It really depends upon your level of experience in cruising and how to make a reservation. The Big and best advantage of dealing with a Travel agent is 1) Some of the larger agencies do offer discount prices that are even advertised on the web.....and this is even for cruises such as Celebrity, RCL Carnival, Princess etc that require the smaller agencies to offer a price no different that what one could get from the cruise agency itself.
2) If you know what you are doing, dealing with the right agency, and even if the price is the same or comparable to what the cruise line is offering, A goood agency will provide you On-Board Credits (OBC) which are the same as cash to use as you please while on board, or offer you dinner for 2 in a speaciality resturant or pay your gratituties. THis is the real difference in booking with a TA. On our last 15 night cruise we had a $450 cabin OBC provided to us plus dinner in a speciality resturant. Cruise lines will not offer this AND even if they do, cruise line OBCs are very restrictive in that they cannot be combined with most other offers.
3) If something goes wrong wile on the cruise hopefully the cruise line will assit you, but by having a TA, they can always a back stop and be another person to assist you.
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