Dreams Unlimited vs. Small World Vacation

FWIW, our Small World Vacations agent (Tracy) this morning managed to:

- Field multiple phone calls and emails from three different branches of our family in addition to confirming that we wanted *GT rooms and double-confirmed all the info was correct before locking in something non-changeable
- Cancel four existing reservations and move all the deposits to their respective new reservations on a *GT rate; two of those deposits were combined into one
- This is after multiple years of managing this groups dummy bookings, which started out on the Fantasy MV before that date changed and we couldn't go.

And all I had to do was tell her what I wanted and make sure my bank would clear the PIF charge. I was able to take my kid to school and go to work and it was all done for me.
 
Hi! Perhaps I will request Tracy, then . . . I am still confused about the gifts, though- do we get one for this cruise? or only for the next cruise if we rebook onboard? What kind of gift is it? My parents are first time Disney cruisers, so I want it to be extra special . . .
Thanks for the info!

It should be on your 2nd cruise booked through them. I will know in April what gift we get!!
 
We used to use DU but no longer .. We use a company who are apparently not allowed to be named on this board. Have used them almost since the day they set up due to the bad behaviour from DU.

We have personally met our TA and she understands what we want ..we don't need to remind her of dinner seating nor about transfers, insurance or the like.

We are getting married in 2015 and she is not only handling all of the bookings, but she is invited too!!!

Each person will have a different view on each agency, but I think it's wise to ask them all for a quote and although you can ignore the price, it's what the customer service is like for me, then the onboard credit.

It seems that all are equal but some are more equal than others. Such a shame that suspensions are given to those who name their agency.
__________________

I always wonder this: why are certain travel agents not allowed to be posted about on this site (they are blocked with *** when mentioned)? Because obviously DU allows competition since there SOME that are allowed.

The owners of this site have the right to allow or not allow whichever agents/websites they want. Their site, their rules. None of us know the reasons behind the decisions to allow or not allow a site so to say that it is a shame is not really fair. Do you know the reasons why some sites are banned? Neither do I...maybe there are good reasons. If everyone follows the board guidelines (which they agreed to by becoming a member) all will be well.

If a website or company comes up with *************** that means it is a banned site for whatever reason and can't be posted on the board or via PM or posted creatively to avoid the board filter. Most of the time the name of the banned agency will be removed with a warning. It is continually posted by the same poster an infraction will be given.



MJ
 


mmouse37 said:
The owners of this site have the right to allow or not whichever agents/websites they want. Their site, their rules.

If a website or company comes up with *************** that means it is a banned site for whatever reason and can't be posted on the board or via PM or posted creatively to avoid the board filter.

MJ

I have always been under the impression that the bar set for banning required some kind of dubious or unethical behavior on the part of the agency being banned. Again, DU is quite accommodating of competition being named on these boards when they own them and pay for all hosting and upkeep and have every right to block every other agency.
 
For our first DCL cruise I chose a TA that can't be named here. The owner of the agency was on the same sailing with us, so I figured it would be nice knowing exactly where to track him down if we needed anything while on the cruise, plus the package they offered was much better than the one DU offered. Service was fine, nothing exceptional.

Next trip I used DU as a way of showing support for the boards. It wasn't a good experience. I know there's a phone number you can call, but I was told that was not to be used as the main form of communication, and I didn't like being tied to communicating mainly via e-mail. Worse than that though, response times were slow to even non-existent sometimes and things that were promised during the booking process didn't actually happen. :(

Next time we used Costco. I felt like I knew more about Disney cruises than my agent there did, but since I spoke with him once to book the cruise and once to make final payment, that wasn't a big deal. I didn't need hand holding or lots of questions answered. The Costco card we got was far larger than any onboard credit we had received in the past.

For our most recent cruise a few months ago I gave DU another try. This time I specifically named an agent that gets rave reviews here. Maybe I'm just not cut out for e-mail communication, which is surprising since most of the time I think shooting off an e-mail is much easier than finding time to sit down and make a phone call. But we missed out on a stateroom credit I specifically asked about before booking because I took the agents' non response to my question to mean no, when for whatever reason she just didn't answer. Yes, I could have held off on booking until I asked again, but time was a factor since we wanted a VGT rate and they can disappear quickly. Had I been able to speak to someone on the phone there would have been no glossing over a specific question the way there was via e-mail.

Anyway, that was probably way more than anyone needed to know, but I guess my advice would be to decide what's most important to you, and then choose a TA that best meets your needs.

I think I may be back with Costco again next time. If I'm not going to get exceptional service, I want the largest credit I can find. :thumbsup2
 
I think it more depends on the TA you get, vs the agency. I used DU several years ago and did not like that I could not find a phone number for them. I rebooked on the cruise and did not name an agency because I knew I was going to move the cruise and wanted control of checking rates for a few different dates and categories.

I just booked a short cruise and asked for a quote from DU. It took 2 business days to get a response. I am not sure if that is normal or not, but by the time they got back with me, the cat I wanted was gone.

While I was waiting for DU to get back with me, I put in a request with Small World. The cat (9D) I wanted was available at the time, but I put in the comments that I was specifically looking at price and was trying to stay low. Well, my quote came back and I guess they did not read my comments because I was quoted a price for 9A. I would have thought with my comment, if 9D wasn't available, they would quote me 9C. The 9A they quoted me was more than a 7A.

I booked with DU and once booked, the ta has responded very promptly to every email I have sent her.
 


I booked my first cruise myself and have booked with both Small World and Dreams.

My TA from Small World was more difficult to get a response from than my TA with Dreams, she seemed annoyed at my questions and requested changes, and never let me know about discounts I might be eligible for... I had to call her to get FLR rates applied!

My TA from Dreams responds to emails almost immediately, even on weekends, has happily made countless changes for me, and answers questions without seeming annoyed.

Once when I was worried that she might not get my change request in time (I think it was for an FLR rate maybe?) I emailed John and he reassured me that she had already made the change and I should be receiving the confirmation from her soon. :thumbsup2

I will stick with DU from here on! :goodvibes
 
I booked my last cruise with DU and like a few others Tammy was my TA. I can't say enough good things about her!! She literally saved our cruise! My best friend's mother died unexpectedly 3 days before we were supposed to leave. I had booked a VGT rate 2 weeks before the cruise so of course I did not get insurance. Tammy called until she was able to get our cruise postponed, she REALLY went above and beyond!! We had to pay a penalty but it was nothing compared to the cost of the cruise.

When we got ready to sail I, fortunately, decided to check on our OBC and it wasn't showing up. I knew that Tammy was on vacation but I took a chance and emailed her anyway.....it was handled immediately! I will use her from this point on. She is reliable and awesome :thumbsup2
 
I have always been under the impression that the bar set for banning required some kind of dubious or unethical behavior on the part of the agency being banned. Again, DU is quite accommodating of competition being named on these boards when they own them and pay for all hosting and upkeep and have every right to block every other agency.

Honestly, we mods have no idea what the bar is. We just have to enforce the board guidelines.

And I agree...their board....their right to ban whatever site they want.
MJ
 
We had a less than fun time with small world. I think it's all about your agent. After a couple of communication "misses" on our first two cruises, we switched to www.themagicforless.com Our TA there (Jessica) has been great. She goes to Disney and cruises all the time, and posts all of her pictures on facebook. We can call or email her, and she always gets back to us within 24 hours.
 
I just booked a Disney Cruise out of Galveston. I shopped DU, Small World, and Costco. All three came back with the same pricing. The difference was the extras. DU offered a $100 onboard credit, Small world offered a $50 onboard credit, and Costco offered a $140 Costco Gift Card after the cruise.
 
I just tried a TA for our next cruise. I did not select DU because all contact with them is by email. I like the fact that the other company has a phone and you can talk to them. We have not required any extra attention from them, but I just like the peace of mind to having someone to call if I have a problem. I do not like waiting on an email.

I can understand your feelings as I was worried about that as well.

We used Small World for our first cruise and the process was smooth and stress free. For our second upcoming cruise in August we knew some things we wanted since we had some experience. I decided to try Dreams Unlimited for comparison sake. In the info e-mail for the quote I listed everything that we would like to try to get (re: stateroom level, location, ect...) and we received outstanding quick service with everything that we requested. It made it that much easier to book immediately.

I haven't had any problems with this cruise, but on our first one that we used Small World, we had 3 families in 3 different staterooms and our only request to be linked and seated together was promptly taken care of and granted.
 
I am not sure what to expect from a great travel agent. I research a lot and I knew exactly what I wanted. Once I contacted the agent who had replied to me she was very speedy and has been very attentive. We used her again to book my current cruise which has 6 cabins.

I am curious what sort of service you all expect from a great agent? I assume responsiveness, courtesy, and added value above and beyond the additional credit.
We use (I think the one we use isn't allowed, so I'm typing the whole name in) www.*************.com and love them. Their service is phenomenal. We used DU once before and they were fine, but I'd heard great things about our current TA and wanted to try them out. Their OBC is less than DU's. But they have a lot of folks working in the office and any of them is able to help me when I call.

We are doing the EBTA and got Disney Air. I became aware that we'd be flown in the day of our cruise. If we have any trouble with the flight, well, let's just say it would kinda of suck. I think we would miss the first 11 days of the sailing were we to miss our boat. I called my agency and told them my fears. The agent I spoke with called Disney and spoke with the air department. She got them to change it so that we fly in the night before and are put up in a hotel! Now that's great service!

A great agent will watch your cruise price and notify you asap if there are any changes, such as KSF or FLR or any of the *GT rates before your PIF. When we used DU they contacted us when our cruise turned into a KSF and saved us a bundle. I loved that I didn't need to watch for those things. And our current TA keeps sight of those things as well.

We got an email from our agent the day after the latest dates were released letting everyone know that they noticed that the prices for the August sailings on the Fantasy were wrong. They contacted DCL when they saw the prices and DCL agreed! There had been a pricing error! Anyway, those prices came down and we wouldn't have know if our agency hadn't sent out that email. We ended up booking one of those cruises.

My long post is just to say that there are a lot of great agencies out there and there are certain things they should do/offer. But if all you want is the OBC, then you should do that cruise compete thing.

Whatever you do, enjoy your cruise!
 
We booked with DreamsUnlimited. They offered a better OBC than some of the others. Michele is our TA. We are cruising March 30th on the Wonder.
 
I'm the type that needs to be in complete control, however, I want to get a decent benefit.

Up to now, I booked directly and then switched to AAA during a promotion. Both cruises were small priced, so OBC with DU or SM would have been $50-$100. But both times with AAA I got $100 gift card and the $100 credit towards shutters.

TA still wasn't good (I had a good TA in the past using her for WDW vacations but again, I would switch them when an offer would come out), so on my last sailing I booked my self but didn't name anyone - was a dummy booking.

Now, and with the new rule in place, I need to pick a TA from the get go if I'm going to want to get something extra. So far I emailed DU and will give them a try I guess..
 
Now, and with the new rule in place, I need to pick a TA from the get go if I'm going to want to get something extra. So far I emailed DU and will give them a try I guess..

Hmm... So I went ahead and booked on board and had them use DU. But response time is typically 48 hours.

Today we wanted to switch itineraries and I called the 800 number listed on their site which says:

"(please note: this number is not for reservations. Existing customers can use this number to make inquiries about, or changes to their current reservations with Dreams.)"

They told me that they could only take payments - so much for the 'make changes to current reservations...'

I expect an answer within an hour or so, or at least an email stating "got your message, give me a few hours or a day". Or if the TA is out, then auto response stating so.
 

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