they'll call you and tell you that your fare has been lowered! Granted, even a good TA can't watch for price changes every minute, but if even one of their customers spots a price reduction, the good TAs will make sure that the rest of their customers benefit from it. Your best chance at knowing is booking through a good TA.

If you're a 1st time cruiser, a good TA will try to find out at least a little bit about you, and will recommend a line that best suits what they think will be a good cruise for you. While the mass market lines do have a great many similarities, they also have some signficant differentiators, and it'd be a shame for you to wind up on a cruise that didn't best suit your concept of the ideal vacation. A good TA will give you a 'sense' of what cruising on each of the many lines is like, and try to find you a good match.

OK -- a bottle of wine, a nice cabin credit, a line beach towel aren't going to make or break your cruise, but you'll find that your TA may well be providing these things as perks where the lines do not. In addition, some offer discounted travel insurance and other benefits that you won't get from the line.

If the line screws up your reservation or cancels your cruise, you've got someone who should take care of these annoying sorts of events, saving you untold hours on the phone. They've probably got multiple clients on that same cruise, and can deal with them all at once with someone who actually has the authority to solve problems.

The list is actually a good bit longer than this -- but that hits the highlights.

BTW: Even if you book a cruise directly through a line, it is usually possible to have that cruise transferred to the care and handling of your preferred TA -- various rules apply. Typically, all you have to do is call the line with the name of your agent and their ITAN number.

DOWNSIDES:

Once you put your cruise in the hands of an agent, the line will cease to be willing to discuss some details of your cruise, and will advise you to direct your inquiries to your agent instead. They're paying those TAs a commission, and they expect them to earn them.

Not all agents perform as well as described in the 'upside' section, above. In each of those areas, there's potential for getting stiffed or receiving less than the best possible service. As in the first downside -- if your agent won't go to bat for you in the event of changes or problems, you may also find that the line won't talk to you either -- perhaps the must maddening situation that can occur. You're selection of a good agent is important!

Once an agent has your business, and if you're not happy with the service, you may find it quite difficult to get that agent to release your reservation to the care of the line or another agent. Again, careful selection can be very important.

[Worth a sticky?]

I am sorry you are having so much trouble.

I have always used a TA. I do have one I love and enjoy her help. I hope you find a great one too.

Could you tell me more of the issues you are havinbg because I have thought on just purchasing my cruises from the cruiseline because then you can call them and ask questions which you can not do if you use a TA. They are suppose to do this for you. Plus you can pay online or by calling the cruiseline. Once again if you have a TA you have to go through them for everything. But my TA takes such good care of us. She will hunt and hunt for a cruise for us and she always sends us deals for us to look at and consider.

Once again Good Luck!

Originally Posted by Sealegs

Good evening,
That's why my signature does NOT refer to the agency I'm affiliated with, and that's why I suggested to the OP that she PM me if she wishes. If I still missed some of the guidelines , I'm sorry; didn't mean to.

Cheers
Claude

Hi Claude, I didn't suggest you did anything wrong and was not correcting you in any way!! Our rules have changed for a bit and because of the question asked by the OP,if we did have any new TA's on the board, or members that have not been here for awhile, wanted to point that fact out to everyone!! Not everyone checks out the rules of a forum before they start posting!!