Thursday, March 28, 2024

Best Cruise Travel Agents In Usa

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Shopping For Great Deals

Best Way To Book Your Future Cruise ? Cruise Line Direct Or Agent?

Contrary to what you might expect, travel agents might actually be able to get you better deals than internet retailers or even the cruise lines themselves. The best travel agents have access to discounted group rates and exclusive cruise pricing that’s not found anywhere else. In addition, agents occasionally give you extra value on your booking — such as prepaid gratuities, a free bottle of Champagne or onboard credit — to sweeten the deal. And if the price of your cruise drops after you book, a good agent will notice and refund you the difference in fare. Finally, as cruise lines pay agent commissions, you don’t have to worry about paying extra for their planning services.

Travel Agents Can Get Better Deals On Cruises

If youre concerned that working with an agent will make your cruise more expensive, dont be. Cruise travel agents receive the bulk of their income via commission from the cruise lines. Their service to you is usually free, though some may charge first-time clients a minimal fee. Its worth it.

In addition to sharing their expertise, the agent may have negotiated group space at lower rates with the cruise line, which may save you money on the cruise fare. The agent may also have first access to sale prices because the cruise lines notify their agent partners and loyalty club members first before they announce a sale to the public.

Some cruise travel agents even throw in booking perks, such as a complimentary bottle of Champagne in an ice bucket, awaiting your arrival in your cabin.

Why You Should Book Through A Cruise Travel Agent

You should consider booking a cruise through a travel agent because a knowledgeable agent can help you understand the nuances of a cruise purchase and help you make the best decisions for your vacation preferences.

When you book a cruise, you are making a vacation decision that goes way beyond a flight or hotel nights. Which ship you choose determines your dining and evening entertainment choices for the duration of your vacation. Which itinerary you choose impacts which destinations youll visit and what kind of shoreside activities will be available to you. It can be overwhelming to evaluate the options on your own if youve never cruised before.

In addition, cruise fares can be hard to understand and compare. You may, for instance, see a fare listed online without the port charges, taxes and fees, which you only see after you give your personal details.

Plus, the price of your cruise includes accommodations, meals, entertainment and activities and in some cases drinks, tips and shore excursions, Wi-Fi and other extras. Theres a lot bundled into some fares and not as much with others. A travel agent can help you determine what your cruise fare gets you. The cheapest base cruise fare does not always provide the best value or best overall vacation deal.

Related: 4 scenarios when you should use a travel agent

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Final Recommendation For The Best Websites To Book A Cruise

Costco Members:If you are a Costco member, then we suggest CostcoTravel.com as the best website to book a cruise. Its the largest and simplest incentive weve seen for booking online. Prices are competitive, but the cash back offers provide a lot of value.

Non-Costco Members:If you arent a Costco member and dont want to join, then we suggest looking first at the specialized cruise travel sites to search all your options and find the cruise you want.

If the site offers a good incentive for booking through them, then know that youve found a good deal. If the incentive isnt that strong or you dont want to go through a third-party to your reservation, then booking directly through the cruise line is your best bet.

Booking Through Specialized Cruise

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In addition to the large cruise aggregators, there are a number of smaller websites focused solely on cruises.

These sites include:

These websites are similar to the large aggregator websites in that they can help you search through every cruise out there to find the best deal. The difference? These websites focus solely on cruises.

With a focus on cruising, they are able to better serve cruise passengers including having staff that you can call directly to help you book.

In other words, these sites are more akin to having your own travel agent to help you with the booking process compared to only a website.

Thats a big help if youre not entirely sure about which cruise you should book. As well, these sites often have deals and incentives to entice you to book.

Advantages: Like the larger aggregators, the niche booking websites offer the ability to search across multiple cruise lines to see all of your options. As well, many of these sites also offer their own special incentives such as onboard credit, free gratuities, or low deposits for booking through them.

In addition, these sites feature their phone number prominently for those who wish to talk to a person about their reservation. You dont always find that with the large aggregation websites.

Disadvantages: While booking through these sites is largely the same as through the cruise line or an aggregator, weve found the incentives can confusing.

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Booking On Aggregator Websites

While aggregator websites sound complex, they are actually just search engine for travel bookings. In fact, youve likely searched on these sites before for a hotel or a rental car. The sites include the big names that youve seen advertised heavily on TV and the Internet:

Just like searching for a hotel room, you can search these websites for a cruise across all of your options. This means being able to search across all the lines at once. They also give you the ability to narrow searches to specific dates of cruising, length of trip, destination, port of departure and more.

One thing to note is that many websites in this space are actually owned by a single company Expedia. For instance, Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, and Orbitz.com, are all part of the Expedia family.

That means youre going to find the same prices across these sites, along with similar search functions.

Advantages: There are two main advantages to using an aggregator website. First, they allow you to search across every cruise line.

So if you want to sail from Miami, youll see all the options from every cruise line. That gives you a better chance of finding something that matches your budget and schedule versus just searching one cruise line.

In addition, while aggregator websites will almost always have the same prices youll find everywhere else, they often offer perks you wont find on the cruise lines websites.

Best Cruise Offers To The Best Destinations

With the help of CruiseExperts.com, you can now find the best cruise offers to destinations worldwide without searching through dozens of websites. Get the inside scoop on private cruise deals, exclusive offers, and a variety of free upgrades, thanks to our experienced and knowledgeable staff. With almost a century of combined travel expertise, our agents know the cruise industry inside and out, having personally been on the ship you are considering, or having traveled to your desired destination. Don’t worry about scouring the web for the best cruise offers or cruise deals we will help you plan your dream vacation AND offer exclusive prices from cruise lines.

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Cruise From Home And Relax

Everyone knows that a cruise vacation is one of the most relaxing, hassle free vacations you can take. Imagine if you also didn’t have to worry about traveling to start your vacation but could just drive up to a port near your home and get onboard your luxury cruise ship. Here at CruiseExperts.com we’ve made it easy to see which cruises start close to home. Get started with our Home Port widget by clicking on your home port below.

Featured Advisor: Kassandra Magruder

Holland America Koningsdam Cruise Ship – Top 5 Reasons to Cruise with Holland America

Magruder plans ambitious trips worldwide, but her deepest expertise lies in Africa, Latin America, and the polar regions. In the past two years, Magruder has seen an uptick in interest for Iceland, Alaska and Antarctica, as well as the Galapagos. “Clients are splurging on experiences such as hot air balloon safaris, helicopter tours, and longer treks,” she says. One of the most over-the-top trips in recent years was a 43-day sojourn South America for a solo traveler that encompassed exploring the rainforests and savannahs of Guyana, taking in such vibrant urban settings as São Paulo and Panama City, and trekking in the sand dunes of Brazil’s Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, all with the help of expert guides along the way.

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The Luxury Cruise Company

Book: By phone.

About: Launched in 2007, the company was initially the only website dedicated to luxury ocean, river and expedition cruises. The Luxury Cruise Company still maintains its six-star focus today, working primarily with lines such as Silversea, Crystal and Regent Seven Sea. Its expedition side is also strong, while river cruise line partners include AmaWaterways, APT, Uniworld and Crystal.

Expect: Top advice from a team of experts who, between them, have travelled to all seven continents and have first-hand knowledge of the Antarctic and polar regions.

Helpful Cruise Line Information

If you’ve cruised before you probably have a favorite cruise line. Here at CruiseExperts.com we make it easy for you to sort through the cruise line of your choice for the best cruises at the best discounts on your favorite cruise line. Choose from the best cruise lines in the world including Carnival, Princess, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Holland America, Celebrity, Crystal, Azamara, Oceania, Viking, Avalon, and Disney. You can be confident that you’ll get the cheapest cruise price possible with concierge like service from our cruise experts here at CruiseExperts.com. View information on your favorite cruise line.

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We Offer More Ways To Book Than Any Other Agent

Our lives are getting busier by the day and finding time to search hundreds of holidays for the right one can tend to be another task on the to-do list! But we believe that booking a holiday should be a pleasure and never a chore, which is why you can contact us in a whole host of ways. Experience our award-winning service over the phone to our UK-based call centre or visit us in person at The Cruise Centre to book your holiday face-to-face over a coffee. You can catch us on live chat to skip the queues that often come with new ship and sailing launches, and even speak to us via social media. There are so many ways to plan a holiday and each one promises the help of a cruise expert every step of the way.

Why Use A Travel Agency

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There are so many reasons that it is to your advantage to always make your travel reservations with a award-winning travel agency like American Discount Cruises & Travel. Here are just a few of them:

Added ValueDiscounts & Gifts!

A travel agent can provide you with special booking bonuses that customers do not get when booking directly with the vendors. For example, you might get spending money to use during a cruise, and/or a discount off of the price, that the cruise line will not give youor extra if they do. There’s NEVER a circumstance that we can’t give you something that they won’t.

Why American Discount?

Our travel agency is well known for providing very generous discounts and gifts to our customers. Backed by our Low Price Guarantee, and a desire to never be beat by our competitors, you’re always going to get an amazing deal when booking with us. Further, because of our strong relationship with many cruise lines, we have exclusiveADC Advantage pricing on many cruises!

Experience & Unbiased Expertise

Why American Discount?

We’re not just “order takers.” We’re a family owned and operated business, and truly care about each of our customers. We want to make sure the vacation you book is the best possible choice for you. You might have a trip already in mind, but with our travel agency’s help you might end up booking something even better than you imagined. Whether your priority is experiential or price-driven, we will make sure your priority is our priority!

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Cruising Experience And Knowledge

Question the agents on cruising trends or up-and-coming destinations, and ask them to explain the differences between cruise lines. Find out how many cruises they’ve taken that year and with which lines they’ve personally cruised. The more knowledgeable an agent is, the better advice you’ll get. If the agent has rarely cruised, you might want to take your business elsewhere. In addition, you might want to look for an agent who is a cruise specialist — either at a cruise-dedicated agency or within a larger general agency — to get the best service.

With 20 Different Agencies World Travel Holdings Offers Remarkable Vacation Planning Services To Satisfy Every Single Vacation Desire From Resorts And Cruises To Luxury Travel Services And Villas In Exotic Locales And Everything In Between Book Your Next Dream Vacation With One Of Our Brands Today

CruisesOnly.comAmericas Largest Cruise Agency is where to go for huge savings on brand-name cruises. For more than 35 years CruisesOnly has offered travelers the very best in value and service, carefully matching each customer with their ideal cruise vacation. The award-winning CruisesOnly.com features an extensive selection of sailings aboard the worlds best cruise lines, with in-depth information about each ship, as well as customer and expert reviews. Users can easily compare prices for interior, oceanview, balcony, and suite accommodations at a glance. Booking is available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, online or by telephone, with highly qualified travel experts. CruisesOnly offers customers both a Best Price Guarantee and a Satisfaction Guarantee on every booking.

Cruises.comCruises.com offers a smarter way to book unbeatable deals on the worlds most popular cruise lines. We make finding the best deal on an incredible cruise vacation simple. Book your way, when you want, 24/7 with our easy-to-use website. Expect everything the cruise lines offer, plus exclusive deals with prices backed by our 110% Best Price Guarantee.

Cheap CruisesCheap Cruises is always on deck to help cruisers get away for way less. With its laidback, super-fun vibe, customers can easily find the vacay of their dreams thats also easy on their wallets. Plus, there are always opportunities to score a boatload of freebies, including exclusive deals only found here!

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At Bolsover Cruise Club We Do Things Differently

Weve been showing you the world by sea since the 1960s and its fair to say were cruise holiday obsessed. We live and breathe travel, driven by a passion for seeing the world on ships that have a tendency to steal the limelight even from their destination.

Bolsover Cruise Club has done things differently from the beginning. Back then, we were the first cruise specialist of our kind in the UK today were the best. Thats what they all say, so what makes us different? Firstly, our unique customer service approach has paved the way for a new holiday booking experience. From your very first call to your welcome home, youll speak to the same person each and every time. We get to know what you like, so we can plan a holiday youll love its why 99% of clients come back to us time and time again.

Were recognised as the best in Britain, not just with countless travel industry awards and by our customers, but by some of the worlds leading cruise lines too. Did you know Bolsover Cruise Club has spent an incredible 33 consecutive years as the top UK agent for P& O Cruises? We can confidently say that nobody knows them, and other favourites like Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean, Cunard, Fred Olsen and many more, quite so well.

Average Customer Rating: 5/5

Is There More To Norwegian Cruise Line Than Gimmicks Like This?

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Last Minute Cruises Can Sometimes Be The Cheapest Cruise Deal

Sometimes, but not always, the cheapest cruise deal is a Last Minute Cruise. You won’t get a wide selection of stateroom categories or a chance to select your stateroom location but if your schedule is flexible you just might find a cheap cruise price on a last minute cruise. Last minute cruises are cruises leaving in the next 90 days. The cruise line really wants to fill those last few staterooms and sometimes will offer them at a discount cruise price in exchange for you giving up your right to a full selection of cabin categories or deck locations. CruiseExperts.com makes it easy for you to poke around and see what’s available in last minute cruise deals. View our Last Minute Cruise Deals by clicking here and give it a try. This is one of our most popular website features.

The Sovereign Cruise Club

Book: By phone or in person, with customers able to make appointments to visit the team in their Berkshire-based office. A new website launching later in 2019 will also have an online booking capability.

About: This luxury specialist, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2018, prides itself on being the go to agency for customers wanting high end cruises. It offers a select number of lines from river cruise companies such as APT, Avalon and Uniworld to ocean lines including Regent Seven Seas, Crystal Yacht Cruises and the new Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection. Sovereign is also Seabournâs largest global agent — a title it has maintained for the last 11 years.

Expect: Impressive experience in the luxury sector and a guarantee of “expert knowledge and the best fares on all luxury cruises”.

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