Is there a place were we can look for on-line prices for Princess Cruises (as for Celebrity or RCCL)? I don't like working with TA, at least the ones I met till now. I usually have more information about what I want and get better deals (I'm talking about Rio de Janiro-Brazil).

<BR>What you need to do Simone is to find a travel agent that is experienced in travel. Do not talk to one of the employees that has only been to Nebraska. <BR> <BR>TA's have a wealth of information to share. <BR> <BR>If you book directly from the Cruise Line they will not give you any discounts that are travel agent specific. <BR> <BR>Apparently you have not spent much time looking for an expert travel counselor. <BR> <BR>Good luck, <BR> <BR>Paul <BR> <BR>

Simone, <BR> <BR>Paul is partly right. You should find a good agent to help you decide which cruise line and itinerary would be best for you. However, you can find rates identical to what a travel agent might offer you at either icruise.com or mytravelco.com. They both have cruises on every line imaginable listed.

Thanks Paul and Chris, but I couldn't find a TA that is according to my expectations. Maybe is because sales volume here is not enough to make an expertise TA and also because of sales volume, they are not able to give any discounts.. RCCL representative in Rio says I know more about cruises than she does. <BR>Thaks anyways

Simone is right. I also live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and is quite difficult to find a knowledgeable TA here, who is also an expert in cruises. Besides, most promotional sales held in the States are not available here. <BR>I've been booking cruises through agents I found on the Net for two years already. I got excellent deals, the documents were sent to me without any problems, and everything worked out quite well. <BR> <BR>Surlok <BR>

Princess does not and will not allow online booking nor will they take reservations direct, they do not want to deal with the public and require the use of a travel agent, Good for Princess

The above statement is no longer true. Consumers CAN book cruises directly with Princess. <BR>

<BR>If one books on the web one must be a savy traveler. <BR> <BR>I doubt any web site "travel agents" will spend hours answering questions. <BR> <BR>Paul

I didn't mean booking directly though the cruise lines web site, but using cruise only agencies who accept bookings through the Internet. As they preferred agents, their rates are usually lower than the ones offered by the cruise lines. <BR> <BR>Besides, I'm not interested in Princess, but in other cruise lines, although there's a huge offer of discounted Princess sailings on the web.

Actually most cruise lines becuase most travelers are not very knowlegable will refer you to a travel agent after taking the information over the phone, FYI my reservation with Royal Caribbean was actually transferred to one automatically, It is interesting how some of the people out here despise travel agents, without their advice and not everybody is a travel aficionado, some would take a vacation that was not at all what one wants.

<BR>Simone: I have booked numerous cruises with "cruise.com" and have had outstanding results. Despite what Paul says, they sent lots of time with me planning my cruises and on the one occasion when the cruise line gave me a problem they worked thru the problem and fought for me just as any good agent would. They also beat the other travel agents prices by a huge amount and you can reach them a lot more hours than your local agent. I would highly recommend them. When it comes to experience, they probably sell more cruises in a week than most TA do in a lifetime....

Of course, when making a booking through the web, since long distance calls are expensive, our communication with the agent happens mostly though e-mails, but this doesn't mean the agent would be assisting us, customers, less or worse than they would do over the phone. <BR>I guess that getting what we want is mostly a matter of being clear about expectations, budget, and general preferences. Once the agent figures out what the customer wants, it works out almost the same, or sometimes better than on the phone, for what's written is less likely misunderstood than something that was told, and not properly figured out.

The above comment is a good one, always remember to get a call or two in for some prices, I often contact them for a quote and then I make sure mone beats it by a few bucks, never get just one price unless it is someone you have a good relationship with, most of my clients come to me regularly because I am good at what I do and work hard to gt them what they want

I know of two great cruise sites...on the web, with excellent prices. One is Moment's-Notice.com, and the other is Icruise.com. <BR> <BR>They have incredible offers. The agent we worked with was very helpful and knowledgeable...we'll definitely use them again! Hope that helps you out.