I, too, wondered about the relationship between the cruise line and the TA. I know that some TA's may be affiliated with a cruise line, i.e. Carlson Wagonlit is a franchise of the Carlson Comapanies, which also owns Radisson. And yet, some of those web sites say "wholely owned and operated by __". In addition, Carlson Wagonlit sells other cruise lines.

I wonder how the cruise line could tell a TA how to "spend" their money (isn't that in essence what the TA is doing when they rebate a part of their commission for a lower fare for their customer?). They only thing I can think of is from the accounting point of view. In other words, whose books are the discounts showing up on - the cruise line's or the TA's. Bean counters care about those things and CEO's care about what the stockholders perceive.

Obviously we don't know enough about the relationship between the TA and the cruise line. But we (the customers) are the one's that are going to feel it in the end.

From what I've been able to discern from the CC boards, Royal Caribbean has not been shy about making TA's tow their party line.

By the way, did you know that Carlson Companies started out as the Gold Bond Stamp Company?

vickie