The fact remains that over 90% of cruise reservations are done through a travel agent, and you're not only at the mercy of their service fees, but also to the prices they charge for a particular cruise and sailing. So why do so many individuals go through this booking avenue, when they know the deals are far better online, and they have access to a computer and the Internet?

The answers simple! The cruise industry believes that customers new and seasoned may not truly understand the cruise ships industry language, or feel comfortable booking online! They put their dependency on many travel professionals to interpret the cruising lingo that is the integral part of the cruise booking process.

However, if you take the time to learn and understand the cruise lines language such as guaranteed staterooms, singles supplement, or run-of-the-ship, you should have no worries booking your next vacation cruise online, and start taking advantage of all the fantastic savings!

When you're searching the Internet to find a cruise special, keep in mind that if you go direct to the main cruise lines site, such as Royal Caribbean, Carnival, or Princess, you may end up paying a higher cabin price than the online cruise discounters, even though they may be showing reduced cabin prices on their sites.

In order to get the best discounts, you should source large vacation suppliers such as Travelocity, Expedia, or exclusive cruise booking sites like CruiseDirect.com, which specialize in selling cruises, and offer a unique booking engine that can quickly put together your cruise package in minutes.

Even though the cruise lines want to deal with you directly, they also need to keep a solid business relationship with their travel agencies that are currently booking a majority of cruises for them though their local offices and online vacation websites.

With online travel suppliers and Internet cruise company's, they deal with the cruise lines a little differently, and they either pre-purchase cabins at a very low discounted price, or they're large enough to be directly linked to the cruiselines inventory database system. They are also capable of receiving live updated stateroom information daily, and in most cases hourly! With this powerful online system, they can take these updated cabin inventory deals, and pass them directly to the consumer, which offers you the consumer far deeper discounted savings!

What this means to you, is that once you understand what these suppliers are offering, you will have a better chance of reserving your favourite cruise in minutes and take advantage of the incredible discounts that could easily range from 20% - 60%, depending on the seasonality, type of itinerary, and actual cruise ship you book.

Just make sure that before you make any reservations online, that if you have any doubts, or understanding what your booking, contact the customer service departments via their toll-free numbers, or the cruise lines email, and they will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have prior to booking your next cruise vacation.