Vacation Planner or on your own?

[rroberts]

Would love your opinion's.

Our family travels to WDW about twice a year. In the past we have always done the planning and arrangements ourselves. This year we are doing a land and sea (and land again) trip in July. This will be only the second time we have used a vacation planner. The first time it was a family friend and there were many issues. But we learned a lot about how things work at Disney. Since then we have always done the planning ourselves. The last trip we had almost two weeks and three families. Worked great. I listen to a particular web podcast and they mention a travel company all the time. One of the folks is usually part of the crew doing the podcast. So I decided to use them on our cruise. Maybe I am expecting too much. But so far they gave us wrong pricing. Wrong info on passports. Had my 11 year old daughter as 11 months, which changes a lot. They also have not given any suggestions about booking anything on the cruise, like Palo. Should I expect more or should I just do the planning myself?

Our trip after this one is in December and we will have 4 families and about 20 people. I've been the coordinator for the multi family trips and am always presenting options and opinions. Since we have never done a cruise I was hoping the Disney planning company was going to do the same.

So should I just do the planning or should I not be so grumpy and trust the planners?

 

[fortheloveofminnie]

Well, I have never used a planner because I'm a control freak with exceptional organization abilities! But seriously, I don't think I would use a planner. I would stress more about the planner planning my vacation than I would about planning the vacation myself. But if you trust them (although it sounds like it's gotten off to a rough start) and are willing to give up control, go for it. But there are SO MANY Disney planning resources available it's unlikely you would really need a planner.

 

[TXGRMAMA]

To the OP, I think you have answered your own question. With the misinformation and mistakes by the "planner" you know you could do a better job yourself. You are going to stress yourself completely if you let that person continue. Take back your vacation.

 

[mickeynut1]

I agree with PPs that you should do it yourself. We are taking our first Disney cruise in December and although my DH and I have cruised in the past, it's been 21 years since our last cruise so I kind of feel like a newbie. But with that said, I have found some great information on the Disney cruise boards about the cruises, passports, etc. and as the pp's have said I would be more stressed out wondering what a vacation planner was doing for me than for me to research and do things myself (especially if he/she got ages wrong and gave out incorrect information regarding passports). If you have the time to research, I would do all the planning yourself. Good luck.