Advice booking on line!

[northstar2005]

Dear all:

im planning a cruise with my family for this summer.. Its a surprise and dont want let my wife be suspicious about it, so i am surfing on several websites that market cruises.

Have any of you booked a cruise vacation on the web or would you prefer booking through a travel agent's office. I would personally prefer booking online this time around to avoid spoiling the surprise for my wife and kids, but just wondering if there are any disadvantages to doing so?

thanks

Frank

 

[Anthony1971]

I would book directly through the cruise line. most can be done online
most of the time the cruise line has the best price and is the most secure
there are some sites that discount but most of the time they charge a booking fee that makes up for the difference if not more.
good luck

 

[Anastasia]

Frank,

For Disney Cruises, booking online with Disney appears to be the most expensive way to go. I priced out our November cruise (3 category 9 cabins, 4 adults and 3 children), with 5 travel agents besides Disney, and Disney was $500 more than the most expensive travel agent. I booked with Dreams Unlimited, and was able to book one of the cruises that they had special pricing on. Their price was $1,620 less than Disney's!!

It looks like you are already pricing out your cruise on the web, so the numbers will speak for themselves. I usually book all of our travel on my own, but I am looking forward to working with the travel agent this time. Response time from DU has been lightning quick. I requested my quote late in the afternoon and had the quote the first thing the next morning. All of my subsequent questions have been answered within an hour of asking.

The deposit and payment are made directly to Disney via Dreams Unlimited, so that takes away any concerns about the "unknown".

You are so nice to surprise your family with a cruise! Best of Luck with your planning.

 

[logan1_2000]

When you book, be very specific that it is a surprise and use an office address to make sure they don't send correspondence to the house that your DW might get. This happened to me--only by fluke was I home mid-afternoon to intercept the letter before cover was blown. I called DCL, told them they screwed up and no thanks to them was it still a surprise and should I expect the same in the future...it got fixed and they gave us a Bon Voyage champagne and petit fours w/ chocolate covered strawberries for the room on embarkation.

I mostly agree with the poster about DCL usually has as competitive price as is out there (you can find many a thread where everyone espouses their favorite TA, and I have put in a few recommendations myself). Sometimes there can be rebates offered by a TA that would not be available directly w/ DCL, but otherwise there should not be much discrepancy in price on an apples to apples basis. If you book directly w/ DCL, you can later move the reservation to a TA to keep your early booking discount and also take advantage of a rebate or credit--I did that very thing with my recent Magic cruise, moving the ressie to DU more than 6 months after I first made the booking w/ DCL. But you cannot move from a TA to another TA, and I dont think DCL will take a ressie transfer from a TA, so that is why DCL is a safer place to start potentially.

Good luck w/ the surprise and enjoy the cruise.

 

[mmouse37]

I would book directly through the cruise line. most can be done online
most of the time the cruise line has the best price and is the most secure
there are some sites that discount but most of the time they charge a booking fee that makes up for the difference if not more.
good luck

TA's never charge a booking fee to the customer (if they did then you should definately find another TA!).....they get their payment from the cruiselines, not the consumer.

Some TA's can charge significantly less than DCL directly. Booking with a TA online or in person is just a personal preferance.

I booked a cruise with cruisequick.com and they only deal via e-mail. I knew exactly what cabin, ship, date, etc. and they quoted me the best price.

www.allseastravel.com also usually has some great rates...better than DCL (but that all depends on many variables). The further out the cruise is the closer in price everyone will be. It's when some time passes that DCL rates usually go up but a TA that has blocked a bunch of cabins will keep the lower rates, thereby saving you some money. Plus they discount some of their commision as well.

I have also booked directly with DCL then switched my ressie to Costco and saved $400.00 bucks!!!

Good luck...

 

[Bama4Disney]

I have found that Expedia offers good deals. We are thinking of going again next year and the price difference between Disney and Expedia is about 800.00 for the 4 of us. The booking fee is 15.00 and they will email you the confirmations. I have booked our last two through Expedia. The first we saved money and the second was the same as Disney. We had good experiences with both. Try using the Disney Visa Card also as you will get the Disney dollars and you get 6 months interest free for the Cruise. Just watch your statement and make sure that they give you the promotion and don't carry a balance or they will apply your payment to the lowest apr amount which is the promotion. Good luck and let me know if you find anything cheaper.

 

[dizneefreak29]

I booked the travelocity.com on our last cruise and saved a huge amount of money! For my upcoming cruise I booked directly through disneycruise.com....did everything on-line. However every time I made a payment they sent a confirmation to my house. Good luck with you planning! What a great surprise!

 

[mmouse37]

I want to clarify my previous post about booking fees.....I forgot that some online travel services do charge a booking fee like, Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz....

I meant that regular TA's should not be charging consumers any booking fees.....as they paid by the cruiselines.