Re: Planning-who to use?

[Merryweather]

Go ahead and book yourself, it's just as easy and your not paying anyone for the service.

Whoa.........I don't think any of the Disney TA groups mentioned on this thread charge for their services.

I used to love doing my own reservations but Disney have really cut down the number of rooms available. I don't have the hours to spend on the phone calling every day to see if they have either Florida Resident or APholder rates available for each day of my trip.

 

[Tahoenge]

I love AAA, they actually offer tips to save money if you ask for help.

 

[Disney Planner Mama]

Another vote for Small World Vacations -- they are fantastic, quick to respond, pleasant to deal with. They've saved me lots of money and even more aggravation.

 

[Cory's Gal]

Another Small World Vacations user here. I had great service and it was so nice having to watch for codes! Both trips we were able to get discounts on! Nikki was great getting me my ADRs all lined up and was very quick in responding to emails with questions!

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

Any recommendations for travel agencies? Or is it better to use Disney Travel directly? Trying to book December 2008...

AAA chicago is who i use.
we have used AAA for 3 WDW vacations and 2 DCL cruises. we were has happy as you can get. if there was a discount she always got it for us.

 

[RJD]

Small World Vacations is great!

 

[safetymom]

Just a reminder that you are not allowed to mention that you are a travel agent on the resorts board.

If you would care to share the name of your favorite travel agent please do it in a PM. No need to post that you are sending a PM. It looks like you are trying to get around the rules. Thank you for your cooperation.

 

[oliviansmom17]

Wow! Thank you all for your responses! What a huge help...I haven't been offered the type of room I'd like by Disney direct- I've booked on my own several times in the past but haven't encountered something like this before. It never seemed to be an issue- are resorts booking up that quickly for '08?

 

[Guzzi]

We used Magic for Less last summer and was very happy with thier service. I just emailed them this morning for quotes for next summer

Any recommendations for travel agencies? Or is it better to use Disney Travel directly? Trying to book December 2008...

 

[Hoopfamily]

Whoa.........I don't think any of the Disney TA groups mentioned on this thread charge for their services.

I used to love doing my own reservations but Disney have really cut down the number of rooms available. I don't have the hours to spend on the phone calling every day to see if they have either Florida Resident or APholder rates available for each day of my trip.

i never said the Ta's on this board charge, but some do. Price is not my reason for doing it myself, I just think it's way more fun to do insane amounts of research to get the most out of my vacation.

 

[WeRblam]

I would never ever use a travel agent again to book a disney vacation. I had an experence this week where I wanted to change my resort from All Star Sports to Pop Cent. When we called Disney ourselves, they were more than willing to switch our resort until they found out we booked with a travel agent. Apparently, when you book though a travel agency they own the booking so our travel agent had to call Disney herself. She was not happy about our request so needless to say she would not make the necessary phone calls.

In the end, my husband make several phone calls over a 6 hour period being transfered from person to person. Finally one sweetheart of a women at Disney called our travel agent to verify that a change was made.

Calling ourselves in the beginning to book our trip would have saved major frustration and wasted time. Sometimes travel agents just won't work for you.

Disney was wonderful and went over and above to make our vacation the most enjoyable it could be.

I don't know why your TA would balk about changing your resort? Something doesn't seem right you are switching for a value to another value so its not like she losing commission on the sale .... I don't know what the problem would be. For the most part, if you are looking for someone to do the "grunt" work as someone else mentioned, by all means use a TA. You will not pay extra (if they ask you to, find someone else) and they will provide you with top-notch sevice, especially TA's that specialize in Disney. They will keep on top of rate codes and can call at the ungodly hour for your CRT ressies...
If your the type that hates to delegate or leave the control for someone else - then booking it on your own is the way to go!