Costco v. Small World

[sayfay]

I am trying to decide between booking through Costco or Small World. I seriously can't make a decision!!!

If I go through Costco, I will get a $500 Costco cash card. No personal agent though.

If I go through Small World, I will get a $250 on board credit. And a personal agent.

Thoughts? Experiences with either or both????

Thanks!!

 

[Meghatron]

I am trying to decide between booking through Costco or Small World. I seriously can't make a decision!!!

If I go through Costco, I will get a $500 Costco cash card. No personal agent though.

If I go through Small World, I will get a $250 on board credit. And a personal agent.

Thoughts? Experiences with either or both????

Thanks!!

We don't buy enough at Costco to justify trading $500 for the services provided for us by our Small World Agent. I work, go to school full time, have two kids, and my husband works at home while parenting the baby during the day. Neither of us has the time or the energy to deal with DCL. I have a thought, I email it to my agent at 3am while giving a bottle, it's done by the time I get to work in the morning. She's nabbed us every opening day rate we ever asked for and got us the VGT rate on the WBPC the morning after I asked for it (with a middle of the night voicemail). I don't remember the last time I bought something at Costco, so the ultimate decision should be made by how valuable the Costco $500 is to you.

 

[5intexas]

I agree with the above poster- it really depends on how much you shop at Costco. We are there twice a month at least, so totally worth it for us. As for the personal agent part of it, I plan on logging in on booking day for a Palo dinner and a couple of excursions, and I don't really need any help with that. We already got the kids sail free deal, so I know I don't need a TA out there looking for a better price

 

[kcashner]

My first thought was "Well, do you shop at Costco?

I don't use either of the above....but I really value the input of a personal agent. If this cruise is a one time vacation, it might not make a lot of difference. However, if I was on that cruise this week that got fogged in and couldn't port on time, my first (and probably only) phone call would have been to my travel agent--let them deal with getting me home! When I need international flights or whatever, the services of an agent that I have an established relationship with go a long way. Of course, you don't build that relationship with a single booking.

 

[sayfay]

Thanks for the replies! We definitely will get use out of the Costco card. Especially since we get gas for our cars there.

Excuse my ignorance, but what do you mean by booking day? This will be my first disney cruise and I'm clueless!

Also I've seen things on this board about price changes. So if Disney comes out with a special sale, you can get a price adjustment? And with Costco you'd pay $25 for that change??

 

[kcashner]

By "booking day" the poster means the day when you can go on line and make reservations for adult dining, excursions, spa, nursery, etc. Since this is your first cruise, that will be 75 days before you get on the ship.

If a price changes before the start of the penalty date, DCL will give you the new rate if your TA calls and requests it. I've never heard of a TA charging for this, but some might. Also, DCL does not charge if you cancel a cruise, but some TAs do--read the fine print if they ask you to sign a contract. If they don't have you sign something, I don't see how they can enforce anything beyond DCL's policies...but again, I'm not a lawyer.

 

[TLSnell1981]

We shop A LOT at Costco and they may have our cruise business permanently. I just booked a guaranteed verandah for $960 for two...got a $70 GC .. Not bad.

 

[StephenKay]

Hi there,

Whilst I have used various agents, I dont ever actually use the personal service and I was wondering how do you book via Costco. I looked at the US website and couldn't see anything ?

 

[Lisa Lisa]

I'm making the same decision. I know exactly what I want to book and don't anticipate making changes, so I'm not as concerned with having a personal agent. At least one person on this board has said that you can exchange the Costco gift card for cash. It seems strange that they would do that, but if it's true it would definitely sway me toward Costco.

Edited to add: I intend to call Costco Travel to ask, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

[valee]

I'm interested in finding out more about Costco, too. I've tried SWV a second time this week, and they're quoting me the same price as the DCL website and an additional $100 OBC. That doesn't seem like much of an incentive to work with them. We're pretty independent travelers, and last year gave up and booked our first Disney cruise directly online with DCL after we didn't get anything helpoful from SWV after a couple of days.
I sent SWV an email request this last Sunday, got an email on Monday telling us who was assigned to us, and got a quote from the agent yesterday afternoon. I'm trying to be patient, but their responsiveness is definitely not impressing me.

 

[Lisa Lisa]

I just went through the motions of booking the 6/15 Med cruise on Costco Travel's site. The price for a 9C room is $10,044. The cash card for that cruise would be $880, which is just over 8%. Here is the fine print regarding the cash card:

The exact amount of the benefit will be calculated during the online booking process. The Costco Cash Card offer is one per stateroom based on double occupancy, is valid for dates specified and is only valid for bookings made through Costco Travel. Offer is nontransferable and may not be combined with any other offer or coupon. The card, which you'll receive approximately three weeks after you return from your cruise, may be used toward merchandise or gas at any Costco warehouse throughout the United States, or toward online purchases at costco.com. The only way lost cards can be replaced is by presenting your original vacation or cruise invoice to Costco Travel. Neither CWC-Gift Card Co. nor any of its affiliates are responsible for use of this card without your permission. Gift card balances cannot be applied as payments to any account or redeemed for cash, unless required by law. Costco Cash Cards cannot be used for travel purchases.

 

[TLSnell1981]

I booked online with Costco and it was quite easy. The amount "calculated during the booking process" was the same....beginning to end.

FWIW Most travel agencies cap OBC, but Costco does NOT.

 

[sayfay]

Hi there,

Whilst I have used various agents, I dont ever actually use the personal service and I was wondering how do you book via Costco. I looked at the US website and couldn't see anything ?

There should be a travel tab at the top.

THanks so much for the replies - very helpful!!!

 

[valee]

Sounds like I'll be checking with Costco this evening if I haven't heard back from SWV.

 

[love280mickey]

I just went through the motions of booking the 6/15 Med cruise on Costco Travel's site. The price for a 9C room is $10,044. The cash card for that cruise would be $880, which is just over 8%. Here is the fine print regarding the cash card:

The exact amount of the benefit will be calculated during the online booking process. The Costco Cash Card offer is one per stateroom based on double occupancy, is valid for dates specified and is only valid for bookings made through Costco Travel. Offer is nontransferable and may not be combined with any other offer or coupon. The card, which you'll receive approximately three weeks after you return from your cruise, may be used toward merchandise or gas at any Costco warehouse throughout the United States, or toward online purchases at costco.com. The only way lost cards can be replaced is by presenting your original vacation or cruise invoice to Costco Travel. Neither CWC-Gift Card Co. nor any of its affiliates are responsible for use of this card without your permission. Gift card balances cannot be applied as payments to any account or redeemed for cash, unless required by law. Costco Cash Cards cannot be used for travel purchases.

this part is interesting as other people have reported they turned their cards in a the service desk and walked out with cash. So don't count on it happening.

 

[tamara2298]

We booked our first cruise through Disney directly. We booked the last three through Costco. We found Costco offered the same prices with much more cash back on a Costco gift card at the end of the cruise than anyone else. We haven’t had any issues using them, either. We can call an 800 number to speak to an agent. They don’t offer an on board credit and will not have a gift basket waiting for you in your room, but we have found we would prefer a larger $$ amount on a gift card at the end of our trip rather than have a tiny on board credit or a gift basket. Our gift cards have always arrived in a timely manner. You will know the exact amount you will receive at the time of booking. Disney offers the same cruise price through everyone. Using the Target Red Card to get a 5% discount on Disney gift cards or getting 4x fuel points and purchasing the Disney gift cards to pay for the trip and combining that with a much higher $$ gift card from Costco at the end of the trip really adds up the amount you can save on your vacation. Kind of like giving yourself a private sale.

 

[sayfay]

We booked our first cruise through Disney directly. We booked the last three through Costco. We found Costco offered the same prices with much more cash back on a Costco gift card at the end of the cruise than anyone else. We haven’t had any issues using them, either. We can call an 800 number to speak to an agent. They don’t offer an on board credit and will not have a gift basket waiting for you in your room, but we have found we would prefer a larger $$ amount on a gift card at the end of our trip rather than have a tiny on board credit or a gift basket. Our gift cards have always arrived in a timely manner. You will know the exact amount you will receive at the time of booking. Disney offers the same cruise price through everyone. Using the Target Red Card to get a 5% discount on Disney gift cards or getting 4x fuel points and purchasing the Disney gift cards to pay for the trip and combining that with a much higher $$ gift card from Costco at the end of the trip really adds up the amount you can save on your vacation. Kind of like giving yourself a private sale.

Wow, I didn't even think about the Target thing. How does that work? If you book through Costco, can you use a Disney gift card to pay? Or can you pay for onboard purchases with a Disney gift card?

 

[UmmGooD]

I can verify that Costco will give you cash for their cash cards. I did it after our cruise in March. We spend a lot of money at Costco but we wanted to get new iPads that Costco doesn't sell. We took our cash cards from our cruise into Costco and I asked for cash and they did it no problem. I got the entire value of the card back in cash. We took that cash and bought iPads.

So the arguments of not spending enough at Costco is not a consideration in my eyes. That was our first cruise and we have our second cruise also booked through Costco. When we went on the ship they used the address of Costco from our existing reservation on the booking on ship for our TA. When we got back I called Costco and had it transferred over. So we are getting a $200 OBC, %10 discount AND a $500 cash card from Costco.

 

[valee]

Can you use your Disney Visa to pay for the cruise through Costco? It would be nice to get the $50 OBC for using the Disney Visa, but using my Costco Amex I might be getting 2% back, which is would be about $40. That's not a significant difference. The Costco gift card sounds like a good bit more than the SWV OBC offer, so i'm definitely starting to waiver...

 

[Bear3412]

I turned our Costco card into cash in Virginia. It was a large one also.
Perhaps some states force retailers to offer this option.
Call and ask Costco. I never asked anyone. I had heard you could, so I showed up at store and cashed it. Most $ ever made in an hour.

If you don't need knowledge or your hand held, it's a great deal.