Dreams Unlimited Travel Opinions....

[DisneySunPrincess]

Hey everyone! I am within a couple of weeks from booking our next Disney Cruise aboard the Disney Fantasy. 7-night Eastern Caribbean. I am interested to know of people's experiences using Dreams Unlimited Travel. They have a great onboard credit offer and I have heard (not sure if this is still true) that for Port Canaveral sailings they send out a terrific gift basket. I would love to know if that is still true, but I would also love to hear what travel agents went above and beyond for you or who really messed up your vacation, that you wouldn't recommend. I am a bit of a control freak, so I am a little nervous about going with a TA at all, but I am being lured by that shipboard credit and goodies. Someone please put my mind at ease. Tell me that I will still have the freedom to make all of my reservations for Port Adventures, Palo, Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, etc. without the aid of a TA. Also, tell me that I won't have any issues receiving my documents and baggage stickers from DCL.

Thanks Bunches! If anyone has a picture of the current DU gift basket....I would love to see it!

 

[disneyholic family]

we've used DU for two cruises thus far (before that, i booked with DCL directly)..

as you, i did it for the onboard credit..

obviously i was happy with the first experience or i wouldn't have used them again..

and we've been very pleased thus far with their service for the upcoming cruise (the second one booked with them)..
they responded to our requests immediately and did exactly as we instructed...i too am a control freak, but i've been very pleased..

as for the gift basket, we did get one on our first cruise, but it's my understanding that DCL no longer permits delivery of gift baskets from outside vendors.....i've heard various things about gift basket policy, but i don't know..

hopefully someone will answer this part of the question...

 

[tinkerone]

Baskets are now shipped to homes in Canada and the US. As for agents, I know the one I used comes highly recommended and works great for lots of people but she was not my favorite so you need to take it all with a grain of salt. We have left DU but you never know, maybe we will come back if I can get an different agent. We are now sailing RCCL and I think there are different agents for that.

As to your bookings, you get to do all that and don't have to worry about the agent at all unless you wish them to help. We have done all our own bookings for dining and the excursions, no problem.
the only thing you will not be able to do is call DCL directly and ask questions about your reservation, that needs to go through your TA. The documents should come fine, we only had an issue once and that was because we were leaving two weeks before our cruise so we didn't get them on time but that is not a problem at all.
Have a great cruise and enjoy the OBC.

ETA-You can also pick up your basket at the office in Port Canaveral if that is your preference of if you are coming from another country. You just need to let them know.

 

[jtkboston]

We too book through DU for the extra on-board credit. Our agent has been responsive and handled requests promptly. (Not sure if we should do shout-outs here, someone let me know if that's OK or if not PM me for our agent's name.)
We found it especially helpful to have an agent deal with DCL for opening-day bookings!

We like getting the gift basket at home...then we can pack what we will use and give away the things we don't need.

 

[andrencau]

Leaving in 2 weeks on Fantasy booked through DU. I have had a pleasant experience with no complaints here. The onboard credit (for me) is a no-brainer moving forward. I wish I had known for cruise 1 and 2. Kristie Bennett has been my TA and has been very attentive and has responded quickly. I like to be in control and I have found that, instead of losing control of my trip, I now have a second pair of eyes on my travels. We received our gift basket last week and found it to be a nice touch. Our contained: insulated travel mugs for everyone, an insulated tote, magnetic clips, playing cards, 6 different colored highlighters, a watch, a dry erase board and maybe more. Hope this helps.

 

[AquaDame]

Leaving in 2 weeks on Fantasy booked through DU. I have had a pleasant experience with no complaints here. The onboard credit (for me) is a no-brainer moving forward. I wish I had known for cruise 1 and 2. Kristie Bennett has been my TA and has been very attentive and has responded quickly. I like to be in control and I have found that, instead of losing control of my trip, I now have a second pair of eyes on my travels. We received our gift basket last week and found it to be a nice touch. Our contained: insulated travel mugs for everyone, an insulated tote, magnetic clips, playing cards, 6 different colored highlighters, a watch, a dry erase board and maybe more. Hope this helps.

I ended up with Kristie also and agree that she is very quick, even on opening days.

OP - I do feel it is very important to find a particular agent that works well for you - if the initial agent you are assigned to doesn't feel like a good match ask to be with someone else sooner rather than later. You will be able to book everything on the ship on your own, but making changes to the reservation itself (room, cat, guests, date, transfers, etc) would need to be done by the TA. We have always gotten our booklet/luggage tags without any issue also!

 

[jiminyC_fan]

I've used them for probably a dozen cruises. We wouldn't have it any other way! Never an issue. Kelsie is our agent.

 

[CM Dad]

The baskets aren't just for Port Canaveral sailings. We were mailed one just before our Mediterranean cruise. That was cruise #11 for me. First cruise was booked through one of our daughters who was a WDW CM at the time. We used another agency for the next couple of cruises, but I was not overly impressed by them. I think all of the rest were through DU, except for the DVC member cruise, which had to be booked through DVC directly.

 

[Maddysdaddy]

My agent was Tracey Heinrichs - I cannot recommend her highly enough. Prior to reaching out to DU, I was concerned about the lack of face to face (or even telephone) contact, but she was extremely responsive in answering any and all questions that I had.

 

[diznymom]

We use Beth F w/ DU. We love her.

Everything is online.....I love that. Beth is very responsive every time.

 

[Cheerio]

We've used them 3 times, loved Beth F

 

[jtkboston]

We've booked with Tammy Omar. Next week is our 3rd cruise booked through her. Another satisfied customer!

 

[RAD]

I've used them in the past and have two more cruises booked with them and two more booked. Only problem I have is that you can only use e-mail to communicate with them, no phone calls.

 

[undertheradar]

We use Eileen Smith and she is great! We are booked for our 5th and 6th cruises, five have been booked with her.

 

[mort1331]

Does DU still do the baskets? The reason I am wondering is this 1st time cruise is a surprise for my whole family, and if they ship a basket to our house, no surprise. I can call them ahead and ask them not to deliver. Is there anything in the basket that is useful on the cruise?

 

[RAD]

Does DU still do the baskets? The reason I am wondering is this 1st time cruise is a surprise for my whole family, and if they ship a basket to our house, no surprise. I can call them ahead and ask them not to deliver. Is there anything in the basket that is useful on the cruise?

I wouldn't see why not, just tell your agent that you don't want one or maybe have it shipped to a friend/neighbor.

 

[sayuracodfish]

We use Eileen Smith and she is great! We are booked for our 5th and 6th cruises, five have been booked with her.

We use Eileen too! She is AWESOME!!!!

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

We use them everytime. Kerry is our agent. She is super helpful. I thought it would worry me re not being in control but now I prefer it. Plus that OBC lovely! We are from the UK so they can't ship the baskets but we stay at WDW before so she kindly delivers it there. We can't sing there praises enough. Oh the amount of changes and questions I fire at her! She helps us so much. We would be lost.

 

[MickeyD]

I have used them all but one time and we have sailed 7 times with DCL. I have used a couple of the agents and they have all been responsive to my emails. To the poster that mentioned you can't call DCL directly with questions, yes, you can. I had several things I had to work through when linking reservations and my agent requested that I call DCL directly (odd, but I did it) and they were fine with it. I don't expect much from the TA, I prefer to do most things myself and I only want the on board credit, so maybe my expectations are just low. LOL

 

[bumbershoot]

Does DU still do the baskets? The reason I am wondering is this 1st time cruise is a surprise for my whole family, and if they ship a basket to our house, no surprise. I can call them ahead and ask them not to deliver. Is there anything in the basket that is useful on the cruise?

That might be a fun way to announce the surprise...

To the poster that mentioned you can't call DCL directly with questions, yes, you can. I had several things I had to work through when linking reservations and my agent requested that I call DCL directly (odd, but I did it) and they were fine with it.

There are only certain things we can discuss directly with DCL. In your case, the TA had you call about those things. Linking reservations makes sense for being something the TA doesn't have to be involved with. Making food and excursion reservations is also something we can discuss. Requesting distilled water for a CPAP is also fine (though the times I did that I didn't enter in my reservation #, and I told them what I wanted before giving them the info, because in the past when I gave them the reservation info first they wouldn't go further).

But things involving the cruise fare and anything that might change something fundamental about the booking canNOT be discussed directly. And since many people want to make changes (to rooms etc) after they've booked, those are the people who might end up frustrated with not being able to talk directly to DCL about those things.



For me, personally, what the TA will give me is key. I don't need hand-holding. I want to BOOK through the TA website, not request a quote. And I want someone who I can communicate with. DU never responded to me. Businesses get one shot with me. It's a habit I picked up during wedding-planning and it has served me well. And I can't book through the website, which irks me. So I go with www.costcotravel.com, personally, because they give me the most and as long as I call them during their business hours they always are there to talk to me.