Importance of a Travel Advisor!

[britinva]

Was recently on A DCL cruise and thought I'd post an experience that shows how important having a Travel Advisor is.

I have used the same TA for all our cruises, all prior cruises went without any hitches.

Due to various Covid related reasons our cruise had to be booked and rebooked 4 times and my TA had been responsive and thorough. I never had to get on phone with DCL and the never-ending waits that some report.

But once on the cruise there were issues with our various on board credits, amounting to over $4,300 and DCL Guest services were not that much help and said I needed to contact my TA.

Reaching out to TA was not easy as the Internet was appalling, would often take 30mins to receive or send an email.

Being able to reach out to my TA was a massive help!

Was getting conflicting info from onboard guest services and the onshore team. Onshore saying everything was in order, onboard saying wasn't.

Over time my TA was able to resolve everything! Would not say took all stress out but was good to have someone on my side!

It's really highlighted importance of having a good travel advisor!

 

[Cheburashka]

I'm glad that worked out for you. Imo it isn't necessary to have a travel agent for a cruise unless you want to get compensation (such as shipboard credit or a monetary bonus of some type from your travel agent.) I often book via Costco to get their 8.5% cash card, for example, but their assistance is hardly personalized. That's okay though as I don't need it. You had a very unusual situation with thousands of dollars of credits and it was good that a TA could help, but most guests do not have to deal with that.

 

[cvjw]

I also use Costco. I had an issue with FCC also and just figured it out myself! Glad you got your issues worked out.

 

[MrsScooby]

With the crazy waits for phone contact with DCL (and other weird problems with them) I'm more inclined than ever to use a good travel agent. With regard to DCL at least a good travel agent is worth their weight in gold. Other types of trips I prefer to handle my own details, but given how things are with DCL I would never book without my travel agent. Way too many mistakes made on the part of DCL in the past few years...

That said, not all travel agents are created equal. The first one I used for my first cruise was worthless. I've been at least content with every Dreams Unlimited agent I have worked with and in the past year absolutely thrilled with how wonderful the latest agent is. She has really helped us a lot navigating cruise cancelations and covid.

 

[MillauFr]

There is zero reason to book direct with Disney. Why would you want to give up a 8.5% discount + 2% Costco executive member discount? Plus I can get another 4.5% discount + free travel insurance if I charge the cruise to my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card.

 

[Cheburashka]

With the crazy waits for phone contact with DCL (and other weird problems with them) I'm more inclined than ever to use a good travel agent.

I haven't had any recent issue reaching them within 20 minutes by phone, and I've done it repeatedly over the past few months. The extreme waits existed months ago but that's over as long as you select "book a new cruise" when calling. Just call and select option 3 for "book a new cruise", and the wait will be short. The CMs don't know or care which option you pressed or why you're calling.

 

[Cheburashka]

There is zero reason to book direct with Disney. Why would you want to give up a 8.5% discount + 2% Costco executive member discount? Plus I can get another 4.5% discount + free travel insurance if I charge the cruise to my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card.

I like to book directly and get all of the details nailed down directly with Disney, because that's easier & quicker than calling via Costco. Then I transfer the cruise to Costco within 30 days of booking and get the same benefits as booking directly via Costco.

 

[MillauFr]

I like to book directly and get all of the details nailed down directly with Disney, because that's easier & quicker than calling via Costco. Then I transfer the cruise to Costco within 30 days of booking and get the same benefits as booking directly via Costco.

Yes I did that too. The Costco website didn't let me book during the Gold Castaway early booking period so I booked with Disney and transferred.

 

[FreeTime]

I haven't had any recent issue reaching them within 20 minutes by phone, and I've done it repeatedly over the past few months. The extreme waits existed months ago but that's over as long as you select "book a new cruise" when calling. Just call and select option 3 for "book a new cruise", and the wait will be short. The CMs don't know or care which option you pressed or why you're calling.

Call center reps do know which option you selected as it shows up on their call display. Having previously worked many years in call centers we would often train our people to put individuals that select the wrong option back into queue to the option they should have selected. The reason the options are there is so they can adequately track call types and to assign staff members to options based on their skill set. You may get someone that has been trained in all options when selecting the wrong one but often you won’t. Also, if you pick the wrong option for a task that should take less time, you most certainly will be dropped to the right queue. Call center reps keep their jobs based on handle time and talk time. If they are logged in at the time to a 1 min task and you come in with one they know will take 5 mins, expect to be pushed out.

 

[Cheburashka]

Call center reps do know which option you selected as it shows up on their call display. Having previously worked many years in call centers we would often train our people to put individuals that select the wrong option back into queue to the option they should have selected. The reason the options are there is so they can adequately track call types and to assign staff members to options based on their skill set. You may get someone that has been trained in all options when selecting the wrong one but often you won’t. Also, if you pick the wrong option for a task that should take less time, you most certainly will be dropped to the right queue.

This (at least all parts of this) just isn't the case with DCL. I and many others have repeatedly called and pressed option 3 and had no issue getting our issues promptly taken care of. I'm talking about several calls, not one or two, and other posters report the same results.

 

[Girl of the South]

You seem to have all the answers! Have you thought about working for DCL???

 

[Husker Mike]

There's a wide gulf's worth of difference between Costco's travel agents and a good Disney agent. Some people don't need that level of service, but some do. I've been booking travel for my wife and I without an agent for years, but with Disney, I generally waive the white flag.

 

[mkb3]

Travel Advisors are great for sure. Disney customer service is horrid these days with their wait times and after the COVID issues Costco will never be used for travel again. I can easily book travel with Disney on my own, but why not help out a small business at the same time. Most agents I've worked with are involved as much as I want them to be.

 

[MomOTwins]

But once on the cruise there were issues with our various on board credits, amounting to over $4,300 and DCL Guest services were not that much help and said I needed to contact my TA.

Reaching out to TA was not easy as the Internet was appalling, would often take 30mins to receive or send an email.

See this is exactly why I don't work with a travel agent. If something goes wrong with my cruise, I want to be able to deal with the cruise line reps directly instead of having them tell me they can't talk me to me and I need to go through my TA.

 

[tvguy]

See this is exactly why I don't work with a travel agent. If something goes wrong with my cruise, I want to be able to deal with the cruise line reps directly instead of having them tell me they can't talk me to me and I need to go through my TA.

But in the example OP posted, nobody on the ship would help, it took the travel agent to fix it.

 

[MomOTwins]

But in the example OP posted, nobody on the ship would help, it took the travel agent to fix it.

That's not how I read it. It's widely been reported that if you have a travel agent, DCL will not talk to you directly about any issue involving payment/credit/reservations etc. and will inform you they can only talk to your travel agent. I've sorted plenty of billing/booking issues out with DCL myself, both on and off the ship. If OP didn't have a travel agent, I think it is very likely the on-ship team would have worked directly with OP and the onshore billing team to resolve the issue, but since OP had an agent, that was not an option for OP because DCL reps are only allowed to talk agent about payment matters and can't talk to the guest directly.

 

[tvguy]

That's not how I read it. It's widely been reported that if you have a travel agent, DCL will not talk to you directly about any issue involving payment/credit/reservations etc. and will inform you they can only talk to your travel agent. I've sorted plenty of billing/booking issues out with DCL myself, both on and off the ship. If OP didn't have a travel agent, I think it is very likely the on-ship team would have worked directly with OP and the onshore billing team to resolve the issue, but since OP had an agent, that was not an option for OP because DCL reps are only allowed to talk agent about payment matters and can't talk to the guest directly.

Maybe the OP can clarify. It appears that all those credits were Future Cruise Credits given by Disney due to covid cancellations, not perks given by the travel agent. I would expect 100% of those credits only live in the Disney computer system and all the travel agent did was call their business rep with Disney and force someone to look at the clients account in the system system and fix it, something someone on the ship was just too lazy to do, or too lazy to e-mail landside Disney reservations to look at. .

 

[Budzooka]

Love having a TA to deal with everything and not having to worry about it. Makes it very easy!