Dreams Unlimited - give me the sales pitch!

[kermit116]

I have booked a reservation using a PIN code (room only). I booked within the last couple of weeks (so I should still be able to transfer to a travel agent).

Now, I must preface this by saying that I travel a lot, and generally consider myself pretty travel-savvy, and pretty Disney savvy. I also really enjoy making my dining reservations & sometimes will make last minute changes based on whatever our last minute preferences are.

All that being said, I have listened to the podcast for years now, and I'd love to use Dreams Unlimited. I guess my only concern is whether I'll still be able to make last minute changes to dining reservations. I think this trip would be a good candidate for using a travel agent because we want to do some things we haven't done before, like dine with an Imagineer.

So, I'm blatantly asking for the Dreams Unlimited sales pitch! Why should I use DU? What are the benefits? Is it possible for a Disney travel control freak to relax & allow someone else to make the travel plans?!?!

 

[mjaclyn]

Speaking as one planning guru to another... I had never even considered using a travel agent before I started listening to the podcast. I am the ultimate Disney fan and I love planning trips for myself and others. Like you, I wanted to try using a travel agent to see what it was all about but I was afraid it would suck the fun out of planning and that I wouldn't be in control of my reservation. I'm happy to say that none of what I feared was true. Initially I booked a cruise through Dreams just for the onboard credit and still took care of most of the planning on my own. (I booked my own excursions, did my own research etc) Basically, you can use a TA for as much or as little as you want. You could use them only to book your room and leave the rest of the planning up to you, or they could take care of your room, tickets, dining and even daily suggestions for park touring. That one cruise I booked through Dreams has ballooned into using my agent for WDW, DLR and additional cruises. I still feel totally in control of my own planning, but what I love about having another person available to help me is that if I need to arrange something (like dining, Magical express, cruise transportation, etc) I can shoot my agent an email and before I know it, it's taken care of. For me, it's like having a personal assistant for my trip planning. I think you should definitely try using Dreams...you might be surprised how your initial thoughts will change once you experience it for yourself.

 

[k5jm]

I have booked a reservation using a PIN code (room only). I booked within the last couple of weeks (so I should still be able to transfer to a travel agent).

Now, I must preface this by saying that I travel a lot, and generally consider myself pretty travel-savvy, and pretty Disney savvy. I also really enjoy making my dining reservations & sometimes will make last minute changes based on whatever our last minute preferences are.

All that being said, I have listened to the podcast for years now, and I'd love to use Dreams Unlimited. I guess my only concern is whether I'll still be able to make last minute changes to dining reservations. I think this trip would be a good candidate for using a travel agent because we want to do some things we haven't done before, like dine with an Imagineer.

So, I'm blatantly asking for the Dreams Unlimited sales pitch! Why should I use DU? What are the benefits? Is it possible for a Disney travel control freak to relax & allow someone else to make the travel plans?!?!

We have booked numerous trips with Dreams and have never had a problem making last minute changes or adjustments. The reservation is still your reservation.

The other day, a friend of mine who recently went to WDW had a travel planner from another company make her family's Dinning Reservations. My friend went to use the "My Disney Experience" App and could not access her ressies because the agent made reservations in the agent's name and not the customer's name.

I did NOT have the same problem with Dreams. All of our reservations were available and I made last minute changes on the day of the ressies (adding people and modifying times).

Dreams does it right.

 

[WebmasterPete]

Okay, well - since you asked

Don't look at having an agent as 'giving up control' of your reservation - you're not - it's still yours. Look at it as having a planning partner to discuss various options and ideas with. The way dining is set up now as part of the My Disney Experience and associated app - you add your Dreams agent to your Disney profile. You can still book, change, cancel all your existing dining plans and special events if you like. By adding your Dreams agent to your account with Disney, they can also go in and do that for you if you would like. Thanks to MDE, you have more options now than before.

Also keep in mind that our agents are on top of EVERY new offer that comes out and usually know about it in advance (even though we can't announce it before Disney does). They check all their existing reservations to see who might be eligible to save money and make the change, sometimes before you even know the discount is available.

Like I said, you're not giving up control - you're gaining a planning partner And believe me, I have an amazing team of partners working with us at Dreams.

So, there you go

Pete

 

[DEA]

We've been making our own plans for Disney vacations for 5-ish years now. I'm pretty savvy about discounts and when free dining and paying rack rate is a better financial decision than the current room-only discount. However, when we make cash reservations (as opposed to renting DVC points), I've called up Dreams Unlimited, given them all of the information (the resort, the dates) I've already used to scope out the reservation, and had them do the booking.

On occasion, some better discount has come up along the way, but, really, it's a way that I can give back to the folks who do the podcast. I know there's some overhead for every client, but I try to be as low-impact as I can. I even do all the ADRs myself, even though they are happy to make them. I am confident that if I want or need to relinquish some of the planning to them, they've got my back

 

[lilmrsellis]

I'm our family "travel agent" for every trip we take. I plan all the stops, scope out dining, etc. and I LOVE it! (One day I'll work as a real, aka paid, travel agent!).

With that said, I use Dreams for all our Disney trips! I can plan as much or as little as I want. On my first time using Dreams we used the military discount. I wanted GF, but jut couldn't afford it, so we were booked in WL. The agent emailed me every week or so to tell me she was still checking on GF for me. About a week before our trip she emailed that she had got GF for us in the price range I had given her! I also gave her a list of our preferred dining for each day and she took care of that, too! The personal attention is the real kicker.

 

[kermit116]

Thanks for all the info & tales of personal experiences.

And thanks, Pete, for responding to my post. As a bit of a control freak, your description was very comforting

 

[kate2961]

Since Dreams does not charge for their services, there is no downside to using them to book your Disney vacations.

I agree with prior posts that you can still plan as much or as little as you want.

We used Dreams in June 2012 and our agents were wonderful. We had one agent for WDW and another for the Disney cruise. They were both available for questions, changes or to book dining. Response times were fast. Agents were friendly and knowledgable. I'd give both a '10+'.

When a discount came out on our room ressie, our agent had checked it out and e-mailed us before I even knew about it. And the stuff we got in our cabin on the cruise was so unexpected and wonderful.

I like having that extra level of service available from Disney experts helping me make a magical vacation.

Kate

 

[Disneybridein2k3]

I don't think I can add to what everyone else here has said however, please see the link in my signature. If that doesn't speak volumes as to the benefits, I'm not sure what would. I think here you'll find MANY of us consider ourselves "seasoned" Disney travelers however, now you'll have someone else looking after your reservation after you've made it to see if there are any discounts that may be available to you. You don't have to worry about if a discount might apply to you or if it is a real benefit to you because someone else is taking care of it. Most importantly, there isn't a DISadvantage.
(I'm not an agent, btw, just a fan)

 

[PinkBudgie]

I don't think I can add to what everyone else here has said however, please see the link in my signature. If that doesn't speak volumes as to the benefits, I'm not sure what would. I think here you'll find MANY of us consider ourselves "seasoned" Disney travelers however, now you'll have someone else looking after your reservation after you've made it to see if there are any discounts that may be available to you. You don't have to worry about if a discount might apply to you or if it is a real benefit to you because someone else is taking care of it. Most importantly, there isn't a DISadvantage.
(I'm not an agent, btw, just a fan)

I had already decided to go with Dreams for our first WDW in 2014. WDW is so overwhelming I know I need help. But that story was amazing! Thanks for pointing us to it.

 

[SaraMc]

I loved using dreams, it's so nice to plan and have someone help you and offer suggestions. I've suggested them to friends and am working on my next vacation. Wonderful service.

 

[miTnosnhoJ]

This is a great thread. I have a similar question. Should a DVC member (and fan of the podcast) consider using Dreams Unlimited Travel? If this question has been answered in another thread, please point me there.... and if you prefer that I start a new thread, that's OK, too.

The reason I ask is that a travel agent would not get any commission out of the lodging portion of a DVC member, so is the remainder sufficient that it is worth your time?

 

[Hunterr]

Because it's neat n stuff

 

[DSNYDREAMER]

This is a great thread. I have a similar question. Should a DVC member (and fan of the podcast) consider using Dreams Unlimited Travel? If this question has been answered in another thread, please point me there.... and if you prefer that I start a new thread, that's OK, too.

The reason I ask is that a travel agent would not get any commission out of the lodging portion of a DVC member, so is the remainder sufficient that it is worth your time?

This is a good question and one that comes up a lot. The services of a travel agent are free when booking a reservation that includes a resort stay. We are not able to book a dining plan without a resort stay, for the most part DVC members have tickets or purchase them with a DVC discount (not available through a travel agent), so there really isn't any component we can book in these situations. We do not charge fees for our services, and make our money from the commission paid by Disney on the reservation. Many components outside of resort and dining plan are non commissionable. Tickets are commissionable if purchased as part of a package (depending on ticket type). Some tickets purchased alone are commissionable at a rate much lower than if the ticket was included in a package.

It is a little difficult to understand as many people assume Disney is Disney. But the truth of the matter is they are basically all considered their own entity with Disney in the title. They all each have different employees, accounting departments, policies, etc. DVC is completely separate and is almost like its own travel agency. Whether you own DVC or want to rent points, this is outside of what a travel agent can do. I guess you could say in some ways we are competitors. When booking DVC you are dealing with member services under the DVC umbrella. When we make reservations, we book with Walt Disney Travel Company.

 

[miTnosnhoJ]

This is a good question and one that comes up a lot. The services of a travel agent are free when booking a reservation that includes a resort stay. We are not able to book a dining plan without a resort stay, for the most part DVC members have tickets or purchase them with a DVC discount (not available through a travel agent), so there really isn't any component we can book in these situations. We do not charge fees for our services, and make our money from the commission paid by Disney on the reservation. Many components outside of resort and dining plan are non commissionable. Tickets are commissionable if purchased as part of a package (depending on ticket type). Some tickets purchased alone are commissionable at a rate much lower than if the ticket was included in a package.

It is a little difficult to understand as many people assume Disney is Disney. But the truth of the matter is they are basically all considered their own entity with Disney in the title. They all each have different employees, accounting departments, policies, etc. DVC is completely separate and is almost like its own travel agency. Whether you own DVC or want to rent points, this is outside of what a travel agent can do. I guess you could say in some ways we are competitors. When booking DVC you are dealing with member services under the DVC umbrella. When we make reservations, we book with Walt Disney Travel Company.

Thanks for the answer. That is what I suspected.

I thought of an amendment to your answer which you could add if it is true. You could say, "many DVC members become interested in Disney Cruises or Adventures By Disney, and find that using cash is better than using points. We can help you there."

 

[Disneylvr]

I have been using Dreams for gosh, maybe 15 years now?! I just know it has been quite awhile. We love the agency and our agent Tammy. I am a vacation control freak and never once have I felt like my trip was not in my control. And like Pete said, it is even more in your control with MDE app. My favorite aspect of using an agent is having someone else make the phone calls once the discounts are announced!

 

[lennyd]

I was going to ask the same question about dvc thanks for responding

 

[New England Eeyore]

Thanks for the answer. That is what I suspected.

I thought of an amendment to your answer which you could add if it is true. You could say, "many DVC members become interested in Disney Cruises or Adventures By Disney, and find that using cash is better than using points. We can help you there."

Also, Universal.

Even though I had been booking WDW vacations on my own for years, once I became a fan of the podcast I wanted to give Dreams my business as a small token of thanks for all the free content and entertainment I've received, and they booked a few trips for me. Unfortunately, we then purchased DVC so that part ended, but I make sure to use Dreams when we do a Universal resort stay. I could do it myself but why not give them the business? I've gotten lots of tips and info from my Dreams agents.

 

[DSNYDREAMER]

Thanks for the answer. That is what I suspected.

I thought of an amendment to your answer which you could add if it is true. You could say, "many DVC members become interested in Disney Cruises or Adventures By Disney, and find that using cash is better than using points. We can help you there."

Of course we are happy to help with any reservation that you are not using DVC for! I was just answering your specific question on WDW. We have MANY clients that are DVC members!

 

[Ravens girl]

I started using Dreams a few years ago. My agent Allison Thomas has been a blessing, she has gotten me discounts, helped me choose ADRs, and just generally given me good advice.