Anyone have a great TA they recommend?
I've got a 2-day courtesy hold on a reservation through Celebrity's website -- there we only 3 cabins left in the category I want.
I understand that a TA might not be able to discount the rate but don't some offer other perks?
Thanks in advance for any advice.

Try Laua G at cruis con. She did super by us.
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Put your request into CruiseCompete at
http://www.CruiseCompete.com

You can see competing deals; pick the best one; then have Celebrity transfer your booking to whichever agency offers the most for the least.

Good luck!

ROSWALT,
You are very welcome. Glad you got such a great saving and I'm sure great service too. What is your cruise?

Hi spur,
We are going to Caribbean on Explorer of the Seas 12/24/2006.

Celebrity doesn't discount its cruises to travel agents. The only thing a travel agent might do for you (instead of going thru Celebrity direct) would be to get you an on-board voucher for say $50.00.

I figured a good travel agent can do a lot more than that, after the one I found here, thanks to fodorites help, did it. The thing is that Celebrity and other cruise lines which don't discount must get your full payment. After that, it is between you and the agent, and there are ways to get rewards.

We are booked on Celebrity cruise for February. Checked all the on-line sites, including cruise compete - which only came back with one quote which was higher than cruiseline (how could that be?) All others had exactly same price. Could be others would have different experiences since it is a common school vacation week for our trip.

In fact, Celebrity website said no cabins left in our category, so ended up booking thru Travelocity which had cabins.

Just last weekend we booked our February cruise through CruiseBrothers.com. They had the best rates (and included a ship board credit) of any other online site I researched which I do frequently as well as monitor any changes in fares.

RCCL and Celebrity, from what I've been told don't let agents discount anymore. Somtimes they have groups that could be chepaer. But it seems the trend now is agents are giving away shipboard credits,insurance,and other perks with those lines.

You can check with my agent www.travelwbon.com and see what she has to offer. I've gotten some good deals from her.