| The air carriers have paid next to nothing to travel agents for years...so I
let my TA do all my travel planning (cruises/tours/etc) except for one
thing. I take care of any air-only booking. Heck, shed get paid only a
couple of dollars on most any air package I make (theyre generally less
than $200). So shed be doing it as more of a courtesy than anything else. |
| I bought these from a travel agent for $45 total, I spent about a week going
thru and read up on about 10 different itineraries and or ship/port options and
narrowed my choices down planning a family reunion cruise with the help of these
guides and a few questions to these newsgroups, these guides answered 98% of my
questions though without having to deal directly with repeat calls to travel
agents....I had called around a bit but after about the 10th question I could
tell I was starting to wear on these agents patience levels, I wanted the info
but also wanted the answers without feeling like I was bugging my agent to
death. |
| Oh, every one with an engine has a range but it isnt a factor in planning
cruises for a real sailing vessel. Or a really long range motor vessel, for that
matter. Our modest trawler has about 1500 miles range which means we could only
go to New England and back without refueling.... not a factor in planning
cruises of less than a full season. |
| You should also pay attention to excursions by timing--for example, you can
only see certain bears in certain months out of certain ports! If you are
planning to cruise in May or September to save money on the cruise rate itself,
some excursions will be unavailable or less desirable in the early/late season. |
| I think a big part of the fun for me is the planning and anticipation.
I even enjoy planning cruises Ill probably never go on (the ones where
I am treating all 16 family members to owners suits). I have all
brochures from most of the lines and at night before I fall asleep I
take them out and look them over and say Where shall I go today... |
