Cruises. Has anyone used the

Dawning

Cruisecompete.com website?
If so - did they allow you to make your booking with them due to them being in the US ? Also, are they reliable/genuine?

thanks!

bcl999

First used them 4 years ago and actually booked one of the quotes from a Florida agent. Tickets arrived fine. The only problem, if you could call it that, was that when I went to book a cruise direct with Cunard UK they didn't recognise my previous passenger number as it was a Cunard US number.

I do still sometimes put a quote request on cruisecompete but have not found them very competitive for a while so have not booked via them again. (4 years ago the £ to US$ was 2.00 so the US quotes were better value then.)
Just to add, it's not cruisecomptete you would be making the booking with, it's a specific cruise agent who replies to your quote request. Not sure what responsibility, if any, cruisecompete will take for any booking though I expect it is stated somewhere among their T&Cs.

poet123

Yes, I have used them in the past, and posted about it in a thread yesterday. Great customer service and no problems at all.

ailuro2

they were a washout with us, had plenty of quotes but none were cheaper than the one we had from ThomasCook - in the travel agency believe it or not - because it was so expensive I checked out every avenue - maybe because it was a popular time of year we were going, I don't know?

Dawning

Thanks very much everyone. I was asking for a friend who wants to book a cruise and was looking for better deals than on the cruise line website.
I'll feed your replies back to her and see what she thinks.

nw_man

I dont know anything about cruise compete but take a look at this post from tripadvisor :

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g1-i10703-k4540210-Warning_about_www_cruisecompete_com-Cruises.html

stoneman

Cruise compete are not the ones you make the booking with, they are just the vehicle to put you in contact with other agents. So no need to be worried if they are reliable. We have booked 2 years running through them for the Caribbean, both times cruises-n-more have come out cheapest and with bonuses on top of what going direct might get you. For example this year we are going with NCL and on their site you get an OBC (on board credit) of $100, cruises-n-more have given us an additional $200 on top of that, free bottle of wine, and 2 free specialty dinners.

travellerboy

Definately worthwhile. I booked a cruise earlier this year thro one of their replies for my requested cruise. The company I booked with was The Cruise Specialists, based in Scotland, part of the Co-op Group.

No problem at all, never booked with a US agent, as most will not honour the deals from a non-US citizen.

poet123

travellerboy wrote: »

Definately worthwhile. I booked a cruise earlier this year thro one of their replies for my requested cruise. The company I booked with was The Cruise Specialists, based in Scotland, part of the Co-op Group.

No problem at all, never booked with a US agent, as most will not honour the deals from a non-US citizen.

That has not been my experience. I have booked via a US agent several times.

stoneman

Mine neither. I have booked 2 years running from the U.K. with an agent based in Florida.

travellerboy

poet123 wrote: »

That has not been my experience. I have booked via a US agent several times.

You will not be able to book a cruise via a US Travel Agent for HAL, RCCL, Celebrity, P&O and many others. These are the preferred Cruises for the majority.

You could do it about 4/5 years ago but not since the UK agents pressurised the Cruise Lines to stop the practice.