What is the best way to book the trip?

[Rustysmom]

I'm not sure if this is in the right forum or not, but I was wondering what was the best way to book our trip? Through Disney's website, calling them or using a travel agent? What do you do?

We are hoping to go in august to the Caribbean Beach Resort.
I got a quote from Dreams Unlimited, and it was exactly the same as I got from Disney's website. Are there any benefits with going with a travel agent?

I haven't been to Disney in 10 years, so it's all a little confusing.

 

[pepe of ohio]

We've been to the world over 38 times and always book over the phone with CRO. They make all our extra reservations, they tell us whats going on, very helpful. If you get a broken english speaking CM, call back, we have never had a bad CM per phone, always got what we asked for and no complaints upon arriving. Really no need for a TA, we get it straight from the horses mouth, CM, and not some gibberish from some non disney TA. We've booked annual pass discount, AAA discount, had flexible dates and resorts ready in case things were jammed, put holds on rooms until we worked out all the plans and then called back, finalized, and sent in our deposit. Easy peasie, up and easy!

 

[pcgmom]

I learned last year that you can book through Disney and get your AAA discount on your room, but if you want to book a package and get a AAA discount, you have to go through AAA travel. We did end up using a AAA travel agent, and it was a great experience. You do not "own" your reservation, so your agent has to contact Disney to make any changes. Our agent did make a few changes for us and was very easy to work with. Although I did not love the idea of not being able to call Disney on my own and make these changes, it was not a big hassle to go through the travel agent. Using our AAA discount, we saved about as much money as the dining plan cost. Based on the experience we had with our AAA agent, I recommend this process. Good luck and Happy Planning!

 

[Rustysmom]

We don't have AAA anymore, so I guess we might as well book straight through Disney then.

Thanks!

 

[pcgmom]

Rustysmom,

Not to push for AAA again, but you might want to look at the cost to join and then compare prices. You might end up saving more than the cost of your membership if you use the AAA discount. We use our discount every time we can, so we definitely get our money's worth.

 

[mtmbyck]

I might also add that after you make your reservations with CR, continue checking this site and others for specials the Disney introduces because we found out that Dinsey had introduced an upgrade to our passes during the period we were booked for and had I not called to confirm whether they were changing our passes to the upgrade, I am not sure they would have. You might be hitting it at a time when they start offering Dining with your package at no additional chanrge but I doubt that would be advertised or decided yet!!

 

[hvivona]

We used smallworldvacations.com and love them! Best part--its free. Our agent is Missy Beaverson. She has made all of our travel arrangements and dining reservations for us. She is so super flexible and easy to get in touch with whenever we need to make a change or addition. Plus she saved us $300 already by finding some discounts for us!

 

[Fairydust.Indy]

You might want to consider renting DVC points from a DVC member.

 

[Rustysmom]

Thanks for all the ideas.

I requested a quote from Small World vacations this morning, but I haven't heard back from them yet.

I was thinking of rejoining AAA to get the discount, but DH doesn't want to.

Thanks for the idea of renting DVC points, but I don't think we could use them for the CBR, and that's really the only place we want to go this time.