What TA Comps Did You Receive for 14 Day Panama Canal Cruise?

[DisneySince1967]

I've never used a TA before booking the 14 Day EBPC cruise. So far, I've been disappointed. She was giddy to book us, although she herself was traveling in Europe at the time. Nonetheless, she assured me she could provide us with needed services. I made our flight and pre-cruise hotel reservations, using points. She booked the cruise and made Palo reservation (big whoop), provided us with some advice regarding shore excursions (I'm grateful), and provided us with a link to a shuttle service for transportation between the port of Galveston and Houston Hobby (I could have done that on Google myself). The comp she provided us for booking this 14-day cruise with her was a $25 per person shipboard credit, for us coming to $50. It won't even cover the cost of our Palo dinner.

I relinquished a large Costco gift card and MANY Marriott points because, since I'm working so much right now and my husband isn't a planner, I believed I needed a full service TA to help us. Right now I feel like a chump, but maybe I'm not.

For those of you who used a TA, what comps did you receive on a 14-day Disney cruise and what services were provided to you?

 

[bumbershoot]

Just want to extend hugs to you.

I definitely would have gone with costcotravel.com for that.

The Palo reservation could have been done by you; she had no special powers for that. Though at least you didn't have to stay up until midnight eastern time to do it. Have you done the rest of your online checkin yet?

she assured me she could provide us with needed services.

I believed I needed a full service TA to help us.

For the future, what did you think you needed from the TA? Has she done those things?


(I'm sorry to not be more positive about your TA experience)

 

[DisneySince1967]

I've done our on-line check in. I did all of the work for our trip to WDW in 2014 and knew going in that her offer to make the reservation at Palo was...at best a symbolic gesture.

The things I thought I needed was assistance in setting up transportation between the Port of Galveston and Houston Hobby, since Disney won't serve that airport and, secondarily, advice on the port excursions. I guess giving me the link to a well-reviewed company to make my own reservation saves me a little leg work. I am grateful for her insight into the port excursions, though, since we've never been to any of them.

My DH and I both work FT and I had hoped to develop a relationship with a local TA that could continue into the future. It won't be this one, if I ever go this route again.

Just want to extend hugs to you.

Have you done the rest of your online checkin yet?
For the future, what did you think you needed from the TA? Has she done those things?

 

[DisneySince1967]

I'll add, too, that we booked an OGT room at the last minute, giving me even less capacity to shop around. We aren't veteran cruisers, so my planning insecurity was and is high. Live and learn.

 

[lucky1]

not on the Panama cruise, but our TA whom we have used repetitively for cruising and one in a while for WDW, we receive the company On board credit, which is based on their current promotion at the time of booking and the cost of the cruise (Many DCL TA's will have that listed on their websites, take a look at Dreams unlimited and you can get an idea of what is offered out there). Then we receive an in room gift for our repeated service, which is typically something from the DCL website. She makes payments for us and make sure we do not miss our PIF date. Outside of that not much else she does for us on DCL bookings. Not like WDW, where they would get up early to make special request booking etc (we have not traveled since the aps have come online so not sure how that will change WDW travels with the travel agent.

I would say shop around for the best On board credit offer you can get.

 

[MunFam]

I am a corporate travel agent, so we don't do business with DCL, ever...but I did go ahead and get a Disney TA cert just because. I booked our own 2015 WBPC through myslef/our agency on a MTO offer. We got a whopping $0 in OBC. I did get a decent commission on my own booking though.

I have sent friends and family to both Dreams Unlimited and Costco Travel for DCL because they offer the best OBC.

Perhaps your agent does not do much DCL work, so he/she is in the lowest tier for client OBC offers.

 

[Kimberly1]

So sorry. My TA gives about 5% of cruise total for an OBC.

 

[TestingH2O]

Yup. The TA my dad insisted on using for their anniversary trip this summer gave about $25 PER ROOM. On a very speedy trip (all concierge rooms) she provided no guidance, was very late giving my parents the paperwork, and was, overall, a joke. I had tried to talk him into a Disney specialized agent and, after this experience, he apologized to me for not listening. Had I not found the Dis, we wouldn't have booked a cabana, Palo, etc.

Hugs. I'm sorry and it sucks to get in that situation.

 

[dennes]

our TA OBC was $350 (deck one oceanview - still not aufait with the categories sorry). almost paid for the gratuities for the WBPS in May

 

[wilma-bride]

We got the standard OBC for a 14 day cruise from our TA, Dreams Unlimited. We didn't get anything else though in the way of assistance, but nor did I expect it. For Dreams that is about par for the course (at least in my experience it is).

 

[DisneyConvert]

Not sure if we're going to do the Panama EB next Aug-Sep, but we use a TA for big DCL reservations, like last summer's Baltic(!).

Besides the $50 shipboard credit for using the DisneyVisa (which also gives 2% in Disney Dollars and allows 6 months to pay w/out interest), the TA gives us a shipboard credit as well. Depends on $$$ of of the resv., so I suppose loading Paolo payments, Excursions and pre-paid Gratuities could increase that amount. Maybe we received a $300 credit for a total $12,000 downpayment+balance I think? Nothing to sneeze at, but doesn't significantly change the overall cost.

 

[cdoc29]

I know if you look several of the Travel Agencies give $50 per $1000 rounded down of course in OBC. So for our family of 4 we received $200 OBC. I know that if you book directly through Disney the price is the same and you receive $0 no matter how much you spend. You can combine this with the OBB Disney gives. Our Next Cruise in Feb 2017 we will receive a total of $400 OBC ($200 from disney, $200 from our TA)

The other advantage of a TA is knowing how to use one. Our Feb 2017 cruise my wife and I wanted a particular room for a particular week. I emailed my TA and she did all the leg work the day they opened up bookings. we had a placeholder and one of the things she did because she is a TA and knows the tricks is to move our placeholder to an actual cruise and then switch it as soon as it opened up to ensure we got our room as it was faster to do this than to book with a placeholder. I never had to call disney or try to get through online because my TA did all the work for me.

Our last cruise when my parents decided to go last minute the TA did all the leg work and wait listing and checking up when the main seating wasn’t available for dinner, in the end we were able to get them switched prior to the cruise.

I have heard of some TA’s sending flowers or other small stuff. We did receive and magnet that looked like a picture frame with their advertising around the edge and a white center for writing notes with a dry erase pen right before the cruise. We used it so I guess that was kinda neat too.

 

[sweetlovin]

I booked with United and will receive over 140K miles for booking with them, 2 free roundtrip tickets to Asia (with free stop over in Frankfurt Germany, depending on the flight)

 

[Ravenne]

Just want to extend hugs to you.

I definitely would have gone with costcotravel.com for that.


For the future, what did you think you needed from the TA? Has she done those things?


(I'm sorry to not be more positive about your TA experience)

I would agree..what do you need from a TA? Costco Travel is great in terms of perks (we're supposedly getting $475 back in a Costco Cash Card for our 7n) but they don't really do anything for us, which for us, it's just fine because I can do everything we need myself. Don't get me wrong though, the reps at Costco Travel were all super friendly, nice and incredibly patient every time I needed to call them or have questions (they were more than happy to contact DCL to get the answer then call me back so I wouldn't have to sit on hold) but they're not going to stay up till midnight to book Palo for me. They'll book it for me if I call them during their normal business hours, I'm sure. And they won't offer 24 hrs service. I'm not sure how much help they will be if goodness forbid we miss the ship and need help getting home. I think in cases like that, that's where a good small, private TA shines. A big company like Costco is great for monetary perks, but not specialized assistance.

 

[pgroom48]

Sounds like you need a different TA. Ours has a graduated scale for the OBC that gets bigger the more your cruise costs. We are a family of 5 and our TA OBC usually ranges from 200 to 400. The longest cruise we have done was 7 nights and tend do more 4 nighters since we are FL residents. That plus the Disney OBC for rebooking helps. Like someone else said, not a a deal breaker but nice to to have the extra "cash".

 

[Comcam]

We got $300 from our TA.