Has anyone had any experiences with cruiseman.com? I am investigating different options for my first cruise and this site popped up.

It is great to check them out. Someone suggested that you ask the cruise line directly if there have been any problems with them. You can check with the Better Business Bureau. I think you need a phone number and city and state. I have used cruise411.com twice so that is the only one I can comment on.

Although we live in Australia my brother, his family and myself all book with a TA in Houston <vacationstogo.com> and have received excellent service and prices from them on HAL and other Cruise Lines. We find we can save up to $1000.00AUD and the Cruise Line sends the documentation etc by DHL or similar. They also quote savings off Recommended Price.

Regards

You are very fortunate to be able to book with Vacations to Go. Here in the UK we are denied this by many of the cruise lines including Princess. We know because we tried!!

scae0706 I just checked vacationstogo site and it said on there that with few exceptions all international travellers may book any of the cruises listed on their site. The toll free number given for the UK was 0800 279 8084. Hope this helps.

I checked out the cruiseman.com website and a real red flag to me is any agency that quotes prices without including the port charges in their advertised price. There is no reason to hide these, the agency can easily calculate such charges for every cruise they list.

This is an old trick and rarely do you find anyone still doing this. It just makes the price look lower than everyone else and they slip it in after you select the cruise, etc.

So, in short, if you choose to use them remember that you are NOT seeing the actual full cruise price. Most major agencies now will list the full price UP FRONT and the ads will include language such as "price includes the cruise and port charges" etc.

From what I saw, there prices were no lower than any major site, they just looked lower since the port charges were not included.

Thanks Teabag. I did in fact call the UK freephone number and they confirm that there are a few cruise lines who will allow international guests to use VTG, Princess and Oceania (the companies we wanted to book with) would definately not go with it. We have now booked with a UK TA but did cruise only so that we could arrange our own air.

The cruise lines pretty much control what the agencies can charge. If the price is any lower it is because they agency is rebating part of their commission back to you to get the price lower (and the lines frown on that)...the playing field as far as price goes is pretty darn level across all agencies. Best bet is to find a good LOCAL agent that you can see and talk to in person and find the cruise that best fits your needs. If you book with some unknown, unseen agent over the internet who you going to call when something goes wrong? Chances are that wonderful internet agent won't even give you the time of day....

Curt:

That's nonsense. Put a request into http://www.CruiseCompete.com and you'll get back a number of offers--and the prices and amenities vary significantly.

Buying a cruise is just like any other major purchase--you have to shop around.

Triathlete

Did you book a cruise through cruisecompete? A1Supercruises seem to consistently have the lowest prices and their customer reviews all seem positive - just wondered if you had any experience purchasing from this site.

Yes, I have them used them and found them to be the best. They are very knowledgeable and know the cruise business.
It is a pleasure to work with them . I would definitly recomemd them .Beside that they give great deals and service

I used Cruise Compete and save about $170 over most other quotes. The agent we used is Cruise-N-More and so far they have been very responsive and helpful.

I read over this thread and noticed the mention of vacationstogo.com. I checked their price just lately and found out it the same as cruise line's (and that was for Princess wich lets agencies discount it). Still the price I got from the agent I use most often, Alex from [email protected] was the best.

Merrisr:

Sorry for the delayed response. Cruises aren't booked through CruiseCompete--they're booked through the agencies that are members. i haven't booked with A1, but have with other CruiseCompete members.

However, I think CruiseCompete is the only place you'll find user-feedback ratings of the participating agencies so you can base your decision of where to book on a number of agencies. These ratings are linked in the quotes themselves. I hope this helps!

Correction--I meant to say you can base your decision on where to book on input from a number of different consumers, not agents.

Sorry about that.

Develope a relationship with a local travel agent. We have done about 16 cruises and have used the same agent since the very start.

We just took all the adult kids and two grandsons on a Carnival cruise that we booked with the same agent. I found the cruise that fit our needs and booked it with the agent.

After I made the deposit the price for the three kids cabins went down about $150 PP and I got the discount.

After we sailed everybody found a bottle of champange and chocolate covered strawberrys in their rooms.

The second day out a $100 per cabin shipboard credit was posted to everybodys account and at dinner we all got a $15 coupon for use at the photo shop.

This is not the first time our agent has done things like this for us and we will continue to use her.

I have never given her a price that I have found on the internet that she couldn't match or beat.

I recall one time 6-8 of us went on a cruise and American Express had some sort of promo that gave you some travelers checks if you charged the cruise on your AMEX card.

Our agent put us in for the promo, but AMEX balked for some reason and the agent was fighting with them over it (the agency is an AMEX rep).

Anyway, it didn't get worked out before we sailed so the agency cut everybody a check for the amount and did battle with AMEX for us. We never did hear how it came out, but we got our credit.

I have not booked w/cruiseman.com
but get his e-letters & it seems to me that this agency has alot of Carnival offerings which could mean
that is their strong suit.

2 wks ago, I used cruisecompete.com
& they came back w/8 quotes from their member agencies, one of which I booked with. So far, so good.