Do You Book With A TA or Carnival?

[Luanne Russo]

I love my TA, so I have never had to use Carnival directly, although I have heard many people say they had a good experience.

What about you?

[Ford_Racing_Ron]

My first CCL cruise is next year. For my four HAL cruises I went with a TA just because I wanted a person to yell at if something went wrong. But also all of those involved air travel (some extensive) and hotel stays. My CCL cruise the object was easy, no air travel and cheap so I went online and booked by myself with the ES price. In retrospect, at this point, I wish I had done this with a PVP from CCL. I understand that would have given me an easier time if I wanted an upgrade and such,,,now I am pretty sure I am stuck with the hand I was delt. I know that will be fine but I hear so much about upsells, which I have been told I wont have a crack at.

[Trip]

I can't imagine anyone not wanting a ta in their corner to be an advocate when issues arise...call and book the cruise with the line, if you want, but transfer it to someone who has your back....

[HoustonTodd]

Our previous cruises we booked direct, as I was a little nervous about using a TA. However I used a TA for my 2 cruises this coming year and saved over $1,000 - almost $1400 if you count trip insurance into the equation. I'll stick with TAs in the future.

[skymaster]

We have a trusted T.A. who always takes good care of us. More often than not, when we book a considerable time in advance, we'll get an e-mail from her stating that the price went down, and now our final payment will be reduced by X number of dollars. I rarely even check the prices as I fully trust her to take care of us,,,,,and she DOES!

Ken
"SKY"

[chassie]

i'm working with two carnival TA's right now and they are fine so far (eventhough i wish one of them would give me a copy of my payment confermation so i can print them out for my records) but i have no problem.

[Trip]

Just know that the people you are speaking with, who are booking your cruise there, are not travel agents.

[Aerogirl]

My first two cruises we booked with a TA. This upcoming cruise we book through Carnival. So far so good.

[Thoth]

BOTH ....I book with the cruise line then transfer to my personal travel agency.

[Aerogirl]

Originally Posted by chassie

i'm working with two carnival TA's right now and they are fine so far (eventhough i wish one of them would give me a copy of my payment confermation so i can print them out for my records) but i have no problem.

I also wanted a copy so I called and asked for one. Just call they will e-mail it to you.

[Michelle1959]

used a local TA for 1st cruise, bookedit myself through the AARP/Expedia site for my upcoming cruise. Might book online or use a Carnival person the next time. Not sure what benefit there is if you are an experienced cruiser to not do it yourself,k unless you want to arrange a wedding or family reunion, etc.

[Aerogirl]

Originally Posted by Thoth

BOTH ....I book with the cruise line then transfer to my personal travel agency.

What's the benefit of using a TA? and why transfer to a TA after you booked through Carnival?

[Thoth]

Originally Posted by Aerogirl

What's the benefit of using a TA? and why transfer to a TA after you booked through Carnival?

Good question
No....the travel agency gets credit for the cruise which helps them. They then in turn can assist me if the need arises.
Back in September I did run into a problem which the travel agency assisted me with.

[Mike M]

I have to make a blunt statement:

If you are not using a Travel Agent you are paying too much and you do not have an advocate in your corner in the event there are problems before, during or after your cruise.

A travel agent should always be able to give you a better price, on most cabins, than Carnival will give you. A TA has less room to discount on lower priced cabins. A $299 pp cabin doesn't give a TA much profit and requires the same work to book as $4,000 pp suite.

I strongly suggest finding a decent TA and using them. I would consider myself a very experienced cruiser and when I book I know what ship, cabin category and date I want to sail. I also make my own air reservations and book my own hotel. However I use my TA to book my cruise. Why? Because she almost always sells it for less than the cruise line and offers some other bonus such as OBC. BTW: This is on Carnival owned cruiselines only. Royal Caribbean does not permit discounting, on the cruise fare, but the TA can offer other incentives instead of a discount. These can be OBC's, free insurance or transfers. The TA also handles any problems I have with my cruise reservation. In most instances my TA basically takes my order but when I've had problems such as "cruiseline" OBC's not being applied or my wife mysteriously disappearing from the reservation, she was on it immediately and it was corrected within a day.

Here is a very good article that Kuki wrote that explains things very well.

Price Shopping: Pick Up The Phone

BTW: I know there are some really bad travel agents out there but the majority are good ones and the best way to find one is to ask other people who they use.

Take care,
Mike

[Aerogirl]

Thanks for the info. I wonder how much I could of saved on this upcoming cruise. I will definitely check with a travel agency for our 2011 cruise. We enjoy the cat#12 cabins and it would have be great to get it a little cheaper or at least something throwen in. On our first cruise I don't think we were given anything other then some cheap sunglasses and a fanny pack,but like you mentioned you need to find a good TA. I would like to find out more about balcony rooms on the newer ships. I know they have many more the the Fantasy class so we wouldn't necessary have to go with the highest catagory cabbin. Once again thanks.

[mouche]

Last two cruises I booked with a TA, but this up coming cruise I booked ES through Carnival. Praying for price drops!!!

[Aerogirl]

We booked this upcoming cruise fourteen months ahead. It went down in price about $225.00 around May. Keep checking you never know.

[crusincat]

I used a TA when I booked a cruise for this past Feb. for a cruise with 2 days before the cruise spent in Puerto Rico. She got us our hotel, cruise, everything. It was great. This cruise in7 days I booked myself with no problem booking. However, I did not know to watch for any price change going down. So, I might have lost out there. Also, I have tried several times to contact CArnival and no one is responding to my click on the computer and to my phone call to the PVP that I was assigned to. Not any way to run a business like this. Happy Sailing

[spacewoman]

I have a TA I've used for various things since somewhere around 1998. She took my desperate call not knowing me from Adam when I needed to emergency fly my Grandmother out of Florida. Long story short she was amazing and I've used her ever since for any of our vacations. She did a group booking last year when we decided to renew our vows for our 25th anniversary and she fought long and hard for us with a bad issue with Carnival. We got off that cruise and two weeks later I happened to be surfing Carnival's website for cruises for 2009. I was doing this on a Sunday when my TA didn't happen to be working. I called Carnival to ask a few questions and their representative mentioned a military discount that would be available to my husband for our cabin. I was told it needed to be booked that day since this discount comes and goes. I said, always use TA. Was told I could give the booking to my TA but should book that day. I did. Called TA Monday, gave her booking number and she did indeed take over the booking. We had my mom who wanted to join us on this cruise and she couldn't find anyone to go with her. I kept watching the cruise and saw it sold out mid-June (for September). Figured my mom was out of luck. Two weeks or so before the cruise we decided to help another relative pay to go into a cabin with my mom. Told both of them it looked like cruise was sold out. I searched every possible website over the course of a weekend and no one had anything but a suite. I e-mailed all of them asking them to contact me if a cancel came along. I called my TA on Monday and asked her if we could be put on a waiting list for either an oceanview or balcony for them. She said she would call her Carnival contact. A few short hours later she called me with an available balcony cabin coincidentally on the same deck we were on. While the cabin was pricey, it all came together.

And I agree with other posters, TA will always have your back. 1996 we used a TA group through our bank for a Florida vacation. They created hell on earth for us. And --- with all the issues they created never spoke to same person twice on the phone. Last one I spoke to in the middle of our nightmare in Florida I could have reached through the phone lines and choked him. So to say I was leary of using any type of travel agent after that is an understatement. My TA came through for me at a desperate time when she didn't even know who the heck I was and I've stuck with her since. Moral of all my stories -----if you've got a good TA STICK WITH THEM.

[henryg]

It really depends on who can get me the best price for the trip. I often take it through a TA though because they can pull a few more strings than I can, and it's easier

I hope it works out for you

Happy cruising!

[Pocono Pug]

Ive been using the same TA and shes awesome