Online Travel Companys- which ones to try??

[scottie]

Happy New Year!

We are getting ready to book our next cruise very soon (for May 07'). We received a good quote from Dreams Unlimited already and are interested in searching out a couple of other quotes to see how the market is. Any suggestion of additional online company’s who may be able to offer some savings over the direct Disney quote? On the flip side, any that you suggest shying away from too?

Thanks!

 

[Tiggerlover48]

Any suggestion of additional online company’s who may be able to offer some savings over the direct Disney quote?
Thanks!

I'm just curious why you are looking for an online company. And not a local travel agent with whom you can talk directly to and if any problem arise they can help you with them. I'm a travel agent and I believe that customer service is key. I have even called my clients and let them know when there are promotions and that they can book their exsisting package cheaper!!! Yes, I lose money, but my clients are happy and that's all that matters. Maybe, I take it hard because of everyone using the internet and we are loosing clients. But when I've priced packages, and airlines tickets, I really don't see much price difference. And I know when there is a problem someone will be there for me.

 

[karylrocks]

I just booked through CruiseValue.com. I saved $682 from the DCL price, which is more than 10% less.

 

[robertgp124]

We went local (AAA) with our trip to Disney a few years ago. We were happy, and would have stuck with AAA if the same agent were still there. He left, and we were left with an agent who didn't know (or seem to care) much about Disney. There aren't too many travel agents around in this area, and none who specialize in Disney. As a result, we went online.

We wound up working this time with MouseEarVacations/CruisingCo. Since both DW and I prefer to operate by e-mail, it seemed a natural. Our rep usually got back to us within a few hours, and at most one working day.

We could call our rep, but for the most part handled things by email. Since she specialized in Disney and Disney cruises, she dealt with people that had our questions all the time. I don't think we could have surprised her if we tried.

 

[misseulalie]

I have had great experiences with Orbitz for both airlines and cruises. I can contact customer service quickly and actually talk to a human. The prices are good and the website is easy to navigate.

 

[lbgraves]

We booked with a local agency for our first cruise...unfortunantly! We ended up spending way more than we would have if we had come to the DIS first. We haven't made that mistake again! I think that the smaller companies cannot compete with the online ones because they are not able to book large numbers of rooms to sell at a group rate. They also have not offered rebates for bookings. After I got the quote from DU for our 2nd cruise, I contacted the first agent for a quote. She couldn't believe that the quote that I was looking at was for 4 people & called DCL back to check her rate again. She was nowhere near the price.

 

[TiggerStac]

We are giving DU a shot this cruise/trip. I have done a lot of research on rates, etc and are going to go w/them.

We did book our last Disney cruise thru our local travel agent (we live in a small town in MA) and didn't have a great experience. I usually book right thru cro ourselves when we go to the park and didn't see what the extra our travel agent was doing for us. When I went on another cruise line w/my mom in college, we used another travel agent (larger one) and we received a wonderful basket w/wine in our room when we arrived. I thought that was a wonderful touch.

DU has already done so much for me and we are going to put our dep down tomorrow or wed. Answered a lot of questions, etc.

 

[DiznNut]

I used Small World Vacations and had a wonderful experience. Diana Stahl was my agent and gave us execellent service and a better quote than Disney.

 

[NYAna]

I read Karlyrocks post about Cruise Value. So I decide to go on line and try them. I just completed a quote request on line and received a weird e-mail from them... it was blank! I then replied and I asked if the e-mail can be resent because the original one was blank. The reply was..." just was making sure you were ral. I will give you a quote, any specifs for the quote, cabin type category amount of passengers". Then I replied "Okay, that was weird. Why wouldn't I be real? Okay, I am interested in a Disney Cruise on January 6th, 2007 for 7 nights for 3 adults and 1 infant which will be a year old on that cruise date. For that date it is the Disney Magic (eastern route). Please quote for category 9 cabin". He then replied " will get on it right away. we have automated travel agents, who leave requests just to fill up our quote system. I do apologize , so have said wanted to validateyour quote request, not if you were real."

This does not sound like a company that I want to work with. Would anyone of you feel the same way as me? I really like the price he quoted me but I'm iffy about him and the company. Maybe the company is good but they have bad representation. I mean Karlyrocks was able to book a cruise at a great price sooo... what do I do? What would you do?

Thanks!

 

[karylrocks]

Wow, that is just weird. I didn't have any trouble booking on the website, even though I went in and put in my info several times over a couple of days just to make sure I was getting the right quote. Then when I booked, it went through fine, I got a confirming email, and was able to go to the DCL website and look up my reservation. The one thing I did not like was that there is a $75 per person cancellation fee, but I am confident that barring some unforseen disaster, I will not be cancelling my ressie and someone else said that they will credit it back if you re-book another cruise.

 

[Mainestreetpixie]

I'm just curious why you are looking for an online company. And not a local travel agent with whom you can talk directly to and if any problem arise they can help you with them. I'm a travel agent and I believe that customer service is key. I have even called my clients and let them know when there are promotions and that they can book their exsisting package cheaper!!! Yes, I lose money, but my clients are happy and that's all that matters. Maybe, I take it hard because of everyone using the internet and we are loosing clients. But when I've priced packages, and airlines tickets, I really don't see much price difference. And I know when there is a problem someone will be there for me.

Unfortunately, there are very few companies that specialize in Disney travel like DU or Small World. I dont see what difference being local makes if you receive the same service from an internet agency? Ive always been able to call my agent, she definitely knows more about discounts than I do and she has the time to worry about them, being on the phones at 7am, instead of me having to call an agency at 9am when they open. plus, most disney travel agents do priority seatings and the like, not something alot of the local big agencies do or are familiar with

 

[ktpool]

We booked with Tim Larison. He can be reached at mousetalk or cruisetalk. He has been very good at keeping in touch with us.

I have heard some good things about our hosts at DU as well.

 

[splashmt]

I booked last year's cruise and this upcoming cruise with CRUISES.COM I am very happy with their telephone customer service. I have had to change our dates a few times and had no problems. I called them a few days ago after learning on the DIS boards about transferring my deposit (already paid) to our Disney Visa Card, and then paid the rest off for our trip. They had no problem with contacting Disney, and taking care of the transfer of the deposit so that I could get my $50 onboard credit. I was sent a new email immediately noting the onboard credit. Also, Cruises.com gives rebates after you cruise depending on how much your total cruise $$ was. I will receive a $300 rebate after the cruise! and the original price of the cruise was WAY less than Disney.com Lastly, I like real-time quotes, not email forms and email responses like with DU and the like. Not to say they are bad. Its just not "for me".