On 7/13/2013 3:45 PM, Jr. wrote:

wrote in message ...

would it be less expensive to go ahead and book a cruise with a
travel agent are there any pros or cons?

We found that our cruise was the same whether we booked with our travel
agent or went direct through Princess.
However, if you want a guarantee that you will get on the ship before it
sails you need to book it all including air and cruise through the
cruise line.
We generally get to the departure city the day before the cruise so we
book our airfare ourselves.

HUH? While the way to make sure that you make it on the ship (if not
flying in the day before) is to use the cruise supplied air, there is
absolutely no reason why you have to book it yourself with the cruise
line and not have a travel agent do it.

If you use a travel agent, you can often get them to give you On Board
Credit (OBC), sometimes up to several hundred dollars. While you may
sometimes get OBC from the cruise line as part of a promotion, this is
typically also available if you book with a travel agent, AND you can
get additional OBC from the agent. Also, a good TA will watch for price
drops on your cruise and try to get you the price reduction. If you book
directly with the cruise line, you have to watch for price reductions
yourself.

I recently used Celebrity's Choice Air and was pleasantly surprised that
they were close to $100 cheaper than the price I was able to find using
Kayak (they were higher than Kayak the first day I looked). I am flying
in early so the benefits of booking with the cruise line won't be of
much use to me, I only booked with them because of the price. And I used
a travel agent to book my cruise because she gave me $300 OBC.