Feeling neglected by my travel agent

[SCPixie]

I used Dreams Unlimited to book my upcoming cruise. This was my first time using this company. I've used a travel agent in the past to book my Disney Parks vacations. I loved her. She was very attentive and helpful. My DH encouraged me to try DU because of the onboard credit offering. I filled out the form, was assigned an agent. She sent me an email and booked my cruise. I haven't heard from her since. I emailed her a question and she answered after more than 24 hours. However, she hasn't reached out or offered any tips or anything. This is very unlike my TA who books the Parks vacations. Is this just par for the course with a cruise or am I truly being neglected?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I used Dreams Unlimited to book my upcoming cruise. This was my first time using this company. I've used a travel agent in the past to book my Disney Parks vacations. I loved her. She was very attentive and helpful. My DH encouraged me to try DU because of the onboard credit offering. I filled out the form, was assigned an agent. She sent me an email and booked my cruise. I haven't heard from her since. I emailed her a question and she answered after more than 24 hours. However, she hasn't reached out or offered any tips or anything. This is very unlike my TA who books the Parks vacations. Is this just par for the course with a cruise or am I truly being neglected?

From what I've read about Dreams Unlimited this isn't normal.

Contact: John@DreamsUnlimitedTravel.com if you feel your TA isn't working for you.

 

[SCPixie]

Thanks @PrincessShmoo. I'm going to see if anyone else responds with a better experience. If so, I'll reach out to John. A major reason I decided to use DU is I listen to the weekly
Podcast religiously....

 

[sambycat]

I have loved DU, have only used them for cruising. Have not expected or had anyone just send me tips? Not sure what kind of help you are looking for, but we generally get an acknowledgement of our question in 24 hours. With cruising, there is often not a lot to plan "officially" until you are at the appropriate time around your paid in full date.

Sorry you are having a bad experience!

 

[SCPixie]

I have loved DU, have only used them for cruising. Have not expected or had anyone just send me tips? Not sure what kind of help you are looking for, but we generally get an acknowledgement of our question in 24 hours. With cruising, there is often not a lot to plan "officially" until you are at the appropriate time around your paid in full date.

Sorry you are having a bad experience!

Thanks for your input. I've already paid in full. When my date was approaching, I'm the one that had to reach out to the TA to ask how I should pay.

 

[Angeejoe]

I used Dreams Unlimited to book my upcoming cruise. This was my first time using this company. I've used a travel agent in the past to book my Disney Parks vacations. I loved her. She was very attentive and helpful. My DH encouraged me to try DU because of the onboard credit offering. I filled out the form, was assigned an agent. She sent me an email and booked my cruise. I haven't heard from her since. I emailed her a question and she answered after more than 24 hours. However, she hasn't reached out or offered any tips or anything. This is very unlike my TA who books the Parks vacations. Is this just par for the course with a cruise or am I truly being neglected?

I'll be honest, your experience is very similar to mine with DU. I used them in 2014 for our 1st cruise & got little or no response. If I asked 3 questions, I'd get an answer to one. Since this had been our 1st cruise, I had asked about things like Palo or excursions & was told to book it myself, never any offer to help with anything. I'm very good at figuring stuff out on my own, especially here on the boards & honestly I booked with DU for the on board credit. So I took it for what it was because truly otherwise I would've booked it directly with Disney & did it all myself anyways. Now if I were paying the agent I'd be furious, but I wasn't. I even used DU again on my cruise last week, again knowing it was for the onboard credit. I think that perhaps some agents may realize that.

 

[Angeejoe]

What kind of question do u have? Maybe we can help you here.

 

[fab1976]

I didn't love mine either. And the agent I used for WDW vacations was a different agency but they did indeed send awesome lists of tips at different points. There is a lot more to go into planning a parks trip, but just being told some of the things available on the ship should be done too. I do a lot of reading before a trip so knew a lot about the cruise, but missed the personal touch this time. I didn't get emails answered promptly, and at times my questions went unanswered completely. I let a couple slide but other times would send another email and still not have everything answered. She was and has been even recently recommended on here and I scratch my head at that. I will use DU if we go on another cruise, but I will be asking for someone with a similar family situation as us, so young kids etc. I didn't want rat her out, and wasn't dissatisfied enough to complain higher up. Didn't tarnish my image of the company, just of the one agent.

 

[Flowerem]

Thanks for your input. I've already paid in full. When my date was approaching, I'm the one that had to reach out to the TA to ask how I should pay.

I've had a similar experience with my DU TA. I've never used a TA before so I wondered if my expectations aren't realistic. I was hoping for someone who would answer questions and maybe provide suggestions when asked for them. Instead, I feel like I've been asking for help and either been directed to the DCL website or received an answer that sort of addressed what I asked but not totally.

It's definitely not what I had hoped for.

 

[Angeejoe]

I used Dreams Unlimited to book my upcoming cruise. This was my first time using this company. I've used a travel agent in the past to book my Disney Parks vacations. I loved her. She was very attentive and helpful. My DH encouraged me to try DU because of the onboard credit offering. I filled out the form, was assigned an agent. She sent me an email and booked my cruise. I haven't heard from her since. I emailed her a question and she answered after more than 24 hours. However, she hasn't reached out or offered any tips or anything. This is very unlike my TA who books the Parks vacations. Is this just par for the course with a cruise or am I truly being neglected?

I didn't love mine either. And the agent I used for WDW vacations was a different agency but they did indeed send awesome lists of tips at different points. There is a lot more to go into planning a parks trip, but just being told some of the things available on the ship should be done too. I do a lot of reading before a trip so knew a lot about the cruise, but missed the personal touch this time. I didn't get emails answered promptly, and at times my questions went unanswered completely. I let a couple slide but other times would send another email and still not have everything answered. She was and has been even recently recommended on here and I scratch my head at that. I will use DU if we go on another cruise, but I will be asking for someone with a similar family situation as us, so young kids etc. I didn't want rat her out, and wasn't dissatisfied enough to complain higher up. Didn't tarnish my image of the company, just of the one agent.

I've had a similar experience with my DU TA. I've never used a TA before so I wondered if my expectations aren't realistic. I was hoping for someone who would answer questions and maybe provide suggestions when asked for them. Instead, I feel like I've been asking for help and either been directed to the DCL website or received an answer that sort of addressed what I asked but not totally.

It's definitely not what I had hoped for.

It's funny how similar are stories are, the funniest thing is the the last 2 messages were written while I was writing mine & we virtually said the same thing!!! I guess in my mind I thought I'd ask a question & get responses like I get on the DIS, helpful tips & tricks.

 

[srferson]

My experience with DU has never been like yours. I guess it's the agent. I'm not sure. But we get prompt and complete answers to our questions and reminder emails as things get closer to pay date and cruise date. And we do our excursion and dining stuff online ourselves, but that's by choice. If we asked for her assistance, I'm sure she'd help. I've asked her to call to check on a couple things and it's been no problem.

We've also used her for WDW trips and have been extremely happy then too.

I'm sorry you're having these troubles. It sounds quite frustrating.

 

[TestingH2O]

I wonder what percentage of the agents have been on a DCL cruise. Also, are the tip lists you get for the parks just reprints of guidebooks?

I've always kind of assumed the lackluster service people get from TAs when they cruise comes from the fact that not many people have done lots of DCL cruises and there isn't a ton of published material to share.

 

[JW9DVC]

I used Dreams Unlimited to book my upcoming cruise. This was my first time using this company. I've used a travel agent in the past to book my Disney Parks vacations. I loved her. She was very attentive and helpful. My DH encouraged me to try DU because of the onboard credit offering. I filled out the form, was assigned an agent. She sent me an email and booked my cruise. I haven't heard from her since. I emailed her a question and she answered after more than 24 hours. However, she hasn't reached out or offered any tips or anything. This is very unlike my TA who books the Parks vacations. Is this just par for the course with a cruise or am I truly being neglected?

You can always shop around. Some offer cash cards at end of cruise, especially if prices have not changed. Not quite sure though that you need your hand held for a Disney cruise when you have all of us fine folks to help you right here on the DISboards.

When are you traveling? How many days and how many are traveling? and do you have any questions? How much is the DU credit?

JW

 

[jhoannam]

I felt like I was more of a number with DU, so I switches agencies... Smaller OBC but I feel like a person and not a number with the new agency.

 

[stitchlovestink]

Yup, had such a crappy DU agent I got my reservation released from them back to myself. The agent was that bad. It's been several years but have no interest in going through that mess again...would have to be a HUGE OBC. I mean HUGE!

 

[MeeskaMooska13]

I don't really understand what the "concierge" service is that they advertise. Last summer, when I booked a DLR vacation with DU, I asked about dining ideas, I was directed to the Disney website (to be fair, my normal DU agent was not an expert in DLR so she had me book with a different agent that was more familiar with the park). I never did receive my Disney gift card that you get for booking a DLR vacation with DU - I even filled out the "post" trip survey and mentioned all of this but got no response.

I'll still use them, though, because the podcasts bring me joy!

 

[Julylady]

I have used the same DU travel agent for several of our cruises. We love the OBC. She has made good reccendations regarding cabins. When I contact her, she always responds within 24 hours. We are platinum cruisers and she sends me emails in anticipation of new date announcements. She also let me know when our booked cruise became eligible for a DVC discount.

Would I want her to send me random information about cruising or offer suggestions? No.

 

[MaleficentRN]

If it makes you feel any better, it's not just DU. First two cruises I used the same TA because she offered the best OBC. She took forever to answer emails and never gave me information about upcoming booking dates. When I wanted to book our Magic cruise, I told her ahead of time what type cabins I wanted and to book them for me as soon as it opened. Two days later she gets back to me that that wasn't available. Well it was when booking opened! I called her and told her my second choice and she told me that wasn't possible even though I was looking at the computer and could see it was. She talked me into booking the Walt Suite. 24 hours later I found a new TA that gave me a better OBC for a regular suite then the first TA gave me for the Walt!. I cancelled that Walt Suite and bid her adieu. I can't understand, in a day and age where you can just as easily book travel yourself, why TAs aren't more educated and not falling over themselves for our business.

 

[P'colaBeachBum]

I used DU before and also felt ignored but the OBC swayed me. I tried to book another cruise with same DU agent and she was too busy to be bothered so I booked with DCL.

 

[fab1976]

Just remembered the one thing mine never responded to even though I asked her twice was to book a night after our cruise at a WDW resort. She did one before but never did send me a quote about a second night after. Wound up doing it myself. Figured the commission wasn't worth it to her for one night maybe?? That wasn't a good feeling, to think it wasn't worth her time.