At the time it had occurred to me that I had not been to a Travel Agents shop for several years, other than to collect brochures. All of my travel was booked on-line or over the telephone, with people I had never met.

At the time I asked the cruisetalkers if they liked the idea of on-line booking or preferred to visit a Travel Agent in person. The Travel Agent won!

This surprised me as all cruisetalkers must have access to a PC and be reasonably comfortable using it.

I do all my research on the net, I get all quotes, answers to my queries and everything else by email etc. I do however phone to confirm the actual booking and give the card details. These companies are still TAs and still have shops, but not the main chain places. I don't think there is a UK company which is purely 'online' based?

I do like to speak to a real person, but have no intention of ever sitting in front of them to discuss things, I can do it quicker at home on the PC.

If on the other hand I had had a single good TA in my local High Street, I may have carried on visiting them, but have never had one who knew anymore than I did myself. Some even look at you blanky when you ask about flights to somewhere out of the norm as they haven't a clue where the places are.

Stick to the net and a friendly email 'chat' and voice

Depending on the cruise line, I have booked entirely online. With RCCL and Celebrity this is possible and very easy.

For Princess and Holland America I have just called and spoken to a person directly.

I find there is no use in bothering with a T/A. We used to use one, a good friend of ours, but as he is now retired we found no reason to search for another one. I know what ship, cruise, cabin, etc. I want and usually whatever the line charges, they charge. The only exception is "group" cruises and we have never been on one of those.

What I do now is to use the internet sites as a challenge to my TA -- "here, beat these prices and you've got a sale." And he always has!

Even if he could only match the discounter's price, I'd probably still use the TA as he values me as a customer and if I run into problems on the trip (flights cancelled for weather, etc.), I know I can count on him to run interference for me.

Everybody and his brother claims to be a "Cruise Specialist" these days but only a few have any real cruise experience.

When everything goes well, you're home free - encounter problems and you may be 'out to lunch'!

quote:

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Originally posted by Amerikanis:
My last visit to my Travel Agent was in 1999
for an 26-Day-Roundtrip in British Columbia and Alberta with an Dodge Intrepid and prebooked Hotels.

Very nice, Pacific-Coast-Canada is highly recommended!!

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I like it there too... But being used to a Mercedes, how did you tolerate that piece of junk for 26 days? Rented one in Florida for a couple of days last winter, and I could hardly wait to give the thing back, and I don't drive either!

I wish I had 26 days when I was up in that region...

Just a question purely out of curiousity? How many cruises have you booked for yourself as you're only 14?

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Originally posted by Tim @ Cruisepage:
Just a question purely out of curiousity? How many cruises have you booked for yourself as you're only 14?

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I booked my last cruise on Voyager in February on line with parental supervision.

No, I don't do it at whim ...

First, the number of people that actually book a cruise completely online - without the assistance of an agent - is very small. Probably less than 5%.

Many people have no problem booking a seat on an airplane because it is essentially a commodity. You get the same basic 18 inch wide seat placed 30 inches behind the seat in front of you. There are so many more variables to consider with booking a cruise (...are you getting the alumni discount, etc.) that most people want to discuss the matter with someone (over the phone or via e-mail) before making the decision to drop $1000 or more per person.

What most people on the Internet are doing is interacting with travel agencies that have some type of web presence or with a cruise line directly. In both of those cases the vast majority deal with a human to help assist the booking of the trip.

The price you get from an agency depends on a variety of factors including: the cost of the cruise to them, and how much money they need to make on each transaction. A traditional agency with traditional costs may not be able to discount as much as an "online agency" with lower overhead and more efficient processes. On the other hand, a large traditional agency may be able to get a better deal from the cruise line because they can commit to more volume.

When booking directly with the cruise line, they don't discount the commission amount back to the cruiser because they have to cover the cost of the people handling the reservation. They really aren't saving money by selling it to you directly.

Right now, the idea of shopping around still makes a lot of sense. Just because you are dealing with an agency that has a web site doesn't mean you will be getting the best price. There is still an incredible amount of inefficiency/expense in the current system for selling cruises.

In the future, as the internal processes and software to support the sale of cruises and other high-end travel products improves, you should begin to see some price differences between those who have the new systems in place and those who do not. These new systems will allow agencies to increase productivity and also provide them with more accurate information about true cost of selling and how they can better match the needs of their customers.

I personally would be happy to book a cruise or any vacation totally ‘on-line’, as long as I had compared prices and knew that I really was getting a good deal.

I think much of the complexity with booking a cruise stems from the industry ploy of publishing an over inflated brochure price, then offering ever increasing discounts depending on demand and how near the sail date is. The upgrading ploy also causes concern and confusion for the public.

I would suggest that a ‘no nonsense’ pricing policy would certainly benefit the customers, rather than cause the confusion it does now.

Of course this confusion benefits the cruise line, because when someone see a brochure price of $4000 discounted down to $2000 (50% off, or 2 for 1 as they say), they think that they have just got the deal of the century. They overlook the fact that other lines are offering a similar cruise for $1500.

The Speed in Canada is limited to 80, maximum 100 Kilometers an Hour, so it is very slow for me, my own Car is running 240 and on German Motorways in Sunshine Weather i often drive it with 200 and more with an OPEN ROOF.

This feels great...

Cars and Gasoline are cheap for us in Canada, i drive about 7000 Kilometers in that Holiday, starting Vancouver-Manning Park-Penticton-Revelstoke-Banff-Jasper-Clearwater-100 Mile House-Prince George-Smithers-Prince Rupert-Port Hardy-Campbell River-Tofino-Victoria-Vancouver.

We did Whale Watching and an very good Ride on the Clearwater River on May 28th, in 3 Degree Celsius "warm", Water, in the Sabletooth Canyon with an Speed of 40-50 Kilometers and Waves of 3 Meters.

This in an open Rubber-Boat, 5 German Men, 1 Dutchman, 2 German Wifes and 1 Canadian Leader.

To our Assistance for the Case of an Accident was an Canadian-Yugoslavian Guy in an Canoo.

He shows how to go down an Waterfall in an Canoo.

Great!!!

My best Holiday everytime.

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Originally posted by Amerikanis:
Cruiseny, the Dodge Intrepid i found surprisingly good, i had Fun with the Car.

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I suppose you must have gotten the only good one that ever left the Chrysler factory .

I like Canada too!

To clarify: I didn't mean the only good Chrysler ever built. I meant the only good Dodge Intrepid ever built .

Seriously, no offense to Chrysler, I just found the one we rented to be one of the worst cars I'd been in for some time.

And compared to a Mercedes...

Gohaze, I'm afraid you've gone right over my head... I'm not that much into old American cars... And so I have no idea what it is except to say that you have not put much mileage on it !

I do not doubt that it spews out a huge amount of emissions... And uses a huge amount of fuel!

America has since improved, now we drive big SUVs instead of big cars, and the new ones don't spew out much at all... And still use a huge amount of fuel !

Hydrogen power anyone ?

Working with a very established agency I have emergency backup should I need it. If for some reason my agent is not available or out of town on conference (he is the agency sales manager) I can ring up the Operations Manager and have him take care of any pressing needs.

I have no need to walk into any travel agency. Brochures are available for ordering online. Airline tickets are available online... car rentals, hotels, etc.

With airline tickets, I have not booked any other way than totally online in say 5+ years. But not direct with the airlines. I use consolidators websites. Booking direct is more expensive, and one would have to go through each individual airline's site, also one loses the airline failure insurance we have in the UK, through the agencies.

I choose & ring for cruises. I choose & book for airfares, train tickets, every other kind of ticket. I don't book directly wirh the cruise or airlines.