What can a travel agent do for me at WDW?

[Carol_]

Having never used a travel agent for a WDW trip, I’d like to know what they can do for me that will help me save time and/or money.
Fill me in.

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

I use a US TA because she immediately applies any discounts as they arise. She also booked a split stay Bounceback for me during a trip, meaning that I didn’t waste valuable park time on the telephone.

 

[Carol_]

What about ADRs and tours and horseback riding or scuba diving or other weird things? Boat rentals... fishing excursions... swamp boat rides...?

 

[Carol_]

This site is run by a travel agency, sooo

 

[Meglen]

The way I look at travel agents for disney. They can do everything you can do on the website without you wasting time on it. Need to contact about a new discount they will call and be on hold for 30 min-2hours ( times can get crazy). You want ADRs they will book them for you when the time comes up at 6am. So if you dont care who does the work than they can do it. If you dont want to be scoping out deals and discounts everyday to be in the "know" they have your back. And they dont cost a thing, Disney pays them for the commission.

 

[wishing4PA]

Having never used a travel agent for a WDW trip, I’d like to know what they can do for me that will help me save time and/or money.
Fill me in.

I haven't used one for any of my trips either. That said, I usually go low end or with someone else, and I enjoy planning everything myself to the extent that I considered becoming a Disney travel agent myself, but the times I was ready to do it weren't the same times I'd just taken enough trips to feel like an expert lol.
My personal view is they are more likely to save you time than much money, though as someone pointed out above, a good Disney travel specialist is going to be aware of discounts when they come up and might be able to apply one to your trip that you didn't even notice was out there, b/c you were out living life and Disney travel isn't your job.
And if you aren't someone who wants to obsessively plan every detail of your own trip, they can help with that aspect and save you hours of looking at all your options on the Disboards and Disney's site.

 

[The WDW 3]

We used one for our last trip (not dreams unlimited) and it did Absolutely nothing for us, other than having to make more phone calls than we would have to begin with.

 

[RogueX]

As a former travel agent, I offer this piece of advice: go with an agency that specializes in Disney. Where I worked, the commissions paid out were so low from hotels and airlines, we would spend beyond xx amount of time on restaurant reservations, etc. for Disney or any other trip like that.

The agency specialized in consolidated airfares and group bookings, which is how they stayed afloat as long as they did.

 

[ForceofWill]

I used Dreams this time for our Universal trip, not because they're saving me more money or time but since it costs me nothing I would rather someone get a commission help out the company.

They've been great and whenever I have a question it's answered with much more info than I thought I needed but inevitably wanted lol.

 

[R&RsMom]

I used a TA this trip (October) because we need three rooms, and I did not want to have to deal with having to apply potential discounts to all three rooms myself. She put in our room requests and made our Magical Express ressies. We actually got a small room discount from the agency itself (which may be the only one we get, given how many resorts are booked solid for our dates). I did our park reservations and will do our ADRs. She is very responsive, and I will use her again.