mrsd2fan

Won't be difficult at all. We are going with friends and we wanted an inside Promenade room and they wanted an ocean balcony room and we got them (booked at different times) righ across the hall from each other. The people at Travelocity were very helpful and they spoke English..I could actually understand them!

kwren

Thanks for the encouragement! Now if we could only decide on which cruise to take... They all sound good!

mrsd2fan

We've been on 2 cruises- the first was Royal Caribbean-Voyager of the Seas, and the 2nd was Carnival- Valor, Although we had fun on both cruises, I prefer Royal Caribbean.The ships are much nicer and the layout is better, and there's more to do. Also, RCL treats you better. Yes, it's more exprensive, but I thini it's worth it.

jacketwatch

This type of thread will get lots of responses. Here's mine. We have gotten our best prices thru Costco believe it or not. Last month we saved around $275.00 for or FP cruise with them from the nearest competitor.

spur

Hey Larry,
Good to see you back! How was your Tahiti cruise?

mrsd2fan

jacket- do you have to be a member of costco?

Teabag

Wow, Joanne H, we are also using Laura at Crucon. Nice to know someone else is pleased with her. We found her to be very prompt in getting back to us. Our cabin was $600 cheaper than the cruiseline was offering on their website. BTW, Crucon is having an amazing 1 day Labor Day sale tomorrow 9/5.

kwren

Teabag - for which cruise did you receive the $600 lower price? Was it RCCL? I just wrote to Laura at Crucon. Maybe I'll be able to take advantage of the sale - is it for any particular cruise line?

cruise_nut

kwren, after 14 cruises on many different lines I would recommend RCCL over Carnival. Carnival is improving but it depends on which ship you are considering. I started my own travel agency for the same reasons and problems you discussed. I have used most of the agencies listed but decided to give it a try myself. My wife and I love to cruise so now we do it for work. Feel free to email me with any questions you might have.
Kelly

Teabag

Hi Kwren. It was for Celebrity...the new Down Under sailing on the Mercury, starting Nov 2007. They are still offering it till this Friday but I know the balconies are mostly gone except for concierge class. We also got an on board credit. Hope this helps.

jacketwatch

Yes, you do ahve to be a member of Costco. Sams also has a travel club too.

jacketwatch

Hi Spur: The trip was remarkable! Such natural beauty I have never seen B4. I have posted a review in two parts on the crusie forum. Cheers. Larry

Curt

Work with a good local travel agent located in your town/area. Avoid the web based sites unless you are willing to be stranded in case of problems. They all quote the same prices anyway.

Margielou

Call or e-mail Spike at Vacations-to-Go. He is knowledgeable, efficient and caring. His phone number: 1-800-338-4962x166. His e-mail: [email protected]. He just booked us on the QM2, first segment of her Maiden World Cruise Jan. 10. He spent a lot of time with us and our friends who wanted to join us and couldn't have been more helpful.

kwren

Here's an update on what I found. It seems to be true that RCCL does not seem to ever discount their prices - I got what appeared to be better prices at first, but they were for slightly different cabins, or the taxes weren't added, etc.. Every single TA and website gave me the same price when I gave them the category. However, when I used cruisecompete.com, I got differing "perks". The best one was a $220 shipboard credit per balcony cabin, $200 per Promenade cabin and a bottle of wine per room (as long as there was an adult in the cabin.) At least for RCCL, that seems to be the best way...and I booked it yesterday!!!

I did call Yahoo for quotes and the agent did tell me she can offer better prices than those posted on the webl, but she could not offer any of the above perks.

mrsd2fan

Did you end up with Explorer of the seas? or did you chose a different ship?

kwren

We're actually going with the Adventure of the Seas out of San Juan...how things change in the course of 2 weeks! The Explorer out of NY is completely - yes, not a cabin to be found anywhere - booked for the week we could go and once we decided on RCCL, we had to start looking at other options! We will have 2 balcony rooms next to each other and a promenade view cabin just across the hall. I think we got a good deal after comparing prices - thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I would not have gotten any perks without all of you.

gail

When I booked our February (school vacation week) cruise the Celebrity website and a travel agent kept saying no cabins available in several classes. However, when I checked Travelocity they had availability for specific cabins in the category we wanted - must be something like they sign over a certain number of cabins to other vendors/consolidators.

So we were able to book, but not thru cruiseline. (And yes, we actually do have a cabin - I checked with cruiseline)

kwren

I thought that <i>someone</i> would have a group of cabins so I checked with different TA's, websites, etc. One even called RCCL directly becuase he was puzzled that this entire ship seemed to be booked, not just certain classes. He said that sometimes large companies book the entire ship (!) and for a while now I haven't even seen it listed when I pull up cruises for that particular date. Anyway, it was quite a bit more expensive so the Adventure will work out just fine for us.

flbronc

I tried cruisecompete.com along with a few other web sites and found vacationstogo.com price the best. They have favorable reviews on some of the other cruise boards - I received cruise docs when expected and the price was incredible... Oct 22 on Holland America, Athens to Lisbon - 12 days - $899 for oceanview Very nice and helpful people !