Cruise “TA” companies

[holidaysaver75]

We used Trevor at cruise.co.uk this time and he was very good. Having said that, I do think it’s often easier to go direct rather than having to go through a third party.

[Lola]

Iglu cruise made a lot of mistakes with our booking for Hawaii, requested additional money to add to our deposit (which we lost), were not helpful over the phone when asking about Covid issues in early 2020. Eventually we cancelled 24 hours before paying the balance, even though a lost deposit as we were not confident they would refund due to restrictions. On line reports of people waiting over a year for refunds. My opinion is I would never go near them.

[MrsG26]

Came on to ask this exact same thing and saw there’s already been a similar thread.

We are new to cruising…as in hopefully we will get to sail this time after 2 previously cancelled cruises with P&O during covid.

So this will be 3rd time lucky with our booking but I just don’t know who to book with. Do we just go Direct with Royal Caribbean or go with someone like Iglu who is £200 cheaper for some reason.

This is for Symohony of the seas next year and we are travelling as a group of 6 in 3 cabins. Don’t want a fly cruise as we can pick up cheap flights to Barcelona when they are released.

Just need some recommendations from seasoned cruisers. What’s the drawback of booking direct than through a TA?

[Lola]

As per my post, I would never recommend Iglu. When enquiring about possible problems re Covid as we were already on lockdown here in the UK I told not to listen “to silly media reports” and assured that all would be fine in a couple of weeks. Lots of mistakes on our Hawaii bookings, firstly booked in our first hotel on the wrong island for three nights, then tried to charge twice for the same nights. Then asked for more money that doubled our deposit as they said the airline wouldn’t book our flight unless we paid upfront.
For the amount of price difference I would book direct with the cruise line. All we got back eventually was £50 from the cruise company which was our drinks package and came back unasked for.

[Gill H]

Travel On A Dream were excellent (based in the US so you pay in dollars though).

We book pretty much everything with our Travel Counsellor Helen - Disney specialist, based in UK, phenomenal service and won’t cost you any more than booking direct.

[scarecrow]

Originally Posted by Eeyorefanuk

Hello

Normally book cruises direct with the cruise co as in RC or NCL or Disney and flight myself etc

I do see some “packaged” cruises where all sorted for reasonable prices at times via companies like iglu , cruise nation, cruise first etc

Wondering who has done this and which company you have used and recommend please as heard some bad reviews on some of these companies

Edit, cruise nation also do cruises only.

Thank you 😊

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I’ve used cruise nation twice in the past, both times, they have been cheaper than doing everything myself, once with a RCL cruise and another with Carnival. I have also used viva voyage too to book the cruise only. But they do do packages, which are ATOL protected.