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Best Way To Book Your Future Cruise ? Cruise Line Direct Or Agent?
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Jan 28, 2025
What is the best way to book a cruise at this time? I look at 6 key reasons for booking a cruise with a dedicated cruise travel agent over the other options available to you, including booking a cruise direct with the cruise line. With the world of cruising and travel changing fast and rules and certainty in flux, I explore why a cruise agent will be less stressful, ensure you get the best price and ensure you stay on top of changes to your advantage. Some examples of independent cruise travel agents: UK :Sarah Bolton https://www.travelcounsellors.co.uk/sarah.bolton USA - Becky Tessier http://www.lhtravel.net and http://www.lhtravel.net/Page/MeetourAgents SUPPORT THE CHANNEL BY: Buying my Cruise T-shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore Other Videos in my Cruise Shutdown Series: 1: What should you do with bookings: https://youtu.be/Bp4xA21bsY4 2: Cancellations and refunds: https://youtu.be/BEadOjDRwAA 3: Cruise Lines Finances and refunds: https://youtu.be/E5Uco5H3CYU 4: When Cruising Will Really Start Up: https://youtu.be/3A4ZxXa-l8o 5: How cruising will change: : https://youtu.be/bamjq0pT8FU 6: Will people cruise again: https://youtu.be/mF_fKOmAmxg 7: Best Cruises For Return To Cruising: https://youtu.be/srqQ4upSv4k 8: Biggest Hurdles Facing Cruise Lines: https://youtu.be/45ndCQfyBUI 9: Future Cruise Credits or Cash Refunds: https://youtu.be/ZSMuslOVTYk
View Video Transcript
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you're about to discover whether you
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should be booking your cruisers via a
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cruise agent or in some other way with
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everything that's going on in cruising
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at the moment hi I'm Gary beverage this
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is another of my cruising tips for
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travelers I want to explore what is the
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best and the right way to be booking
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your cruisers as you look to return to
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cruising whenever that may be
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there's the short turn the median term
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or the long term and really explore
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whether you should be booking with a
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cruise agent or in some other way there
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are probably about five different ways
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you could be booking your cruises at the
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moment one of which is with a travel
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agent so certainly one of the high
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street travel agents one the
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bricks-and-mortar travel agents secondly
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with one of the online portals the
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bigger broader travel agents so
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something like Expedia for example or
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you could be looking perhaps at a very
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focused cruise online agency so in the
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US you've got something like for example
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vacations to go calm you cave got rol
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cruises these operate both by telephone
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and online you could then perhaps you're
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looking at independent cruise brokers in
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a bit and cruise agents often working
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for themselves but part of a bigger
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group or of course you could be booking
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with the cruise lines direct with
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everything else going on cruising at the
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moment and all the uncertainty
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I really recommend more than ever even
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if you have future cruise credits that
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you've had from bookings you've done
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direct with the cruise line itself then
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you should really seriously be thinking
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about working with a cruise agents
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that's particularly an independent
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cruise agent or one of those bigger
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groups that do online and telephone
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course so why do I think that is so
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important well first of all what's very
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important to bear in mind is they will
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give you exactly the same price as you
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will get from the cruise lines however
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they will give you a whole bunch more
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service it's really important to
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understand that if you book with a
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cruise agent you will pay the same as
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going direct the cruise lines unlike
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perhaps with hotels don't undercut
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agents in any way the agents are really
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really really important to the cruise
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industry and it certainly as they try
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and get people back to cruising the ages
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of becoming even more important they are
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going to rely on the agents to tell the
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story of cruising to
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communicate all the new protocols and to
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really try and convince people that they
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should try cruisin and you can see lots
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of evidence of this so example the head
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of Royal Caribbean started a whole video
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series where he's talking to agents I've
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seen lots of webinars being set up with
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virgin cruises and waterways where
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they're talking directly to agents
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because they are so fundamentally
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important and they will never ever
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undercut the price that you can get with
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a cruise agent in fact you might find
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that if you go with a cruise agent you
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might get a better deal because what a
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lot of the agents do to also encourage
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people to go with them is they will
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often bundle in other things the way the
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cruise agent earns their income is they
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get a commission on that sale and
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they'll sometimes use some of that
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commission to add some sweeteners with
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its extra onboard credit them I'll give
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you certain gifts or different types of
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incentives to book with them so you
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might actually get a sharper and better
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overall deal because they'll throw much
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more in the reason also that's really
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important to understand is I believe
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very strongly that we're going to see
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huge volatility in prices over the
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coming year or so prices haven't really
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become that volatile yet but once it all
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beds in once the cruise lines know
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exactly what cruises they can operate
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when they're going to operate the
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challenge is then going to be filling
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ships the ships that they have out there
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and there's gonna be a lot of reluctance
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to get back onto ships and there's going
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to be lots of deals prices are gonna
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chop and change deals and offers whether
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it's upgrades extra Humble credit
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bundling in things like gratuities Wi-Fi
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specially dining it's going to become a
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very volatile and constantly changing
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world and it's going to be quite hard as
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an individual to keep up to date if you
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work with an agent they will be
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constantly fed the updates on pricing
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they'll know the latest deals what's
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being added what's being taken away and
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you're going to be much more certain
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that you're going to get the best deals
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that are going the other thing that I
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believe is really important which is
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ongoing but even in these uncertain
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times it's important is the agents also
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gonna be able to guide you in a number
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of ways they can also tell you the best
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time to book so different promotions may
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come up with it's for solo travelers
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families whatever it is they're going to
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know when those promotional periods are
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or when they're coming up so they might
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be able to tell you look hold on
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for a couple of weeks because I know
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there's a big solar deal which is coming
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in next month or whatever the other
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thing that you can ask the agent to do
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is track pricing again as I said I think
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price is going to be very very volatile
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and if the cruise lines reduce their
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price you're not going to know that you
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if you ask the agent to track that price
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if they see the price going down the
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cruise lines won't refund you that but
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if the agent picks up on that they can
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go back and negotiate a better deal so
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that's happened to me in the past for
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example where prices are come down and
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I've been offered then perhaps more on
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the credit or often an upgrade the agent
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can make sure that they keep on top of
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pricing as it moves over the place to
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make sure that you do get extra benefits
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if the price goes down the other very
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important thing with agents is close to
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sailing what the cruise lines do is they
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aim to try and get the ship as full as
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they possibly can and what they will do
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is they'll often do some very big deal
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so they might start upgrading people
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from lower grades and they'll put some
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incredible deals out there now they
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don't want to publicize those they don't
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want to go out and advertise those or
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put them on their website so they'll
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often go to trusted cruise agents and
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try to get them to clear those cabins so
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they will also know if there's some
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really sharp deal so if you're
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particularly looking at cruising at
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short notice which you might want to do
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with all the volatility and cruising is
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how you decide close to the time they
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are likely to have deals which you will
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not find anywhere else even on the
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cruise line sites the second absolutely
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key reason for choosing to go with a
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cruise agent is around the time-saving
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and the convenience and the fact that
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it's one call we've seen huge volatility
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and we may keep seeing volatility in
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cruising the advantage with an agent is
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if you want to cancel so if your cruises
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cancelled or you want to shift it or
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change it at the moment if you've booked
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say direct with the cruise line you have
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basically have to phone them up and you
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could be waiting for huge amounts of
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time they bonds you have if you've got
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an agent is if the cruise gets canceled
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they will deal with all their hanging on
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with the cruise lines if you've booked
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your whole package to them so you
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perhaps booked some hotels some flights
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with one call with one message with one
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email then the cruise agent has to deal
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with all of the refunds or the Contin
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and it saves you having to hang on to
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the cruise line hang on with the airline
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get hold of the hotel cancel excursions
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whatever it is it's one simple point of
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contact and certainly talking to agents
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I know they have taken a huge amount of
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stress and strain away because they've
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been able to do all of that for a client
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and that's really really big plus the
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second thing which is sort of linked to
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that is if anything goes wrong on your
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cruise again you just have one point of
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contact and that's been great for me in
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the past so for example I was on a
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cruise not that long ago where the
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airport's went on strike and flights
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weren't going and I could see everyone
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else on the ship who took their packages
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separately so they're perhaps booked the
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cruise directly with the cruise line
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they booked flights separately they're
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booked hotel separately and they were
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then scrabbling around using you know
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some great Wi-Fi or days at sea to try
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and contact all these people to move
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everything around what I was able to do
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was actually with the company called
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Mundy cruising I was on wind star cruise
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I just sent an email to the agency said
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because this happened can you sort out
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and then I could just relax and joy the
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next day and wait for them to sort it
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out and then she came back with me and
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they sorted that new hotel new flight
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time and all that stuff and I hadn't
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worry about all that stress
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a third really good reason for using a
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cruise agent is if you have had lots of
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cruises cancelled and you've actually
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got future cruise credit because either
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you've cancelled or moved cruises the
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really good news is even if you have
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future cruise credit which you've earned
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from booking direct with the Cruise Line
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a cruise agent will be very very happy
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to pick those future cruise credits up
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as you plan forward and the reason for
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that is the cruise lines again because
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the ages are so important to them are
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going to be giving commission to the
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cruise agents when they rebook new
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cruises with future cruise credit so
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future cruise credit is allocated to you
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as an individual either with your club
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number you know your captain's number or
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your frequent cruising number or with
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your booking reference and they are then
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able to use enough check with agents
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that I know both in the UK and in the US
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and it certainly seems the case that
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they will then be very very keen and
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happy to help you use us future cruise
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credits because they will again earn the
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commission from those new bookings even
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though the region you booked directly
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with the cruise line and of course the
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good news is then I'm also helping
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support those agents through what have
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been quite challenging and difficult
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times and a huge amount of work for them
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so that's their in another really good
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reason for choosing to use an agent it's
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going to simplify the whole process of
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using future cruise credits it's a
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little bit complicated future cruise
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credits different Cruise Lines are doing
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in different ways in different formats
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and get rid of all of that worry or
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that's resin trained by basically
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handing your references over to the ages
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on it and get on with it another really
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good reason for using agent is an
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alluded to a little bit earlier is there
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are one-stop shop as you head back into
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cruising one of the things you might
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want to do is use an agent simply
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because the rate at which airlines go
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back the frequency of itineraries which
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hotels open which ports are open which
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excursions are open which transfer
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companies are open which cruise lines
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are running when it's quite a
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complicated mishmash of different rules
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and regulations travel advisories and it
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is going to be quite complicated the
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advantage of working with an agent is
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they can navigate their way through all
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of that they can then put together and
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make sure they can put together one
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whole program from the time you leave
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your house to the time you get back and
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they can fill in all the gaps and work
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around all of those different rules
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regulations and changes and make sure
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that you know what they are so it's a
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complete one-stop shop I think traveling
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over the next year or so is going to be
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quite complicated because rules will
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change shutdowns will come and go and
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ports will be more willing or less
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willing and by having basically handing
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that over to someone else to sort out
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for you as a one-stop shop I think it's
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going to be a real big plus they also
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then pull that together a nice document
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that's the great thing about working
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with an agent they put together a nice
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document with everything laid out step
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by step day by day so that whole
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one-stop shop and getting around all
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this what's going to be a complicated
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way of easing back to travel I think is
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a big big reason for using an agent of
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course one of the most obvious reasons
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for using agent is their expertise and
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their advice particularly if you're new
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to cruise and heading out into this new
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world of cruising the agents have lots
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of experience they know the ships they
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know the cruise lines
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and they have worked with lots of people
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before finding out what really works for
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different types of travelers so you
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actually then are buying a lot of
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expertise of course there's lots of
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research you can do yourself but
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certainly if you're new to cruise I
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think that's a real big plus but also if
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you thinking of changing cruise lines so
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perhaps you've been really loyal to a
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cruise line with everything that's going
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on you're either looking at a different
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cruise line again using an agent could
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be a really good way of helping again
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sort you out and get you in the right
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direction another thing which I really
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like which is linked to that is what
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most agents will do is they will alert
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you and make sure that you understand
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all the nuances of that travel what do I
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mean by that you'll often find that ages
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will give you some sort of checklist
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they will point out to you whether you
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need visas whether you need vaccinations
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whether certain things you need two
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packs and things you shouldn't be
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packing because you go into a certain
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region and they will give you a really
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good checklist and advise if you book
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direct for example with the cruise line
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they will give you more standard
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documentation but agent is normally
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pretty good at giving you documentation
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and pointing out the kind of things you
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really need to think about because
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they're giving you much more of a
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service and that certainly is if you're
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heading to a new region or new part of
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the world and with everything changing
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again with potentially new regulations
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and rules having that advice and that
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guidance of those checklists will be a
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real big plus and reason for using an
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agent I believe another good reason for
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using agent is bear in mind agents want
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to keep you happy they want to make sure
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that you have a great experience because
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they want you to keep coming back so
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actually by handing over a lot of this
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complicated organization and potentially
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destructive organization over to them
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they want to keep you happy they're
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going to do is work as hard as they can
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to make sure they put together something
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that really works for you because they
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want to make sure that you're going to
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keep coming back and back to them now
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personally I think one of the great
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things to do is to actually work with a
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more independent
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cruise agent and the reason I like to
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work with an independent cruise agent is
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then you have one point of contact so we
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always work with that same person they
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often are more available because they're
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working from home often they have even
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more flexibility than normal I'll often
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be checking in on the weekends or the
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evenings or whatever so I really like
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working with independent agents with
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everything going on in travel and
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cruising as the
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world readjust to the new realities and
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the way that we work and regulations
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change and new rules change in the way
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we travel changes I think working with
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an agent at this time is probably more
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important than any time in the past so
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if you haven't worked with an agent
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before when your book of cruising this
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is the time I think to really rethink
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whether working with an agent is the
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right thing to do hopefully that's given
13:37
you some insights and thoughts I've
13:39
loads more videos full of tips advice
13:42
and recommendations about cruising so
13:44
why don't you watch another one of those
13:45
right now
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