Travel Agent recommendations?

[EilonwyWanderer]

Hey everyone,

If you use a travel agent, who do you use and are you happy with them? We used a travel agent for the first time yesterday for the new fall 2018 cruise bookings and...well, uh, I am left deeply unhappy about it. The whole experience was (and continues to be today) INCREDIBLY frustrating, with me getting a lot more and better information than the TA is giving us HOURS later. Is that just how these things go, or did we luck out and get the worst TA ever?

 

[undertheradar]

Hey everyone,

If you use a travel agent, who do you use and are you happy with them? We used a travel agent for the first time yesterday for the new fall 2018 cruise bookings and...well, uh, I am left deeply unhappy about it. The whole experience was (and continues to be today) INCREDIBLY frustrating, with me getting a lot more and better information than the TA is giving us HOURS later. Is that just how these things go, or did we luck out and get the worst TA ever?

Not knowing who you are working with, we use Eileen Smith @ Dreams Unlimited. Release days are always crazy. TAs spend hours getting quotes and then turning them around for clients. There are more silver castaway members, so that release date would have been very busy.

Things will settle down to normal by the start of next week, since 3 day holds will expire from all of the opening day inquiries.

 

[lanejudy]

Being that yesterday was opening day for Silver CC bookings, it's highly possible your TA was extremely busy booking for multiple clients. TAs who do a lot of DCL bookings are often unavailable for questions on opening day; they are literally spending all day on the phone with DCL and then trying to get quotes back out to their clients.

Has your TA always been a challenge for communication? Or just yesterday? If this is a totally new relationship between you and the TA, you might want to give it a bit of time. See how s/he responds over the next few days. I wouldn't write her off as the worst TA ever just based on slow response time on one day.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

You're right, it's possible she was just busy and I am being impatient. We do know some other people who were booking with the same agency (different person) and were getting replies in minutes, though, whereas ours took hours and didn't actually give us the quotes we asked for (we got one quote for the wrong category instead). I know yesterday was probably overwhelming for everyone that was trying to book something. I'll see how it goes in the next couple of days while we're finalizing details.

 

[Mrslissaaa]

I went thru AAA for my first cruise. I got great service. Place holder is a different story. She all but told me she no she couldn't help me. She was completely unaware about booking on opening day. I ended up on the phone with DCL twice. The first time I entered my placeholder reservation #. Disney would even give me quote because AAA owned the reservation. Call back and didn't use my placeholder. I put one on hold and contacted AAA. They have to switch it over. I still don't have any payment information. I used dreams unlimited to book my second cruise in September and so far they have been amazing. I'll be using them from now on.

 

[lanejudy]

Call back and didn't use my placeholder. I put one on hold and contacted AAA. They have to switch it over.

FYI... I don't think they can apply the placeholder benefits to a reservation you made separately. The placeholder has a reservation number itself, and that reservation must be used to maintain those benefits. I'd be either on the phone or sitting in AAA's office insisting they sort this out. If they call today the rates probably haven't changed since yesterday, unless you were booking one of the new special itineraries. If you want a specific stateroom that you booked yourself, they should be able to resolve that but they need to get the placeholder booked to your actual cruise date first.

Enjoy your cruises!

 

[iivye]

I think you got a bad TA. My TA has always been very prompt in returning my calls/emails and I have never received bad information. I would consider using someone else.

 

[Dug720]

I think you got a bad TA. My TA has always been very prompt in returning my calls/emails and I have never received bad information. I would consider using someone else.

Yeah, if I used travel agents I would not tolerate that.

Hopefully if you booked the one you have will release it to you. Or if you aren't overly attached to your cabin, book a totally new reservation with another agent and cancel the one you booked with the unresponsive one.

 

[MSPeeler]

I had the most wonderful experience using my first TA for this cruise. I used Allison Thomas-Reeves [goes by Ally] with Dreams Unlimited. Very quick to answer emails, I had a question about moving rooms, categories, switching people in rooms, making sure we had a pull down bunk, etc, back and forth in about 20 emails (LOL, my fault) and she did it all yesterday within a couple of hours. Very happy with her. We are booked, confirmations received and ready to go! NOW THE WAIT BEGINS.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

This board is owned by Dreams Unlimited and they don't like to give face time to the competition (understandably), so it's possible you won't see many recommendations here outside that agency.

 

[MSPeeler]

This board is owned by Dreams Unlimited and they don't like to give face time to the competition (understandably), so it's possible you won't see many recommendations here outside that agency.

True, I didn't even try to contact anyone else since I got a quick response from my TA though, LOL

 

[Stinkerbe11]

I have used DU in the past and overlooked minor issues. Last month I specified what I wanted and was given a quote that was $3,000 more than what I had asked for (I wanted OGT on the 11 night Southern and was quoted a regular Oceanview with no mention of *GT being available). I want a TA who is looking out for me & I don't feel this particular agent put much thought/research into that quote.

Dreams does have a very generous OBC but if I want something specific or time sensitive, I just book it myself.

 

[Dug720]

I have used DU in the past and overlooked minor issues. Last month I specified what I wanted and was given a quote that was $3,000 more than what I had asked for (I wanted OGT on the 11 night Southern and was quoted a regular Oceanview with no mention of *GT being available). I want a TA who is looking out for me & I don't feel this particular agent put much thought/research into that quote.

Dreams does have a very generous OBC but if I want something specific or time sensitive, I just book it myself.

This sounds like the agent who responded to me when I pondered giving a travel agent a chance. I was very specific about which CABIN I wanted (and I knew it was available when I sent the request - and I gave her in priority order in case the first one got booked prior to her getting back to me), but the quote the agent sent me didn't even consider that category of cabin but she immediately assumed I must have really wanted a verandah and went there. I'm sorry, but if I wanted that category, I would have asked for it. It seemed pretty clear that either she didn't read my email or did and figured she'd just bump things up so her commission would increase. Either way, it was enough to convince me that it's not worth the hassle.

 

[Chica1581]

Costco. Love them. Agent sat on hold with me for an hour yesterday until she got a hold of DCL. She booked it with the cabin I requested. Since we had booked with Costco before she already had all our info. She was so polite and even said she enjoyed the Disney music that played while she was on hold. Plus, I'll get a Costco cash card after the cruise.

 

[Stinkerbe11]

This sounds like the agent who responded to me when I pondered giving a travel agent a chance. I was very specific about which CABIN I wanted (and I knew it was available when I sent the request - and I gave her in priority order in case the first one got booked prior to her getting back to me), but the quote the agent sent me didn't even consider that category of cabin but she immediately assumed I must have really wanted a verandah and went there. I'm sorry, but if I wanted that category, I would have asked for it. It seemed pretty clear that either she didn't read my email or did and figured she'd just bump things up so her commission would increase. Either way, it was enough to convince me that it's not worth the hassle.

I am kicking myself a little for giving up $600 OBC, but I was panicked at the time that the OGT rate wouldn't last. In my mind losing the OBC was better than paying the price difference for the room.

 

[Hubie]

We have used Jodie Ball with Small World Vacations, Inc. for 4 cruises with DCL. She has been wonderful and you get onboard credit from Small World based on the price of your cruise (example $6000 cost gets you $150 onboard credit). They also decorated our cabin last time.

 

[Samar]

I am not sure if I can name names but my TA has been fantastic. She knew the dates and criteria I had in mind so was able to hold everything for me to confirm.

 

[MrsStefEdwards]

Jana with Dreams Unlimited is our favorite- hands down.

 

[JWG]

We've used both Dreams Unlimited and Small World Vacations.
I prefer using a Disney focused TA for Disney trips, especially cruises where opening day bookings are important.

 

[rantnnravin]

I've used several: DU, AAA, an agent who isn't allowed to be named, a local agent who is also on DIS, a large-national travel agency chain, Costco, and now finally I've just become an agent because no one can can it quite as right as i can.