Book thru travel agent or myself???

[StaceyR]

I, too, have both booked myself and used a travel agent. I prefer the agents from Magical Travel. They always keep track of the discounts after booking and will automatically change your reservation for you if it benefits you. The way I look at it is, it doesn't cost you anything out of your pocket to let someone else do all the tedious work, so why not? Especially if they will book your ADR's....thats a no brainer!

[Nebraska_Disney]

After booking several trips myself, I went with a TA this time. Elyssa with ************* has been great. Like others have said, she is looking for discounts as they come out and is very active on her Facebook page with getting information out. I received a pin code and she made the call, waited on hold, and made the changes, all I had to do was send her the pin code and she did the rest. She was great with our ADR's as well. www.******************

[lucifie]

This is my first time and I'm highly annoyed with my TA right now. I booked through her because she's an acquaintance and I figured I'd rather have her get the commission. She quoted me the same price I got on the WDW website, booked the reservations with the promise that she would keep checking for discounts and apply any that come up to my reservation automatically. I hadn't heard from her yesterday afternoon so I emailed her and she said she didn't see any discounts that apply to my dates, so I sent her the link to the SPD promo and said I was able to price it and this would save me about $600. She said she wasn't able to see it in the system because they had just update the system so she would call. Then she said she was on hold for an hour and had to get her kids so she would try again later. I still haven't heard from her nearly 24 hours later. It's still available for my dates, but it would be nice to get the confirmation that she had changed it. I'm tempted to book a new reservation on my own and cancel it if she comes through.

[aml3679]

This is the first time we have ever used a travel agent and we are quite pleased. Kim Harkness from Dreams Unlimited Travel. They on book Disney vacations. Get no commission - their commission comes from Disney itself. Very quick to responds to requests. They make all of your ADR's.

[jcandherboys]

weHEARTmickey - I can't send a PM yet because I have only made 9 posts, this should be my 10th so maybe I can now but I would love to get a quote from you. I have always booked by myself and would like to know what your quote would be!

Thanks!

[weHEARTmickey]

Jcandherboys, I got your pm & replied I look forward to talking to you soon!

[disneycruising]

Originally Posted by weHEARTmickey

I am a travel agent who ONLY books Disney. I do know what you all are talking about with being concerned about a TA not checking your vacation for updated discounts, rates, etc... That happened to me before I became a TA! (It was very frustrating, but my trip wasn't booked with a Disney-exclusive TA)

I'm not trying to "get your business" but I am here to tell you what a travel agent does... I book trips and ANY time a new discount comes out, I plug in my client's vacations to see which choice saves them more money. I saved someone almost $1,000 a while back, and I was happy to help them. If you are concerned with a TA saying "Oh, I don't want their trip total to go down because it will decrease my commissions," let me ASSURE you that the small amount of commission I would lose over getting my clients a greater deal is TINY compared to the gratefulness they have for my services. This is how we, as travel agents, get referrals & return customers!

I offer concierge services to all my clients (as do many Disney-exclusive TAs.) For example, I got up at 5:30am & was on the phone with Disney for 3.5 hours, and made 400+ phone calls to get some of my clients ADRs at "Be Our Guest." And I was HAPPY to do it! I "get my kicks" making my clients happy, and I'm sure most Disney TAs would say the same!

I give a day-by-day itinerary to each client, along with a bonus for booking with me. Again, this is something most of us offer. But, I can tell you it's not a service you'll find with all TAs, especially those who book regular/non-Disney trips. My clients know they can call me 24 hours a day to ask 1 or 1000 questions. (The Disney phone line is definitely not open 24 hours a day!)

Remember, booking with a TA doesn't cost you one dime. Like Jersey Dad mentioned, yes you can book it yourself. But by booking through a TA, you are helping to employ other Disney fanatics, like yourself!

You said this so perfectly!

[keltiesmom]

weHeartmickey I would love to talk to you about our up coming vacation. I'm obviously new here, this is my first post

[weHEARTmickey]

Originally Posted by disneycruising

You said this so perfectly!

Thank you

Originally Posted by keltiesmom

weHeartmickey I would love to talk to you about our up coming vacation. I'm obviously new here, this is my first post

Sent you a pm, keltiesmom!

[Montegut]

We got a Triple A package, and I got no service from my agent. She said she was going to call me in April for my October trip to remind me about ADRs. She didn't. I was taking care of my dying FIL at the time and would have liked the reminder. She didn't tell me about booking the Triple A Fireworks until my final payment. Wish she had done it for me so I would have had that perk. We got NO perks from being Triple A members, and since we stayed at the Contemporary with a Magic Kingdom view, we only got a minimal Triple A discount. Never any notice about discounts being applied. I really feel like we paid a lot more for our trip than we should have, but we wanted to go with Triple A, as we've been members for years and I had a local agent to talk with. She also gave me so much wrong information about how my luggage would be handled with Magic Express, which I luckily learned the right process from other people staying at my resort who were Disney veterans. Also, the Contemporary staff was less than helpful, so I feel like I paid top dollar for a hotel that was not worth it. H insists on staying on the monorail and not skimping while on vacation, but I'm definitely going to be looking for Disney only travel experts for future trips. Also curious if anybody has ever used Southwest for vacation planning, particularly Disney. I get emails all the time from them, in fact, just recently, and I plugged in a trip for not just my husband and me, but also, my son, and the trip, including airfare, same length of days, was even cheaper than the Triple A package. Wish I had gone through them instead. Oh, well, live and learn. Friend is doing free dining at a moderate with her two kids and husband, and I think she just called Disney for the quote, and she's getting a great deal! We didn't use a single Triple A perk, so there was no benefit in going with them at all. I would shop around the different options, Triple A, Southwest, or whoever your airline rewards are with, and Disney specialists and compare prices. And then, do it yourself, and see if you can get a better deal!

[Sofiesmom]

Originally Posted by weHEARTmickey

Thank you



Sent you a pm, keltiesmom!

weHEARTmickey, I would love to talk to you too! I have 2 upcoming trips and today is my 45 day mark for the December trip. Please PM me your email address and I will send you an email. Thanks!

[Bagheera23608]

I posted nearly this same question a couple of weeks ago and the replies were overwhelming opposed to TA. Almost all said they prefer to do it themselves.

I have no answer to your question - I just found it interesting that these were overwhelming in favor of TAs, but I posted on another board and got the opposite response!

[katla33]

I am also a Travel Agent that only books Disney vacations. I am always up on the discounts and truly try and find my clients the best deal. I didn't realize saving other people money and making them happy could be so much fun, but it is!
I too got up at the crack of dawn to make BOG reservations for my clients.

And yes, you are helping Disney fanatics go to Disney when you book through a TA. Because of all of the commission I am earning lately (the Stay, Play and Dine offer gave me a big boost), I am going to be able to take my kids to WDW in November 2013. They have been begging to go back since we left in April 2011.

[whitam08]

WeHeartMickey - I am new here - first post - but I'd like to talk to you about quoting our WDW trip!

[gracer9977]

The first time we went in 2006 we used Triple A and that was a mistake. Our travel agent was so unconcerned about anything and didn't look for any deals or specials and was completely disorganized. Thankfully my sister found these Disboards and also Allears.net and discovered all kinds of interesting info that our travel agent didn't tell us, like needing to book our ADR's 180 days in advance, Magical Express, and the free dining that was offered while we were going to be there that saved my family a couple of thousand dollars and allowed us to experience some great character meals that otherwise would have been completely out of our price range. She would call our agent every time she discovered something new and she would say Oh yes I just found out about that and I was going to call you. My sister and I ended up calling for ADR's ourselves because by the time Triple A opened we figured some of the meals we wanted would be gone. As it was between the 2 of us we couldn't get breakfast or lunch in the castle but thankfully got one for dinner. She also messed up my last name and I missed it but she added an extra letter and when I got to the airport I actually got delayed because I couldn't get my ticket till my last name was changed and a manager had to do it and she was busy with an irate customer. After 15 minutes of waiting I was on my way to becoming the next irate customer when she finally came over. However we missed our flight (35 minutes at the counter and 40 minutes in the security line). The door was just closing as we ran to the gate and they wouldn't let us on. We did finally make it to WDW and had a great time but mostly due to my sister finding all the special deals not because of Triple A.

In 2011 we used Ron from Dreams Unlimited and it was so EASY. He knew all about the deals and took care of everything. He even got up early and did all our ADR's. We got everything we wanted and he sent us an email with all the times and which meal. Was a much better experience and we will be using him when we go back in 2014.

My opinion would be to go with a TA but also check the disboards, Disney site, allears and mousesavers to just see if there is anything you want to do that didn't get mentioned or to just confirm that you are getting the discounts/specials you are able to.

Hope you have an awesome time at Disney. Already planning my trip and we are over a year away.