pro's and con's of transferring your reservation to a Travel Agent

[Hollyster2]

Can someone help me understand this process and the benefits of doing it? I have never done it before. Thanks!

 

[zenjenn]

Usually by booking through a travel agent, you get a perk like some on board ship credit. You may want to look at something like Costco Travel too (if you're a Costco member).. you'll get a Costco cash card for booking through them.

The other advantage is you can drop an e-mail with your desires and the travel agent will take care of the phone calls, though for some people who enjoy talking to Disney this is a 'con'.

For our Alaska cruise we did not use a travel agent and I enjoyed making my own plans.

This time, we are using a travel agent. We are traveling with my dad and stepmother AND our closest friends (family of four). With three travel parties and 10 people total, we have felt more comfortable using the travel agent as all three parties are working with the same point of contact. So far she is doing an excellent job of finding rooms close together within our respective budgets and linking up our dining choices. I like having a neutral third party in charge of all that.

 

[RweTHEREyet]

You can't make payments youroself on-line or check your balance when a TA has control of your reservation.

 

[Silver Cinderella]

You can't make payments youroself on-line or check your balance when a TA has control of your reservation.

Just send them an email to do this. We do it all the time.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

No cons at all.

You pay via your Travel Agent.

You have full access to your reservation and can book Palo and shore trips.

You have control and. TA to support.

Good service.

And get on board credits with some agencies.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[lanejudy]

Whether or not you can do online payments with a TA is dependent on that TA and how they have their system set up. You may be able to do it yourself, you may be able to email the TA the info and the TA will do it, or you may need to call the TA. Either way, payment is made through the TA.

Communication method may also be important when deciding on a TA. Do you want to communicate by email? ONLY by email? Do you want to be able to call? Does the TA have service hours that fit your schedule, or would you need to use your break-time from work to deal with it during the day?

Last week, some people who used a TA were concerned about the response time on opening day. They wanted assurance they're booking was done immediately to take advantage of lowest prices. You might want to discuss this with a TA ahead of time if you expect you may book on a very busy booking day (in the future, obviously not in the next few weeks).

Another concern people had was if they wanted to transfer an OBB on opening day, but needed to wait for Costco TA's to be available.

If you may have changes to your reservation -- date, number of people, stateroom category, dining, etc. -- all of that will need to be done through the TA.

There are pros and cons, primarily related to "control" type concerns. Only you can decide what you are comfortable with. But make sure you get a good TA who is familiar with DCL and their policies; otherwise you could get some bad info or poor service.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[NancyIL]

Can someone help me understand this process and the benefits of doing it? I have never done it before. Thanks!

When did you book your cruise? You have only 30 days to transfer the reservation to a travel agent after it is booked.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

No cons at all. You pay via your Travel Agent. You have full access to your reservation and can book Palo and shore trips. You have control and. TA to support. Good service. And get on board credits with some agencies. Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

Well as long as you have a decent TA


I used one of these Disney specialists once. Never again. All it did was add delays to getting things done.

A lot of them view thus as a hobby to fund their vacation. I won't ever again use a TA without 24/7 coverage and a phone number that gets answered. No email only, no "I deal with you after I do my other job ".

 

[jdb in AZ]

Our travel agent gives us $200 onboard credit for a cruise that's a week or longer. Nothing wrong with that! She's very prompt to respond to our questions via phone or e-mail, even when she's escorting a trip through Europe.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Well as long as you have a decent TA I used one of these Disney specialists once. Never again. All it did was add delays to getting things done. A lot of them view thus as a hobby to fund their vacation. I won't ever again use a TA without 24/7 coverage and a phone number that gets answered. No email only, no "I deal with you after I do my other job ".

Over this last weekend my DCL TA has worked hard for me to make changes I wanted to my booking for summer 2015, the Owner was personally available and phoned me and DCL, I am in the UK, and I can see all the changes have been made to my requirements, when there was someone at DCL call centre who initially said, it can't be done.

Depends on the TA but as well as getting good on board credits to spend you can get excellent service and back up, and mine was over the weekend and evenings.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[Annabell]

All it did was add delays to getting things done.

".

This is exactly my experience. As long as you don't mind that it takes up extra time before things get done, you are fine with a TA.

The only benefit is the extra OBC that I get from my TA. For that extra $$ I am aware that I need to suffer the waiting game. Sometimes if I want the extra bit of $$ I will use a TA but sometimes I prefer to control the booking myself then I will book direct.

 

[jdb in AZ]

Over this last weekend my DCL TA has worked hard for me to make changes I wanted to my booking for summer 2015, the Owner was personally available and phoned me and DCL, I am in the UK, and I can see all the changes have been made to my requirements, when there was someone at DCL call centre who initially said, it can't be done.

Depends on the TA but as well as getting good on board credits to spend you can get excellent service and back up, and mine was over the weekend and evenings.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

When the cruise line says "it can't be done" and the TA is able to get it done anyway, that's when you know you have a great TA. We had a problem booking an extended family cruise several years ago (non-Disney cruise) and our TA kept escalating it up the food chain. Finally a vice-president of the cruise line was able to straighten things out for us. A mere mortal TA couldn't have done that.

 

[crazy4wdw]

Well as long as you have a decent TA
I used one of these Disney specialists once. Never again. All it did was add delays to getting things done.

A lot of them view thus as a hobby to fund their vacation. I won't ever again use a TA without 24/7 coverage and a phone number that gets answered. No email only, no "I deal with you after I do my other job ".

Same here, booked a cruise using an online travel agency associated with a Disney fan site (not the one associated with the disbaords). It was a nighmare. Just getting airport transfers added was a major ordeal. I ended up cancelling the cruise becasue of all of the issues I experienced. I booked a cruise last week for May 2015 and went directly through DCL. I will not use an online agency again.

 

[jaberwock]

We just did this last week for the on-board credit. I was a little apprehensive but we ended up with $400.00 and didn't need to be on the phone trying to book. The TA was also able to secure connecting rooms when we were told there were not any left so win win for us.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

When the cruise line says "it can't be done" and the TA is able to get it done anyway, that's when you know you have a great TA. We had a problem booking an extended family cruise several years ago (non-Disney cruise) and our TA kept escalating it up the food chain. Finally a vice-president of the cruise line was able to straighten things out for us. A mere mortal TA couldn't have done that.

Yes, my TA went above and beyond this weekend to do what the cling wanted, the initial response was no, but then Through tenacity the answer was yes.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[KatRob]

I've used a TA every time and never had a problem. I needed to changed those ressies when the new dates came out. My TA sent an email with all the information she had 2 days before the general dates came out so she could make changes ASAP. I didn't contact her until last 11:15 last night, she responded in 30 minutes. Got another email from her at 5:45 a.m. today. She got everything changed for me (and I had to tweek my requests) and I'm ready to go! She's been wonderful. Even with a power failure and no internet, she was able to get exactly what I wanted.