How do you book your trip?

[Bexandnij]

Just out of interest, how do you go about booking your trips and what benefits do you think this has over other ways?

Last time we went - we walked into a travel agent and organised everything through them down to the last detail.

It was very easy and they did work hard to get us a good deal, although we were lucky that the agent booking for us was honeymooning there the weeks before we went so at the time we booked she knew all possible offers and tricks to get the price down.

We are thinking about booking for next year dance3 so thought other hints and tips would be worth considering!

 

[cliveywolves]

DIY .. always done it this way I get what i want and at the best prices ( hopefully )

 

[Elise79]

Another one who books DIY. Never had a TA match the prices I find plus I like to be in control of my own reservations

 

[Bexandnij]

So does that mean you book charter flights, book rooms direct through disney etc? What kind of savings can you make?

 

[Elise79]

We never book charter flights as we don't go for a standard 14 nights.

For example next year we are doing 12 nights at OKW in a one bedroom villa. Our accomodation direct with Disney (inc tickets) is £3931.

VH package for the same including flights £7375.

This means that I just need to spend less than £3,444 on flights for 3 of us to save money.

 

[scoobydooby]

^ exactly what Elise said.

 

[chmurf]

DIY

scheduled flights, with Expedia or Ebookers

disney accomodation with WDTC-UK

Universal, direct with universal for a package, or a combination of room only (either universal direct, or expedia) and tickets from attractions direct

Other tickets (DC, KSC, and so on) with attractions direct.

restaurants on the disney site for WDW, on opentable for USF

car, direct with Alamo

benefits : significantly cheaper, easier to tweak.

 

[gemmybear83]

I usually always book DIY, but yeh last two trips have been cheaper with a TA. Last trip was with virgin holidays and for next years trip thomson came out cheaper even with premium seats on the plane

So worth checking both

 

[BudgieMama]

We booked direct with WDTC for our room/tickets/dining (free!)... and then booked our flights seperately through BA (as we had a voucher to use).

We got a great price, and were very happy with it!

It never even occurred to me to look at a TA for WDW. We spent months trawling through brochures and websites a couple of years ago for a holiday in Italy, and everything was so overpriced, we went to Wales instead! I've rarely seen them offer anything I'd consider good value for anything unless you are booking last minute or out of school holidays (not an option for us!)... so DIY it is for us!

 

[queendisney]

Would never use a TA to book WDW. The guys on this board know far more about Disney then the TA's ever do.
We always do DIY. This year we have saved approx. £500 on VH's price! (two of us)
To be honest it's not hard work to do it all DIY and the savings normally make it well worth it. Mind you its not always that way, a couple of years ago we only saved about £100 in total, but it was still a saving! We prob could save more by going indirect but I can't be bothered with all that...