Positive/negatives of using a travel agent when booking a package at WDW?

[kandb]

Going mid-January, 2026 with my two college aged children and want to stay at a value and get tickets and the DDP (I know the positive/negatives about DDP). Are there any benefits of using a travel agent? I have gone to WDW many times. Do travel agents ever get you a better deal?

 

[muppets3d]

they don't do anything you can't do yourself and they don't have access to pricing that you can't get on your own.

 

[Dave006]

Are there any benefits of using a travel agent? I have gone to WDW many times. Do travel agents ever get you a better deal?

Yes but only in helping you with information but only if they specialize in Disney vacations. No they have no access to special pricing or unique offers.

Dave

 

[Genie+]

We tried using a travel agent for WDW one time. For us the only difference was making changes less convenient. I can see how a TA might benefit other people, like a big party wanting help to book a wide range of things. I prefer keeping control of my reservation.

https://www.reddit.com/r/WaltDisneyWorld/comments/1iyrefe/booked_package_through_travel_agentany_way_to_get

^ This explains it better than I can lol

 

[gottalovepluto]

TAs nowadays don’t have access to better deals than the general public for WDW resort stays.

What they can do for you completely depends on the agent. They should have a decent amount of park knowledge to help guide you in your choices. Some offer to watch for discounts, in which case it is likely they get you rebooked before you even realize the discount is live. Some will also book things like dining for you when your window opens.

The downside is an agent owns your reservation so you need to go through them for payments or changes.

If you already know what you want and you’re Disney experienced, I wouldn’t switch to using a TA now. If you want to use a TA I would try to find someone others recommend. Even within the same agency there are good TAs and lousy TAs.

 

[ucf_knight]

Going mid-January, 2026 with my two college aged children and want to stay at a value and get tickets and the DDP (I know the positive/negatives about DDP). Are there any benefits of using a travel agent? I have gone to WDW many times. Do travel agents ever get you a better deal?

I’ve never used one for a wdw package but always use one for cruising. The only similar benefit I could think of that would translate over to wdw would be rebooking you if a cheaper price becomes available. We have literally saved thousands of dollars over the years with our ta when booking cruises as she has routinely rebooked us at better rates. Also if any issues arise it is helpful to be able to call/text/email your ta vs waiting on hold for a large corporation to solve your problem.

 

[Best Aunt]

If you're on here and you have more than 6,000 posts, then you probably know more about Disney World than travel agents who don't specialize in it.

 

[muppets3d]

I’ve never used one for a wdw package but always use one for cruising. The only similar benefit I could think of that would translate over to wdw would be rebooking you if a cheaper price becomes available. We have literally saved thousands of dollars over the years with our ta when booking cruises as she has routinely rebooked us at better rates. Also if any issues arise it is helpful to be able to call/text/email your ta vs waiting on hold for a large corporation to solve your problem.

Using a TA for cruises was really useful during the COVID shutdowns, I could email the TA and they'd take care of dealing with the cruise line vs. me needing to wait on hold for perhaps hours to deal with the cruise line directly.

But honestly since the COVID restart, cruising has been booming and price drops are rare.

 

[DizneyFamof4]

40+ trips and we probably used a Disney TA for a third of them and I would not hesitate to use them again. Yes, I can get everything they can, but there are times I do not want to spend my time searching the site. One of the best example was a few years ago I talked with our Disney TA and was hoping to reserve POFQ but they did not have any rooms with the discount left, so I took CSR. About 1-1/2 months later my TA called and said a room became available and she switched it from CSR to POFQ, I found out that she put in a note to look out for POFQ I have done this in the past and I also read so many posts where they are signing in daily checking availability at a different resort, so she saved me a lot of time. Also, they would send an email that had current closed rides during our stay, park hours, DS information, an email letting us know that our ADR window is coming up etc.
BUT, like posters mentioned it has to be a Disney TA
The real only con is that they have to make payments for you and that they control the reservation up until check-in day. For us, that did not bother us at all, and we still made payments using our GCs.

 

[gottalovepluto]

… only con is that they have to make payments for you and that they control the reservation up until check-in day. For us, that did not bother us at all, and we still made payments using our GCs.

Good time to remind folks while the TA must process the payment they do so via Disney so the charges will be from Disney with some sort of Disney related name, not the agency. (If your charge says the name of the travel agency or travel agent, cancel. That’s not a legit situation.)

 

[Robber Baron]

I like to handle things myself. I have used TA's a few times and I knew more about Disney than some of them.

I make a lot of changes and I prefer to do them on the spur of the moment rather than waiting for an answer from a TA.

Most times I have used a TA is because they were offering some type of agency exclusive.

 

[kandb]

If you're on here and you have more than 6,000 posts, then you probably know more about Disney World than travel agents who don't specialize in it.

Yes, been in this group almost 20 years and know alot about disney but only gone to disney twice in the last 6 years, as kids got older and we have slowed down our trips. Want to make sure nothing has changed as far as TA are concerned.

 

[kandb]

I like to handle things myself. I have used TA's a few times and I knew more about Disney than some of them.

I make a lot of changes and I prefer to do them on the spur of the moment rather than waiting for an answer from a TA.

Most times I have used a TA is because they were offering some type of agency exclusive.

OK, yes I agree, I like to have control of the reservations BUT if I got a good discount thru an agency, I would give up control. Lol.

 

[Norton figment]

I’ve only ever used to travel agent once and we only use them as there was a gift card bonus. We technically already had everything booked. They just transferred it to under them and then we got a $200 gift card. Everything else we did on our own they could’ve done it, but we knew it was easier to do it ourselves.

 

[jennab]

I prefer to be in control of my reservations and not have to wait on someone to get back to me on availability, pricing, and changes. The only times I used TAs were our first adult trip to Disney years ago and when some agencies used to offer exclusive offers that were less than direct through Disney.

I think it’s really just personal preference. Some people like having one contact who can do everything for them.

 

[kandb]

I’ve only ever used to travel agent once and we only use them as there was a gift card bonus. We technically already had everything booked. They just transferred it to under them and then we got a $200 gift card. Everything else we did on our own they could’ve done it, but we knew it was easier to do it ourselves.

Wow, where did you find out about the gift card offer?

 

[leebee]

The only time I use a travel agent is when I can't get a good hotel rate but don't want to monitor Disney myself, waiting for deals to drop- so I let my TA do it for me. I never use them to book dining- takes forever to make changes and such, as THEY own the reservation and are therefore the only ones who can make the changes. Usually the only way to get a ticket discount is to buy them from one of the outside companies (like UT or something), unless you have Disney VISA points you can use. Last time we needed to buy three park passes, DH opened a new DisneyVISA because the sign-on bonus for spending $1000 in 3 months was a $400 statement credit. We charged the tickets and used the statement credit against the cost (and paid the bill as soon as it was due).

 

[SL6827]

I would have to have a Dgcard or something thrown in for me to use a TA for WDW. Or a agency exclusive rate. But those rates are long gone.

 

[bluezy]

We've been going to Disney for over 20 years (10 trips) and I've used the same Disney TA for the last 9 trips (did everything on my own for the first trip). I will admit that based on things I've read about Disney TAs (or more likely many TAs who just *say* they're Disney experts) on message boards and FB, we definitely have a great one. She's always available -- if I text/email her a question or request, I usually hear from her in a few minutes unless it's a question that's not time sensitive and even then, it's usually within an hour or two. I like that she's the one who watches for new/better deals to come out and automatically takes care of applying those rates to our reservations. I usually wake up to an email from her with our new reservation info whereas people who take care of their own reservations have to watch for those rates to come out and then modify their own reservation to get those rates. It's a little easier to modify your own reservation now (it can be done online), but in the days where the only way to make a modification was to call Disney, it was a nightmare with wait times of well over an hour on days that discounts were released. I don't know if this is still true, but I know at times in the past, TAs had earlier access to the discount rates (by a few hours) so their clients had a better chance of getting those rates. And Earmarked or Authorized agents have/had a special phone number to call with more operators and far shorter wait times than non-authorized agents. That might not be accurate anymore. On our trip in 2018 (I think), a new discount came out that was not announced ahead of time -- even to TAs (they got notified a few hours ahead of time) -- and many people missed out on it because they weren't on social media that morning and the number of rooms available at the discount rate was very limited. Meanwhile, my TA sent me an email at 5:00 a.m. letting me know a surprise discount was released and she applied it to our reservation. And the biggest reason I use a TA is that I like to support small businesses whenever I can. Our TA owns the agency and has 9 agents working for her. They're located all over the country (all working from home), but our TA happens to live about 2 hours away from us. So yes, I could do everything myself; but I prefer to support a small business and not have to deal with the details of the reservations for our trip.

 

[_19disnA]

With virtually everyone having internet access, TA's aren't able to do anything you can't do yourself at home. Often you will spend more time explaining your preferences to the TA vs doing your own online booking. That relates to not only Disney resorts but ADR's or flights as well. Do you prefer a window/aisle seat, want to travel non-stop or at a particular time of day, check your baggage vs carry-on only? Do you want to spend extra to choose your own seats, have more legroom or sit nearer the front of the aircraft? A few of the obvious examples. The time it takes to communicate all of that is probably longer than doing it yourself.

Once your TA makes the reservation, the Disney phone people will no longer discuss it with you since you aren't considered the 'owner' of the reservation. Probably also likely your TA hasn't actually recently been to all of the various places where they can make reservations for you.