Poll:Did you book on your own or use a TA?

[wdw-ocd]

I was comfortable using expedia to book a Vegas trip for just dh and myself but this time I wanted the expertise of a TA in booking a family trip. I'm sure it would've been fine (and cheaper!) to book on my own but I guess I'm just not that confident yet (running through an airport to catch a connecting flight is fine with when it's just dh and me but it'd be an almost certain heart attack with the 4 kids in tow!)

Just wondering if people were brave enough to book everything on your own or if you have a trustworthy TA?

 

[drag n' fly]

I booked free dining myself for us with three kids but cancelled due to crummy flights and we are going in March. I could do it myself but we are using our trusty TA from Dreams Unlimited. We always fly direct and I can totally relate to the connecting flight thing. It makes for way to long of a day for us.

 

[BitsnBearsMom]

Used a TA the first time before I knew better - can get much better deals doing it all myself and I can be in control of everything!!

 

[hockey mom]

Always on my own.

 

[dsneygirl]

Always on our own. We're DVC members with 15+ trips under out belts I would be shocked to find a TA who knew more than we did.

 

[F4disneyfan]

We only ever book on our own no matter what the trip is Disney or otherwise.

 

[Perhillion]

I booked my Disney vacation coming up in a week here with Mouse Fan Travel in the USA. I booked the flights on my own -- easier to get a better deal that way. The reason why I booked the Disney package with a travel agent was:
1) It was exactly the same price as booking directly through Disney
2) My TA booked all my advanced dining reservations for me
3) I booked my trip last summer, and there were no deals at that time for the dates I was going. However, once a deal came up, my TA automatically got me the discount and reduced the price of my trip without me having to do any work for myself.

So, yeah, I've booked trips on my own and with a TA, and when the price is the same, you might as well go through the TA for great service!

 

[Disneyof3]

I have a travel agent with CAA and she is great. We have used her for the past trips and will use her again in March 08. She gets us everything we want and she is very nice and makes herself available when ever we need her. My flight this March I will do on my own. I booked on my own the first trip to WDW and they majorly screwed up our x-mas holidays and our feelings towards booking with WDW. They charged my credit card x3 and they couldn't remove it and no one was taking the blame. We ended up not knowing what was going on up to 3 weeks prior to going. Finally after being hunged up on x4 and 1 month of phoneing back and fourth with WDW, this lovely lady at WDW got on a 3 way phone call with our bank and told them they won't except any of the charges if my bank up here wouldn't. A complete nightmare and a major headache . We ended up with no visa for x-mas and my visa was maxed to the limit for 1 month . That was my end of booking with WDW.

 

[Boomer1]

I always book our WDW trips on my own now. For several years I used Amex points to pay for our reservations and I needed to use a Amex Travel Centre to do this. I Provided her with all the information, codes and details to book at FW and she would make one call and charge me $60.00. This was in addition to the Yearly fee I paid for the Amex CC. Finally , I got fed up with this arrangement and got rid of the Amex. I now use a points credit card to make my disney vacation and use my points towards an RESP for my children at no fee.

 

[tribus121]

I Injoy booking by my self . as for the conecting flights thing we dont have any choice but use conecting flights as we would have to drive at least 5 hrs to get an expensive direct flight and 8 hrs to get a cheep one .

 

[nosnobunny2006]

My DH and I travel a lot and I generally do all my own booking whether it's Disney or anywhere else. That being said, we transferred our WDW booking for this summer to CAA in order to benefit from their 10% across the board discount. If you're worried about connecting flights, just make sure it's all on the same airline so you don't have to deal with transferring your own luggage and that you've left enough time between flights so that you don't have to run from one gate to another. It's surprizing how much time can be eaten up in an airport.

Beth

 

[BraMax]

We do all our booking through Expedia but when we booked our land and sea vacation we did it right through DCL. But we are doing our own airfair. We've done 2 trips to DL on our own I just find that we can get a better deal arrainging our own travel. Although I was just at the Disney Dreams web site and I might check it our for our next vacation unless I can talk my DH into rebooking while on board the ship.

 

[I Run Long]

Since this is our first trip to the world and it's costing us a pretty penny due to the distance we have to travel, I thought I should use a TA. We used Small World Vacations that is recommended by Mousesavers. I'll admit, I could probably have done most of it myself and got the same price, but . . . I work full time and don't have the time to get up at 4:00am my time and sit on the phone making ADR's, or sit on the phone changing reservations, or sit on the phone to get new discount codes. My TA has been great and if (or dare I say when) we go again, I'll defintely use her again.

 

[nosnobunny2006]

Since this is our first trip to the world and it's costing us a pretty penny due to the distance we have to travel,

I hear you on that one. When we go in July, our DD and DGS from Vancouver Island will be coming with us. We decided it would be easier to have them come here for a few days first, then 6 (two more gks) of us will drive to Buffalo and fly to MCO from there. My money appears to have grown wings and is flying out of every open window. We could use a new icon that depicts poverty.

Beth

 

[thejollyfinn]

We book our own. Have nothing against TA's, its just that we enjoy planning every aspect of our trip ourselves.

 

[I Run Long]

My money appears to have grown wings and is flying out of every open window.

Your's too huh!

 

[bunnyfoo]

I used a TA for my upcoming trip. In the past, I worked different hours and had more time to call in first thing in the morning and apply discount codes when they were released. It was lots of fun but with my new job, I can't do that... and I don't want to explain it to my manager.

I still did most of my own ADRs though. So I still got to have some fun

 

[drag n' fly]

We book all of our own travel but we did use a TA for our last trip to WDW and I am glad we did. It was our first trip and I was clueless. I am using her again for our upcoming trip to WDW and look forward it!

 

[SherylR]

I met her on the Disboards actually.
She's been a godsend. She's made every one of our reservations, booked our room, golf tee times, Bibbidi Bobbiddi Boutique, MNSSHP, etc. etc. She's been a wealth of information too.
Honestly, I wouldn't have known where to start without her. The only thing I 've had to do was our flights (Spirit - easy peasy) and rental car (at Disney which she directed us too).
We didn't pay any extra, but we didn't get any "deals" like you would with CAA or things like that.
We did get free dining so the total of our whole trip, including flights is $3000 for 4 people. Pretty sweet!
If we were to go to Disney again, I'd totally go with her.
We're already looking at Disney cruises...lol