Hi,
I booked a Royal Caribbean cruise through Cruise Connection. There a
large online/call center cruise company out of Vancouver. They have adds
in the Globe and Mail every Saturday. They were awesome, answered all my
question, and were extremely helpful.
I received a great email from the BC Better Business Bureau about the
company. The part that I appreciated the most was that they have staff
dedicated to setting up the flights, and were very familiar with the
issues involved in flying to the US.
I live on the East coast, and they helped me get good flights the day
before.
Hope this helps,
Jmm

Mike wrote:

Hello All,
Just wanted to get an opinion from those who have booked cruises
directly with cruise lines instead of going through a travel agent. My
wife and I are thinking about booking a cruise on the Royal Caribbean
Explorer for the last week of February. I've made a few calls to local
TA's and they have been as helpful as a rubber crutch for the most part.
Some don't return calls and those that do can't seem to come up with a
travel plan that I want. We live in Canada and I want to travel a day
before the cruise and land in Florida a little early. One TA suggested I
stay overnight in Toronto. Great plan that is. Who the hell wants to
stay in Toronto in late February when you could be staying in warm
Florida! Sheeesh.

Having been frustrated with the lack of help from the TA's I decided to
call Royal Caribbean directly. They seemed helpful and had no problem
making arrangements that I wanted.

I haven't yet committed to them but wanted to ask your opinion.
- How safe is booking directly with the cruise line?
- Anyone have any troubles booking directly with the cruise line?
- Any gotchas that I should be aware of?

I know the guy from Royal Caribbean said that if they make all
arrangements for me then they are responsible for getting me to the
ship. He even said the ship won't leave without me if my flight was
delayed for a few hours. Now if the flight was delayed for a day or
something like that then it wouldn't wait of course, but they would put
me on another cruise of my choosing.
- Truthfully, is this something I can bank on?
- Has anyone booked with RC and gone through something like this? I'd
be interested to know how you were treated.

Thanks
Michael