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Their service to you is usually free, though some might charge first-time clients a minimal fee. Plus, the price of your cruise includes accommodations, meals, entertainment and activities — and in some cases drinks, tips, shore excursions, Wi-Fi and other extras. There's 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.
Cruise Vacation Packages: The Liberty Travel Experience
Whether you’re speaking with one of MSC’s Italian officers or being taken care of by any of the expert and multi-lingual staff members, you'll feel pampered all cruise long. Hurtigruten Cruises offers premium exploration voyage cruises to a variety of places like, Norway, Greenland, Spitsbergen, Iceland, Europe, Africa, South America, Central America, Arctic Canada, and Antarctica. Celebrity Cruises make traveling on sea a pleasure, with impeccable customer service, high-end amenities and amazing ship design layout. Carnival Cruises is known as the world's most popular cruise line, thanks to its signature dining, exciting shore excursions and endless onboard fun.
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Winner of the World Travel Awards for United States' Leading Travel Agency
Sail in boutique luxury with AmaWaterways, discovering hidden gems and captivating cultures across Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. Let their personalized service and exquisite comfort become your passport to unforgettable adventures. For your first cruise, you might need help in matching your lifestyle and budget with a cruise line and destination. Choosing a cruise is not the same as picking a hotel or flight, as there are many more options to consider. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but be aware if the agent seems to be putting you off the line you were originally considering, as this could be the reason.
We Make Vacation Planning Easy
Expedia is an obvious first mention in a list of the best cruise booking sites, in part because it’s an absolute juggernaut (Expedia also owns Travelocity and Orbitz). Its cruise-booking interface is simple and straightforward, only requiring you to enter your preferred sailing destination and date range, as well as how many passengers you’ll be bringing along. Then Expedia does the heavy lifting for you, with comprehensive results that make it one of the best cruise search engines.
It makes sense that if a cruise cabin is about to sail empty the price would drop to fill it up. In fact, cruise lines consistently have occupancy rates above 100% — meaning that more than two passengers are in some cabins. When looking for the best site to book a cruise, don’t be put off by CheapCaribbean.com’s overly specific moniker. Despite the site’s name, it offers cruises all over the world.
Expert travel tips, dream destination inspiration, and timely travel news delivered to your inbox daily. By waiting until the last minute you aren’t likely to find great deals, but it will mean that you have fewer cabin choices. 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 addition to the large cruise aggregators, there are a number of smaller websites focused solely on cruises.
Personal Service
You will likely run into a lot of questions to which you have no ready answer. "We loved the ship and everything about it. We tried all the restaurants and it is difficult to select one as a favorite - as all had exciting menus and sooooo good food - freshly made of high-quality ingredients." We've taken care (of taking care) of your servers, so we cover the gratuities for your onboard experiences. Browse, post, and stay connected with wifi — whenever you want, and wherever you are on the ship. Search SmarterTravel Hotels for great accommodations in your port of call.
Select "cruises" or "cruise lines" under Specialties to find agents that focus on selling cruise travel. You can also find experienced and certified cruise travel agents through CLIA, the Cruise Lines International Association, which is the industry's main marketing group. Asking friends who have cruised to recommend a travel agent is another good idea. If you're concerned that working with an agent will make your cruise more expensive, don't be. Cruise travel agents receive the bulk of their income via commission from the cruise lines.
How to Locate an Agent
A cruise travel agent will guide you through choosing your cabin and dining times, deposits and final payment, and options for shore excursions and specialty dining. If you need to cancel the trip, the agent will also help you through the refund process. You'll have a lot less stress before and during your vacation if you book with an experienced agent. The cruise travel agent should have questions for you as well, to better understand your dream vacation desires. If you are calling a cruise agency for the first time, the agent should be interviewing you as much as you are interviewing him or her.
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. There’s also a live chat widget if questions come up while booking.
We hand-pick everything we recommend and select items through testing and reviews. Some products are sent to us free of charge with no incentive to offer a favorable review. We offer our unbiased opinions and do not accept compensation to review products. All items are in stock and prices are accurate at the time of publication. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a commission. In that case, you’ll want to contact the website that you booked through — not the cruise line (unless you booked through the cruise line’s website).
If you're used to booking travel independently, consider these reasons why you might want to make use of a travel agent to book your next holiday at sea. With everyone attached to their phones, laptops and tablets, many people assume that online is the only way to book travel. But, as booking online can often be confusing, a travel agent might be just what you need.
However, the big difference is that Costco offers special incentives to book through their site. This includes Costco Shop Cards — a gift card to the store. In addition, while aggregator websites will almost always have the same prices you’ll find everywhere else, they often offer perks you won’t find on the cruise lines websites.
