Booking cruise Through U.S. Website

[A&K]

Just wondering if anyone has booked a cruise through Vacations to Go. We want to book a cruise online but have been told we may not be permitted to board the ship on arriving at the port. I know someone who booked last year
and had no problems at all but the travel agent I spoke to cautioned me.
thanks, A&K

[Prawn_86]

Hi A&K,

Welcome to ATF :)

I have heard of that website, but don't know anyone who has used it. Is it a cruise departing from Aus your looking at? Perhaps just ring the cruise company themselves and ask.

[Aussie Cruiser]

My question is.."Why would you want to book with an agent in the US if the cruise bookings are able to be taken in Australia"? It makes no sense.

[welove2cruise]

My question is.."Why would you want to book with an agent in the US if the cruise bookings are able to be taken in Australia"? It makes no sense.
Quite often you can book the same cruise for 30 - 50% cheaper, especially while our dollar is so high.

Most cruise lines have a restriction that does not allow US agents to sell to Australian residents though. V2G is one that is prepared to detail that on their site, but accept bookings anyway.

There is a risk that you will be asked to pay a price difference before boarding, or be denied boarding. The US market has some local specials for certain states. If you are booked on a special state price, when they find out from your booking details that you live outside the state, they will no longer honour the special. They do check this thoroughly, as it stops Californians from getting a discount only intended for Texans.

There are other risks, especially if you have to cancel. If you cancel in the last few months, your travel insurance will only reimburse Australian cruise bookings. Australian bookings are also protected by the Travel Compensation Fund. If the agent goes belly up, as a big online T/A did in the US this week, there is no comparable compensation safety net in the US.

For an experienced cruiser that is aware of managing the above risks, V2G is one of the better options for booking via the US.

[EverNothing]

I'm sorry but booking an AUSTRALIAN cruise through an AMERCIAN travel agency is UNAUSTRALIAN. I realise that it may fundamentally be a cheaper alternative but your actions take money and jobs away from the Australian economy and local businesses. The same goes for holidaying overseas at the moment. It may be incredibly tempting with our rising dollar but it's not good for Oz at all.

Aussie Hospitality Industry ftw!!! :D

[quickstep]

we have just returned from mediterranean cruise (NCL) and met a few Aussies that booked through VTG at more that A$2000 LESS than we paid. They were advised not to by their TA - told that they may be stopped from boarding.
They received the tickets 6 weeks before and had no problems at all.
At that sort of saving - I would give VTG a go next time, no worries!

[Prawn_86]

Hi quickstep,

Welcome to ATF :)

Great info there thanks, just what the OP was after :)

[albertv]

We have just completed a 7 day Med cruise, booked through a US agent.

No problems at all, absolutely incredible 7 days.

About time the Australian agents realised that they are missing out on potential business (We would gladly pay 10% more to support Australian, but not 50 to 100% more)

We did a cruise last year booked through an Australian company; never , ever again given the current pricing structure!!

[oldcruiser]

I have had a very interesting experience recently with just this matter.
Tried a few weeks ago to book a last-minute Princess Caribbean cruise through one U.S. internet site, but a problem came about when I got to the payment. Apparently I needed to pay using a credit card with a U.S. billing address or the booking could not be accepted. End of story with this agent. However, undeterred, I continued to search other U.S. cruise web sites and tried again with lastminutecruises.com, same cruise line, same cruise date. This time, no problem!

The booking was actually done through the websites call centre phone number as we wanted two adjoining cabins for our party of four. The call centre was a little slow but everything went through OK with the agent. I paid with my Australian issued VISA card (with an Australian billing address). We have now completed our on-line registration direct with Princess. Our booking has been accepted by Princess without any problems. We have printed our boarding passes, luggage tags and are looking forward to our January 2011 cruise departure.
There was a most significant saving in what I would have paid for the same cruise had I booked either direct with Princess or through an Australian travel agent. I'll be using U.S. agents again when there is such a substantial price difference for exactly the same cruise product. From my experience it always pays shop around, especially in the travel industry. I am now retired and for four people travelling the total saving was substantial and can make the difference of between able to go on the cruise or not. I do not wish to suggest there is an affordability issue with the Australian cruise travel industry as their wholesale price could well be higher, but I am just guessing here.

Also, in all the internet searches I've done I've never found one reference in any forum to a passenger who had been denied boarding as they came from the "wrong" country to qualify for the price the passenger had paid. I think I have cracked the reason after a few hours of internet searches. As I am not permitted to provide a link you will have to find it yourself by searching "Australian Cruise Passengers Punished for Shopping Around". It does appear to be a definitive answer and certainly answers a few other questions of mine that surrounded this subject.

[neicie]

Oldcruiser,
Thank you for that very valuable bit of information, would you please let us know how you got on. We have used Vacationstogo on a number of occasions and saved thousands, so can't see why we should waste our hard earned dollars by using an Australian company that would charge us so much more. We cruise every year and only because we can get very good deals from overseas companies. We have already booked our airfare for our next cruise and were going to track the price of the cruise over the coming months but recently became aware of this problem and were worried about what to do. I intend to email VTG to see if they can get around it but if not I will give Lastminutecruises a go, the last resort will be choosing another line such as NCL that don't have this restriction.

[oldcruiser]

Neicie,
Sorry for my slow reply; I have not posted anything here since our return from the cruise 4 weeks ago.
Be assured, everything went very well and just as expected. Absolutely no questions asked when boarding with Princess at Fort Lauderdale which was remarkably efficient, especially when considering there were 3,000 passengers departing and another 3,000 passengers boarding the same day! They really do have their passenger management down to a fine art form.

From my experience I would most certainly book again with confidence at lastminutecruises.com but I would also ensure I always complete on-line passenger information accurately and well in advance. My thought is that no matter which cruise line it is, if the passenger information containing passport details and home address has been received and accepted by the cruise line how could there be an unexpected problem at time of boarding?

If a problem is going to arise surely it's going to be at the time of booking, as it occurred to me with another agent and reported in my prior post of 10/12/2010. I would also like to hear the experience of others in this matter. Mine has only been positive so far, so if anyone has had a problem I want to hear about it also. I found none recorded in all the searches I did so perhaps it's just a travel agents scare-mongering myth after all?

Neicie, please let me know how you get on after your next trip.

[dom_tyro]

I have just booked a Carnival Mexican Riviera cruise for August with Vacationstogo and did a lot of research on this issue before doing so.
I had no drama with the booking, the agent actually rang me from the states and we did the deal over the phone which was good. And I had the invoice/confirmation emailed back within the hour.
It does state on their website which cruiselines will not accept bookings from non-US residents so depending on who you want to cruise with will help decide where you purchase your ticket from.
As for not buying through an aussie agent, if they didn't try to make 25%+ on a deal with you then I'd do it. But until then, and with the AUD-USD rate where it is at the moment well you'd be mad if you didn't (anyone seen the latest business reports on flightcentre's yearly profit??? They don't hurt because savvy travellers do better deals overseas)

[mitasol]

We have booked direct with NCL for a New York cruise in October - no issues so far - we sailed with NCL last year in Hawaii, they were fantastic.

[warrigal]

I have looked at a scandivian/ baltic cruise on a number of usa websites, including Expedia

What I have found a this discount rate cruises (Bargin $599 USD) are only for USA residents.

Best cruises.com.au Australia can do booking internationally but at the full price for a cruise.$1400 plus

Americans get it very easy

[warrigal]

This is a response I got from a usa website cruise bookings

I am terribly sorry to disappoint you. Due to international regulations we are not allowed to book folks who do not have a US address. This saddens me because I have been in this business over 25 years and do not like turning anyone away. However, I wish you luck in finding the best cruise for you.

Regards,
Lauren Kaplan Montoute

Lauren Kaplan Montoute / Travel Consultant
(DiscountCruises.com)

2054 S. University Drive
Davie, FL 33324
877.999.4970 Ext. 208
954.575.8626 (Fax)
MontouteL@discountcruises.com

[jackytan]

hi there
i never ever travel to State so i am not sure how is booking processing through that website, but i think it is ok to book online, i saw that website is very popularized on cruise sector. Halong bay cruises and Mekong river cruises i did deal with Viet Vision Travel, they fast replying and very professional, price is very affordable, when ever travel to asia country , i just drop a few enquiry line to them, then they make customized tours very good, just need to deposited 1/3 of total cost the rest pay upon arrival, but that just for first time, second time we pay off before get on the airplane.

[heavenlybody]

have recently booked 2 cruises through vacations to go. one to nz on celebrity century and the other on discovery from singapore to safarga.
havent tried to board either yet.nz cruise would have ended up cheaper if we had booked in aus.the egypt cruise was a bargain and even did well with airfares.v2g was good to work with. you can ring them on an 1800 number whenever you want.there has been a lot of questions we have wanted to ask and i would say it would have been better to be able to go to an agent and speak face to face.
agents would tell you not to use v2g because they want your business. any more you want to know?