Help...who should I book with?

[letsgoagainsoon]

Hi! I am seeing a lot of posts referring to Dreams Unlimited. I am not familiar with them. We have always booked with AAA. I have thought about booking directly through Disney too. Is one better/cheaper? (We book packages, excluding airfare, because we drive.)

I am also thinking about waiting to book until as late as possible because last year we missed out on the free meal plan incentive because we had already booked with AAA. When does Disney usually come out with "deals?" We are going Sept/Oct this year. Is this a mistake to wait?

Sorry for all the questions...but need some advice...

 

[Mom Possible]

Dreams Unlimited is wonderful. Cathy from DU has taken care of everything for me. They do not charge you at all and they work to get you a discount if one os available. Used them 2 times and I cannot recommend enough.

 

[JMCDisneyBound]

We booked through AAA and saved $230 over what a TA and DW quoted!!

AAA

 

[lordhavemercy]

Well, I'll throw my 2cents in here...
....we've been working with Nikki at Small World Vacations for the past 2 months. Nikki got us a GREAT deal on the Magic Your Way Package & Dining. Saved us a bunch of $$$...
....and has given us some great tips.
....i've been very pleased with how quickly she responds to my questions/requests/itinerary changes....
.......so, there's my 2 cents...
hope you have a wonderful vacation...

 

[Fionasmommy]

I just booked with Debbie at Magical Journeys and cannot be more pleased! Super fast responses, lots of great advice and I can rest easy knowing that she'll be on top of any codes that may come out. I did my own advance dining reservations, just because I wanted to.

 

[wrldpossibility]

We booked our package with DU, and are happy with it. If an additional discount comes out (you mentioned your worry about missing something like free dining), she gets it applied to our package. AAA gave us a similar quote, but I felt the extra knowledge DU has made the difference. They keep track of discounts, ADRs, when I need to book what. It's great.

I should add that I changed my resort three times, and the room location request twice before I booked, and she patiently researched it for me every time.

 

[mikey13v]

As far as who to book with, just get a quote from each, and go with the one that seems best to you then. Listen to others experience as far as service and promt attention.

Sept/Oct is a fairly slow time. You can afford to wait on potential promotions. Last years "free dining" promo was announced in June for travel from August thru October. With two consecutive dramatic hurricane seasons in a row, I would expect Disney to have somthing good this year to attract people to come so the place isn't empty. The free dining promo was a HUGE savings and it would be great if they did it again, but it would be horrible if you couldn't take advantage of it because you had already paid for your existing reservation.

 

[IwannaseeMickey]

I got quotes from both AAA and DU and went w/ AAA hands down b/c it was about $500 cheaper. The free meal plan did come out after I booked and I simply called my agent and let her know about it (it was the day before and she hadn't heard yet) and she called and rebooked it for us and got the plan. I do know she called a few others and let them in on it too.

I'd go w/ AAA simply b/c it's cheaper! We use Michelle Shears at: (800) 643-5332 She's great!

 

[TSM1993]

Is try a bunch of places especially doing it myself. I booked a 2 week Vacation with tickets and everything this was off property several years ago for $1900 dollars.

It included for 3 people (2 adults 1 child)

Hotel off property- (run risk of not getting into park ) never had a problem always went when opened and stayed all day

tickets - (for Disney for 7 days, US and IOA for 5 days, Sea World, and Kennedy space center and 2 orlando dinner shows)

WE drove so no rental car or airline tickets


Took alot of work but I did it.


When booking with a travel agent IMO would be more expensive because of them making their money to.(not sure if they get commission anymore but did when I went to book the trip several years ago)

One other thing double check your ticket prices if doing it yourself I noticed with some of the discount tickets places they are actually a few dollars more expensive then buy directly from Disney.


Just my experience.

 

[DreamDelta]

Does Dreams Unlimited have a website, phone number?

 

[loopner67]

but I can tell you my experience last month with booking our March '06 trip. I called AAA and got a decent rate. I called into WDW and they were willing to give me the rate (just booking thru them instead of my AAA agent). The reason why that worked was because thru AAA the package seemed more expensive than the tickets and hotel room separate. When I asked to book it separate, I was told I couldn't buy hopper tickets from them??? Weird.

So I had us all booked up with the AAA discount. Not too bad and I was fairly happy.

Then someone on these boards asked me had I looked into the Annual Pass rate. I really didn't know about the annual passes, but I picked up the phone and called WDW again. Only ONE person in our group had to buy an annual pass to get the AP discount on the hotel.

Bottom line... I had to pay $200 more for an annual pass vs. my 6 day hopper ticket.

BUT I saved $800 on the hotel with the AP rate vs. the AAA rate. My total savings was about $585. Not too shabby!

Hope this helped you. Ask a lot of questions and find out about the annual pass and what it can offer you with discounts. There's also something called the DDE (Disney Dining Experience) that you can buy for $60 and then get 20% off almost all sit down restaurants in the parks and at the hotels (including character meals). There are very few places you can't use the DDE card. You can also get some discounts at Downtown Disney.

Ask lots of questions to whoever you use to book your trip. Don't book until you are happy and *if* you find a better deal, call them up and ask to modify your reservation if possible.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[letsgoagainsoon]

Thank you all for your input...this helps!

 

[mjh8955]

We did use AAA for a room only discount, but I found that each time I talked to them, they learned something from me (actually I was getting my info straight from these boards ) They didn't seem all that knowledgeable about the latest changes or options available at WDW.

 

[mickey&minnie04]

letsgoagainsoon.....where in PA do you live? I also live in PA and we booked with Boscov's, they have charters that fly out of Reading Airport ( that's the one we are using ) They also have charters flying out of Harrisburg and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. I don't know if any of those are close to you, but we booked through them for 2 adults we are paying a little over $2000.00 and we have a direct flight which is hard to find from PA. Hope this helps!

Rebecca

 

[beckmrk04]

I booked through DW. I don't have an AP or AAA, so I didn't figure I would find much of a discount anyway, esp. at a Pop Century. But- my question is- how can places like Dreams Unlimited and Small World Vacations not charge for their services? It seemed a little weird to me, or too good to be true, and hence I was hesitant to book through them.. I didn't research people's experiences beforehand, but does anyone know how they do this?

 

[mickeymousemom]

I just booked with Debbie at Magical Journeys and cannot be more pleased! Super fast responses, lots of great advice and I can rest easy knowing that she'll be on top of any codes that may come out. I did my own advance dining reservations, just because I wanted to.

MJ is absolutely AWESOME!! I would do a commercial for them for nothing! i have booked our last two trips thru them and am getting ready to email them for our next trip! They are great at automatically crediting you for any discounts that come out and THEN emailing you afterwards. I have changed my mind a million times about things and they are as patient as ever. We have had Melissa both times and she is great too, though I think you'd be pleased with anyone there!

 

[bubba73]

I recommend AAA over the others just because of the savings that I have had with them.

 

[tiggger1]

oops doube post

 

[tiggger1]

but I can tell you my experience last month with booking our March '06 trip. I called AAA and got a decent rate. I called into WDW and they were willing to give me the rate (just booking thru them instead of my AAA agent). The reason why that worked was because thru AAA the package seemed more expensive than the tickets and hotel room separate. When I asked to book it separate, I was told I couldn't buy hopper tickets from them??? Weird.

I did the same thing. I went to AAA and got a qoute on a full hookup campsite for Sun- Sat in April plus a 6 day non expiring hopper. I went home and looked it up online and I actually got it for cheaper through the website ( without the AAA discount) So I called AAA back and asked if her quote was a typo and she told me no, that was the price and that since we were camping and didnt need the dining then we didnt qualify for a discount. I told her to cancel my quote and i would go through disney. So I booked directly through Disney and got their room only AAA discount and then bought my 10 day non expiring hopper for ticketmania and it came out the exact same price as my AAA package would have costed! So I got 4 more days for free since I didnt book through AAA directly!

 

[plutolovr]

I booked through DW. I don't have an AP or AAA, so I didn't figure I would find much of a discount anyway, esp. at a Pop Century. But- my question is- how can places like Dreams Unlimited and Small World Vacations not charge for their services? It seemed a little weird to me, or too good to be true, and hence I was hesitant to book through them.. I didn't research people's experiences beforehand, but does anyone know how they do this?

Travel agencies work on commission. So Disney is paying them 10% of the package price.
Pretty much no travel agency will charge for their services. Although, I hear some are starting to, because people will call a TA, have them do all kinds of research and not book with them. So the TA might charge them $25 to begin with, if the person books with them they apply that $25 to the trip, if not, oh well.