Using a travel agent?

[KrazeeK120]

A certain travel agent offers agency exclusives certain times of the year that has better deals than DVC rentals.

I’m the OP...I’ve found that agencyband am stalking them for when their exclusive rates come out for my dates (or dates close to what I’ve planned...our dates are flexible).

 

[CrankyDad]

TA is dead. Over with. Do a little leg work yourself. Save money and the hotels will treat you better

 

[stitchfan18]

I don't know if this is true but one time on a group booking we were upgraded to a suite at Poly, one time at BWI we were offered a paid upgrade to CL, and one time we were upgraded from std to GV room at BWI. So I don't think that booking through a TA with a group rate ruins your chances of a better room location.

I always have the TA make room requests. Sometimes we get them, and sometimes we don't, but we have never had a 'bad' location.

We had the same experience over spring break this year when we booked an agency exclusive offer. We were upgraded from SV at The Contemporary to a tower MK view room. I’m sure there were many others they could have upgraded that paid much more for their room, so i’m not sure how we got chosen, but it was wonderful!

 

[TIS Grandma]

I used a TA for our January trip. I booked 3 rooms (only) at Pop and it was almost $300 less PER room than booking through Disney. I'm pretty travel savvy and never use a TA normally.

 

[KrazeeK120]

TA is dead. Over with. Do a little leg work yourself. Save money and the hotels will treat you better

I disagree. I've gone on several Disney vacations - some through a TA and some not. I've never noticed any difference in how I was treated. In fact, the trip where I was treated the best (upgrade from BWI standard view to cottage suite CL) was booked through a TA.

Also, I'm not sure how I could save more than the agency exclusive rates on my own.