Any Negative experiences with DU?

[HookedonMagic]

I currently have two cruises booked directly through DCL. I enjoy travel planning and don't mind keeping track of the trips on my own. I am, however, considering transferring the reservations to DU for few reasons. First, I obviously enjoy the DIS and would like to support DU. Second, I like those rebates! And third, if someone can make a little commission off my ressies, great!

I used DU for one previous cruise and was very happy with the pleasant service and cash rebate. The second time I attempted to use them, however, was during the period when a couple agents were suddenly let go. My agent was one of the people involved and I didn't like how DU handled the change. I was stuck in limbo for weeks. No big deal, I simply took over my reservation and haven't used them again since that time.

Lately, however, I've been encouraged by the many positive reviews of DU's service. And, of course, I'd like to get those rebates, again! So, anyone have any recent bad experiences with DU? Anyone ever switch to a TA and then wish they had just left well enough alone?

Thanks, in advance, for your help!

Lisa

 

[Bethipooh4]

I haven't had any bad experiences with DU. Only positive.

We booked a 2005 trip back in June with another family, Sue Ellen and Tammy have both been wonderful, between my AOL filters, 2 families with different requests and vacation types, and what must be a million questions about the REAS at this point. Now I am about to book 2006 with Sue Ellen and of course got a prompt reply.

I have nothing but praise for them.

 

[alicecr]

I highly recommend DU. The agent I had worked with left and I was assigned Cathy Miller. At first I was unsure what to do but have been extremely pleased with Cathy. As a matter of fact she handles all my requirements, questions and problems much better than previous agent. Definitely stick with DU. You will be happy you did.

 

[daisy112878]

We booked with DU back in August for our Sept 2005 cruise. Sue Ellen has been awesome. She's answered all my questions. And yesterday and today I have been emailing her trying to get a cruise set up for my whole family. She always there to answer questions and to help out. I have had nothing but a good experience so far with DU and Sue Ellen.

 

[DISNEYFAMILYOFFOUR]

I also was at first very uncomfortable with transferring my reservation to DU. I always take care of it myself.

After reading these boards, I decided to go for it and cannot believe how wonderful and cost-saving it has been. We are using Sue Ellen and she is truly, truly wonderful. In addition to the cruise portion, she also is handling our land portion and has also saved us lots of money on that.

I am sure sometimes I probably drive her crazy with all my e-mails, but you would never know it--she responds very fast and is always friendly. She is an asset to DU.

Give them a try.

 

[christinou]

I have been very happy with them, I booked my first cruise with them in for August 03, then a second one for February 04, on that cruise I booked #3 for February 05, which I transferred to DU, and I am in the process of booking February 06........

 

[rjones69]

What is DU?

 

[crisi]

Dreams Unlimited, click on the top of this board.

Overall, I've been happy with them. They aren't necessarily the fastest at responding, but always within a day or two, and most things are handled (in my experience) via email. This has never really bothered me, as I've never had a "have to know right now" sort of issue. So if you are not the patient type, and would prefer to pick up the phone and call someone, it may not be for you.

They also didn't bother to "upsell" my vacation at all. i.e. they didn't offer to book airfare or watch airfare for me. Didn't have a "you'd like to arrive the night before, which hotel should I book for you" conversation. Or a "let me book your towncar for you" discussion. Once again, fine with me, I took care of those arrangements myself, but if you want someone to plan everything for you and think of everything for you, my experience is that you'll at least need to ask DU to hold your hand. i.e. they booked my cruise exactly as requested, sent me a note when my final payment was due, and that was pretty much it.

 

[tracyl921]

I'm in the process of getting quotes for cruises right now. Merrie has responded to my inquiry from DU. We've probably sent 3-4 e-mails to each other today alone. A very quick response time. It looks like we're going to book with them as well (there price is the lowest at this time too!).

 

[MinnesotaMouseketeers]

I was very happy with DU and Dagny our TA. I would highly recommend DU and if you can request Dagny, she was great. I'm not sure what others think is a quick response time but most of the time it was within a day, some times hours. I would even consider a couple days an appropriate response time and I think that only happened twice. I have recommened DU to everyone that is thinking of a Disney vacation and I will use them again.

 

[AnnMorin]

I am very happy with Sue Ellen, she has always responded to my questions (often stupid ones) very quickly and has been like a friend helping me with a trip, I highly recommend her!

 

[dtuleya]

Using Sue Ellen for our upcoming trip and am very happy with her. Started out using a friend of a friend who is a TA, but knows nothing about Disney or DCL. Soon realized I knew more about DCL than her (and this is my first cruise) so I ended up booking with DU. Never had to wait more than a day or so for an answer. Thanks Sue Ellen!

 

[suz72]

Just booked with Merrie and have had nothing but quick responses.

 

[Minybear]

DU is fantastic. They saved me $$ on my upcoming vacation in Dec. We have used them for a couple of DCL cruises. Right now considering booking an Hawaiian cruise and I wish DU could do my resv with NCI, but I have to find another TA .

 

[KaitlinsMom]

Booked with Merrie of DU - This is the second time I have used them - Never a problem and even received a stateroom gift from them!!!

 

[HookedonMagic]

Thanks for all of the reply's. I guess it is time to email DU!

 

[crisi]

I should be clear - I've never had a delay longer than a day - and often only a few hours. And I've never been dissatisfied with that. But I do know people who like instant reponse, a voice on the phone, face to face contact. My former travel agent was local to me and I worked with via the telephone. She was almost always available to take my call immediately, and it was seldom more than half an hour if I needed to leave a message for her. And if I wanted to see her face to face, I could.

The thing with email is that it often takes several cycles to communicate what you want and get it. For instance "Can you move my room further forward?" Gets a reply of "How about room XXXX?" Your response might be "That's too close to the laundry rooms, is there anything in the XXXX range." Which might get "how about XXXX" "We were looking for starboard?" Oh, how about XXXX?" "Yes, that will work great!" On the phone this takes five minutes. With a response time of even a few hours in email, this could take two days. Which isn't a big deal if you have the patience to deal with it. But you should know that is the way its going to work.

 

[HookedonMagic]

Thanks, Crisi! I appreciate your honest response. I like knowing how it works ahead of time...that way, if a situation like that arises for me, I'll remember I went into it with full knowledge and I'll patient!

 

[Cruise04]

I think given the latest possible negative comments you may have seen about Dreams have been in relation to the recent problems with the hurricanes, I wouldn't use that as a reason NOT to use them unless you were affected and experienced more problems or negativenism than you might have expected. We had a small problem but I wouldn't tell people NOT to use them. We were very happy with them up until the cruise, and at that point I can't totally blame them for the problems we experienced. They answered our questions as quick as they could when we wondered about if we were actually booked in a certain room, and any other small questions that came up during our planning process.

I would recommend them because of that, and, yes, you can get a nice discount with them at times.

 

[Scrappy520]

Do they have a phone # to call & speak to them? I don't mind emails but there are times that speaking to them personally would make matters a lot simpler & definitely faster. That's my only negative about them.