Travel Agency, DVC, or my own planning?

[SusanMomOf2]

What is the best way to plan a trip to Disney?

We're Florida residents, but may fly since we're 7 hours away in driving time.

We're also military and would probably stay at Shades of Green for discount purposes.

The trip will be me and my 2 DD ages 6 and almost 2 this December.

Should I book my resort rooms, flight, and tickets separately? Should I go through a travel agency? Should I look into the Disney Vacation Club?

I'm excited

 

[all4fun]

We are DVC members but our last trip we did not stay at a DVC resort because we wanted to take advantage of the free dining offer (in September). We booked through Dreams Unlimited and they were really great. You can go to their site, fill out the form for a free quote and there is no pressure to buy thru them but we found they gave us the best deal. You can also go through the Disneyworld site to price out a trip on your own just for comparison if you want. If you're interested in DVC then I recommend going to the DVC boards here for information and you can go to www.disneyvacationclub.com and order a free dvd or take an online tour if you want. We love DVC and think it is definitely worth it, but we also love to vacation at disneyworld so we get lots of use out of it.

Another site I recommend looking at is www.mousesavers.com and make sure you sign up for the free newsletter.

hth!

 

[laceemouse]

Personally, I have never felt the need to use a travel agent. For folks who have no time/desire to keep abreast of what is going on at WDW it may be ideal, but I enjoy keeping up with what specials are being offered, etc., myself. If you are going to stay at SOG you can book that yourself. We are retired GC and I can tell you that SOG also has about the best prices available on tickets. Where do you live? We lived in Florida for many years and we would always drive, in fact, we still prefer to drive even from Dallas (and previosly Chicago!) We just like taking our time, having our own SUV, ect. If you want to fly I am pretty sure you can get a great deal just doing it yourself, you don't need a TA to do that for you. After that, I just use ***************** by the UG folks to decide which park/which day and I read the UG and these boards to decide where we want to eat. I call and schedule the meals myself, no biggy and I like doing it. Friends of ours are at WDW now. They used a TA who did get the free food for them (they would not have know about it otherwise) but the TA did not do any other scheduling for them. I helped them decide which meals to book and my friend called and did it herself. Again, I don't think you need one if you use these boards, read the books, etc. Why are you interested in DVC? Do you want to buy in or are you interested in staying in a DVC unit? It costs tens of thousands of $$$ to buy DVC, but you can stay in a DVC unit either by booking through Disney or renting points. It costs WAY more that SOG, or any other hotel for that matter, so it just depends on your budget. HTH!

 

[laceemouse]

What is the best way to plan a trip to Disney?

We're Florida residents, but may fly since we're 7 hours away in driving time.

We're also military and would probably stay at Shades of Green for discount purposes.

The trip will be me and my 2 DD ages 6 and almost 2 this December.

Should I book my resort rooms, flight, and tickets separately? Should I go through a travel agency? Should I look into the Disney Vacation Club?

I'm excited

Just wanted to add, if you are talking about December 06 you are most likely out of luck. SOG fills up at least 6 months to a year ahead of time. Even for staying at another Disney hotel you are probably too late, depending on the dates and where you want to stay. DVC members plan their trips way in advance also. If you are talking Decemeber 07 I apologize. SOG can get you a pretty good rate at another Disney hotel when they are full, but the number of these rooms are limited. You would also have a hard time booking the meals you want for December if you called now. People make ressies for sitdowns up to 6 months in advance.

 

[SusanMomOf2]

Awesome replies, thank you for your help. I saw the rates for the other resorts, and then I saw Shades of Green... yeah... I booked it. LOL.

We live in the Fort Walton Beach / Destin area of Florida. Driving is definitely an option.

 

[laceemouse]

Wow, you got SOG for this December! Great! Now start planning!! Ft Walton is an easy drive, I wish we lived so close!!

 

[SusanMomOf2]

I ended up getting it for late November. When I saw how booked it was, I about fell off the couch! I am LUCKY to have gotten a solid 5 nights that close to Christmas. And I was ALSO LUCKY to get reservations for Cinderella's Castle for dinner of the night we get there which was their last reservation for our entire stay. I am thoroughly excited. (I made the decision to do this vacation THIS morning. It's been in the back of my head for months, but it hit me... just do it.)

I'm glad to have met fellow Disney lovers!

Hugs,
Susan

 

[mcgrawfan]

You can also look into renting points from a DVC member. We have done that the last 2 trips and have been able to stay deluxe for a fraction of the regular cost. There is a DVC renting board on the Dis you can look at if interested.

 

[lsjones]

In the past we purposely waited until shortly before we were going to go knowing that SOG would be completely booked because they will book rooms through disney for you at a discounted rate. We were able to get AKL for a really good deal that was way below what disney was offering.
This time we booked our on site through AAA and got our plan for 200+ less than booking the same vacation through disney, and the travel insurance is the same disney offers and it was like 40 bucks cheaper.

 

[Deb & Bill]

You can also look into renting points from a DVC member. We have done that the last 2 trips and have been able to stay deluxe for a fraction of the regular cost. There is a DVC renting board on the Dis you can look at if interested.

But for Oct through Dec, you'll need to get with a member 11 months ahead of time to get that reservation you want. Most members book at least 10-11 months ahead of time for those times of the year.