brett
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2010
- Messages
- 5,926
We have only booked direct on 2 out of 20 plus cruises.
One was a last minute cruise in Australia where we paid 30 percent less by booking direct with RCI in Sydney vs booking with our usual on line Florida based TA. The second was a Princess South America cruise when Princess had a one day sale with CAD at par with USD. 28 percent savings.
We had a great TA (now retired). On several occasions when booking last minute she told us to wait a few days because prices were going down. One cruise we booked prior to final payment. TA told us bookings were light so we cancelled and rebooked inside the final payment window when prices had dropped considerably.
More than once she gave us a heads up about last minute offers that we not yet advertised. Once, when we were about to book she told us that recent clients on the ship reported that it was a dog. Cabin flooding, toilets not working, A/C not functioned. We read subsequently read some reviews that confirmed these comments. A cruise line CSR would never, ever give us this information.
The trick is to get a good cruise TA. Hard to do since many, like ours, retired during covid.
Besides all that, we typically had fare reductions in the form of on board credits in the range of 8-12 percent. Once in a while we were tagged on to a group in order to obtain a larger discount.
One was a last minute cruise in Australia where we paid 30 percent less by booking direct with RCI in Sydney vs booking with our usual on line Florida based TA. The second was a Princess South America cruise when Princess had a one day sale with CAD at par with USD. 28 percent savings.
We had a great TA (now retired). On several occasions when booking last minute she told us to wait a few days because prices were going down. One cruise we booked prior to final payment. TA told us bookings were light so we cancelled and rebooked inside the final payment window when prices had dropped considerably.
More than once she gave us a heads up about last minute offers that we not yet advertised. Once, when we were about to book she told us that recent clients on the ship reported that it was a dog. Cabin flooding, toilets not working, A/C not functioned. We read subsequently read some reviews that confirmed these comments. A cruise line CSR would never, ever give us this information.
The trick is to get a good cruise TA. Hard to do since many, like ours, retired during covid.
Besides all that, we typically had fare reductions in the form of on board credits in the range of 8-12 percent. Once in a while we were tagged on to a group in order to obtain a larger discount.