Jeanne - it is obvious in his &quot;wee hours of the night&quot; scan of Fodor's posts, Paul has chosen to ignore your plea for his help. He didn't miss it - he stays far away from those posts that expose him for what he is. His price is not the lowest or he would have pounced on this immediately. Interesting that the &quot;Carnival King&quot; couldn't get the cheapest price - probably called the president of the line personally.<BR><BR>Your best bet sounds like Travelocity. As an alternative, give Patrice at CruCon a call and tell her what this price to beat is ($429.96 for a 5a) and see if she can match it. This board also mentions cruisequick and Ray as another good .com to check.

Jeanne, go to cruisequick.com or contact [email protected] (email)directly telling him exactly what you want. This is where you will most likely get the best rate. I spent countless hours comparing and getting rates and this was the least expensive I found. Good Luck.

If you only want the cruise w/o insurance, go to cruisequick.com. Their cruise-only price is not likely to be beat anywhere. If you want a cheaper insurance (it's the popular Travel Guard), go to buycruise.com. Look at their price, then call their 1-800 #, ext 2305 (Ed) and see if he doesn't get a bit better price overall. Not that much different but you'll have someone to talk to and he will generally be lower overall when you include insurance.

There is no reason why you have to buy your travel insurance from the same people who sell you your cruise. Get the best cruise price, buy it, then go to Travelguard.com and get the insurance from them.

Thanks to everyone for their input. I contacted Ray at Cruisequick.com and his quote came in cheaper than the one Paul was quoting. By the way, I'm truly disappointed in you, Paul, for not answering my question to you.<BR><BR>I can't tell you how wonderful this has turned out for me and I'll post my experience here on Fodors when we return.