Help with may cruise scheduling, pvp or travel agent?

I am planning our second cruise for May out of Port Canaveral, last time we used a carnival PVP and now I was looking at the different options under find a cruise on CC? What is the difference between the two? I am not asking for recommendations or pvp names, ( I learned my lesson) just not sure What the difference is, and if one is better. If you do a travel agent can you still use the carnival site to book excursions and fun shops? Thanks for the help!

I just booked two cruises with a PVP and then transferred the booking to a TA. why? Who knows. Busy second guessing my decision. But you can do it. I guess there are benefits but I don't know what they are. I think I get $100 from my TA but I was barely listening. I'm definitely nervous about it. I'm just worried I might need to make a change or something and not be able to reach her. Upgrades are not really in play as its a B2B and I probably wouldn't get an upgrade in one cabin on two sailings.

Everyone has their own choices,but we (can't speak for all) prefer using our PVP because any questions we have or price drops we're eligible for, we can call Carnival at any time and speak with them about our reservation. When you book your reservation through a TA, everything has to be done by the TA, if you call Carnival, they'll say have your TA help you....which, if you're hoping to get in on a price drop late on a Saturday night, & your TA is out of the office until Monday, kinda makes it a little tougher to do I've read. I think that pretty much sums it up. TA's offer lots of incentives from what I've heard, but we have always used our PVP just in case anything should come up & we want to speak with them directly. We always book a price we're good with, but should a price drop come up, it's always icing on the cake so to speak if we're eligible. As far as booking the excursions & fun shops, I would think all you need is your booking number once you log in on Carnival's site to do that. If it works differently using a TA, I'm sure someone will come along & correct me, have only used a TA once, for our very 1st cruise, and we did all that onboard. Hope this helps. :)

I am planning our second cruise for May out of Port Canaveral, last time we used a carnival PVP and now I was looking at the different options under find a cruise on CC? What is the difference between the two? I am not asking for recommendations or pvp names, ( I learned my lesson) just not sure What the difference is, and if one is better. If you do a travel agent can you still use the carnival site to book excursions and fun shops? Thanks for the help!

Placed a 24-hour hold on four consecutives cruises with a PVP Monday night. Called the TA Tuesday afternoon. The total price for the four cruises the TA quoted was over $1500. less than that quoted by the PVP. The deposit quoted by the TA was 40% less than that quoted by the PVP resulting in about $650. less going out now as a deposit for the four cruises.

It turns out the PVP didn't give an Early Saver discount nor a Past Passenger discount--and didn't know there was a 50% reduced deposit promotion in effect until 11:59 p.m. Tuesday....

The "frosting on the cake:" No OBC from the PVP on any of the four cruises; $200. on each of the four cruises from the TA!

Am currently about to log off after researching and booking shore excursions for the first of these four cruises on the Carnival website. Can't offer you a comment about the Fun Shops part of your question because I haven't tried, but after I complete researching and booking all the shore excursions, I will try the Fun Shops online.

In the end I'd suggest you do what is comfortable for you. I'm just sharing my recent experience in the hope it will give you some additional food for thought. Please don't forget there is a world of difference among TA's, and as with anything else in life, some are great, some are good, some are not so good, and some are horrible....

Enjoy your cruise!

If you decide to use a TA, make sure there aren't charges for any changes to the reservation. The difference between a TA and a PVP is with a PVP you can deal with Carnival directly. If using a TA, then all price drops that you may see must go thru them. Some TA's do offer good OBC.

Thanks for the great answers.

Neither is absolutely necessary. If you are a DIY type, there is your third option. I do my own booking, monitoring price, etc... I figure there is no one out there who cares more about my vacation than I do. You know what they say, "If you want a job done right, do it yourself." I think that's truer than ever in this day and age, when incompetence in the work place is epidemic.

Carnival does not pay a good commission to the TA, so as for me a solo traveler I am not going to get all the "Goodies" like some people. One TA in my town would not even get back to me because with me there no money in it.!!!

For the last couple of Cruises I have booked with my PVP'S (One made Coach)

Using my Military Status I get a great deal, Insides but on Higher Decks, some cool cash and I am happy.

Michael

US Army Military Police Corps

We've used both, but for our last 7 cruises have booked our own online. I like being the one in control and it is easy to compare all the deals and rates available.

I did my first on line booking a few months ago.

We used to use a family member who was a TA but never got any special goodies from here. She was good about getting price drops but this time I booked myself.

I found a price drop and just called the main Carnival line and the person who answered the phone checked my account and gave me the price drop and I had an e mail showing my new rate by the time I hung up the phone. I do not have an Early Saver rate so these price drops are before final payment.

Easy peasey! I am now a fan of just doing the booking myself!

Neither is absolutely necessary. If you are a DIY type, there is your third option. I do my own booking, monitoring price, etc... I figure there is no one out there who cares more about my vacation than I do. You know what they say, "If you want a job done right, do it yourself." I think that's truer than ever in this day and age, when incompetence in the work place is epidemic.

When you do this you can't see ALL cabins available. I know which cabin I want to select but it doesn't show on DIY sites. My PVP can see all cabins available.

When you do this you can't see ALL cabins available. I know which cabin I want to select but it doesn't show on DIY sites. My PVP can see all cabins available.

I second this. Our PVP has been on a number of Carnival ships and knows where the 'bad' cabins are and passes her knowledge to us if we pick a bad cabin. :)

We have booked 12 cruises on our own on the Carnival website with no problems.