wow, I am starting to get addicted to this forum... so my travel agent called me back after I forwarded her the email of karelia... I asked her if the price for the room rate I got would drop down even more if we book it through her (I mean $105 per night is difficult to underbid if you consider that people use their ammenities, sleep in a suite, can eat and drink 24h, get their rooms cleaned everyday, etc. but I was curious)... and guess what... she told me, it will be "around that price, but it all changes so fast and nobody can predict when the hotel raises the price".... isnt that incredible?!?!? I told her that if people start to put down their deposits they definitely cant just raise the price and she had to agree... so... well... I am sorry I have to start cursing now but... wtff is going on?!? and then, after I explained to her that I really like the fact that people have to put down "only $100" to reserve their rooms (according to karelia), she said: NO, there is a $150 deposit required... what on earth makes her say that?!?! does the travel agency keep the other $50 per person or what?! that is lots of money for doing nothing... at the same time I was waiting for her to get details I gathered a million more information by doing it myself.... she had no clue what is going on.. instead she just disagreed with everything Karelia told me... the funny thing is, she suddenly got a "very important and urgent call" and hung up, telling me she would call me back after that... it is almost 3 hours ago.... that makes me a liiiiittle sceptical...