How many of you have travel agents that seem to disappear once you pay your deposit?

[msim]

Is it just me? I spent a great majority of my savings on a Disney Cruise, now none of my emails are getting answered. She is pleasant if I call her, but states she's been busy. It's not like I email her eight times a day, I've emailed her about four times in the last month with some very valid questions. What should I do?

 

[webray]

Stop emailing and call.

 

[sanddune]

I'm a travel agent.All I have to say is she may be busy. But my guess is you may know more than her. Or she may be trying to find the answers to your ?s. Either way I would hope she would answer you!

 

[ivanova]

I'm a travel agent.All I have to say is she may be busy. But my guess is you may know more than her. Or she may be trying to find the answers to your ?s. Either way I would hope she would answer you!

Ditto, as a travel agent too, I would at least you'd get an immediate response to the effect of "I do not have the information readily available, but let me research that for you and get back to you in XX day (or hours)."

 

[pdarrah]

Its not just you! I had the same problem last year with our Oct 2004 cruise. Our TA was very helpful and responsive before we booked, but once the deposit was paid she seemed totally uninterested in us. Most of my questions were answered here on the board, but I tried to contact her 3 or 4 times. Her phone went straight to a voice mailbox which claimed she would call you back "as soon as possible". For both email and voice messages it would take 1 to 2 days to just get a "I'm not sure. I'll look into it and get back to you" message and then I would have to follow up with her at least once (or twice or more!) before she would get an answer. Of course, each follow up took the same 1 to 2 days. It drove me crazy.

We rebooked on board for this October and it wouldn't surprise me if we continued to cruise in the coming years. Needless to say, we have NOT transfered our reservation to our old TA. At the moment we are still booked directly with DCL. I have considered moving it to other TAs for the booking discounts they occasionally offer, but I haven't been able to convince myself it is worth the potential hassle of another non-responsive TA.

pdarrah

 

[missmulan]

OP: that is why I will never use a travel agent! a long time ago I booked an RCCL cruise and didn't get any answers from my TA. RCCL will not talk to me so I had to call back and say "hi, this is so & so from so & so travel agent, my client blah blah blah"....RCCL was pleasant with me as a travel agent. (I should have requested a complimentary upgrade on behalf of my...ahem...client for all this trouble - just kidding).

Anyway, I was able to get the answers I needed by pretending to be my agent.

 

[Talking Hands]

I'll have to say my TA was very responsive and helpful. Unfortunately she is no longer working with the travel agency. It is hard to find TAs that are good working with the hard of hearing and understand our issues and needs. I may just go straight to DCL for the next cruise.

 

[Mianc]

Same problem here. After I paid my deposit, I could not get my TA to return my calls. I was trying to get some things changed and it was important to me but obviously not to her. I am leaving Friday to drive to the Port and leaving on Sunday on the Wonder and I really wanted to know if our dining time had been changed. I even tried to call Disney to find out but they won't tell you anything if you book through a TA, so I called my TA yesterday and rather than go to her voice mail box (the great dark unknown) - I asked the woman who answered if she could help me find out. She checked my file and then asked me to hold while she actually called Disney right then! Two minutes later she had my answers (our time was changed as requested). I think if you are dealing with an agency that has more than one person - I would just go through someone else if they would be willing to help. Good luck!

 

[Stephieann]

SMIS who are you going through. My TA would not answer my emails either i had to call her. Was wondering if we were using the same one.

 

[WDWLVR]

I can honestly say that with every agent I have ever gotten with Dreams they have all been very very responsive! That's why I love using them!

 

[perdidobay]

Ditto here ... Dreams has always been very responsive and I can always get an email or call returned quickly.

 

[poohs4me]

I have only ever used a TA once for a cruise and that was many years ago. However, I was wondering can you transfer your reservation to another TA or are you stuck?

 

[mickeyboat]

I had the same problem. Thank goodness for this board or I would have known nothing. I thought by booking through a TA I would have some peace of mind that all my questions would be answered, and that she would know the ins and outs of the trip. She knew little to nothing about it. I felt that when I called with a question (after I paid my deposit) I was bothering her with something stupid. But I just paid A LOT of money for this trip and I expect good service - whether before or after the deposit.

Next time I will either book it myself or try one of the larger, non local agencies that have been recommended on these boards.

Denae

 

[daisy112878]

I would be so mad if my TA didn't email me back with something even if it was I'm looking for your answers. This was my fear of going with a TA for our cruises. But we decided to give DU a try and they've been wonderful. Thank goodness.

 

[ldb1030]

OP: that is why I will never use a travel agent! a long time ago I booked an RCCL cruise and didn't get any answers from my TA. RCCL will not talk to me so I had to call back and say "hi, this is so & so from so & so travel agent, my client blah blah blah"....RCCL was pleasant with me as a travel agent. (I should have requested a complimentary upgrade on behalf of my...ahem...client for all this trouble - just kidding).

Anyway, I was able to get the answers I needed by pretending to be my agent.

You obviously did not have a good TA! Not all of us are that way!

 

[UGAFan0829]

That sounds crummy! I didn't even make it far enough to actually book with a TA because I never could get a response from them, so that was my sign that I just needed to handle things myself through DCL!

 

[Disney Planner Mama]

I never used a travel agent before this, always found I could call around and get good deals, but somehow the cruise concept was more complicated. I emailed several travel agency including clicking on the Small World Vacations link at mousesavers.com. All the prices I was getting online were within a couple of hundred dollars of each other. Small World Vacations sent me a reply email within a couple of hours saying they were sending my request to a specific agent (Leigh McCarty) and she would get back to me with a quote within a specific time (can't remember now if it was 24 or 48 hours). She got back to me well within the alotted time, I changed things several times, she always got back to me in a couple of hours if I emailed or within an hour if I called and left a message. We put down a deposit and then a week later added my parents reservation. Each time she has been wonderful, and responsive. When this whole thing about passports being needed came out we got an emailing informing us of this.

I've been very happy with the service from Small World Vacations and from Leigh specifically. It really makes me wonder why I've been doing all the hard work myself!

 

[pdarrah]

It really seems to be hit or miss on whether you get a good TA or not. Our TA that we were unhappy with was also from Small World Vacations - I won't give her name since it doesn't seem fair to slam her here since I don't think she is on line to defend herself. The only way I would use another TA for a cruise would be to contact a specific individual (not just a company) that was highly recommended by several people.

pdarrah

 

[smilingmouse]

I always work with Dana or her husband Michael @ www.micdan.com

Their service is amazing...I contact them via e-mail (my pref. contact method) and I have always received a Very prompt response....the longest I have ever waited is about 90 min for a response

 

[GhostlyHitchhiker]

Because everyone here says how wonderful they are, I attempted to get a quote from Dana recently. I filled out the online form, received an email from them saying they needed more info. So I called the next day and gave everything to Dana over the phone and she said I would get an email the following morning. That was a week and a half ago. I called her and got voicemail (didn't leave a message) and emailed her again three days ago explaining the situation thinking I just perhaps got "lost" somewhere. I still haven't heard from her.

I've heard nothing but good things about her here, but sadly I will end up going with a different TA. I found an incredible rate here:

http://www.cruisevacationcenter.com/