Please help me re: booking a cruise

[kris97]

I am hoping to book a cruise this week, and have basically narrowed down our choices to a Princess cruise in late April (there's a specific week we need to take, and Princess seems to have the best itinerary, though we're open to looking at others). All of the sites I've taken a look at (Liberty Travel, Orbitz, the travel club I belong to, and Princess) show the same prices.

Are there any websites/ travel agencies that you would recommend contacting to see if there are better rates? If the prices are all the same, is booking one way better than the other, in terms of convenience or a better chance at upgrades? FWIW we will also be booking airfare, and would prefer to do that at the same time if possible.

Any suggestions you guys have would be so helpful.

Thanks!

[Daisy]

The last two cruises that we went on all had the same prices listed everywhere we looked, so we booked with an agent. FWIW, I think the advantages of this are: upgrade opportunity or nice onboard credit and better room selection (we actually look at a map and pick what we want out of those available at our level). I also just like having a main contact person that handles everything for me and that can answer all of my questions. My agent doesn't do separate airfare (only the cruise company airfare), so we usually book this ourselves.

Have a great time!

[andrew&shannah]

I have used Cruise Compete (http://www.cruisecompete.com) to search for cruises. The prices that the agents come back with are always the same but they usually offer an upgrade or a great onship credit with your purchase.

[Sonicstef]

If you book thru an American Express travel agent (and use an AMEX card) you can get a $100 back. Its not all that much but its free money.

I have a amex travel agent if you are interested in speaking to her.

[Kinetic]

I just booked our first cruise with Pam at http://www.cruisebrokers.com
She is a travel agent down in Florida, and was highly recommended by a lot of my friends. I had done extensive research, and it was tough to compare prices as some include all port charges/taxes and others do not, and all listed starting prices, but didn't include prices for outside rooms.

We ended up paying $1090 for our 5 night Anniversary cruise in May. I also tried Cruise Compete too, but found that alot of their prices were minus the port charges. I have found the same price for our cruise elsewhere, but none that were cheaper. Also, airfare is really cheap right now. I was originally looking for a cruise to leave out of NJ/NY, but found it better to fly down to Miami.

[heather 8^)]

Crazy enough, we booked our last cruise through Sam's Club! The price difference was insane! We saved so much money, I thought we had accidentally gotten a room with bunk beds or something; but the cruise was fabulous and the room was just like everybody else's. I will say that they had much less selection of available rooms than you could find on other sites, so if you are particular about which part of the ship you want (front, back, mid, near elevators, etc.), you may feel it's worth the extra money to pick out the room you want.

FWIW, BJ's also had prices that were only about $5 more per person, so apparently those clubs really get great prices!

Good luck booking, and have a great time!

[kris97]

thank you everyone! i actually ended up booking through aaa. the agent found a cheaper flight than the ones i saw on the internet, and i'm hopeful that going through an agent will prove less of a headache. oh, how i need this vacation! :)