GROUP CENTER
SPECIAL CRUISE DEPARTURE DATES FILLED WITH AMENITIES
One important benefit that our membership with our sister company, Cruise Shoppes, brings is that you have access to hundreds of sailings throughout the year on a variety of contemporary and luxury cruise lines where group blocks of space are held offering extra offers for your clients.
How to Book into Cruise Shoppes Group Blocks:
Our group space has been selected to offer you an edge in getting your cruise prospects to book with you. These departures offer a group amenity such as a cocktail party, a shipboard spending credit, spa services, chocolate covered strawberries and wine or champagne. With the ability to receive full commission and offer your guest a free amenity, you will have the upper edge in closing your guest much easier in a competitive situation.
Often a particular sailing inventory may be closed or space is extremely limited, however, through our group blocks, we may still have open contracted space for these sailings that you can exclusively book your guest into. You may be able to save your booking and offer your guest a room on a sailing they cannot receive from another travel agency.
You can view the participating cruise lines and departures by clicking here GROUP BLOCKS. Look for 10 special departures with Norwegian Cruise Line that allow you to book into on an individual basis and still offer group amenities.
If you have any questions, please contact us at 888-391-3181.
To check availability of this space, simply call the cruise and book into space. Remember to use your phone number to receive your level of commission.
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Types of Groups in the Group Center:
1) SINGLE PHONE NUMBER GROUP BOOKINGS
How to identify these groups:
On our group listing, you will see the word SINGLE in the column labeled "TYPE”.
Booking Procedures:
1. Checking availability:
Call the cruise line to check rates & availability
2. To make a booking:
Book with the cruise line direct. Be sure to use the Cruise Center phone # 954-888-9779 or CLIA # 10-542195. In the case of Holland America bookings, use our HAL IATA # 1078976 and with Crystal Cruises, use our CLIA #10542195.
You must use your first name followed by the 5-digit code that has been assigned to your agency by the Cruise Center. Unless you use this 5-digit code, we will not be able to identify the booking in our system as being yours, hence emails with pertinent correspondence cannot be forwarded to your agency and credit for the booking cannot be given to you.
Give the client’s credit card for the deposit on the booking directly to the cruise line and email a completed booking form to groups@rrtrippro.com. We will then create a file on the booking in our system and email it to you along with the cruise line’s deposit confirmation. You must contact the cruise line for all your client’s dining & special needs. Always request the cruise line to send either an email or fax confirmation. The Cruise Center will then email you the confirmation when it is received from the cruise line.
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3. Final Payments:
Final payment requirements vary with each cruise line. Most cruise lines require final payment 60 days prior to departure but some now require final payment 75-90 days prior to departure or even full payment at the time of booking. Please inquire about this when making the booking and be sure to check your deposit confirmations from the cruise line.
4. Documents:
Once documents are received by the Group Center, they will be checked for correct information and either emailed or forwarded to you by U.S. Postal mail within 24 hours of receipt of the documents. Cruise documents that have air tickets included will be shipped by 2-day Airborne so that a signature may be obtained for verification of receipt.
Note! Overnight mail will only be used for last minute bookings or when documents have to be re-written. Any charges incurred by the Group Center will be passed along to the booking agency.
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5. Cancellations:
You are responsible for calling the cruise line to cancel bookings that have either never paid a deposit or those that have paid but later canceled the booking. This is particularly important with
blocked group space. Unlike F.I.T.’s which are booked through the regular reservations department, most cruise lines DO NOT automatically cancel a "non deposited” booking. This is because they have already received some monies on these groups, either in the form of deposits from the Group Center or from other bookings that have been made in the group. Please email a booking form to the Group Center showing that the cancellation has been done so we may adjust our records accordingly.
If your agency books a cabin into one of the Group Center groups that is not guaranteed with a deposit and a penalty incurs, you will be responsible for paying these penalties.
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2) DUAL PHONE NUMBER GROUP BOOKING
How to identify these groups:
On our group block listing, you will see the word DUAL in the column labeled "TYPE”. This indicates this is a dual telephone # group.
Booking Procedures:
1. 1. Checking availability:
Call the cruise line to check rates & availability. |
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2. To make a booking:
Book with the cruise line direct. Be sure to use your agency phone number to receive your level of commission. |
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3. Deposits and Final Payments:
All deposits and final payments will be the responsibility of the booking agent.
4. Confirmations & Documents:
When utilizing a DUAL phone number group you will receive your confirmations and documents directly from the cruise line.
5. Cancellations
You are responsible for calling the cruise line to cancel any booking. Please email a booking form to the Group Center showing that the cancellation has been done so we may adjust our records accordingly.
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