Travel Agent?

[Dani314]

Since I've joined like 2-3 days ago LMAO, this is like my third post. I'm not sure if I'm posting in the right thread, but considering how lost I am and how much information there is planning a trip, do you find it easier to plan yourself or go through a travel agent? What are the pros and cons? What all does the agent do for you and what are the costs/fees if any?

If you have any agent suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

 

[Schneewittchen37]

I consider myself a veteran Disney planner, but I've used Dreams Unlimited, the people who run these boards to help me when I'm doing a big trip with lots of people:
1. They don't charge extra. Same prices as Disney.
2. They will handle rebooking for discounts.
3. They will handle ADRs and answer random questions.

I just signed with them to do my first trip to Universal. I have no idea what I'm doing and I totally trust their experience to help me make the most of my trip.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I’d say if you’re inexperienced, then TAs are a good idea. Personally I like being in control of all my planning details, but if you’re not knowledgeable of the Disney ins and outs a TA can help. And they’re free.

 

[CastAStone]

If you find a travel agent who charges a fee find another travel agent. The people who own Disboards have a travel agency, if you click on Reservations (above on desktop, in the flyout menu on mobile) if you want to support them. I've heard good things.

I don't use them because I want to save the $ on discount tickets. But if you're inexperienced I agree with others that you can save a LOT of time by using a TA's experience instead of learning all 10,000 watchouts in planning a Disney vacation (particularly a WDW vacation, Disneyland is a bit easier).

 

[SL6827]

If you find a travel agent who charges a fee find another travel agent. The people who own Disboards have a travel agency, if you click on Reservations (above on desktop, in the flyout menu on mobile) if you want to support them. I've heard good things.

I don't use them because I want to save the $ on discount tickets. But if you're inexperienced I agree with others that you can save a LOT of time by using a TA's experience instead of learning all 10,000 watchouts in planning a Disney vacation (particularly a WDW vacation, Disneyland is a bit easier).

Do you know of any TA that offer discount tickets anymore? Right now, I know of none.

 

[Sue M]

Since I've joined like 2-3 days ago LMAO, this is like my third post. I'm not sure if I'm posting in the right thread, but considering how lost I am and how much information there is planning a trip, do you find it easier to plan yourself or go through a travel agent? What are the pros and cons? What all does the agent do for you and what are the costs/fees if any?

If you have any agent suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

I’d say yes, a good Disney certified TA is very helpful to guide you thru the maze, what offers are better for you, for instance free dining vs room discount. They know the moment discounts are released and are on line booking you those discounts.
If you need help with doing anything they can guide you or do it for you reguarding your vacay.
I prefer to book my own dining plans and fast passes but I have a TA book my room and airport transportation.
Only use a Disney Ear Marked agent. You’ll see a mouse ears on their web site.
There are many agents and I don’t know the rules about mentioning other agencies on this board as an agency owns Dis. But you can google.
One other thing, research is very necessary for a WDW vacay. My fav book I used when a newby was WDW The Unofficial Guide. They also have great touring plans that work.

Do you know of any TA that offer discount tickets anymore? Right now, I know of none.

Undercouver Tourist?

 

[nkereina]

Travel agents make their money through commissions off of what you book, so most will not charge a fee to you to book through them. They want to entice you to book with them, so charging a fee would deter that.

As mentioned, you will want to book with an authorized Disney planner like Dreams Unlimited Travel. These types of agents will often book your ADRs and FPs on your behalf and have the planning knowledge one needs to have a successful trip. A travel agent that does not specialize in Disney generally will not book ADRs and FPs for you, because they often don't have the knowledge and also won't want to spend the time since they don't earn any additional commission or it. TAs that don't specialize in Disney most likely are not aware of the nuances and timelines that go into planning a Disney trip.

 

[kylenne]

Since I've joined like 2-3 days ago LMAO, this is like my third post. I'm not sure if I'm posting in the right thread, but considering how lost I am and how much information there is planning a trip, do you find it easier to plan yourself or go through a travel agent? What are the pros and cons? What all does the agent do for you and what are the costs/fees if any?

If you have any agent suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

A good TA will do as much or as little as the client needs, tbh. I'm a veteran Disney visitor who is an A type planner that enjoys spreadsheets and the like, but I still use a TA largely to handle the administrative stuff. When all this COVID stuff was going down for example I didn't have to wait hours on the phone with Disney to cancel any of the things I had to call for and couldn't do online, our TA took care of it.

You'll see a lot of folks mention that they don't use TAs because they like to be "in control of the reservation" but the truth is with a decent TA that's not an issue. Ours is extremely prompt about returning emails. All she really does 99% of the time is take payments and give them to Disney, once in a while she will book things for me that I don't have time to take care of (like cabanas or spa appointments), but mainly I like having another set of eyes on my trips. Like when special offers and discounts become available, I don't have to be up at 4am, or whatnot, by the time I'm awake and checking my email with bleary eyes, she already applied the discount and I see an updated reservation.

 

[buzznina]

A good TA will do as much or as little as the client needs, tbh. I'm a veteran Disney visitor who is an A type planner that enjoys spreadsheets and the like, but I still use a TA largely to handle the administrative stuff. When all this COVID stuff was going down for example I didn't have to wait hours on the phone with Disney to cancel any of the things I had to call for and couldn't do online, our TA took care of it.

You'll see a lot of folks mention that they don't use TAs because they like to be "in control of the reservation" but the truth is with a decent TA that's not an issue. Ours is extremely prompt about returning emails. All she really does 99% of the time is take payments and give them to Disney, once in a while she will book things for me that I don't have time to take care of (like cabanas or spa appointments), but mainly I like having another set of eyes on my trips. Like when special offers and discounts become available, I don't have to be up at 4am, or whatnot, by the time I'm awake and checking my email with bleary eyes, she already applied the discount and I see an updated reservation.

THIS
We have 30+ trips under our belt and we have been using a "Disney" TA for the last half of them. People act like you lose a lot of control over your reservation but you really do not. You have to go through them to change your reservation dates or resort and to make payments and that's it. I still like to do my own ADRs, but if there is 1 that I cannot get, I will tell my TA and she will keep searching without me constantly doing it. And like Kylenne said, if a discount comes out our TA is on top of it first thing that day. One time a special came out and she had me rebooked before I even woke up You also can do a RO and buy discounted tickets elsewhere, like under cover tourist.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

We've never used a TA for just the two of us. When I have the whole clan of complainers and whiners I would use a TA just to have someone else to blame later (just kidding, TA's are great, especially Dreams Unlimited).

 

[hes122]

I've used the same TA on the last 3 trips.

- On trip 1, we booked the FPs (and maybe some ADRs, I can't remember) on our own, but our TA did everything else.
- On trip 2, the only thing we did was book FPs.
- On trip 3, she booked everything for us and then we modified dining plans as needed on our own.

Going into that first trip I wasn't sure how I'd manage not having control over everything, but I gotta tell you that it was no big deal at all. We had an opportunity to change our package to a Stay, Play & Dine discount and she did all the work for us. It made it a lot less stressful for me knowing someone else was taking care of those little details for us. On trip #3 she sent us a little care package of bottled water & fruit to the resort as a thank you, which turned out to be great because we had just been talking about wanting some bottled water right before we walked in the room to find it there waiting for us!

I would not hesitate to use her services again.

 

[Primeval Princess]

Since I've joined like 2-3 days ago LMAO, this is like my third post. I'm not sure if I'm posting in the right thread, but considering how lost I am and how much information there is planning a trip, do you find it easier to plan yourself or go through a travel agent? What are the pros and cons? What all does the agent do for you and what are the costs/fees if any?

If you have any agent suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

We can't just recommend any agency we want to, because it's against board rules. Disboards is sponsored by a travel agency.

 

[CastAStone]

We can't just recommend any agency we want to, because it's against board rules. Disboards is sponsored by a travel agency.

That’s not exactly right. Outside Companies can be mentioned so long as that company has not violated board rules in the past. People mention LMTC all the time for Disneyland, and there’s a whole pinned thread dedicated to Priceline deals. The rule is that you can’t advertise without buying an ad, you can’t generally post as a business, and if you mention a business to try to sincerely answer a question, you have to post a link to their site so the filter can determine if that site has violated board rules. If it comes up as all asterisks, you should edit your post to remove references to the business.
See:

Please note the following from the DISboards Guidelines:

FILTERED WORDS, NAMES and URLS
The DIS is a privately owned web site and we reserve the right to restrict any outside commercial ventures at our discretion. We will not discuss the reasons behind why specific websites are filtered and any discussion regarding the word filter may be deleted. If you have questions or comments about this or any other DISboards policy, you can address with the webmasters at admin@wdwinfo.com.
Click to expand...

Our rules state that when referring to a business, you must use the full URL. This allows our filter to identify and block the URLs of business that have violated our policies. Despite the fact that it seems to be well known that certain travel agencies and other businesses have been banned from these boards, we still see people using nicknames to get around the word filter and post about these businesses.

This is a violation of the board rules.

 

[Dani314]

We can't just recommend any agency we want to, because it's against board rules. Disboards is sponsored by a travel agency.

Got it, thanks

 

[Dani314]

I've used the same TA on the last 3 trips.

- On trip 1, we booked the FPs (and maybe some ADRs, I can't remember) on our own, but our TA did everything else.
- On trip 2, the only thing we did was book FPs.
- On trip 3, she booked everything for us and then we modified dining plans as needed on our own.

Going into that first trip I wasn't sure how I'd manage not having control over everything, but I gotta tell you that it was no big deal at all. We had an opportunity to change our package to a Stay, Play & Dine discount and she did all the work for us. It made it a lot less stressful for me knowing someone else was taking care of those little details for us. On trip #3 she sent us a little care package of bottled water & fruit to the resort as a thank you, which turned out to be great because we had just been talking about wanting some bottled water right before we walked in the room to find it there waiting for us!

I would not hesitate to use her services again.

I'm such a planner myself. In the past two trips we've taken, we've made stops in Gainesville for football games, so I planned from Monroe, LA to Gainesville, FL to Orlando, FL lol And I literally will crunch numbers, mileage, locations etc to make sure everything goes as planned, but I've learned NOTHING goes as planned. I think we'd benefit from having someone do it for us. And I'm excited that because we're doing the full package as far as resort, tickets and dining that we're going to have a head start on booking fast passes. We've yet to ride Flight of Passage. It's been fun learning as you go though.
Thanks for your feedback!

 

[Dani314]

A good TA will do as much or as little as the client needs, tbh. I'm a veteran Disney visitor who is an A type planner that enjoys spreadsheets and the like, but I still use a TA largely to handle the administrative stuff. When all this COVID stuff was going down for example I didn't have to wait hours on the phone with Disney to cancel any of the things I had to call for and couldn't do online, our TA took care of it.

You'll see a lot of folks mention that they don't use TAs because they like to be "in control of the reservation" but the truth is with a decent TA that's not an issue. Ours is extremely prompt about returning emails. All she really does 99% of the time is take payments and give them to Disney, once in a while she will book things for me that I don't have time to take care of (like cabanas or spa appointments), but mainly I like having another set of eyes on my trips. Like when special offers and discounts become available, I don't have to be up at 4am, or whatnot, by the time I'm awake and checking my email with bleary eyes, she already applied the discount and I see an updated reservation.

How often would you say you communicate with your TA? They're not going to add added stress right? LOL

 

[Doreenct71]

I’m planning my first trip back to WDW since 1994, and once I had my dates picked out and resort I found a certified Disney TA and she has been amazing. She will hold my hand through everything if that is what I desire, and it is. I’m not familiar enough with how ADR’s and Fastpass+ works so I have her a list and she is handling everything for me. I gave her my restaurant spreadsheet Monday so she can handle my ADR’s which are Thursday.
pin my opinion it isthe best thing I have done about my trip yet.

 

[hes122]

How often would you say you communicate with your TA? They're not going to add added stress right? LOL

If your TA is causing added stress, then you're all doing it wrong.

My TA contacted me:
- about a week or 2 before the ADR and FP windows opened (to see what we wanted)
- about 2-3 weeks before our final payment was due just as a reminder
- as time got closer to get our flight info so she could book ME
- about 2 weeks out from our trip because she makes travel binders for her clients (which are super helpful even if you know the ins and outs)
- maybe a day or two prior to the trip to wish us a magical vacation
- maybe about a week after we returned to see how things went

ETA: I contacted her a few times too to ask questions about room requests or things like that.

 

[Lynne M]

We can't just recommend any agency we want to, because it's against board rules. Disboards is sponsored by a travel agency.

That’s not quite the case. DISboards and WDWINFO are associated with the Dreams Unlimited agency, but we don’t stop discussion of other agencies.

There are some businesses, including some agencies, that cannot be discussed here because they have violated our rules for posting or advertising. We enforce that by requiring that any mention of any business be in the form of a URL. Our word filter can then scan the URL and remove mentions of banned businesses.

 

[Dani314]

If your TA is causing added stress, then you're all doing it wrong.

My TA contacted me:
- about a week or 2 before the ADR and FP windows opened (to see what we wanted)
- about 2-3 weeks before our final payment was due just as a reminder
- as time got closer to get our flight info so she could book ME
- about 2 weeks out from our trip because she makes travel binders for her clients (which are super helpful even if you know the ins and outs)
- maybe a day or two prior to the trip to wish us a magical vacation
- maybe about a week after we returned to see how things went

ETA: I contacted her a few times too to ask questions about room requests or things like that.

That sounds perfect. I just didn't know if they were like seeking your preferences and approval on like a weekly basis or not. Thank you!