To travel agent or not to travel agent - first time cruisers!

[MegRuss626]

Hi everyone! We’re contemplating a cruise in March 2019 but we’ve never been on one. I was reading another post about travel agents and someone pointed out maybe using one if you’ve never been on a cruise. I can plan you a Disney World trip with my eyes closed no questions asked but I couldn’t tell you the first thing about a cruise other than it’s a Disney one! For cruise veterans, what are your thoughts on this? Thank you!

 

[flynnibus]

Free money

Travel agents get kickbacks that will give you some of that back in the form of shipboard credits. Depends on the length of cruiseetc... but I recall getting like 250 on a 7 day

 

[DisneyJoe]

Free money

Travel agents get kickbacks that will give you some of that back in the form of shipboard credits. Depends on the length of cruiseetc... but I recall getting like 250 on a 7 day

First time I heard commissions called kickbacks, but I can see how you would think that.

Travel suppliers such as Disney pay travel agents by paying the travel agency commission - that is how we earn our living (unless we charge a fee, which we do sometimes when the supplier doesn't pay us, i.e. airlines). Some agents will then give up some of their pay in the form of shipboard credits or gift cards to entice clients to book with them.

When we monitor Disney promotions for new offers and automatically apply them to reduce the trip cost, that also costs us money, but we do it for customer service as they become repeat clients and send us referrals.

 

[flynnibus]

First time I heard commissions called kickbacks, but I can see how you would think that.

Are you living off of shipboard credits?

I used the term simply because you can't give it back in discounts...

 

[DisneyJoe]

Are you living off of shipboard credits?

I used the term simply because you can't give it back in discounts...

We live off of the commission that we earn, but if and when we give shipboard credits, that reduces our income by that amount.

 

[lostpro9het]

I was in the ‘yes’ group. Research who is giving the best on board credit deals, make sure their references check out, and go with an agent! We know the ropes well enough but still use an agent for the booking credits and their time when it come to booking an opening day cruise.

While on board book a place holder, or a future cruise if you know a date. You can always cancel and get that deposit back. Then if you decide to cruise again just transfer that place holder to an agent to get their perks as well! Biggest regret we had as a first time DCL cruiser was not booking a future cruise/placeholder.

 

[DisneyJoe]

Then if you decide to cruise again just transfer that place holder to an agent to get their perks as well!

Just an FYI - onboard credits offered on transferred bookings may be lower than those given when booked initially with an agency.

 

[Disneyworld_here_we_come]

I say yes. I have a friend who is a travel agent and she loves cruises, takes them all the time, she really knows her stuff. In addition if something goes wrong she will be there to do whatever she possibly can to help fix the situation. She's spent many hours on phones calling places to get things worked out for her clients.

 

[Kingdom Konsultant]

Agencies such as Kingdom Konsultant travel do give nice on-board credits to our booking clients. and as Joe mentioned, if the reservation is transferred to us, it will be lower since Disney pays us a lower commission on the transferred booking. It's a nice perk for our clients either way

Pam