Canadian DCL Cruisers ... Who Do You Book With?

[disneymath]

So, I don't know why I didn't think to post this here a week ago ... but anyway. We want to book a DCL Alaska cruise. Having never cruised before, I'm wondering who veteran Canadian DCLers trust with their cruise bookings.

My plan right now is to jump in the fray on Monday and take my chances calling DCL directly. (That said, I figure it can't hurt to have a Plan B that involves a TA.)

 

[cdnmickeylover]

We've used Dreamsunlimited and have been very happy.

 

[disneymath]

We've used Dreamsunlimited and have been very happy.

Is there any potential issue with them being a US-based agency? (I know there are advertisements on the radio/tv sometimes about making sure your travel provider is a member of TICO. I'm not familiar with all the ins and outs of this but I know it has to do with travel/tourism and Ontario standards or something.)

 

[pxlbarrel]

We booked with my friend at Marlin Travel. We cashed in some Air Miles to buy Marlin Travel certificates ($50 certificates). We're allowed to use $400 of certificates per person...the remainder has to be paid by cc. There's 4 of us so that's $1600 (Canadian) paid by Air Miles!

 

[SAGE]

Hi,
I sent you a PM..

 

[Charleyann]

Book on your own and once your sure you have what you want you can always change to a Travel Agent if you wish....

I booked with DU, but never again.I went to make a payment and ask a question and had my head shot off!!!! Felt like I inconvienced them when I asked questions. I had lots too, because this Dec. will be our first cruise.

I booked again for March break and kids sail free. Booked it myself with Disney directly....


Charleyann

 

[cdnmickeylover]

We've never had a problem with Dreamsunlimited. We have a great agent at Dreams and have asked questions, changed cruises etc. and never, ever had a problem.

If you want control then book with DCL directly. If you want an onboard credit then book with a TA that you are comfortable with. Any TA you book with though should be a Disney expert -- we've checked out some here in Canada and they didn't know anything about Disney.

With Dreams we get an onboard credit and if the price goes down we get the lower price automatically as our agent arranges for it. We don't have to call someone and explain that the price went down and could you please get it.

As to the TICO issue - I don't have any fears that Disney will go bankrupt. If I was booking somewhere else other than Disney then I would probably book with an Ontario agent.

 

[Charleyann]

We've never had a problem with Dreamsunlimited. We have a great agent at Dreams and have asked questions, changed cruises etc. and never, ever had a problem.

If you want control then book with DCL directly. If you want an onboard credit then book with a TA that you are comfortable with. Any TA you book with though should be a Disney expert -- we've checked out some here in Canada and they didn't know anything about Disney.

With Dreams we get an onboard credit and if the price goes down we get the lower price automatically as our agent arranges for it. We don't have to call someone and explain that the price went down and could you please get it.

As to the TICO issue - I don't have any fears that Disney will go bankrupt. If I was booking somewhere else other than Disney then I would probably book with an Ontario agent.

It wasn't our Agent we had the problem with....It was someone cranky on a Saturday morning Thought it was kind of weird....especially when I was paying them money!!!!

Have a great Day!

Charleyann

 

[nokidz]

We have booked with DreamsUnlimited and with Sears Travel. With Sears, we used our Sears card, collected points, then cashed them in for gift cert, then used those to pay down the next cruise. We usually book on-board, then transfer the resv to Sears travel.

 

[nokidz]

Book on your own and once your sure you have what you want you can always change to a Travel Agent if you wish....

I booked with DU, but never again.I went to make a payment and ask a question and had my head shot off!!!! Felt like I inconvienced them when I asked questions. I had lots too, because this Dec. will be our first cruise.

I booked again for March break and kids sail free. Booked it myself with Disney directly....


Charleyann

We have only used DreamsUnlimted once and have had nothing but excellant service. We had a few tangles at our end, and Marla was nothing but professional and curtious. She was a gem! Still is as far as I know...lol

 

[cab0899]

We also booked with marlin so we could pay it off with Marlin gift certificates from air miles and that was before the $400 limit!

 

[pxlbarrel]

We also booked with marlin so we could pay it off with Marlin gift certificates from air miles and that was before the $400 limit!

Yeah, when my friend told me about that, it surprised me...but ultimately, it didn't matter anyway. My dad used his Air Miles and he didn't have enough anyway. He was shy a few miles for the whole limit. That's ok...it's still a pretty good chunk of "cash".

And it was here that somebody suggested I do it this way!! So thanks DISrs!

 

[mkmommy]

Christine at Fairytale Destinations, she is good at booking cruises too.

 

[sueandkent]

My response is for booking cruises in general and not specific to DCL. Most cruise lines use a pre-determined exchange rate (which is usually determined each year and keep in mind, our $$$ was at a .30cent difference earlier this year) and so when you call a CDN travel agent the price they are quoting you is in CDN funds but has that pre-determined exchange rate built in to the price being quoted. Thus, if a cruise line is using a 25% exchange rate your quoted price from a CDN TA will be 25% higher than the price a U.S. travel agent will quote.
We learned all this when we booked our first cruise with Princess several years ago and since then have always booked with a U.S. TA. We saved ourselves much $$$ over our few cruises booking this way. When booking our DCL cruise I learned that DCL does not allow discounting by TA's of their cruises. A TA can sweetin the pot by offering OBC but can't discount the pricing. Based on that, we booked directly with DCL in USD and so far I have called twice since booking and the CM's have been fantastic and...they called gave us a complimentary upgrade on our land portion of our booking from a Disney moderate hotel to a deluxe hotel. Good luck in booking your cruise.

 

[lisalonglash]

Christine at Fairytale Destinations, she is good at booking cruises too.

Fairytale Dreams & Destinations is awesome at all things Disney! As for a CDN TA booking you in CDN$, I doubt FD&D does that. They book WDW trips in US$ funds, why would that change for booking cruises?

They are really an incredibly wonderful agency - you will thank mkmommy and me later for referring you, I promise

 

[disneymath]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I have heard of Fairytale Dreams and will keep them in mind should my plan of "going it alone striaght to DCL" fall apart. I have heard mostly good things about Dreams Unlimited, but I think I would be much more comfortable booking with a Canadian TA. (Not because I'm worried about Disney going bankrupt!)

As for booking in CAD$ vs US$ ... I've heard about that "set conversion rate" on travel packages before. We have a US Visa pretty much just for our Disney trips, so booking in US funds is no biggie.

 

[Louiepipbgeeco]

I booked my cruise Disney direct. Excellent service and very helpful when I had to call when a better price came out.
Have always booked my Disney vacations direct and have NEVER had any sort of problem

 

[dsneygirl]

Just booked for Feb directly with DCL online. No hassles at all.