How can I get my Dreams travel agent to do anything????

[Dug720]

not having to spend hours on the phone (on hold for most of that) to book a cruise when a new batch of itineraries are released.

This is the big one for me. My agent doesn't give OBC, but that's ok. She usually sends a small Starbucks or Disney gift card, and that's more than expected. I would hate the thought of her taking more money out of her pocket (which is what they do) just to give me OBC. Her being on the phone for hours on "opening day" for cruises (and monitoring WDW trips for discounts) is what matters to me.

 

[Dug720]

So does mine. She is fantastic. I will send her emails about something that could wait a while before being handled and she will get back to me within 24 hours (it is usually within 2 hours) and tell me it is taken care of.

Mine very often even responds after I've gotten an "out of email" response with another agent to contact for travel emergencies. Only once have I had something in that category because I was quickly approaching the deadline to cancel - and even then she was in contact with the emergency agent about my situation. I always say "This could have waited..." but she's very responsive.

 

[Alicatt]

I really think it depends on ypur TA. I am definitely a DIY planner but my TA let's me have as much or little control as I want. I was very skeptical about using a TA and I wanted one that I could actually speak to on the phone the first time and ask my myriad questions. I liked one right away. She is super responsive and is really good at understanding what I want. This trip I needed 4 cabins; 3 family verandahs and 1 inside. I gave her a few room numbers. All the ones I gave her were gone but since she knew what I wanted, she booked me similar ones. Same with excursions. The one I wanted was no longer offered she booked me something similar but not as fun for families. When I mentioned this; she asked all of her colleagues for help and her manager recommended a non DCL excursion that she had personally done several times. I didn't even know she was doing it until I got an email with links and all. She couldn't book it for us, and since she had to cancel the other one, likely lost some commission. That's the kind of care I've come to expect. And besides OBC she sends cute gifts.

 

[Scalemaster34]

I think there have been a number of PRO and CON threads on this over the years...

 

[Erica1016]

This is the big one for me. My agent doesn't give OBC, but that's ok. She usually sends a small Starbucks or Disney gift card, and that's more than expected. I would hate the thought of her taking more money out of her pocket (which is what they do) just to give me OBC. Her being on the phone for hours on "opening day" for cruises (and monitoring WDW trips for discounts) is what matters to me.

This is how we are with ours. Occasionally, she gives us a small credit and it's always an unexpected surprise. However, she gets everything booked for us and spends a lot of time on those "opening days" for us. We also have had several instances of moving things around, switching placeholders to different cruises, etc. and she handles all of that so well and we don't have to. We don't really have her do much besides the initial booking, but it's so worth the time to us!

 

[bakerworld]

We started using a TA because booking thru DCL was very 'bare bones'. Admittedly, I've only booked direct once. Our travel agent is California based so the time difference can be interesting but when we've needed her she's always there. We booked one cruise 7 weeks before embarkation and she was wonderful. Another time we had a family emergency 3 weeks before embarkation and she was able to save all our costs, the new cruise was less expensive and it was in the same cabin. She said it must have been a 'hold over' from pandemic practices or we got a really nice CM. I thought it was amazing she wasn't all "look at what I was able to do" and instead gave all the credit to the DCL CM.

 

[JM_97]

I love using a TA. I tell them what I want, and they can plan it all out for me. I do some research before hand but I don't have to worry about the logistics of everything. Plus with cruises you sometimes can get an onboard credit, which is basically like a gift card.

And since TA's known way more tips and tricks, they can make the vacation that much more relaxing and stress free.

 

[tvguy]

I too much of a control freak to use a TA. Plus I enjoy the research! I have changed cabins a couple of times (before PIF) when “better” ones become available. And it’s a hassle to have to go thorough an outside TA to do that.

This was about the only reason I could think of for someone not to use a Travel Agent. My last cruise, on Celebrity I booked thru Celebrity, but I did it with one of THEIR Travel Agents who answers their 800 number and everything went well. And my next cruise in the fall on Princess, I did it all online, but 120 days before our cruise one of THEIR Travel Agents called to check and see if we had any questions.

 

[RedHead0186]

I will say that my experience with a DU TA has been great. She's always been super responsive and helpful when we have questions.

I got an email from her last week that she'd applied the placeholder discount to our upcoming Wish cruise and saved us nearly $800. She did all of that before I even got the email from DCL that discount was available!

 

[GhostHost24]

I tried a travel agent solely for the onboard credit. I have been booking through the website since I started cruising. I tried it this time because I figured why not get the perk of onboard credit…. TOTALLY not worth it.

Just curious what made it not worth it since you get on board credit and don't pay anything. I'm similar in that I like booking everything on my own, and we're FL locals so it's not like I need someone to help with flights etc. We used one this time strictly for the OBC. Haven't really noticed any differences yet, she booked our room pretty easily when I said what kind we wanted.

 

[DonaldDunk]

Just curious what made it not worth it since you get on board credit and don't pay anything. I'm similar in that I like booking everything on my own, and we're FL locals so it's not like I need someone to help with flights etc. We used one this time strictly for the OBC. Haven't really noticed any differences yet, she booked our room pretty easily when I said what kind we wanted.

The initial booking was fine, I have 3 cruises booked with him. All 3 are placeholders that I got pretty close together and transferred before I had any problems. One of the cruises I asked to be changed, told him which rooms I wanted. I emailed him multiple times, he never responded and finally the room was booked by someone else so I lost the room. This was days of unanswered emails.
Currently I need transfers and would like prepaid gratuities added. I have been asking for this since the beginning. He told me I can’t add either of them until my cruises are paid in full. 2 of them have been paid since the beginning of May. I have asked multiple times since then for him to add them. Emails are ignored. At one point I called Disney to see if maybe I could do it myself. They said no (which I knew). I finally sent him an email practically begging for him to help me, still no response.
I understand travel agents have personal lives and things that may be happening at home, but to just not respond seems super unprofessional. I am tired of asking and asking and asking. It’s given me more stress than it’s worth.

 

[AprilsZoo]

Just curious what made it not worth it since you get on board credit and don't pay anything. I'm similar in that I like booking everything on my own, and we're FL locals so it's not like I need someone to help with flights etc. We used one this time strictly for the OBC. Haven't really noticed any differences yet, she booked our room pretty easily when I said what kind we wanted.

If you go back to the original post in this thread— They said that they were not able to get any response from the TAm even after trying many times to contact them. The few times they did get a response it was “that can wait… deal with that later” for the things they were asking about.

So for them, the stress of having to constantly remember to contact (or attempt to contact) their TA, to try to beg, cajole, plead, and convince the TA to “please, please, pretty please” take care of pretty simple requests just wasn’t worth the OBC whatever amount it was (Guessing at most probably a couple hundred dollars).

For me, I’ve wondered if we would even end up using OBC. When I looked into it on a non-Disney cruise years ago (pre-pandemic), most of it would’ve been wasted, because we don’t drink or gamble, and in that case it seemed that it was doled out in daily amounts, which I can’t remember if the unused portions rolled over or not. I just saw the list of things you could use it for, and most of it didn’t apply to us. Since then, it’s just never been a perk we’ve considered advantageous. I suppose it could be different on DCL….

 

[Marrila]

You can email John, the owner of DU at john@dreamsunlimitedtravel.com and I'm sure he will be happy to look into it.

The initial booking was fine, I have 3 cruises booked with him. All 3 are placeholders that I got pretty close together and transferred before I had any problems. One of the cruises I asked to be changed, told him which rooms I wanted. I emailed him multiple times, he never responded and finally the room was booked by someone else so I lost the room. This was days of unanswered emails.
Currently I need transfers and would like prepaid gratuities added. I have been asking for this since the beginning. He told me I can’t add either of them until my cruises are paid in full. 2 of them have been paid since the beginning of May. I have asked multiple times since then for him to add them. Emails are ignored. At one point I called Disney to see if maybe I could do it myself. They said no (which I knew). I finally sent him an email practically begging for him to help me, still no response.
I understand travel agents have personal lives and things that may be happening at home, but to just not respond seems super unprofessional. I am tired of asking and asking and asking. It’s given me more stress than it’s worth.

Did you email John? Did he provide helpful assistance?

 

[Rambler5678]

I commented on this post and was contacted by my agent less than 2 days later. I had sent multiple emails also with no response. Seems they do read posts on this site.

 

[jwalk03]

If you go back to the original post in this thread— They said that they were not able to get any response from the TAm even after trying many times to contact them. The few times they did get a response it was “that can wait… deal with that later” for the things they were asking about.

So for them, the stress of having to constantly remember to contact (or attempt to contact) their TA, to try to beg, cajole, plead, and convince the TA to “please, please, pretty please” take care of pretty simple requests just wasn’t worth the OBC whatever amount it was (Guessing at most probably a couple hundred dollars).

For me, I’ve wondered if we would even end up using OBC. When I looked into it on a non-Disney cruise years ago (pre-pandemic), most of it would’ve been wasted, because we don’t drink or gamble, and in that case it seemed that it was doled out in daily amounts, which I can’t remember if the unused portions rolled over or not. I just saw the list of things you could use it for, and most of it didn’t apply to us. Since then, it’s just never been a perk we’ve considered advantageous. I suppose it could be different on DCL….

On board credit you get from booking with a TA is just a flat sum applied to your account. It can go toward anything that is billed to your onboard account. There is no daily amount or restriction on what it’s used towards.

 

[Girl of the South]

I was able to add transfers in both directions and suggested tips right from the start (way before PIF). I like to know the full price ahead of time.

 

[DCL58]

If cruisers don’t need much hand holding, booking thru Costco travel has great perks. Around 8% of the cruise fare on a Costco card, 2% of the cruise fare back if you are an executive member and 3% back for paying with the Costco citi card. Adds up quickly.

Taking 2 cruises on the Magic next month. Cruise fare is $10,000. Costco is giving us $870 in Costco shop cards, $200 cash back for being executive members and $300 back for paying with the citi visa. So around 14% back just for booking thru them.

 

[Disneyworldlocal]

My DU travel agent is awesome. It may take an hour or two to get a response ( generally it doesn’t take that long ) and I’m ok with that. She’s always been on top of our requests and has been patient with some of my whacky questions which rarely happens but it sure did when the Disney visa promotion came out and she was awesome making the changes we needed