Local travel agent vs booking directly through a cruiseline?

[IA Hawkeye Cruisers]

We are looking into an ocean cruise through Viking. We usually use our local travel agent, but after calling Viking with questions about a certain cruise, the gentleman was very helpful and said we can book directly through him at Viking.  Pros and cons of doing it this way or local travel agent? 

[SantaFe1]

You can do both!  Book with the gentleman you liked at Viking, and then transfer to your TA within, I think, 60 days, and get whatever perks they can get you.  We usually get between $300-$500 pp OBC depending on the length of the cruise.  And our TA often also has a few “coupons” for $200 pp that her large firm gets that she can apply.  It is win-win.  And, once I have transferred, I still have never had Viking say they won’t talk to me.  But our TA is just so good, and gets so much done for us, I rarely bother.  

[CDNPolar]

8 hours ago, IA Hawkeye Cruisers said:

We are looking into an ocean cruise through Viking. We usually use our local travel agent, but after calling Viking with questions about a certain cruise, the gentleman was very helpful and said we can book directly through him at Viking.  Pros and cons of doing it this way or local travel agent? 

 

We always book with Viking direct, because we are very specific about the cabin and location of that cabin that we want, and don't want the TA to make those decisions for us.  The Viking agent is very good at listing what cabins they have available, and we are looking at the deck plan online as we book.

 

You can also do the booking online, save it, then call Viking to solidify everything.

 

THEN, if we choose we move the booking to our TA after we have done all the ground work.

[madmedic]

Is it possible to transfer the booking to a travel agent after booking direct with Viking in the UK? Looking for a bit of on board credit. 

[KBs mum]

2 hours ago, madmedic said:

Is it possible to transfer the booking to a travel agent after booking direct with Viking in the UK? Looking for a bit of on board credit. 

No, Viking wouldn't allow it when we tried, despite the TA being prepared to forgo commission (and us not being interested in OBC) , as they would be making money on the arrangements for the other 4 weeks we'd be away. 

Book via your TA, it saves hassle dealing with outsourced Viking call centres who don't understand UK legislation or requirements

[Hobson1754]

I’ve just booked Viking Homelands in the last week - I contacted Viking to get costs, any discounts, cabin availability etc.  The Viking rep had details of my TA in their files (you could provide that on the phone if they don’t already have it), he put a hold on the cabin I wanted & then I contacted my TA. The TA then confirmed everything with Viking, advised what discounts they could give & we went ahead with booking. By doing it this way I got a further £580 discount from TA.

[madmedic]

I've just managed to find the booking date which is a little over the 60 days cut off so I'll put this down to experience and just use a travel agent next time.