Travel agent vs. direct book

[GrumpyBa*D]

Can someone explain the the pros and cons or the difference between booking directly with DCL or with a travel agency like small world, etc?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Can someone explain the the pros and cons or the difference between booking directly with DCL or with a travel agency like small world, etc?

There's no price difference booking directly or with a TA. Using a TA, there's the possibility that the TA will offer you some perks (photo packages, OBC) for booking through them.

If you use a TA, and there are any financial/room issues, your TA will be the one to deal with DCL about them, DCL won't talk to you in these cases.

If you are someone who like to be the one who handles all planning, you might want to book directly with DCL.

 

[tvguy]

There's no price difference booking directly or with a TA. Using a TA, there's the possibility that the TA will offer you some perks (photo packages, OBC) for booking through them.

If you use a TA, and there are any financial/room issues, your TA will be the one to deal with DCL about them, DCL won't talk to you in these cases.

If you are someone who like to be the one who handles all planning, you might want to book directly with DCL.

This is it in a nutshell.

For cruises I always use a TA. I get an expert in travel doing the work at no charge to me.
But, there are many on these boards we put great value in being in complete control of their trip and who have the time to do it.

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

There's no price difference booking directly or with a TA. Using a TA, there's the possibility that the TA will offer you some perks (photo packages, OBC) for booking through them.

If you use a TA, and there are any financial/room issues, your TA will be the one to deal with DCL about them, DCL won't talk to you in these cases.

If you are someone who like to be the one who handles all planning, you might want to book directly with DCL.

I agree with the above. We booked with TA to get the onboard credit but now to change anything/prepay tips/add anything you can't do on the website, I have to wait for my TA to respond to email and that is usually NOT that timely. I am an OCD planner though so a TA can be nice for some, just not me. I wouldn't use one again.

 

[darkwing818]

We always book directly with DCL, we enjoy having control over our reservations. I like knowing we can call DCL directly with questions, which we usually have some.

 

[kalc12345]

We booked with TA to get the onboard credit but now to change anything/prepay tips/add anything you can't do on the website, I have to wait for my TA to respond to email and that is usually NOT that timely. I am an OCD planner though so a TA can be nice for some, just not me. I wouldn't use one again.

This is why I don't ever use a TA. The little bit of OB credit isn't worth it to me. I like to be in control of my reservation. If I want to make a change I want to do it myself. Not have to wait on a TA to do it.

 

[tmrose03]

Will never go through a TA again, I am to hands on. And like others have said takes to long for anything to get done. I made a 3 min call and did what DU failed to do in almost 2 weeks.

 

[SunLuvr321]

We are leaving for our first cruise tomorrow. We did not book with a travel agent, but I did transfer our reservation to see what the travel agent thing was about. I have to say I am THRILLED with the travel agent and will use him again.

First off, I did get an on board credit, it was small, but it would've been larger if I had booked with them instead of transferring in. The magic of using a travel agent came about with the Florida Resident rates. A couple days after they came out I got an email from my agent. He got me an upgrade from an ocean view room to a veranda room, and a sizable refund. All I had to do was send DCL a copy of my driver's license to prove that I am a resident.

Another perk that I have only read about is that I will have a gift bag with helpful cruise items waiting in my stateroom. I transferred to Dreams Unlimited and this is one of their perks. I am not sure what is all in the bag, I will find out tomorrow.

I also stopped at the DISboard Welcome center yesterday and met some wonderful people from the DIS and Dreams Unlimited. They offer WiFi and complementary beverages to anyone who stops, have DISboard items for sale, and give nice gifts to Dreams Unlimited clients.

I have to say that I LOVED using a travel agent. It was so nice and easy. I will do it again. I had control over booking my excursions & signing up for things on the ship. I easily made payments on Dreams Unlimited's website. My agent always responded within 24 hours of me asking a question and sent me an email in advance when he went on vacation and told me who to contact if I needed to get a hold of someone while he was gone.

 

[MillauFr]

I used Costco because they gave me a $595 cash card. Like the others I would prefer to book directly with DCL too, but I was unwilling to forego the $595. Not sure why the cruise lines still bother to pay commissions to the travel agents. If you want to use a travel agent you should expect to pay for their services. If you don't use their services you should not pay.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

My first experience with a TA was not very good. Hard to get a response. Didn't feel like we were being taken care of per se. A few years later I became friends with a very nice lady online just in chatting about our Disney travel love. I was looking at trying cruising and she was very experienced. I asked her a bazillion and 1 questions which she always promptly answered very thoroughly. Just for all the time she spent so patiently and because we became friends I had her take care of our bookings that year. She never asked it, never even brought it up. At some point it felt like she was, on some level, my travel agent so why not? I never waited for responses to questions or requests. She was always right there! I've booked everything Disney with her since. Why? Because she's awesome like that! The best part, to me, is that I made a friend. She's not making a mint off of us. Instead of giving Disney Travel Company the commission dollars I'm routing those dollars to my friend. Feels good to help a fellow Disney travel lover get to their next adventure, too. Think of it as paying it forward.

Best perk ever, though: I gained a very dear friend. Can't beat that!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Personally, I love having a TA. I don't need changes to be made instantly & in 13 cruises on DCL I rarely have a question that requires an immediate response. (I work in a hospital; none of this stuff is STAT. lol!)
It's ok to find out tomorrow.

I find it especially great when I book a dummy date onboard & put her on it. Then when DCL is about to release new itineraries, I can simply email her my request in advance. I don't have to stress about it. I just come home from work and my email is there confirming everything I wanted. I don't have time at work to sit on hold then deal with a DCL rep that sometimes isn't very knowledgable.

I found a way around the only urgent thing I can think of. We decided to upgrade our Med cruise from deck 2 window with cat 10 for our kids across the hall to a secret verandah cabin with a cat 11 for our kids across the hall. There are only 4 secret verandah cabins on the ship & it's important to me that the kids are directly opposite us, not down the hall. I was afraid they might get booked by the time my TA could make the change.
I was able to put those desired cabins on a free 3-day hold, fax the TA transfer form to DCL, then my TA could capture these cabins and move them to our OBB reservation.
If I decide to add ground transfers to my res, prepay gratuities, whatever, I simply shoot out an email and it's taken care of.

A few years ago DCL was adding a fuel surcharge of a couple hundred $ to each reservation, then suddenly stopped for new reservations, not later dates, just newly booked. This meant not everyone on the same cruise was being charged the FS. My TA was able to have these charges immediately dropped off of my 2 booked cruises. There were lots of unhappy Disers here crying how DCL refused to remove the charges now matter how much pleading they did on the phone.
Back in those days, with only 2 ships & high demand, cruise prices would go up several thousand $$ between booking day 1 and the actual sail date so the only way to get around the FS would be to cancel & rebook which would be much more expensive.
For our Med cruise we'll have $400 in OBC from DCL plus another $400 from our TA. It will more than cover our gratuities so the fact that she pays me to enjoy her service is just icing on the cake.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

My first experience with a TA was not very good. Hard to get a response. Didn't feel like we were being taken care of per se. A few years later I became friends with a very nice lady online just in chatting about our Disney travel love. I was looking at trying cruising and she was very experienced. I asked her a bazillion and 1 questions which she always promptly answered very thoroughly. Just for all the time she spent so patiently and because we became friends I had her take care of our bookings that year. She never asked it, never even brought it up. At some point it felt like she was, on some level, my travel agent so why not? I never waited for responses to questions or requests. She was always right there! I've booked everything Disney with her since. Why? Because she's awesome like that! The best part, to me, is that I made a friend. She's not making a mint off of us. Instead of giving Disney Travel Company the commission dollars I'm routing those dollars to my friend. Feels good to help a fellow Disney travel lover get to their next adventure, too. Think of it as paying it forward.

Best perk ever, though: I gained a very dear friend. Can't beat that!

That's great. I'm not that close to my TA but we have chatted so long on the phone about traveling that I forget she's "working". We easily can talk for a 1/2 hour or more. She has even sent my kids Christmas gifts over the years such as a stuffed Captain Mickey, Mickey fleece blankets with their names embroidered, etc. She's not just a good TA but really a sweetheart too.