Planning a DW trip through a Travel Agency???

[floaton]

I have been looking into planning a trip to DW with my DGF and have been mainly doing my entire price checking for park hoppers and full trip bundles through the official disney.com trip builder.

I was curious if this is a good route to go cost wise. I like planning the trip this way due to the 100% reliability, but I did not know if anyone here plans their trips through a travel agency that can get the trips for a little cheaper.

I am looking for 7-8 day stay on site, preferably in POR. Though I would like to go ahead and buy PH that is a 10 day non-expirable because we plan on going again with my family later that year.

We are also planning on driving to Orlando and not flying.

Well that is about it, if I need to put down anymore information that would help anyone with helping just post the request.

Thanks everyone yet again,
Floaton

 

[Buttercup Roberts]

There are several Disney specialty agencies that advertise they will check for and apply any available discounts for you. All the major Disney fan and travel planning websites seem to have sponsor travel agencies, including this one. I don't know if the one for wdwinfo.com will search out discounts or not, but you can certainly look at their site and see.

I find disney.com extremely hard to navigate, and they seem (I may be wrong, but it's been my perception) to play games with your resort choices, always steering you to places that may not be the most popular, not showing things that are actually available through other avenues.

I always kind of get a sucker-on-the-hook feeling when I deal directly with disney.com.

We used a travel agent for a trip several years ago, and it wasn't any more expensive than buying a package direct, but the service was very nice (local agency, not one of the big online ones you see affiliated with websites).

 

[Tasha+Scott]

We used Dreamsunlimited.com for our last trip and they were great! We've planned all our other trips ourself but Dreamsunlimited was nice because they try to get you discounts, they make your ADRs, they give you park tips, and they tell you park hours, etc. It mainly took a lot of the busy work out of it for us which was nice. It gave me time to focus on other things.

 

[Mrs. D]

We used Dreamsunlimited.com for our last trip and they were great! We've planned all our other trips ourself but Dreamsunlimited was nice because they try to get you discounts, they make your ADRs, they give you park tips, and they tell you park hours, etc. It mainly took a lot of the busy work out of it for us which was nice. It gave me time to focus on other things.

Great points and reasons to use a TA...I can tell you that the price you get booking WDW via an agency is going to be w/in dollars of what you'd pay booking w/ WDW directly. Contractually WDW does not allow any agencies to book for lower than they are booking, and they pay the bare minimum in commission, so price wise it's going to be about the same...

IMO b/c of this why not book w/ an agency and let them do the work!

 

[floaton]

Thanks everyone for there great impute, I will check out Dreamsunlimited.com right away.

Anyone else have any other online TA that they have used and enjoyed in the past?

Thanks again,
Josh

 

[rmjkharrisfam]

I used Small World Vacations - found them on the mousesaver.com website. They assign you a travel agent to work with. I got a quote and had 30 days to decide. During that time Disney released new discounts (I didn't know about it). My Small World Vacations agent sent me an email with a new quote including the new discounts - without me asking for it. Once we booked she was able to help me make all of my ADR's also. Saved me a ton of time on the phone. They were really easy to work with. I would definetly use them again.

 

[vanillarum]

On our 3 previous trips to Disney(before we became Dis aware !) we used a local travel agency, and while I'm sure they didn't save us any money, it was nice to have them do all the work. This time we are using Magical Vacations that we learned about from Tikiman's site. We were hoping to get to Tikifest, but the dates didn't work for us. Anywho, Lisa at Magical Vacations has been great, supplying info and ideas. We will use MV again in the future !

 

[grannyminnie]

I usually plan my own trips....I've tried to hand over the details to a TA in the past, but things haven't worked out. I know people say that your TA can monitor discounts and get them for you, but hey, with these boards, who needs that?? All I have to do is wake up and check the Codes and Rates thread on here, and I know what's happening!!

 

[tonyolily]

Our family has used Pixiedust-Travel.com the last couple of trips and they've been great. Even sent us some freebies for booking with them.

 

[AUDramaQueen]

On our 3 previous trips to Disney(before we became Dis aware !) we used a local travel agency, and while I'm sure they didn't save us any money, it was nice to have them do all the work. This time we are using Magical Vacations that we learned about from Tikiman's site. We were hoping to get to Tikifest, but the dates didn't work for us. Anywho, Lisa at Magical Vacations has been great, supplying info and ideas. We will use MV again in the future !

We just got back from a trip and we used Lisa also. She was great. very helpful and knowledgable. It was our first time using a TA as I usually want to control everything, but this was a Grand gathering and we were on the Dining plan and I just didn't want to get up at 6am to make ADR's.

Lisa took care of it all and she didn't mind at all that I was very particular about double checking stuff. She understands the Disney nut! She also saved us $$$ from our original price. Now I know I could have gotten the same discount by scouring the sites, but it was nice that she knew about it right away and took care of it.

 

[search66]

We used a travel agent... but we ended up doing/planning everything ourselves... I just think our TA had no clue about Disney... We had to tell her about the discounts... creepy.

 

[dman11]

We just got back from a trip and we used Lisa also. She was great. very helpful and knowledgable. It was our first time using a TA as I usually want to control everything, but this was a Grand gathering and we were on the Dining plan and I just didn't want to get up at 6am to make ADR's.

Lisa took care of it all and she didn't mind at all that I was very particular about double checking stuff. She understands the Disney nut! She also saved us $$$ from our original price. Now I know I could have gotten the same discount by scouring the sites, but it was nice that she knew about it right away and took care of it.

Another thumbs up for Lisa!! I've used her for my last trip 2 years ago and our upcoming one and many people at my office have used her too. Nothing but rave reviews for her.

 

[Booknut]

You won't be disappointed with Dreams Unlimited, we used Rhonda and she's fantastic!

 

[sunee]

If you are going to use a travel agent and don't have one at home, use one that specializes in Disney...they'll catch discounts and whatnot. The DIS recommends Dreams Unlimited. If I were going to use a TA, that's the one I'd pick.

 

[aussieinvasion]

Another one going with Dreams Unlimited!! Most of the local TA's in Australia(gulp!!) did not even know about the DCL , let alone all of the available DW resorts.Could not believe the lack of knowledge! At least from the great reviews on this board I will have the confidence that DU will know what I am talking about....

 

[Trekker]

Just an FYI the website for the sponsors of these boards is www.dreamsunlimitedtravel.com - give them a try!

 

[leonger]

I used *** at The Magic For Less and she's awesome.

 

[JennyJ]

If you want control over your reservation, then don't so it though a travel agent. If the agent books it, then if you call Disney direct to confirm or get info, they won't give you ANYTHING. They tell you that all contact has to go through your agent.

If you don't want to be bothered with all the planning, then use travel agent.

JMO!

 

[SplashMountainRocks]

I've used **** at Dreams Come True Vacations for a few trips, I recommend her highly.