Would you give up $250 Onboard credit to control reservation?

[mahermusic]

OMG!!!! I should have just called direct and booked yesterday. Probably wouldn't have happened fast enough thru email anyway(TA). I just called to see if my 7a cabin was available. It wasn't they said they are 3 left AND price went up $300 from yesterday
Anyhoo shoulda booked ystrdy!!! But happy I finally did it and I'm sure price will go up again!
Kerri

Hi Kerri,

A lot of us use CruiseFish to keep track of our cruise pricing before, during and even after we book. It usually doesn't happen, but ONCE IN A WHILE... Disney will drop the cruise prices. You can pay for a "credit" ($0.99 per cruise category that you want to track), and this site will email you early in the morning if your cruise category either goes up or down.

On the morning of 2/20, MOST of the categories on the 2016 Wonder cruises went up. Here's our cruise:

http://www.cruisefish.net/finder.md?id_cruise=51026

The RED prices have gone up from when they were first offered. (Hover your mouse over the red prices to see historical pricing, and the dates they went up.)

Find your own cruise by using the finder on the left-hand side of the website. Choose ship, then destination, then date...and voila! There's all of your cruise's categories and current pricing. If you ever see a GREEN price, it means the price went down.

And again, if you buy a credit, and you get an email that your cruise category was lowered (and you're not paid in full yet...) you can call your TA (or Disney if you book through them) and you'll get a refund, or an OBC.

Hope this helps!

 

[alldiz]

Hi Kerri,

A lot of us use CruiseFish to keep track of our cruise pricing before, during and even after we book. It usually doesn't happen, but ONCE IN A WHILE... Disney will drop the cruise prices. You can pay for a "credit" ($0.99 per cruise category that you want to track), and this site will email you early in the morning if your cruise category either goes up or down.

On the morning of 2/20, MOST of the categories on the 2016 Wonder cruises went up. Here's our cruise:

http://www.cruisefish.net/finder.md?id_cruise=51026

The RED prices have gone up from when they were first offered. (Hover your mouse over the red prices to see historical pricing, and the dates they went up.)

Find your own cruise by using the finder on the left-hand side of the website. Choose ship, then destination, then date...and voila! There's all of your cruise's categories and current pricing. If you ever see a GREEN price, it means the price went down.

And again, if you buy a credit, and you get an email that your cruise category was lowered (and you're not paid in full yet...) you can call your TA (or Disney if you book through them) and you'll get a refund, or an OBC.

Hope this helps!

WOW thanks so much for this info. Funny when I first looked last week I could have sworn that I just had on the wrong cabin type. Now I see price went up on the 18th as well. Sheesh. 2x in about a week.
Happy I booked I'm Sailing on the 4/23/16 sailing and this is a school vacation that is not the normal week because of passover and I believe prices will skyrocket when DCL realizes that Easter week is not our vacation week.(NY)
Thanks again
Kerri

 

[TimeAndTide]

Anyone know how this works with concierge? I tried contacting one of the "big" Disney travel agents before our last cruise but she didn't get back to me for a couple of days so I just booked myself. Now I'm spoiled and I like taking advantage of all the concierge requests and "pre" requests. When I think about having to email and wait for a response, I get twitchy. When I think about the travel agent possibly missing "that" moment to make the request, I get twitchy. Not that I'm a control freak or anything. Lol.

 

[mahermusic]

Anyone know how this works with concierge? I tried contacting one of the "big" Disney travel agents before our last cruise but she didn't get back to me for a couple of days so I just booked myself. Now I'm spoiled and I like taking advantage of all the concierge requests and "pre" requests. When I think about having to email and wait for a response, I get twitchy. When I think about the travel agent possibly missing "that" moment to make the request, I get twitchy. Not that I'm a control freak or anything. Lol.

We're booked concierge on that above cruise through Small World Vacations. Received a contact back the very next day after the initial contact. Now that I have her email, a quick email to her elicits a response within the hour usually. From what I've read, concierge is 120 days prior for requesting, but you can send your email at midnight 125 days prior to get it there on time. Lots of posts about this. (I think this would be for the things that tend to go quickly, like cabanas on CC). I'm sure others will chime in here.

 

[TimeAndTide]

We're booked concierge on that above cruise through Small World Vacations. Received a contact back the very next day after the initial contact. Now that I have her email, a quick email to her elicits a response within the hour usually. From what I've read, concierge is 120 days prior for requesting, but you can send your email at midnight 125 days prior to get it there on time. Lots of posts about this. (I think this would be for the things that tend to go quickly, like cabanas on CC). I'm sure others will chime in here.

Yeah. That was my concern because I usually send in the request to the concierge team at midnight 125 days before just to make sure I'm at the top of the list. I wasn't sure if you could contact the concierge team directly if you go through a travel agent.

 

[mahermusic]

Yeah. That was my concern because I usually send in the request to the concierge team at midnight 125 days before just to make sure I'm at the top of the list. I wasn't sure if you could contact the concierge team directly if you go through a travel agent.

Yes, I believe you do....directly to concierge even if booking through TA.

 

[lbgraves]

You don't have to pay anything to track cruisefish yourself. It's fairly easy to do.

 

[MillauFr]

I would prefer if the cruise lines stopped paying commissions. The lack of transparency with commissions bothers me. It is very difficult to compare the level of service different agents are giving you versus how much they are charging for that service.

 

[bumbershoot]

I've booked a couple through AAA and once it's paid in full, it's yours

It wouldn't be. You just aren't needing to change things that don't require them to change. If you wanted to change cabins, etc, you would need to contact AAA.

I used a travel agent the first time but haven't since. By the time the agent got back to me, the category I selected went up more in cost than the OBC I got back. I also have a habit of changing the category/cabin number whenever I see one I like better and don't want to risk that being gone by the time the agent gets back to me. It's possible I just didn't have a great agent but I feel better booking and handling things myself now.

Yep, those sorts of changes would require the TA, if you booked through them. Must make sure your TA is available 24/7 (if there are any) to make SURE you can do last minute changes.

We got majorly lucky with our first cruise, because even though it took some time between me seeing a GREAT price on an upgrade to category V and them booking it, it did work. Lucky lucky lucky.

Anyone know how this works with concierge? I tried contacting one of the "big" Disney travel agents before our last cruise but she didn't get back to me for a couple of days so I just booked myself. Now I'm spoiled and I like taking advantage of all the concierge requests and "pre" requests. When I think about having to email and wait for a response, I get twitchy. When I think about the travel agent possibly missing "that" moment to make the request, I get twitchy. Not that I'm a control freak or anything. Lol.

Contacting shoreside works exactly the way it does without the TA. Again, it's nothing to do with finances and your cabin, so the TA doesn't have a hold on it.

 

[bumbershoot]

I would prefer if the cruise lines stopped paying commissions. The lack of transparency with commissions bothers me. It is very difficult to compare the level of service different agents are giving you versus how much they are charging for that service.

TAs should have the exact same price as the cruiseline, though. Especially with Disney (and Royal). They aren't charging us for their services. If cruiselines stopped paying commission, then we WOULD be charged. We aren't charged now. The cruiselines are.

 

[DannyDisneyFreak]

Take the on board credit and go with the TA. It's just as easy as calling the TA as calling Disney, if not easier.

 

[lmb80129]

I would go with the TA too but would caution that not all TAs are experts on Disney. We have a cruise booked with Costco and they have given me wrong information a few times. I would verify anything important to you with information on the web or ask questions here.

 

[MillauFr]

I would go with the TA too but would caution that not all TAs are experts on Disney. We have a cruise booked with Costco and they have given me wrong information a few times. I would verify anything important to you with information on the web or ask questions here.

Costco would probably have the most to lose if Disney stopped paying commissions. I would guess that 99% of the people booking with Costco are doing so just to get the 9% rebate. The people on the phone are nice and professional but they absolutely nothing about cruising.

 

[USFBullsFan2819]

We've now booked 2 cruises through Small World Vacations (with Sydney). I love being able to just email her and she gets back to me very quickly. I haven't had to call her at all for this go around. (Although she is available via phone if we wanted to!) Highly recommended.

 

[lisamarie12]

I usually book on my own. This is actually only the second time I have used a TA. I only use a TA if they are offering me something that I cannot get myself. We used DU this trip and it has been a fabulous experience. The travel agent assigned to me got back to me quickly and answered all the questions I had, even called me per my request. When it was time to book I had to wait a little for her to do the reservation and me to pay, whereas online it would have been instant. But it was only like 20-30 minutes, which is probably not really longer than if I were to have called Disney directly to book by phone. I was able to pay online and it went straight to Disney and got a Disney reservation confirmation almost immediately. The only other thing I have had to do through my TA was when I decided to change my room, but all that took was an email. I can select my own PAT, excursions, book my own Palo brunch and check in. Other than the initial booking, I have been able to do everything else on my own. AND I get OBC for letting them do it. If I weren't getting anything, I would not have done it, but its worth it for $200.

 

[cbnsoul]

I felt the same as the OP. I haven't used a travel agent in 10 years and never for a cruise. We had actually done an onboard booking for a future cruise which when we went on the Dream last year. We decided we wouldn't be able to use it prior to expiring and literally the NEXT DAY Disney changes it's rules and now has a longer window in which to use them. We decided to book the Fantasy for spring break 2016 and, to recoup a little of the money we would have saved using the OBB credit, decided to use Dreams Unlimited. I was anxious as I really prefer to have control of my trip and change things on a moment's notice (which I often do!) I have to say that the experience thus far has been wonderful. Really glad I booked yesterday too after going back and forth on deciding what cat to book - the prices jumped over $1000 for all cat's last night!!!!

 

[tup1830]

If a dollar saved is a dollar earned, then it'd be silly to pass up $200+ just to be able to call and wait (sometimes up to 45 min) to talk to disney directly...and that too for payment related questions.

You don't pay a penny more to an agent than you do disney directly...so you're just leaving money on the table by going "direct". you don't get better treatment, services, etc...actually if there was an issue, your agent would be on the phone fixing the issue, not you.

Finally, since people are now using disney vacation accounts, target disney gift cards, etc to save a buck here and there...what power do you get for $200+ that keep you from using an agent?

I think of it this way...that money can be used for some pretty nice treats...which create memories to me which i wouldn't get from being able to call disney myself.

 

[ClaraOgren]

This is the first time in my LIFE that I've ever used a TA. We want to stay a couple nights after the cruise to see Harry Potter World and I was so overwhelmed with all the options. Which resort offers which perks, what shuttles do I take where ... it was just a headache! Plus, I have several food intolerances and I was going crazy trying to figure out how to make sure I had safe food on board and what restaurants were safe on shore ... then I read about a food allergies knowledgeable TA, Lizzie with Pixie Vacations. Seriously, just having HER do all the leg work is a vacation in itself! hahaha It costs me nothing extra from what I would find online and I get the use of her expertise, her contacts and no waiting on hold or anything! LOVE it!! And if I got an extra $250 on top of it, why not?! I say take the $250 and run!!

 

[Footnotegirl]

I've never felt that I had any lack of control when booking my cruises through Dreams Unlimited? You still get full access to the Disney Cruise site and your reservation there, so you can do your own Palo, excursions, etc. at will, so I'm confused as to what 'control' I am losing?

 

[alldiz]

I've never felt that I had any lack of control when booking my cruises through Dreams Unlimited? You still get full access to the Disney Cruise site and your reservation there, so you can do your own Palo, excursions, etc. at will, so I'm confused as to what 'control' I am losing?

I guess the control I mean is (example)while I was waiting for reply I called DCL to c if the room I requested was even available in navigator verandah. Turns out inly 1 room left so I wound up grabbing it directly
Kerri