The cruise lines set the prices. Travel agents can give some benefits, like a bottle of wine, alternate dining or OBC. You'd be very lucking if a TA had a group booking for that itinerary. Then you'd get a much better price than the published one.
Also you should keep monitoring the fare for your category (or a higher one) every other day or so (or use CruiseFish.Net with email alerts). When the fare goes down after you book, contact your agent and ask to be rebooked (same cabin) at the new lower fare. Travel Agents don't like to do it and AAA charges $75pp (I think) to make the change but the cruise company will do it without question and without charge. Just ask for the savings. (Sure wish airlines did this. Wait a minute, Southwest DOES bank the difference for you.)
We cruised back to back (27 days) trans-Atlantic plus Med cruise and watched the fares drop 3 times before sale date. Each time we called our agent and they re-wrote the booking. We saved almost $1600 on those two cruises on Celebrity.
We've seen 13 day trans-Atlantics on RCL recently from $399pp Rhapsody OTS out of Malaga, Spain via the Canary Islands to Florida in the fall of 2016. Incredible value that only lasts a few days then disappears (lowest today is $660pp) for that cruise. CruiseFish is great (just a little clunky to use). They sell nothing. You book through whoever you want.
NCL is NOT my cruise line of choice, however. We like better food and service.
Always ask for Senior, Military and Florida resident rates.
Hope this helps.
Skip
Last edited by Skip; 12-15-2015 at 10:38 AM.
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