First Timer....?

[Oscar D]

This is my first time planning a trip to Disney. I was wondering what is the best way to book a trip. Should I book flight and room together or separate? Should I use an agent? Any responses would be helpful.

 

[RustManFan]

How have you booked other vacations? Done all the research yourself or used a travel agent? I personally really enjoy researching on my own. I also generally reserve all the parts of the trip separately. If you want a room and tickets package that is fine but I like the control I have when I do the flight planning myself.

So what I need to plan is:

Purchase of tickets in advance
Dates and room only reservations for same
Rental car or no rental car
Flights

Never intend to use a meal plan and don't need a package.

 

[Pmlocke]

My wife and I travel down every year and we have found that the best way "for us" to make our plans is to call the Disney Help Line and make our reservations through them. The number is 407-939-5277. They can help you with your hotel reservation, park tickets, dining reservations, fast passes, magical express, everything. I make one call and after roughly 20 minutes I have all of my reservations completed. Yes you have to do some homework before making the call. Where do you want to stay? Where do you want to eat. Is the Dining Plan for you or would you save money not getting it? Will you need a Park Hopper and for how many days do you want access to the parks? Years ago I tried to go with AAA. I found them to be helful as well but I wasn't getting the deals I could get by direct calling. I also could not get the details on my dining reservations and magical express through them. I have seen in the past some bad comments regarding this service in this forum. All I can comment on are my experiances and they have always been wonderful. Be sure to have a date in mind and exactly what your budget is going to be. No sense making reservations for a deluxe hotel when you have a value budget. Good luck. 51 more days and I'm back. OOPS, I forgot plane reservations. I always go though the carrier for my plane reservations.

 

[Oscar D]

Thanks for the reply. I think I will do it myself and book flight and room separate. That is how I have booked previous vacations just wanted to know if there was a benefit booking as a package. Thanks again

 

[minnie mum]

A Disney vacation can be much more complicated than many other types of vacations; mostly because there are so many options available. We always book our own trips, booking and buying each element separately. We don't book packages simply because we don't like the DDP, and without the DDP, a package is unnecessary. And we never book our flights as part of the package if we can avoid it.

Unless you have the time to research the different resorts, discount offers, ticket types, etc yourself, then I'd recommend a TA. But ONLY if that TA is a Disney Specialist. Yes, there are entire agencies that specialize in Disney vacations.

But if you have the time, you can learn everything you need to know on your own. I would suggest a good place to start is with a good guidebook. 2 that are excellent are The Easy Guide to Your First WDW Visit, and the Unofficial Guide to WDW. There are also very good websites, like Easywdw.com, your first visit.net, touringplans.com, and Mousesavers.com, just to name a few.

 

[rpcvpanama]

Is this your first trip to Disney, or just your first time planning a trip to Disney on your own? If it is your first trip then I would suggest you use a Disney travel agent. They can help you with food reservations, tickets, fastpasses, etc. Disney has really become a planned out vacation for most everyone and it can be difficult to navigate if you aren't familiar with everything. I have never used a TA, but we go to Disney at least 1x a year.

 

[Oscar D]

Just booked my first trip to Disney at Port Orleans Riverside! We used the Disney help line number. They were extremely helpful and answered all of my questions. I will definitely pick up a guide book to help us plan our time there. Thank you everyone for all your help.

 

[LaurenT]

Port Orleans is a great choice. The boat ride to the springs is lovely

 

[Blackadder337]

This will be my first time to WDW in over 20 years so I went through a Disney Certified Specialist Agent. Maybe that's just a title (like ordained minister) that you can get online I don't know. But I figure for this trip and my lack of knowledge, I'd like to have an expert help me out, but if we go again I will probably attempt to do it all myself.

But after hours of researching, we decided to give Port Orleans - Riverside (POR) a try.

 

[AL_Girl]

POR is a great place! It's our favorite and love the boat ride to Disney Springs.
The great thing about using a travel agent is that it's no cost to you and they do all the work for you. If discounts come out, it's them on the phone getting that discount for you and not you spending your time on hold!

 

[DSLRuser]

Step #1 = decide how you are getting there, fly or drive, and when
Step #2 = choose dates and book flights (if needed)
Step #3 = decide on hotel and book (separately)
Step #4 = decide what days you will be at what parks
Step #5 = book ADR's based on step #4
Step #6 = book FP+
Step #7 = enjoy vacation

 

[cleopenn]

How have you booked other vacations? Done all the research yourself or used a travel agent? I personally really enjoy researching on my own. I also generally reserve all the parts of the trip separately. If you want a room and tickets package that is fine but I like the control I have when I do the flight planning myself.
.

I second the bold. In my non-Disney experience with vacation packages offered thru a TA, the flights bundled with a huge agency aren't great (timing, layovers, etc.) and I can do better searching on my own.

A Disney vacation can be much more complicated than many other types of vacations; mostly because there are so many options available. We always book our own trips, booking and buying each element separately. We don't book packages simply because we don't like the DDP, and without the DDP, a package is unnecessary. And we never book our flights as part of the package if we can avoid it.

Unless you have the time to research the different resorts, discount offers, ticket types, etc yourself, then I'd recommend a TA. But ONLY if that TA is a Disney Specialist. Yes, there are entire agencies that specialize in Disney vacations.

But if you have the time, you can learn everything you need to know on your own. I would suggest a good place to start is with a good guidebook. 2 that are excellent are The Easy Guide to Your First WDW Visit, and the Unofficial Guide to WDW. There are also very good websites, like Easywdw.com, your first visit.net, touringplans.com, and Mousesavers.com, just to name a few.

We used a Disney Specialist and I was SO happy with her services. I poked around a little bit before contacting her to get an idea of pricing and which resorts we would consider. The price at which she booked us was cheaper (we stayed at a deluxe) than anything I was finding on line. I also had her book our park tickets and special events. She offered to do our ADRs and FP+ as well but I chose to do those on my own. Honestly, she could not have been more helpful and I would 1000% recommend her. (I don't know if I am allowed to post names/agencies on this board, PM me if you want her name)

I asked her a lot of questions about specific elements (Magic Express, dining, experiences) and she gave me honest feedback based on my needs and desires, which is what a good agent should do. I'll use the Magic Express as an example. She could have told me I should use it because its included, its easy and its part of the experience but based on my line of questioning, she recommended an alternative that she thought suited our needs better.