Another booking question - "Small World Vacations"

[mrodgers]

I have read a recommendation on mousesavers.com about "Small World Vacations" for booking. Has anyone booked through them? Mousesavers as well as the email I received from Small World Vac. state that they can find and apply any discounts they find to my vacation package automatically.

Last night, since I received my Disney Visa, I was ready to pull the trigger on the main Disney site. But I ended up browsing mousesavers.com and saw this "travel agent". I visited the site and received an email with the same price that I had on the main Disney site. But if they can scour for discounts and apply them for me, that would be fantastic.

[Minnie&Nana]

Any good Disney Specialist Travel Agent will do the same, but there are no guarantees they will secure any new discounts. It really depends on the quality of the Travel Agent assigned. There have been some threads with TA recommendations - might be worth a search and read those threads.

Years ago we contacted Small World Vacations a couple of times and was not thrilled with either TA - neither offered a discount easily found and was not aware of it when I asked.

Excellent Disney TA's can be found who will definitely do their best for you and adjust when/if something better becomes available for your dates etc.

Good luck and happy planning!

[momma2kiddos]

I used Small World for my first vacation this year. It was pretty painless. Now that I've become quite the expert (thanks to this board! LOL), I think I'll bypass them next year and book on my own

[bullwinkl]

My TA is Cheryl with Small World Vacations, and the services she has provided on our trips is spectacular--she makes dining ressies and provides your DME info to Disney, and has jumped in and added a discount for us when WDW started offering buy 4 get 7 last year after we'd already booked. I realize she's not the only one there, but I have to say, she's done better by us than anyone else.

[Jutori]

I used them for upcoming trip and the process was "OK" I definitely have to ask my TA to find certain discounts to inquire about and she has not been the most responsive when I asked her to look into other quotes, etc after ressie was made. I also got a quote from dreams unlimited and the TA there seemed very "enthusiastic" although I think they all sound that way when there is a ressie to be made. All in all, I would not do it again b/c I think you/I would have more control if ressie is made thru disney directly. Any changes you want to make to the ressie has to go thru the TA vs being able to manage it online or over phone with disney yourself. But then again, I am a bit of a control freak so it's very hard to have someone take care of things and leave it alone

[Keri]

I've used Small World for our last 3 trips & they are great. Next year I might go straight through Disney, in hopes that I'd get an actual PIN code someday ... but she was very helpful the first few trips as far as suggestions of where to stay, where to eat, etc.

[mrodgers]

Thanks for the responses folks....

Too Late! I'm booked! It's official, taking all my girls (little ones and the big one) to Disneyworld.

I ended up just booking it myself after reading some more in the code section of the forum here (didn't see that one earlier..) Pretty confident that I will be able to see any discounts that come out from now until then and be able to call and apply.

Well, I'm $200 invested now. Just hanging out and waiting for the income tax return to arrive next year.

[Amy&Dan]

Congrats on booking your trip!

As for Small World (or any other TA, Disney or otherwise), it all depends on the agent. I used to use Small World, but over time got sick of my agent not returning emails for days, even weeks on end. She caused me to miss out on a code discount. Because Small World owned my reservation, they had to make the changes, she didn't in time and I lost the resort I wanted. I knew the codes were out, but was powerless to do a thing about it. So I switched to Dreams Unlimited, got a great TA and never had that happen again.

All agents are not created equal and usually you find out the hard way!

But if you have a good one, they are worth their weight in gold and wil save you a lot of aggravation if a code comes out.

[tortoni]

We love Deanna at Small World and we've been using her for years. SOmetimes I book something myself and then transfer the ressie over to her and she handles ADRs and everything else!