Mason Barge
September 13th, 2003, 03:07 PM
On Sun, 7 Sep 2003 20:12:57 -0400, "nopcbs" >
wrote:
>Really?
>
>I'm a "rookie" at this, but the one cruise we took we booked on-line and it
>was about $100 cheaper than the local TA offered. These CVA prices (which I
>did not know about for the first cruise) are much lower than what we paid.
>
>I don't really mind a small cancellation fee. We have never had to cancel a
>vacation, so...
>
>Would you mind recommending an off-line TA with better than on-line pricing?
>(This is second cruise this year, so we need to watch the budget closely.)
You can really do much better in terms of price and/or service than
Cruise Value Center, or any other online service for that matter.
You need to think "outside the box" a little bit. I was lucky to
learn early that the local TA and faceless online services are not the
only two alternatives, when I booked a terrific deal on a "sold-out"
cruise from a single-person agency in Utah (I live in Georgia). And
she was really, really nice, to boot.
Here is what I do. First, send requests to the TA's who post here.
You better believe that members of this community will feel more
responsible for making sure they treat you right than some stranger.
Second, post a "reverse" classified ad on www.cruisemates.com.
Sending emails to the TA's on rtc may or may not get you the lowest
price, but it will get you good service usually -- and believe me,
this can make a huge difference. Cruisemates ads will invariably get
you a very low price, although you may decide, as I sometimes have,
that it's worth $50 to book through a TA who pays a little more
attention to you.
For instance, a good TA will monitor prices and often will catch price
reductions -- I have had a TA contact *me* when prices went down
within the limits of a cruiseline's refund policy.
In a nutshell (and very generally, with exceptions:
1) Direct booking with cruiseline: Poor price, poor service
2) Local TA: Usually poor price, good to excellent service
3) "Book Online" bargain centers like CVA: Good price, poor to
terrible service
4) Small cruise specialist: Good to excellent price, good to
excellent service
5) Reverse ad: Excellent price, fair to excellent service
By terrible service, I mean hidden charges, possibly unable to even
book your cabin at the quoted price, document screw-ups without much
concern, etc.
Mason Barge
"If this is coffee, please bring me some tea. If this is tea, please bring me some coffee."
-- Abraham Lincoln
wrote:
>Really?
>
>I'm a "rookie" at this, but the one cruise we took we booked on-line and it
>was about $100 cheaper than the local TA offered. These CVA prices (which I
>did not know about for the first cruise) are much lower than what we paid.
>
>I don't really mind a small cancellation fee. We have never had to cancel a
>vacation, so...
>
>Would you mind recommending an off-line TA with better than on-line pricing?
>(This is second cruise this year, so we need to watch the budget closely.)
You can really do much better in terms of price and/or service than
Cruise Value Center, or any other online service for that matter.
You need to think "outside the box" a little bit. I was lucky to
learn early that the local TA and faceless online services are not the
only two alternatives, when I booked a terrific deal on a "sold-out"
cruise from a single-person agency in Utah (I live in Georgia). And
she was really, really nice, to boot.
Here is what I do. First, send requests to the TA's who post here.
You better believe that members of this community will feel more
responsible for making sure they treat you right than some stranger.
Second, post a "reverse" classified ad on www.cruisemates.com.
Sending emails to the TA's on rtc may or may not get you the lowest
price, but it will get you good service usually -- and believe me,
this can make a huge difference. Cruisemates ads will invariably get
you a very low price, although you may decide, as I sometimes have,
that it's worth $50 to book through a TA who pays a little more
attention to you.
For instance, a good TA will monitor prices and often will catch price
reductions -- I have had a TA contact *me* when prices went down
within the limits of a cruiseline's refund policy.
In a nutshell (and very generally, with exceptions:
1) Direct booking with cruiseline: Poor price, poor service
2) Local TA: Usually poor price, good to excellent service
3) "Book Online" bargain centers like CVA: Good price, poor to
terrible service
4) Small cruise specialist: Good to excellent price, good to
excellent service
5) Reverse ad: Excellent price, fair to excellent service
By terrible service, I mean hidden charges, possibly unable to even
book your cabin at the quoted price, document screw-ups without much
concern, etc.
Mason Barge
"If this is coffee, please bring me some tea. If this is tea, please bring me some coffee."
-- Abraham Lincoln