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Has anyone booked a last minute cruise or any cruise on Vacations To Go?

S

sun starved Gayle

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Was it worth the savings?

Some of the pricing is really cheap. I imagine you would probably be getting leftovers in terms of excursions, cabins etc.

I live in the Washington State so it would be easy for us to get to Seattle or Vancouver BC for departure to Alaska.
 
We have taken (a couple of) those. Yes, they are released after the 'due date' for final payment. And the ship's excursions do fill as sailing gets closer, but they are not 'leftovers' in a derogatory way. Not like they will take your balcony cabin and issue you an inside cabin in steerage and an oar. Ships' excursions can be cancelled up to the day before the days' use, so there is frequent availability.

Cruise ships don't always sail with 100% occupancy, and VTG's 90 day ticker aims to fill that, but fear not. It's still a quality product at a good price.

Jim
 
sun starved Gayle said:
Was it worth the savings?

Some of the pricing is really cheap. I imagine you would probably be getting leftovers in terms of excursions, cabins etc.

I live in the Washington State so it would be easy for us to get to Seattle or Vancouver BC for departure to Alaska.
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Yes. We took a last minute cruise booked through them in February. It was about $700 per person for a balcony cabin. It wasn’t a bad price for booking 1 month out, but booking in advance could have saved because we didn’t need a balcony but it was all that was left. However, the cabin and deck location was great. The price was the same as what Royal Caribbean advertised, but with vacation to go we got an extra $25 in onboard credit. So we really only saved $25.

I compared vacation to go prices to other cruise lines direct prices and they were all about the same price. Vacation to go may advertise cheaper prices but when you go to book a lot of times those cheaper cabins will no longer be available.
 
For all “deals”, I check the web site of the actual company like Southwest, Hilton etc. to compare prices. 95% of the time the company has the same price. If so, I always book with the company direct to avoid dealing with a middle man if there is a problem.
 
We purchased from VacationToGo in past, but I am not sure if you get much better price than buying directly from the cruise company at that particular time. What you get is a One step comparison between many companies, ships, ports etc which in my opinion simplifies the selection.
 
I’ve had significantly better results and service with an independent travel agent.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
We used them several times before 2020. They were well priced, added in on board credits, restaurant, flowers on arrival.
Haven’t cruised on big ship since then
 
We have used them for about 10 cruises and they have always been great to deal with. We did have some difficulty last time trying to connect with them and in the meantime Princess contacted my wife as she had been looking something up on their site.
We ended up booking our Australian and New Zealand cruises through Princess as the prices in the end were real close. As far as service my wife really liked dealing with the Princess Rep and that he really worked a lot to get her information and set us up on the cruise and with hotels before and after.
Everything went well until I got a pinched nerve in my back and halfway thru the 1st cruise I couldn't walk or sleep. When the Australian cruise ended we canceled the rest and flew home.
Luckily we bought insurance (1st time buying it) and it covered some of our trip. We did have to pay a fortune to fly home (last minute) and I'm still in pain a month later after a steroid shot and just started PT on my back.
I would not hesitate to use either to book our next cruise.
Bart
 
sun starved Gayle said:
Was it worth the savings?

Some of the pricing is really cheap. I imagine you would probably be getting leftovers in terms of excursions, cabins etc.

I live in the Washington State so it would be easy for us to get to Seattle or Vancouver BC for departure to Alaska.
Click to expand...
First, Vacations To Go is a licensed Travel Agency. Their "deals" are deals offered by the cruise line, nothing smoke and mirrors about it. I am retired and only cruise at the "last minute" and pick an inside cabin for the lowest price. On my last cruise, I was upgraded to a balcony at no charge. I don't believe it had anything to do with VTG but the cruise line itself.
I have used VTG for my cruise vacations for the last 5 years. Their website is the most intuitive I have ever discovered and within minutes I know what lengths, destinations, and cruise lines are within my budget. I would recommend them 100%.

From a personal point of view, Travel Agents get a commission from the cruise line. Who has more incentive to take care of your problems, if any arise, than a person getting a 15% commission to make sure you are happy, or the most recent hourly employee when dealing directly with a cruise company?
 
Friends like vtg. I use princess personal vacation planner for princess-she is great and takes care of things for me.
For celebrity, rccl, I use cruise.com as they often have group rates much better than the cruise line directly. Likely the same group rates as vtg.
I’ve done 2 carib cruises at 55-60 days out and got great rates. Be careful to see if you’re booking an assigned cabin or GTY. Our rooms have been fine-but we got a front cabin that vibrated as we were over the bow thrusters. It works out ok, but would think about that one if we had lots of early port days.
 
elaine said:
Friends like vtg. I use princess personal vacation planner for princess-she is great and takes care of things for me.
For celebrity, rccl, I use cruise.com as they often have group rates much better than the cruise line directly. Likely the same group rates as vtg.
I’ve done 2 carib cruises at 55-60 days out and got great rates. Be careful to see if you’re booking an assigned cabin or GTY. Our rooms have been fine-but we got a front cabin that vibrated as we were over the bow thrusters. It works out ok, but would think about that one if we had lots of early port days.
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Group rates can be amazing! I booked a group rate for an RCL cruise next summer (via vacations to go) that was ~half the price through the cruise line. The cancel policy isn't as good but aside from the lower price we also got some onboard credit, so worth it to us.
 
Krteczech said:
................ What you get is a One step comparison between many companies, ships, ports etc which in my opinion simplifies the selection.
Click to expand...
Totally agree! Awesome sight that makes planning a snap and dreaming a delight.
 
bizaro86 said:
Group rates can be amazing! I booked a group rate for an RCL cruise next summer (via vacations to go) that was ~half the price through the cruise line. The cancel policy isn't as good but aside from the lower price we also got some onboard credit, so worth it to us.
Click to expand...

I buy group rates frequently with an independent agent, and they are almost all refundable deposit bookings. If you ask specifically, they likely have a refundable option at a slightly higher cost.

In other words, V2G is just another large agency. I find I get much befter and much more personal attention when working with an independent agent. YMMV.
 
Ken555 said:
I buy group rates frequently with an independent agent, and they are almost all refundable deposit bookings. If you ask specifically, they likely have a refundable option at a slightly higher cost.

In other words, V2G is just another large agency. I find I get much befter and much more personal attention when working with an independent agent. YMMV.
Click to expand...

The biggest downside of vacations to go (imho) is that they charge an additional fee for cancellations even on refundable rates/before final payment. They did have the refundable option available at a slightly higher cost.

I don't dispute an independent agent could be better (and I'd be interested in getting the name of yours!). In terms of vtg specifically they're a big box agency - trustworthy in terms of getting your perks/what you paid for, but I wouldn't expect any service.
 
I have used them to compare what is available. They got the information available in way that make sense to me. Once I have decided I have generally booked directly with whatever cruise line the cruise is on. On thing no one else has that I have found it the Single Cruiser offers. They are a trusted company.
 
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