Dumb questions: booking

[Franrose]

Sooo.... DU vs a self-booking - what are the major advantages to DU? I am planning for Dec 2013, DL + WDW.

 

[alicia1506]

dreams will actually do the booking, and if any discount codes come out that will be applicable to you and might save you some money, they state they will automatically apply the discount.

if you book yourself, you would have to keep checking the discounts and then call DLR or WDW to have the discount applied to your booking.

a DU agent can also answer a lot of questions. mine sends me regular countdowns to the trip and tips/tricks for visiting the parks and descriptions and little facts of the various rides plus personal recommendations.

they can also make your ADRs for you, save you calling WDW in the middle of the night to try and get your ADRs.

i guess it just depends on how comfortable you are having your reservation in someone else's hands versus your own, and whether you would prefer they do all the discount checking/adr making or that you do it yourself

 

[Franrose]

Hmmm, thanks. I am a bit of a control freak when it comes to these things - oh the fun I had last year making internet ADRs, lol - but having discounts automatically applied (for free dining, for eg) would be a load off my mind.

Countdowns etc... heh heh, I might go out of my mind with excitement. We are more than a year off, and I am sooooo excited about this trip - the anticipation is honestly a huge part of the experience for me and I don't mind the wait one little bit!

Cost-wise, I wonder if doing it yourself would be worth while in terms of savings, or are DU quite competitive?

 

[PrincessInOz]

The pricing for Disney is the same irrespective of whether you self book or if an american TA books it for you. Disney will pay the TA a commission from the booking and they factor it into their pricing.

Most Disney TAs will keep an eye out for the best discounts on your behalf. They are after repeat business rather than just one time. The ones that I've spoken to ...the ones that I'm prepared to use....are all experts at Disney Fuzzy Maths. The good ones will run the numbers for you without you having to do so and let you know what the best deal is.

Just remember that if you book through a TA, they 'own' the booking and any changes you want to make will need to be made by them. You won't be able to ring up Disney and ask them to do any changes or additions.
The booking becomes 'yours' once you check-in.

 

[Franrose]

Can you do your own ADRs though? I'm assuming so, since we were able to do that last year while on a group booking.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Yes, anyone can make an ADR. You don't even have to stay on-site for ADRs.

The TAs are not paid a commission for ADRs. The better ones will organise the ADRs for you as a courtesy....I do ask mine to do so only because I don't need to stay up late to make the call.

The question that comes to mind is whether you want to associate your ADR to your booking....I guess if you have your booking number then the CM can work it out.

Otherwise, there should be no issue in having your ADR number unassigned to your booking in the system.
I'm pretty sure I did this for one of my trips as well.

 

[Franrose]

 

[Travel Mum]

It is an absolute no-brainer to me to book via Michelle at DU rather than with Disney direct. The pricing is exactly the same but, as mentioned she will look after your booking rather than you having to constantly monitor it. When free dining was released, she emailed me immediately letting me know that, if we checked in two days earlier, we could get free dining. Of course I wanted to do that, so she changed our booking.

Later on Michelle did all my ADR bookings for me as a courtesy (I could have done them myself online but happily let her) and, on the day my ADR window opened, she even specially got up early to call WDW and be on the phone as soon as they opened for that day because I had a Fantastimic package with a specfic time that I wanted to be booked.

I remain stunned that the deposit you pay on a WDW booking is still refundable when booked via DU for as long as it is if you booked direct so, feasibly, the agent could up earning nothing if you cancelled within the refundable timeframe.

 

[Franrose]

Yay, I'm so glad you chimed in TM - decision made! I will ask for Michelle personally (if that's ok!).

 

[alicia1506]

daniel at DU was our agent for our nov 2012 trip. he was an absolute gem and was a fountain of information, even telling us when something would have benefitted disney but not us, and giving us the facts and not just 'the spiel'.

we really appreciated all his work in booking our disneyland accom and ADR for character dining at disneyland, and our cruise. he was also incredibly gracious and understanding when we cancelled our trip due to my job loss and just not being able to afford to still go on our trip this year. for that reason, when it's time to book our disneyland, wdw and dcl trip for 2013 daniel will be my first call.

their quotes are obligation free and remain on the system for up to 7 days (?? i think ??) so that you can get an idea of price and details, terms and conditions etc.

DU seem to be one of the better TAs out there for usa disney trips, and since they sponsor the disboards... they seem pretty knowledgeable to me too

 

[PrincessInOz]

daniel at DU was our agent for our nov 2012 trip. he was an absolute gem and was a fountain of information, even telling us when something would have benefitted disney but not us, and giving us the facts and not just 'the spiel'.

we really appreciated all his work in booking our disneyland accom and ADR for character dining at disneyland, and our cruise. he was also incredibly gracious and understanding when we cancelled our trip due to my job loss and just not being able to afford to still go on our trip this year. for that reason, when it's time to book our disneyland, wdw and dcl trip for 2013 daniel will be my first call.

their quotes are obligation free and remain on the system for up to 7 days (?? i think ??) so that you can get an idea of price and details, terms and conditions etc.

DU seem to be one of the better TAs out there for usa disney trips, and since they sponsor the disboards... they seem pretty knowledgeable to me too

DU and Disboards are owned by Pete Werner. They are one and the same symbiotic thing.

 

[Travel Mum]

Yay, I'm so glad you chimed in TM - decision made! I will ask for Michelle personally (if that's ok!).

FranRose, here is her email: Michele@dreamsunlimitedtravel.com Please tell her that I recommended her (Joanna from Wellington, N.Z.) because I've been getting her to do quotes for me for December 2013. Even though she knows its long shot that we could go, she marked the date in her calendar that she'd be able to do a quote for a December 10 2013 check in and, sure enough, the quote was waiting in my Inbox when I opened my email that next morning. Since then we've gone back and forth with emails but I'm still sitting on the fence (my heart says "YES" but my head say "NO Naughty Girl -grow up and spend $$ on sensible things like doing up the house") so I'd love for Michelle to get some business!!

 

[Franrose]

I don't want to put you off the house TM, but sure would be great to meet with you at WDW...

Thank you to everyone! I hope I don't seem rude particularly mentioning TM earlier but I 'know' her outside Disboards too.

DU sounds fantastic though, just the kind of people you need to help build the excitement! We and the other family we are going with just need to pin down some dates and we are in. Every time we catch up with them now it's a "Disney 2013 committee meeting" lol! (Next meeting is at the Sheraton Mirage Gold Coast this week... man I hate living in Brisbane! )