Agency or Website?

[*I'msoooBelle*]

Hello there,

Will I get the best deals directly from the universalstudios.com website or going through an agency? If agency is the best way to go, which one do you recommend?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Squirlz]

In all of my travels I've always found the best deal directly through a website. And almost every time I hear about booking problems it is the result of a third party site.

 

[jeffbeardreams]

Disclaimer ... I work for an agency :0)

The thing is ... you can usually find slightly discounted tickets online from reseller sites, but proper Disney/Universal specialty travel agents will rarely if even beat the pricing you'll get direct from Universal. The advantage of using an agent is that they plow through all the various options for you and get you the best deal at the time you book, and then they monitor any new discounts that can be applied and make sure you don't pay any more than you have to. Plus, you just have one point of contact for your whole package to answer your questions and deal with your concerns. Agents can do as much specific scheduling and planning stuff for you as you want ... or as little. Price is not the selling point ... service is. Some people find value in what we do for our clients, some not so much. Which is all fine.

 

[schumigirl]

Never used a travel agent for years.......no need to.

We do everything ourselves........it's so easy. Doesn't matter where we go, we do it.

 

[bumbershoot]

I go through loewshotels.com if booking onsite (and I have always booked onsite). Then I buy tickets from wherever I choose.

 

[*I'msoooBelle*]

In all of my travels I've always found the best deal directly through a website. And almost every time I hear about booking problems it is the result of a third party site.

Thank you!

 

[*I'msoooBelle*]

Disclaimer ... I work for an agency :0)

The thing is ... you can usually find slightly discounted tickets online from reseller sites, but proper Disney/Universal specialty travel agents will rarely if even beat the pricing you'll get direct from Universal. The advantage of using an agent is that they plow through all the various options for you and get you the best deal at the time you book, and then they monitor any new discounts that can be applied and make sure you don't pay any more than you have to. Plus, you just have one point of contact for your whole package to answer your questions and deal with your concerns. Agents can do as much specific scheduling and planning stuff for you as you want ... or as little. Price is not the selling point ... service is. Some people find value in what we do for our clients, some not so much. Which is all fine.

Thank you for the info!

 

[*I'msoooBelle*]

Never used a travel agent for years.......no need to.

We do everything ourselves........it's so easy. Doesn't matter where we go, we do it.

Thanks, the focus of the question was more on price than convenience, I agree with you only a few key strokes and you are booked.

 

[*I'msoooBelle*]

I go through loewshotels.com if booking onsite (and I have always booked onsite). Then I buy tickets from wherever I choose.

Good to know! Thanks!

 

[jagafen]

I started off cobbling our stay together. Booked the hotel separately, and was pricing out tickets from various sites. I ended up using an agent (Taylor from Orlandoinformer.com), who was able to come up with a better ticket package for us (the Explorer ticket) than I was able to find on my own. At the time of booking the 3 park explorer was only available with a package (not sure if that has changed). In addition, Taylor was able to beat Universal's price by $50, while booking directly through universal for us.

As much as I like researching and planning, it's nice to have an "expert" who knows the REAL answer to tricky questions. IF we weren't staying on site for 8 nights, there may have been better technical deals out there (re: tickets), but we needed more than 5 day's worth of park access, so it gets tricky.

 

[Dockrock]

As much as I love listening to Orlando Informer podcast, I tried using them last year. I emailed them on a Friday. No response. I emailed again on Monday. No response. I called on Tuesday. No response. I decided to go through Universal directly and for my 5 day stay they recommended annual passes, which made sense and I booked everything through them. Orlando Informer emailed me exactly one week after I'd put in my first request. Although I already booked, I read the email. They did not recommend the annual pass like Universal did and they would have cost me more money. With the pass I got discounts and a huge incentive to return this year, which I am doing. I still listen to their podcasts regularly (along with Dis Unplugged) but I don't consider them anymore when it comes to booking.

 

[bumbershoot]

As much as I like researching and planning, it's nice to have an "expert" who knows the REAL answer to tricky questions. IF we weren't staying on site for 8 nights, there may have been better technical deals out there (re: tickets), but we needed more than 5 day's worth of park access, so it gets tricky.

Sure hope your TA is as much of an expert as you think. I've yet to find a TA who is.

And by booking a package you've gotten terms and conditions that booking separately doesn't yield.


If we are planning longer than 5 days we buy APs and plan to come back. And get AP discounts on food and merchandise and quite often the hotel.

I'm just not willing to put up with the fees for changes to book a package even if it gets me the otherwise unobtainable (as I'm not from the U.K.) ticket you got.

 

[jagafen]

Sure hope your TA is as much of an expert as you think. I've yet to find a TA who is.

And by booking a package you've gotten terms and conditions that booking separately doesn't yield.


If we are planning longer than 5 days we buy APs and plan to come back. And get AP discounts on food and merchandise and quite often the hotel.

I'm just not willing to put up with the fees for changes to book a package even if it gets me the otherwise unobtainable (as I'm not from the U.K.) ticket you got.

Everyone has their own planning preferences and needs, but when push came to shove, and after I had done all my research, he got us our best price... better than I was able to cobble together (after spending who knows how much time looking into piece-mealing a package together) beat UT and Tickets at Work for ticket pricing, etc. Just because it's a package through an agent doesn't mean you can't get a deal, or save some $$...we weren't looking to get APs, but had considered it as one of our in the process of planning possibilities. There's not a whole lot of flex in room prices unless you're able to get an AP discount. For our circumstances, since we aren't returning, APs didn't make sense. There isn't an AP discount that's available for our length of stay, regardless. Upgrading ONE pass to an AP will cost us $200+ at current prices to get us into VB. We're not going to recoup that expense on this trip. To each their own.