Cruises Inc.

I WOULD STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY THEY MIS-LEAD YOU FROM THE START, THERE SIGN UP WILL GIVE YOU A HEADACHE AS THEY MISLEAD YOU ABOUT HAVING ACCESS WHEN SIGNING UP, I WOULD GO SOMEWHERE ELSE, BECAUSE ONCE YOU PAY IT TAKES THEM DAYS TO GET YOU UP A RUNNING AND GIVE YOU THE RUN AROUND WHY YOU HAVEN'T GOT YOUR INFO

If you are looking for a host agency, you must remember that you are now a small business owner. I have had my frustrations with learning the industry but I am not afraid to ask. And keep asking. And keep doing and learning. I went through the 1 * reviews here and see they are quite old. I'll briefly explain my experience. Joined in June 2019 and spent the first 2 months completing the online training. 1 issue I had with that is that it is all mocked up - not live. So you had to click and do but when I did go live I was like, Oh My! I should take the training again. Which I did. And then I started learning all the cruise lines and completing their training programs. Joined CLIA and used their resources. I also just completed a 2 day regional training and was blessed enough to have them come to my TOWN for it. It was PHENOMENAL. I was elbow to elbow with successful Cruises Inc advisers and learned from about 15 different vendors in person. I was also able to have 1-1 with my BDM and my PR and Groups Rep from corporate. I don't know if you're going to get that type of support from other host agencies. Is it tough to get new customers? Heck yes. But is this company supportive of me? Heck yes they are. I do have the end goal of growing and purchasing a franchise. One thing to remember - you are your own business. They are not required to force you to take the training or to give you customers. You can do this and the other advisers are THE best.

I do not feel this company does anything with helping to get new clients. I have no experience with marketing myself or a new a business and was hoping that I would receive more support from Cruises inc with how to obtain new clients. Currently, I was given a website and Facebook page but I feel like I should be having someone working with me one on one to ensure the success of my business as an Independent Travel Consultant. After the initial training and setting up my social media websites... no one has followed up with me to assess how I am doing with clientele.

Cruises Inc. provides me the opportunity to work in the "happy" business.

Though the years, it has been such a thrill to help existing and new clients with their travel needs. To this day, I still enjoy researching the best value, experiences while respecting a travel budget for my clients.

Cruises Inc. provides a wonderful platform for me to provide my clients a professional experience.

It's all about providing "good ole fashioned" service and doing the work to provide a memorable vacation for my clients.

Over the years, I have witnesses Cruises Inc's innovation which keeps as fresh and increases all of our businesses.

I write this feeling a bit sad and disappointed. Although I am currently hosted by Cruises Inc, I am actively looking for a new host. When I first chose Cruises Inc, it seemed like the perfect choice. I wanted to focus on Cruises but be able to book all travel. They explained that they have a staff to support me, great technology, access to great rates and group space through WTH, included great website and client emailing, etc. It sounded great. Then, I had the "training." In a word, it was terrible. It was a 2 day live, online training that was a complete waste of time. I don't need to learn how to record a voicemail message, how to talk to people, which category the various cruise lines belong to, etc. I honestly felt like I didn't learn a single useful thing. They barely touched how to make an actual booking! This is particularly important because their software is the worst program I have seen and feels like I stepped back to 1995. I am highly tech savvy and it took my hours of trial and error, on my own, to figure it out. Support services is the department you call with any needs. This is like roulette. If you get one of the nice and helpful ones, they walk you through the system and tell you how to enter in the information that you need to enter in. More often than not, however, you get one of the rude ones who rush you and make you feel badly for not knowing something you were never trained in. Booking land vacations in the system is particularly difficult. The monthly fee ($39), coupled with only receiving 60% of commissions earned makes it hard to make a profit and justify sticking with Cruises Inc. Additionally, for most cruise lines, they direct you to an in-house BDM and have no BDM representation with the cruise line itself. I don't understand why this is the case and feel like Cruises Inc perhaps doesn't trust its agents or wants to control their interactions with the cruise lines. They provide a nice website and weekly emails generated by them. Beyond that, I am left feeling very disappointed. It has been a year and a half, I feel like I have given it enough time and it is time to move on.

I never thought I would become a travel agent…I was an accountant for over 35 years and assumed I would retire as an accountant. However, when I was a little girl, my dream was to become an airline stewardess. I knew I wanted to travel the world and I knew this would give me the opportunity to do so. I went to college, fell in love, got married and immediately started raising a family. I became an accountant and had a successful career. Eventually, I rose to the vice president level and was fairly content. As I was busy with many facets of my life, I realized that I was rapidly approaching becoming an empty-nester. I was thinking, now I can think about what I want to do with the rest of my life. Also during this time, my job ended due to a company merger and I would soon be out of a job. Though I no longer wanted to be an airline stewardess, I decided I would love to become a travel agent. I enjoyed helping friends and family with their travel plans and loved planning my own travel adventures. Luckily for me I found my true calling and I am extremely happy and enjoying every minute of being it!

I first learned about Cruises Inc. from my mother-in-law, Cheri who is a Cruises Inc. vacation specialist as well. Honestly, I was referring so many people to Cheri and answering questions about travel for them, it only made sense to become an agent myself. I work full time as a 9-1-1 dispatcher, and work my Cruises Inc. business during my days off, but I became an agent in hopes of working from home full time one day and having more flexibility with my schedule. I get a lot of help from Support Services – they are great! I knew the company had been around for a really long time, and that meant stability to me, not to mention the relationships the company has developed with suppliers – it is all relative.

I come from a healthcare background and I wanted more flexibility with my schedule and more family time. My deciding factor was the connection I felt with Cruises Inc., they are truly there to support me. We are a big network of agents, but we have a tight-knit family feel. I felt like I could make a career out of this almost immediately and that’s because of the people surrounding me, I don’t think I could ever do this on m my own. I realized early on that I had the tools around me to do this long term. The technology provided is great, I have everything needed to be professional, prepared and be valuable to my clients. They truly are there every step of the way, from phone calls, webinars, and more. I’m not a sales person, but I’m a people person – that comes easily to me. Cruises Inc. provides training on products so that when I have a conversation with my clients I understand which is the perfect cruise line or resort vacation for them.

I am extremely frustrated by my experience. As a newbie, I was excited by this opportunity to live out my dream. The training was nothing short of dismal. The modules provided were insufficient and they suggested we refer to a website or resource which was never provided during training. The 2-day seminar was so fast-paced and barely touched on how to enter data into, what appears to be, a complicated system. With only one brief review of how to enter cruise vacations into the system there was no mention or introduction on how to enter land-based vacations or even what land-based vacations are available. We were referred to a training module online. And when asked specific questions, we were consistently told to contact support services. And when I contacted them, I was told to contact tech support services at an email that bounced back to me. Seems no one has an answer. I also got the runaround, after speaking to two different people, about ordering marketing material and the final result of that was to consult an online write-up about the material (which I had a question about, but no one could answer me).

I feel like I've been thrown to the wolves and I am actively seeking out a new agency. I am just sad that I'm out the $250 I really didn't have in the first place.

I am not simple minded, in fact I actually have a brain. I'm also not afraid of hard work. The lack of support has been mind boggling and frustrating.

When I first started with Cruises Inc I was happy. This year my business started to grow and Cruises Inc started restructuring. First, the technology is outdated and getting worse. Second, support services provides little assistance. Everyone says it's someone else's job. Third, you have to compete with the parent company who has multiple websites that undercut the prices you can offer. Fourth, feedback isn't welcome and the top leaders are guarded by assistants.