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SVoyager

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  1. Thanks for all your responses, very appreciated! @wordell1 's TA seems like what I would need. Else, indeed I don't think I would need a TA very much, besides for when things go wrong and their knowledge of the destination. I did not think of it as being a 'relationship'. Instead I was seeing it more as a 'service' (ouch that sounds cold). So maybe building a good relationship with a TA is what makes it worth it long term but then it comes to the problem of finding a good one lol. @Pattycruise my first attempt was at MEI and comparing apples to apples, room type, gratuities etc, I had cheaper, which did put me off seeing how much praise there was for them here. So I'm a bit on the fence but might approach it differently for my Alaska cruise. Thanks again for the help!
  2. Hello fellow cruisers, got back from my first cruise on Freedom (may 6th to may 9th, cococay and nassau). Absolutely loved it, already planning my next 2 cruises! I knew I wanted a balcony because I wanted my own chill time, reading a book and just looking at the ocean. Was really worth it! (Pictures!) Even had a thunderstorm off in the distance for a good part of the night on the way from cococay to nassau. The views were incredible, stayed up really late just looking at it! So, barely a week off the ship, I was already planning for one, maybe 2 more cruises. Having heard so much about how useful it is to use a Travel Agent, I was thinking of going that route. I am a lone traveler with limited budget so I seek the best deals and adapt my itinerary accordingly. The next cruise had a tighter schedule tho and had to be in november. I had to be in orlando between nov 11 to 13 and wanted to stay about a week there to enjoy the theme parks. The cruise would have been either before or after that date. The other cruise I plan for in 2023 (alaska probably) is really open, no timetable. So I check for prices for the november trip and I spot a nice balcony on Libery OTS nov14th from FLL about 150$ cheaper than the other 2 ships that sail from miami and port canaveral (4night cruise). I then ask a quote and what I get is pretty much higher prices overall and the agent doesn't see the deal I spotted. Ask another TA, again pretty much the same thing and they tell me its pretty much the price as it is right now and they don't watch for upcoming deals. So I endedup planning this trip by myself again. I've never dealt with TA before so maybe I don't understand their role very well and my expectations are wrong. I thought that TA could find great deals, warn you should opportunities becomes available, tell you when to get the plane tickets, help you plan your itinerary, know about the destination, suggest places to go to, and help you out should trouble arise. Example of what I would expect: One day I would get a call from my TA saying, "Hey you wanted to go to Alaska? Check this out, the price for balconies on X ship just dropped this week and the ports are great, seems like a great deal, you interested?" Doesn't seem to work that way. Instead, I could get better deals myself, I can subscribe for price watch sites for the cruise and plane tickets so that I get warned of drops. I might not have the best itinerary tho. Unfortunately, the fact that I am a lone traveler forces me to be very budget minded. I do understand that TA can't spend hours on a single client but hopefully they would have tools to automate things a bit. Doesn't seem to be the case tho. Knowing many people use TA here, I was wondering if anyone could clarify / help me have the right expectations of a TA. Does my priorities makes it so that TA are not meant for me or was I not lucky with the ones I tried? (sorry if this post might feel like a rant. It is not my intention, just genuinely wish to know more)
  3. Wow, I'm definitely keeping that site marked, that was a thousand times easier to get an overview of the different choices, quite detailed too. thanks!! Haha omg, you got me real good on that one!! Thanks. Yeah I hear matt in his videos always talking about getting a travel agent, I didn't because I initially thought that I would be fine to check the website once in a while to see if I would spot a better price. Its a way to always be reminded of the upcoming trip (is that really a positive lol?). If only the website would actually give me the right info easily, it would've been fine but its a bit of a hassle. I've never really used a travel agent so far, always booking everything by myself, it feels like I have more control and flexibility should I want to change things. Do they actually keep checking the prices for discounts later on or would I still need to check RCI's website for discounts and then call them to have it applied? Doesn't feel like any different than what I am doing right now?
  4. Hello, new cruiser here. First cruise will be on freedom in may for 3 nights, really looking forward to it!!! I watched waaayyy too much of matt's videos, time is painfully slow heh. BTW, sorry for the long post, re-read 20 times, couldn't make it shorter I am cruising solo and I keep watch for price changes just in case I get lucky. I have an ocean view cabin in the front and thought that maybe upping to a balcony could be cool. My problem is that, trying to figure out the prices without having to go thru the entire steps is a bit difficult. I have made a quick comparison to show the differences. I am Canadian so I booked thru the Canadian website but I also compared with the US version to see the differences. The initial price shown is the one given on the main website where it shows the price for a single person (but for a booking for two). Once you go thru the booking steps and choose only 1 passenger, then I am shown the actual price but that's where things no longer seem to fit. US 6th may balcony 332$USD (regular balcony not available) (850$ spacious, forwards deck7, 4B #7222) 9th sept balcony 322$USD (661$ regular balcony, forwards deck8, 4D #8242) (681$ spacious, forwards deck7, 4B #7222) 18th nov balcony 321$USD (642$ regular balcony, forwards deck8, 4D #8242) (762$ spacious, forwards deck7, 4B #7222) CA 6th may balcony 440$CAD (regular balcony not available) (1228$ spacious, forwards deck7, 4B #7222) 9th sept balcony 426$CAD (920$ regular balcony, forwards deck8, 4D #8242) (1004$ spacious, forwards deck7, 4B #7222) 18th nov balcony 426$CAD (864$ regular balcony, forwards deck8, 4D #8242) (1018$ spacious, forwards deck7, 4B #7222) So between may 6th and sept 9th on the US website, it shows a 10$ difference but once you go thru all the steps, it endsup being 169$ and if you compare both regular balconies on sept 9th and nov 18th, while showing 1$ difference on the main page, you endup having 19$ difference once you are thru all the steps and the difference between the spacious balconies are much higher. Once you compare the Canadian website to the US one, things get more strange. Between sept 9th and nov 18th, its a 14$ difference for the spacious balcony on the Canadian site but for the US version it is 81$ difference, that's with the main site showing the same prices for both dates. Factor in the exchange rate and things just doesn't seem to make sense. I am a solo traveler and I gotta keep the budget under control. When the differences get into the 3 figures, its getting noticed alot more. The biggest problem I have is that I can't just check the rates on the main site as they seem to be pretty much meaningless and 2 dates with the same advertised price could be totally different in the end. Since my vacation dates are flexible, I have to click thru the steps for booking for all the different dates that I could go. Ouch. I must be misunderstanding something. Can anyone clarify this, am I doing something wrong?
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