Advantages to TA vs booking online?

[Dug720]

I think the "giving up" thing is a bit misleading. You can always make a change. Its just a question of who you contact, the provider or the TA.

I guess it could be, but in using a TA you are giving up your ability to contact DCL (or use the website) to make changes at times when your TA might not be available immediately (not necessarily so applicable on DCL since they don't have the drops other lines do, but I've heard of people on RCCL who missed out on a price drop because they had booked through a travel agent and were unable to contact their agent immediately to have things switched - by the time they got in touch with their TA the deal was gone - but for DCL say there was a stateroom or category you wanted and that room or category reopens but you can't get in touch with your TA; there's a good chance it'll be gone by the time you get in touch with them and they get in touch with Disney). And you're putting a lot of trust in someone where you have little to no recourse if they mess things up like not getting a payment in on time, etc.

It all depends in what you're comfortable with. So for those who want to use them, hooray! For those who don't, hooray!

 

[bumbershoot]

I guess it could be, but in using a TA you are giving up your ability to contact DCL (or use the website) to make changes at times when your TA might not be available immediately (not necessarily so applicable on DCL since they don't have the drops other lines do, but I've heard of people on RCCL who missed out on a price drop because they had booked through a travel agent and were unable to contact their agent immediately to have things switched - by the time they got in touch with their TA the deal was gone - but for DCL say there was a stateroom or category you wanted and that room or category reopens but you can't get in touch with your TA; there's a good chance it'll be gone by the time you get in touch with them and they get in touch with Disney). And you're putting a lot of trust in someone where you have little to no recourse if they mess things up like not getting a payment in on time, etc.

It all depends in what you're comfortable with. So for those who want to use them, hooray! For those who don't, hooray!

The key for me there is to not check unless I know costcotravel is open. Why frustrate myself?

Our first DCL we used a perfectly fine tiny TA and everything worked but I had a tense several hours when I saw a cat V open up at only $300 more total! They weren't immediately available and I was so stressed! Learned my lesson there. Only check during your TA's business hours.

So then we booked on our own and then I realized that I was just giving up money. With DCL that Costco cash card can be in the 8% range. Not bad.

For our last royal cruise it was well over 300 obc total (can't remember what was from royal and what was from Costco but at final payment Costco gave us an extra 50), and on our upcoming cruise it's 165 plus 100 from Royal. And I haven't needed to contact the cruise line at all and there to haven't contacted the ta. When I paid I went to costcotravel's site, logged in, paid and it was immediately updated on Royal's website. No waiting at all. Nice.

 

[kiford]

We always use a TA. I like basically dropping off the information on what I want and not having to do the chasing around of getting it all done. We do book our own flights partly because we often use points but everything else is done by her: pre/post room booking, transportation (local as well as hotel/port/airport), cruise, insurance, even sometimes excursions (mostly for the European cruises pre/post cruise but also sometimes for WDW like WAT). All of the port excursions, specialty dining, spa services, and on-line check in I do myself. I like having one person that I can contact in the event that there are issues or questions. If I ever had to make reservation changes I'd prefer to have someone else sit on the phone for ages rather than me but I've never had to make any such changes so far. I think that what's most important is to make sure that the TA is knowledgeable about WDW and DCL (which ours is) as it is far less likely that errors are made or that you are given incorrect information. Also to ensure that they are easily contactable and are responsive or that there is a backup person you can go to if necessary. We prefer to have a TA who is physically located close to us rather than a strictly on-line TA but that's a personal preference. We still tend to communicate largely by e-mail but I can pop in to see her if I need to.