Pros & Cons of Booking

[dlstex]

:rolleyes: We have only cruised once but am about to do it again. First time we booked through AAA. We have been told by some that we could do just as good ourselves if we booked direct through Carnival. We would like to get the opinions of the some of the seasoned cruisers out there that might wish to share their opinions with us pups. Thanks :D

[klfrodo]

Actually it depends on you and the service you received from your TA at AAA. Price means nothing in this day and age in my opinion. Its the service I get after the sale. If you were satisfied with the service you got, they were happy to help you with all your questions and they were prompt in providing that service, then by all means stay with your TA if you are more comfortable with them.

By all means do your homework and compare prices though. Does going direct through Carnival equal better service and lower prices? Not necessarily.

[Nliedel]

Actually it depends on you and the service you received from your TA at AAA. Price means nothing in this day and age in my opinion. Its the service I get after the sale. If you were satisfied with the service you got, they were happy to help you with all your questions and they were prompt in providing that service, then by all means stay with your TA if you are more comfortable with them.

By all means do your homework and compare prices though. Does going direct through Carnival equal better service and lower prices? Not necessarily.

 

Excellent advice!

[ElCruiso]

If you're a Veteran definitly book through Carnival yourself, and save 30-35%.Up to you, I did and got Balcony for price of Inside.

Good-Luck. :)

[bankofdad]

My two non-Carnival cruises were booked through a TA, and I had bad experiences with both. One TA was a large well-know internet TA, the other was a large regional TA that's well known in the midwest with many offices in my home area. On my NCL cruise, I thought about booking direct with NCL, but their customer service was a mess and you could be on hold for very legnthy amounts of time (I hope they fixed that problem).

 

I have really enjoyed booking directly with Carnival, because if I have a question or need to make a change, I have a direct conduit with the cruise line and don't have to wait for some to "get back to me". I have never had a problem reaching a PVP within a few minutes of placing the call.

 

I've also found that if I do my price shopping in advance, I've gotten comparable or better pricing directly with a Carnival PVP. They also know the booking options for their fleet better, and if there is some type of stateroom guaranty that the TA might not bring up, they'll usually make sure you know about it. Same goes for some discounts or use of SCRIP certificates - you only get these options booking direct with them.

 

Obviously this is just MHO, but with Carnival, a PVP (Carnival Personal Vacation Planner) is the way to go!

[KenMo]

I've always booked through directly through Carnival and have been very happy. If you have any questions or problems, you can go straight to the horses mouth....so to speak! Don't forget about possible discounts - military, past guest, AARP, travel industry employee, FEDEX, UPS are some I can think of off the top of my head.

[samscruiser]

We are long time members of the automobile club and get good value from many of the membership benefits. However, cruise pricing has not been one of them.

I always check with them when pricing cruises, however they are almost always the highest priced and don't want to even discuss reducing their prices.

I view a cruise as a commodity. I've booked cruises through several different places for cruises. I just want a ticket onto the ship and don't need anything other than my documents. I prefer to do the rest.

IMHO shop around with a few different providers, I'll think you'll be pleasantly surprised with what you find.

[BigDoug]

Just remember, you have to call a TA (including internet TA's) to get their best price. All TA's have to advertise the same price for Carnival cruises. However, they can still discount the price but you must call them to get their best price

[emmapeel05]

I have booked through a (land) TA 2xs, and a well know internet travel site 2xs, and Carnival once. One land was mediocre, another was great (since they booked so many cabins, they said they recieved better discounts/perks from the line (this was before the internet). Internet site was very friendy to use, offered gift cards and upgrades instead of discounts, and I could pick and choose from available cabins. Carnival was also good to use, prices were the same as the travel internet site (without the gift card offer).

If you know what you want I would reccomend the internet or Carnival. If you have a ton of questions find a land based TA that specializes in cruises.

[WeatherGeek]

From here on out, I will always book directly with Carnival. My fiancee's active military discount saved us a lot of money - our rate was $815pp for a cat. 12 on a 5-night cruise on the Sensation.

[colette5479]

I booked our upcoming cruise thru CCL and used a PVP. Because I was a past guest, been on the Ecstasy before, and knew exactly what I wanted, I told the PVP what I wanted and what I was not willing to go for. I researched this particular cruise for two months and the prices were the same on all the major travel sites. The PVP was so friendly and made things so easy for me. We were in constant touch with each other. Not only did I get the type of cabin and area I wanted(granted for the same price as the others), I was eligible for the past guest upgrade! The TA's I've used in the past would not have told me about this offer. Because of this upgrade, I will be in a cabin that I paid $200 less for than my neighbors did:)

 

Sometimes it pays to book direct!;)

[Chan_T]

I agree with the other poster that suggested that you book with the person that provides the best service. We booked our previous Carnival cruise through an internet agency and were very pleased with the service. However, when getting rates/info for our upcoming cruise, Carnival consistently provided better and faster service than the person I was dealing with through the internet agency (same agency, but not the same person we booked our earlier cruise). Although the internet agency's price was lower than the rate offered by Carnival, our reservation is still with Carnival. I like knowing that I can get in contact with someone IF I need to in a timely manner.

[suseg]

I swear by my Carnival PVP. He's great and we've always gotten the best deals available. If you would like his information send me your email information and I'll send you his.:) He makes it VERY difficult for me to even consider another cruiseline.

[4boys4mom]

We always book through Carnival directly and have never had problems. In fact we have used the same personal vacation planner and he knows our likes and dislikes we've developed a real repore(?). Our planner is Barrington, he's great and we love him. Feel free to call him or just leave your name and number and they'll assign a PVP to you. You can reach Barrington at 1-800-819-3902 ext 85420. Tell him Kimberly say's HI!!

[ratherBcruizin']

Actually it depends on you and the service you received from your TA at AAA. Price means nothing in this day and age in my opinion. Its the service I get after the sale. If you were satisfied with the service you got, they were happy to help you with all your questions and they were prompt in providing that service, then by all means stay with your TA if you are more comfortable with them.

By all means do your homework and compare prices though. Does going direct through Carnival equal better service and lower prices? Not necessarily.

 

While I do agree with this advice from my experience sometimes it's not worth it. Our 1st and 2nd cruise was booked with a AAA TA and we recieved great service. The second was our honeymoon and the TA was wonderful in getting us information and VERY patient with us while we were making a decision. However we paid what I consider an extreme amount of money for our honeymoon. We paid $5,500 for a 7 day on RC for the cheapest balcony (NOT a suite). After getting more comfortable with cruising and getting tons of info from this site I started researching our next cruise. We got a mid-level balcony for 7 days on RC for almost 3/4 LESS than what we paid thru AAA. We also recieved great service from the internet TA. I got great service from AAA, but if I had stayed with them for cruising I wouldn't be getting ready to go on my 9th b/c there would have been NO WAY I could have afforded it.

 

So while I do agree that it is worth it too pay more for service, sometimes it's just not feasible. I've also got burned the other way too. For our NCL cruise last October I went with the lowest price I could find b/c my Grandma was coming and was on a tight budget. While I got a great price the TA the service was non-exisistent. It was my first cruise with my DD who was 13 months old and I could have definitely used some info/service from the TA at that time.

 

Sorry I'm rambling on and on. What I'm trying to say is shop around and find someone who returns calls, answers your questions, and gives you a price you're comfortable with and go with it. ;)