Anyone used Cabin Clearance Store to book a cruise?

FloFlo

I am on the verge of booking with Cabin Clearance Store which are a US travel agent.

Has anyone used them? They can offer a better deal than booking in the UK.

Thanks

weejas

Yes I've used them for booking a RCCL cruise.
Worked out cheaper than the UK agents taking everything into account i.e all taxes, tips and obc. The obvious danger is that if you're booking for a cruise some time in the future the pound could collapse against the dollar and the sums would not be so favourable - of course it could go the other way and be even better for you.

FloFlo

weejas wrote: »

Yes I've used them for booking a RCCL cruise.
Worked out cheaper than the UK agents taking everything into account i.e all taxes, tips and obc. The obvious danger is that if you're booking for a cruise some time in the future the pound could collapse against the dollar and the sums would not be so favourable - of course it could go the other way and be even better for you.

Cruise is for this August but I understand what you are saying about the exchange rate.

mcfisco

I can't see the £ collapsing against the $ before August, but you never know.
If it was a concern to you, you could always hedge the risk by buying $ now.

weejas

Alternatively just pay the entire cost when booking. I also use a Halifax Clarity card for the max exchange rate

stoneman

We used them for last years NCL Epic cruise and again this year on NCL Pearl. They worked out fine. You might also like to try cruises-n-more we used them a couple of years ago

FloFlo

stoneman wrote: »

We used them for last years NCL Epic cruise and again this year on NCL Pearl. They worked out fine. You might also like to try cruises-n-more we used them a couple of years ago

Did you book it all by email, were they ok with your obc and getting your preferences right?

stoneman

FloFlo wrote: »

Did you book it all by email, were they ok with your obc and getting your preferences right?

We used them last year because they had the best offer using cruisecompete, so this year went with them again knowing that we could haggle over the price and get a decent OBC. NCL price for our cruise this Christmas was $5,100 with $100 OBC. We managed to get it for $4,600 and $100 OBC.

As far as preferences go we knew what cabin number we wanted, always best to do research yourself and not depend on the TA I feel.

The OBC was waiting for us on the cruise account when we boarded, but if it isn't there they do say it could take 24 hours to show up. They also put a bottle of wine in our suite for us which we didn't know was included.

I phoned them up to do the negotiations. Which line are you planning on?

mickey234

I had a quote recently from them, they were significantly more expensive for Celebrity Reflection cruise than a UK T/A and there were no bonus extras.
Eventually I booked with American Discount Cruises which were £45 more than the UK agent for the same Balcony cabin (£2339 total for 2 people) but with the US agent I had the 123 Promotion. Free drink package ($880), free pre-paid Gratuities ($264) and $300 obc.
All the years I have been cruising I have never had such a fantastic deal with a premium cruiseline and on almost a brand new ship.