RQS and I were looking at this itinerary, and we decided to take a Summer/Autumn cruise. We normally would follow the advice of Gary Bembridge and use a travel agent to book our cruise. However, we encountered a situation where the travel agent we selected couldn't provide us the option we could get by booking directly with the cruise line.
But first....
Last night, we planned to book this cruise when I got home from dinner with DPV . However, Vacations to Go (VTG) closes its lines at 10 pm, so we figured we'd book the cruise tonight. Well, things didn't work out as planned.
RQS was visiting her cousin in Philadelphia, and brought her new Chromebook along for the ride. Around 9 pm, RQS called me and tried to connect me in for a 3 way call with VTG. We couldn't get that working. Unfortunately, VTG couldn't give us the booking we wanted - they could only do an all or nothing regarding the "Free at Sea" offering. We wanted everything but the "Free" booze package (we don't drink enough to make the $200/pp gratuity charge worth the price), and VTG couldn't or wouldn't do what was needed to uncheck this option. So RQS and I decided to contact the cruise line directly and see what we could do. And we had more success here, as the cruise line's agent had no problem making this happen. Sadly, we couldn't get the room I found online, but we got a good room for the same price. (The agent made a mistake at first, not realizing what we would accept a cabin in the aft part of the ship, and thinking we wanted an aft balcony. He corrected this quickly, when I told RQS what I think happened.)
Would I do the booking this way again? Maybe/Maybe Not. I have found a local travel agent specializing in cruises that I may try out for our next cruise together. Hopefully, I can get better results from someone local than from an organization which may be experiencing Covid-19 related personnel churn.
So, now we are committed - we will be spending time with each other where we have to see each other for 10 straight days. This will tell us a lot about how we get along together. Keep your fingers crossed.
PS: This is a cruise I'll be doing as Mario. It won't be as much fun, but.....
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