Cruise - Direct or Agent

[AccidentallyWesAnderson]

Norway specifically. I love researching and booking my own flights/accommodation and usually find it cheaper but my partner and I are thinking of going on our first cruise.

We've found the one we like (down to the room I want!) and priced it up on P&O website but a lot of cruising forums people say they book via agents.

Does anyone with cruising experience have preferred travel agents they book through? Do they find better prices/perks than going direct? Or maybe I should phone P&O directly to see if can beat online price?

I book direct (but haven’t been on P&O) a lot of forums are American and they have different deals/insurance ect via agents.

Book direct if you’re happy with making your own choices. If you book with an agent, you can’t approach P&O directly yourself to make any amendments or adjustments.

I booked with Iglu once. When the flight times came in for a fly cruise they weren’t ideal so usually a quick call to P&O and I’d have got them swapped but with an agent I had to explain what I wanted to them, wait for them to contact P&O, then call me back, then they’d misunderstood and had to call them again. Honestly the whole thing took days and was just daft since I’m perfect capable of making my own plans. Never again for us, even to save an extra £100 or so.

Always direct. I have heard too many scare stories of people who booked through agents then had to wait days every time they had a query because they had to call the middle man agent first who would in turn call the cruise line.

We have a cruise (P&O) currently booked with Iglu, we will always book direct in future. Iglu emailed something incorrectly to us informing that our booking wasn’t as agreed. I’ve asked twice for a manager to speak to me and they refuse. The lady we initially booked with was wonderful but woefully let down on the admin side and we haven’t even needed to make a change. I’d never trust Iglu again and for the money saved it’s just not worthwhile in my opinion.

Good to know as I was just on Iglu's website! It was coming in at about £100 cheaper but if things go wrong as you say to save £100 isn't worth the hassle.

Direct seems to be the way (as usual!).

I booked a cruise to Norway with P&O via cruise.co.uk and had no issues at all. It worked out cheaper.

Generally I book direct though it's worth seeing if agents like Planet cruise or iglu have discounts. Also for more complicated arrangements an agent can be better as its means you have an abta guarantee (uk based). For Norway sailing out of the uk the arrangements are straight forward

A diversion but I am now very tempted to book a Norwegian cruise. I've been to various Scandinavian cities but would love to see the fjords.

Same. A fan of Scandi cities but would love to see the fjords. The one I am likely to book is quite soon. I will report back.

There's a Facebook page for all the Norwegian P&O cruise ships, you can get lots of really useful information particularly about which cabins to avoid, there's a lot of inside information which will make your trip much more pleasant.

P and O will usually price match.

Thanks, I've joined that.

I use an agent as it saves money or they’ll include drinks/on board credit etc. I nearly always book a stay before and/or after the cruise.