How do you book YOUR trip?

[cmpeter]

I book myself.

 

[bluezy]

I'm definitely a control-freak, but use an amazing Disney-certified TA for our trips, and will continue to do so. All I have her do is book the room/package we want. Saves me from calling, and gives her a commission at the same time. Most important of all to me is that, as soon as a discount becomes available for our time frame, she snags it for us immediately, whether it be at midnight or 6:00 a.m. She is only an e-mail away, and normally always responds to me within minutes.

I'm surprised at the number of people who won't consider using a TA because they want to "plan their own trip." You don't have to let the TA plan anything if you don't want to! Planning is half the fun for me, so I do it all. I was lucky enough to find a perfect TA, and feel using her services is a win-win for us both.

This...exactly! I can certainly do all the booking myself...and I have. But I started using an ear-marked Disney TA about 10 years ago and will continue to do so as long as she's in business. My husband and I decide on the dates, resort, and tickets before we book and we don't change those details so I don't really care if I don't have direct control over my reservation -- I don't need it for anything. Not to mention, I've never waited more than an hour for a response from my TA on anything. She even answered a non-critical question via e-mail during an intermission of a show she was attending.

My main reasons for using this TA are that while she doesn't have access to any better deals than I can get myself, she's the one who takes care of getting discounts applied when they're released. Last week when the Spring discounts came out, she had it applied to my reservation and sent me the updated reservation sheet before I even woke up that morning. I didn't need to spend one second of my personal time on saving that money. Also, I like that she's there to take care of things if a problem arises. For instance, a few years ago we booked a trip with free dining. I accidentally gave her the wrong check-out date (not even sure how I did it -- I think I was looking at the wrong calendar year). We planned to stay a day longer than I booked for. Somehow I didn't notice this on the original reservation information. When I did notice it, we were about 40 days from check-in. The "book by" date for the Free Dining deal was long past. I called her in a major panic and told her what happened (though I knew at worst we could just book a separate reservation without free dining for that last day -- but we might have had to change rooms for one night). She said, "Calm down. Give me a few minutes to see what I can do. I'll call you back." Five minutes later she called back and had extended the reservation for one day and it still included the free dining. There's no way *I* would have been able to get around the "rules" like that -- she has the "connections" to do it. And lastly, she often runs a little "deal" that includes a free gift or gift card if you book through them. Nothing major -- usually a value of $25 or so -- but more than I would get if I book directly through Disney.

Those little touches of pixie dust along with the bonus of helping out a small business owner are the main reason I will use a Disney TA (not just a random TA who may or may not know more about Disney reservations that I do) to book my room/ticket packages for my Disney trips.

 

[artemis4]

We are offsiters who make the 2000+ mile drive, so there is very little to actually book. Buy tickets from an authorized seller, reserve the condo and the hotel for one night on the road on the way to/from, and I'm done.

I do the booking myself for Disney and all of our other trips.

 

[GovieMom]

There's no way *I* would have been able to get around the "rules" like that -- she has the "connections" to do it.

Mine too! We ended up leaving a day early once, when we had a package for six nights. Hated doing it, as we were staying at the Poly and would have to forfeit the last night's resort fee we had paid for. I e-mailed my TA and told her the situation, and lo and behold, that fee ended up being credited back to our charge account. Love her!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Prior to DVC, we called Disney directly. When they began online booking, we do that.

Now with DVC--we book on line (and phone prior to that being available).

We have never needed a TA for Disney. My mom always booked with Disney directly, so it never occurred to me to do otherwise.

And since we have been Florida residents most of our adult lives, for us--buying seasonal passes or APs at a discount have always been of greater financial benefit to us warranting the packages to be of little to no benefit. Often, they tend to me more expensive. But with our DVC--there is practically nothing a TA could help us with that we could not manage ourselves.

I do find value in using a TA for cruises. (Our honeymoon cruise was riddled with cruise line faux pas and our TA went to bat for us with Carnival.). I'm iffy on other vacations.

 

[Bethislucy]

I used magical journeys once but every other time I just book myself on the Disney site

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

I LOVE my AAA TA! Last Sept, she was on the phone for hours getting us FD. That was time that I didn't have to spend. Plus, she loves Disney herself and she was always really excited with me for our trip whenever I called her. It really added some extra pixie dust to the whole process. I mostly used her for payments and discount re-booking. The rest I did myself. I will definitely be using her again for our future trips.

In the past, I've used the website to price out my vacation and then I called up Disney directly. I love listening to the Disney music when I'm on hold (not usually a long time unless I'm calling during the FD frenzy) and most of the call center CMs are really nice and cheerful. And I always love being wished a "magical day" at the end of the call - it totally is a magical day because I just booked a trip to Disney!!

That all being said, I booked my Disneymoon DCL vacation through an authorized Disney TA and it was a nightmare. We were leaving right after our wedding and I didn't want to deal with all of the vacation details when I was stressed out wedding planning. There were lots of issues but what ended up being the biggest problem was that our flight changed a few months before our trip and suddenly we had a layover that was going to cut it close making it to the boat. I asked her if she would call Delta and switch our flight back to a nonstop which is what we originally had. She came back and said that she tried but it was not possible. At the time I wasn't savy enough to realize that this was baloney. Delta has done this to me several times since (I usually by tickets way in advance so the schedule can switch around sometimes) and they've either switched me automatically to the another non-stop flight or I've called and they've happily switched it to the flight I wanted. It ended up being okay because we made it to the ship. However, we had to get up at 4am after getting to bed at 1am and by the time we arrived on the boat, exhausted and hungry, we found out that they had closed down the lunch stations. And, of course, we had the later dinner seating. A very nice ship officer got me some food after I burst into tears when I realized that I wouldn't be eating for several hours yet. It was amazing and not the last pixie dust filled moment of the trip but our ordeal was completely unnecessary.

A bad TA can really screw things up but if you find a good one - use them! Like a PP said, it really can help out a family.

 

[RustManFan]

I tried AAA when I took my 2 kids to Hawaii a number of years ago. Found I could plan myself at less expense. Same thing for all our trips to UK. A tour or package would cost a lot more than I could arrange on my own.

 

[tinkfan160]

AAA for longer trips and ourselves in Disney for shorter trips. We did do a longer trip with flight once ourselves when we traveled with friends who did want to use AAA and it was much easier to just have the travel agent at AAA do it!!!

 

[Virtucomp]

We have always booked directly through the Disney web site. Well maybe the 1990 trip we didn't since the WWW was not there yet.

The only time I didn't book on the web was when we used the Disney Visa offer so we called and booked through the Disney CM instead.

We tried using AAA years ago but the price they quoted was about the same so we decided not to give up control and just do it ourselves.

 

[jesse8931]

I have no choice but to book through disney.

And with the discounts I get I will never have a bad word to say.

 

[BalooPA]

We always use Dreams Unlimited Travel, and they are the BEST!

 

[kmarie99]

We have used 2 different TA's the first one we used was difficult to get a hold of and took a while to return calls so we were thinking of not going with a TA. Then we tried Dreams Unlimited 4 year ago and we love them!!! Our TA is amazing, I e-mail her and she replies right away, it is awesome.
We do a half and half approach, we use our TA to book our vacations and make sure we get the best deal. But for Plane tickets, ADR's and FP we book those ourselves and she adds them to our Itinerary. It is the best of both worlds, just because you use a TA does not mean you have no control. I feel that it just the opposite, I have the reassurance that I did not miss something or book something incorrectly but still have the freedom to plan myself.

 

[Flamingeaux]

We book our trips online.

 

[yeheyprincex2]

We book everything about our trips ourselves. My DH loves hunting down the best deal he can find and even after we book he still looks and looks for deals before we leave. I'm in charge of all the Disney stuff ARD, FP+ choices, touring plans.

We used a travel agent on our first trip in 2002 we new nothing about all the ins and out of WDW and like some else posted they were no help and just took our money. Truly going in blind was our fault but we have learned a lot since then.

 

[lustergirl]

I book everything myself.

 

[KrazeeK120]

In the past, I've always used AAA, mostly to get the parking pass. It was especially nice for my first trip when I had no idea what I was doing.

Now that Disney and AAA have ended their relationship, I'll likely just book through Disney's website myself. I know exactly what I want to get...I don't think I need help figuring out my Disney vacations any more!

 

[cheerful chickadee]

I do it online or by phone myself. A bit if a control freak

I am actually trying to book our next trip now but the site is not working for me and hasn't worked all morning. Looks like I'll need to actually call.

 

[BalooPA]

We do a half and half approach, we use our TA to book our vacations and make sure we get the best deal. But for Plane tickets, ADR's and FP we book those ourselves and she adds them to our Itinerary. It is the best of both worlds, just because you use a TA does not mean you have no control. I feel that it just the opposite, I have the reassurance that I did not miss something or book something incorrectly but still have the freedom to plan myself.

This is exactly how we plan our trips through Dreams Unlimited! Works like a charm for us....

 

[kmb584]

I always book our trips myself. I've never used a travel agent.