Do you really want to use a firm that advertises prices and wont give you the final price with the port charges until AFTER you go thru a long registration process and give them your personal information? Not me. There are too many other sites that will tell you the full cost of the trip right up front, including the port charges. I always use Cruise.com for this very reason. They are there 24/7 to help if you have any problems and there is never any of this game playing of trying to guess how much the port charges are.

I too am a nervous wreck about booking on line! The best price I've seen on the cruise we want to take later this year is on icruise. The cruise price says 'Port charges included' but I remembered seeing something about taxes and so I called their 800 # last week. The gal was very nice and gave me her name and extension. She did say that there would be an additional 21.55 for taxes (each) and 14.00 S/H (for both). Still that is quite a bit cheaper than anything else I've found on other web-sites.<BR><BR>That should be it as far as any charges, right? As I said, this would be a first for buying ANYTHING on the internet and I see sleepless nights in my future. I've thought about asking her for a little personal info...Any job change plans?, are you married?, pregnant?, planning to take time off around my cruise time?, would you give me you home #..address? Okay, okay, only kidding everybody!!!!

One isn't going to find any better prices on the net than your local travel agent. Dot.coms are losing money. Also you have to pay shipping or some foolish club fee on these sites.<BR><BR>Paul

We booked with Icruise.com last summer,and everything went very smoothly. Their online site is one of the easiest to use,and it is very easy to get the total price.They had the best prices by far for our cruise. As price dropped,we called and were given upgrade. We have also used cruisesonly.com and cruise.com with no problems. I disagree with Paul-No local agent could come close to the price I got on icruise.I would recommend them.

Paul must be living in another world if he thinks he can compete with the big net sites like cruise.com. <BR>He keeps talking about the extra service he gives, but he isn't going to sit by the phone 24/7 like they will to help if there is a problem.<BR>I too like icruise, but it bugs me that they do not post prices that include the port charges. I just tried for myself and I had to go thru several steps including registering with them to get that information. On cruise.com the price as advertised included the port charges.

There isn't a &quot;brick and mortar&quot; travel agency cruise price that can't be beat by most .com agencies. I'm not trying to start a debate (as this has been hashed and rehashed on this and other sites) but simply stating my opinion and reflecting my experience. And - most .coms don't charge for shipping and handling and few charge a &quot;club fee&quot;.<BR><BR>Paul needs to stop talking about things he knows nothing about - I doubt he does a lot of net surfing with his &quot;webtv&quot;.

I recently sold a HAL South American cruise for $500.00 less per person than the customer could find on line. Apples to apples. Also, got 100.00pp shipboard credit for them. Never say never Peter.

Thanks Laura.<BR><BR>I don't have the hours to search the net but all my friends do.<BR><BR>Prices vary between travel agents and dot.coms also. Depends on how much a travel agent wishes to pay back to the client. <BR><BR>Paul<BR><BR>

Since I am being bashed (as usual) I took the time to check a Celebrity Horizon 2/23/03 sailing on icruise.com and they are $20 per person less than if you had booked through the cruise line. And this was a $540 cruise-only price plus tax which they do not mention. They did have the decency to add the port charges.<BR><BR>Any travel agent worth their grain of salt could match their price.<BR><BR>And where is the 24/7 phone? Their agents are on duty (according to their site) from 10AM to 5:30PM.<BR><BR>Fodors certainly has some disagreeable posters.<BR><BR>Paul<BR><BR>

Sorry meant to write $10 more per person from the cruise line.<BR><BR>And how much does icruise want to ship the docs?<BR><BR>Paul

Paul:<BR>Icruise charges Std. Fedex fee only - $11 or $12. No club fee (like the annual $25 Moment's Notice) or handling fee.<BR>Booked my nephew's honeymoon thru them w/no problems and as it turned out their<BR>floor-thru office was exactly one block from my office so I picked up the tix as I wanted to get other info re their honeymoon &amp; pick up brochures.<BR>Nephew reports - when til you hear this -<BR>their NCl cruise was splendid &amp; the promised honeymoon extras were delivered.

ok... you are comparing ONE sailing on ONE internet site for pricing.. i'm sure alot of other .com's could have beaten that price as well... and as for 24/7 support look at travelocity/expedia/hotwire/orbitz... all of which the hours are alot better than a regular agency!!!

I went ahead and booked our cruise..with my TA. She was $76 more than the icruise total BUT, I have a $50 off coupon that icruise said they can't honor, so the difference is actually $26..that's for the 2 of us together. This TA has booked several cruises for us and has always given us great service.

I beat icruise.com with cruisequick.com by a lot of $$, have you compared trying them?

I was curious and checked cruisequick. The initial specials were excellent, but when I went to the cruiseline, then ship, then the week I wanted, it 'started' at $499 and said plus port charges and taxes. It would then be quite a bit more than I'm paying. ($410 for a mid category, plus PC &amp; taxes). I guess they all differ and have their special rates on certain sailings. But cruisequick is definately one to check in the future!