who best to book with hotel or travel agent??

[janejakelibbyemma]

i am wondering which is best to book to stay onsite at disney, we are looking at the all star resorts, (but i would love to stay at animal kingdom), but ££'s is the ?, anyway do i book direct over the net with the hotel, then get my flights, or do we do the whole package, we plan to go march/april or october, and have 3 small children under the age of 5 when we travel, the youngest not yet being 2. any tips, thanks jane.

 

[gilld]

We have done both in the past. Sometimes it works out cheaper one way, sometimes the other way. Having a tour/TA deal with it all gives peace of mind. Peronally now, we tend to book our flydrive (we have DVC ownership ) through Virgin but don't use a TA...I prefer to do it direct with them.

I would suggest you search on the net, send e-mails for quotes etc and then decide. Remember when you get a price for accommodation, it's for the room and not per person.
Good luck.

 

[angel659]

Hi

We found booking it all seperately cheaper than a package with a travel agent.

We are flying with BA and booking it through disney.co.uk directly. This still works out alot cheaper. The flights have been compariable and sometimes cheaper than my travel and Virgin.

It does take a lot of looking around and searching.

Also expedia.co.uk have come up with some prices that have been good.

If you dont want to drive both airports offer shuttle buses that we found was good.

You can book your car seperately, but have a look around booking it directly with them in the US we found has worked out more expensive.

We know people who wouldnt book it seperately as you dont get a Rep out in America, but everytime we have stayed (All Stars Resorts) we have never needed them. Disney has been excellent in offering advice and the welcome meetings are pain and a waste of time, when you could be at a park.

I would also buy your tickets before you go, we thought it would be cheaper to get them directly due to the exchange rate, but it wasnt cheaper at all, infact ridiculously overpriced.

Good luck

Michelle

 

[Goofyish]

Another good option for booking on-site hotels is using DreamsUnlimited (travel agent associated with the DIS). I used them last year and was very impressed.

You get your own personal agent who will make your booking and then keep checking for any discount codes that may come along, right up until your trip date and will apply them to your booking automatically. We had WDW Annual Passes and we managed to get a 40% discount on our 14 day booking at POR, which saved us enough money to have our last 4 days at AKL savannah view and we still paid less than the original booking price for 14 days at POR

You agent will also book your PSs for you

Dreams Website:
http://www.dreamsunlimitedtravel.com/

 

[maureen4200040]

hi

My last 3 trips have been booked with travel agents (airtours, thomas cook) I only had a problem with thomas cook on my 2003 trip. Although it was eventually sorted in the resort, after having to chase their office everyday for 8 days to sort the problem out.

I found the rep's useless and everyone I spoke to came from everywhere around the world accept England. They had no idea of how Thomas Cook worked in England let alone their hours of work. In the end I got so angry about their lack of interest or help I phoned to speak to the manager, who I have to say listen and sorted the whole problem out within an hour of me calling. I was given 2 free tickets to seaworld for all the trouble cause by the reps, and $95.00 for all my expenses.

I'm planning to go again in May 2005 with my 12 yr old niece, but this time I'm doing all the planning myself. So if anything goes wrong I have only myself to blame.