Anyone a travel agent or cruise booker??? Any tips, tricks help??

[CopyCat]

Looking to take a cruise in the Caribbean/Bahamas etc. Any one out there a travel agent or have any hook ups? Or any tips and tricks would be welcomed as well.

 

[holyintellect]

I just returned from a 7 day cruise....my parents cruise often, and they always book theirs through AAA...

holy

 

[Trauma1]

I leave on a 7 day cruise on sunday.

I agree with holy; look through AAA.

 

[Cinn]

Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, etc. Cruises are really hurting in the Carribean since Hurricane Ike. The better ones(at cheap rates with plenty of stops) used to leave out of Galveston. There are still great options if you're willing to fly and ship out of Puerto Rico or something.

 

[AmericnMuscle]

Hoping to attend a friend to visit another friend living in Tampa, FL. It'll be sometime either during Spring or Summer. We're not sure if we should drive or fly. We'd be leaving from upstate Pennsylvania. We'd be bringing things back home with us (i.e. alligator meat, etc.) and are wanting to avoid high costs of having to fly all of our belongings back home with us. We'll be staying with our friend, so paying for lodging isn't an issue. We'll have extra money for food, shopping, the bars, etc. Flying is obviously much quicker, but will it end up being cheaper than driving? Or would the slowly creeping gas prices end up costing us more if we choose to drive down? Any tips on making the trip more financially doable would be greatly appreciated.

I'm not hijacking the thread. Just figured I'd ask my question here since the topic is somewhat relevant.

 

[wrkn4bigrmusles]

no but i stayed at a HOliday Inn Express last night

 

[Knowbull]

Bump, I think this is an interesting topic. Surely someone has some experiences with this, please post them up.

 

[CopyCat]

Hoping to attend a friend to visit another friend living in Tampa, FL. It'll be sometime either during Spring or Summer. We're not sure if we should drive or fly. We'd be leaving from upstate Pennsylvania. We'd be bringing things back home with us (i.e. alligator meat, etc.) and are wanting to avoid high costs of having to fly all of our belongings back home with us. We'll be staying with our friend, so paying for lodging isn't an issue. We'll have extra money for food, shopping, the bars, etc. Flying is obviously much quicker, but will it end up being cheaper than driving? Or would the slowly creeping gas prices end up costing us more if we choose to drive down? Any tips on making the trip more financially doable would be greatly appreciated.

I'm not hijacking the thread. Just figured I'd ask my question here since the topic is somewhat relevant.

I have an awesome online calculator that you enter start locale, destination, vehicle etc, and it will add up the costs of driving. There are a bunch out there, but this is the one the Navy uses to compute cost when we move duty stations. I'll post it in here tonight.

 

[CopyCat]

I'll look into AAA. It just seems that there are so many agencies, prices, etc. and I haven't ever booked a cruise before so naturally I want the best deal I can get, but get confused reading these sometimes. I look at everything like they are trying to screw me out of money..lol

 

[Mrs. Gimpy!]

i booked my last cruise through www.cruise.com

i went with them because they agreed to pay all the gratuities if we booked with them.

the gratuities covered both me and the husband for the waiter, head waiter, and room keeper. we still tipped them more on top of what they gave us though because they only gave us the "minimum recommended" amount.

 

[bigpapa]

call William Shatner, he'll help

 

[holyintellect]

Cruises are really hurting in the Carribean since Hurricane Ike.

I am certainly not a seasoned cruiser, as this was my first, but Im not sure thats an accurate statement....I was on the Carnival Legend, and it was booked to capacity....when we stopped in Grand Cayman, there were 4 other cruise ships there besides ours. A friend of mine just so happened to be on the Carnival Valor, which was there at the same time as us...their ship was at capacity also....

holy

 

[Knowbull]

call William Shatner, he'll help

I called, the only trip available was to uranus. I dont want to go there.

 

[CopyCat]

My friend and his wife are doing all the leg this time, they've got experience so I feel less stressed. The cruise is a bunch of my Marines and friends from OIF I getting together for a sort of reunion. We do this every few years, but I couldn't make it last time.

 

[Trauma1]

I am certainly not a seasoned cruiser, as this was my first, but Im not sure thats an accurate statement....I was on the Carnival Legend, and it was booked to capacity....when we stopped in Grand Cayman, there were 4 other cruise ships there besides ours. A friend of mine just so happened to be on the Carnival Valor, which was there at the same time as us...their ship was at capacity also....

holy

Sounds like i'm about to embark on the same cruise this sunday "Carnival Legend." This will be my 4th. The beauty is it leaves right here (15 minutes from me) in tampa.

 

[Trauma1]

CC - I got a website from a guy at work that cruises 6x/year. He gets these insane prices through them. Check out this website:

http://www.cruisefools.org/

 

[CopyCat]

Cool, thanks

 

[bigpapa]

a buddy of mine was supposed to go on the Giants Cruise with the Champs a couple weeks ago...but they ****ed up his passport...

 

[futurepilot]

Hands down.

http://www.shermanstravel.com/