Who to book through?

[Lees75]

Who do you all book your WDW holidays through? Do you book it yourself on the WDW website? Or is there a good Australian agent?

I went to the USA travel expo a few weeks ago and asked the Creative Holidays guy why I would book with them and not WDW. He said two reasons:
1. The travel agents they work through (ie. Flight Centre) will help you, sort problems, etc.
2. Because they have their Disney rooms on 5 yr leases, they are sometimes cheaper.

I'm wondering with our dollar losing value, whether it might be cheaper to book locally, rather than WDW.

We aren't going until Oct 2014, but I am a planner I'm hoping to stay at POP for 7 nights, 8 days. Not fussed about the dining plans.

 

[AussieCaribou]

When I travel to DL/DCA, I book it myself because I grew up not far away and feel comfortable with booking it.

When we did our WDW trip, I went to a US based Disney travel expert (because they watch the specials for you and knew what they were doing) and I could pay installments (which helped with making it feel like I was spending less). It was wonderful and smooth!!!! Happy to supply details if you PM me.

I have not tried Disney trip booking over here since my first trip back to the states after moving here (that was nearly 17 years ago)... It was a terrible experience and I won't do that again. I am sure that things have improved but...no.

The one book that I found most useful was Passporter for WDW. Excellent advice and information.

Happy planning!

 

[Toy Story]

I have booked directly with the WDW site on both trips. When promotions came out I rang up and had them applied to my trip.

I think it is what you feel comfortable with.

 

[Jadeey]

I used Dreams Unlimited Travel (sponsor of these boards). They are an American firm but happy to deal with overseas people as well.

My agent has been so patient with me despite my endless questions (it'll only be my second trip and I can't really remember the first it was so long ago). Plus she's taken care of ringing up to book dining reservations and a couple of tours for me which has been great so I don't need to make the toll calls.

The other great thing is that they are aware of every upcoming discount and apply it to your reservation for you so you get the best price without having to constantly monitor whether discounts are coming up.

 

[DizOz]

We have used Dreams Unlimited 3 times now and have had a great experience each time. The best thing is they will do the little things like keeping an eye out for discounts and free dining and change your booking to take advantage of them.

Their prices are exactly the same as booking directly with Disney unlike any Australia TA we have tried to use.

We communicate with our appointed agent by email, most times they get back to us same day or worse case within 24 hours even on weekends.

The past two trips has saved us thousands of dollars with DU making changes as they became available.

 

[ssour]

This thread from a few weeks ago was about an Aussie travel agent but included some other options as well http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3146456&highlight=magical+mouse+holidays

I guess it depends on how much time you have to invest in the holiday and the research. Since you're looking at WDW, a travel agent can do all the hard work for you and save you sifting through endless amounts of information, if they know what they're talking about any way!

 

[RachelleBeaney]

I'd say it depends on the kind of trip planner you are. I saw a great article on this very conundrum on MiceChat the other day:

http://micechat.com/42002-authorized-disney-vacation-planner/

I won't go into too much detail as the article says most of it, but it really depends on how much control you want to have over your vacation. If your the kind of person who can't stand not knowing every little detail of the planning of your trip, perhaps book yourself, if you'd like to let all the planning just happen and not have to worry about it - use a travel agent. Although, i'd say use a specialist Disney Travel agent not just a general travel agent as they will have so much more of a wealth of information about Walt Disney World than any normal travel agent will.

I have done it both ways and would concede that for me (because I am a bit of a control freak) doing my own bookings usually makes me feel better as i'm in control more.

However, for my trip in Nov I opted to use Dreams Unlimited Travel (affiliated with the DIS) and have found that wonderful too, mainly because the time difference from Australia to the US can sometimes be a hindrance when booking things like dining reservations exactly 180 days out from the date of your trip so you can get that really popular restaurant. Also you can tell them to plan as much (detailed itinerary's, suggestions etc) or as little (just your tickets and accommodation) as you'd like - and they are always on the look out for better deals for you

And generally speaking no matter who you go through, local travel agent, specialist agent, WDW itself - the cost will be all about the same, unless you get a special deal offered by WDW. These are usually only released about 3 months before the dates in question so sometimes booking through a Disney specialist travel agent who can keep an eye on cheaper rates for you is a plus in this regard. However, unless you plan to stay off property, the cost of tickets/rooms will not vary significantly from travel agent to travel agent or by going through WDW directly.

Hope this is helpful

 

[zanzibar138]

I find that *generally speaking* Aussie TAs are not that great with Disney specifics. For example, the one we used to book our flights to the US for our first Disney trip told us that he could sell us 'day passes' to Disneyland, but we would have to pay extra to get in at night, and we had to do that when we got there

Luckily I had already done enough research to know that this just isn't the case, and perhaps he was getting confused with the hard ticket parties (eg Halloween, Christmas etc).

I am usually happiest booking direct, but if I was to go through a TA, I would definitely use one of the Disney specialist US based ones.

 

[RachelleBeaney]

I find that *generally speaking* Aussie TAs are not that great with Disney specifics. For example, the one we used to book our flights to the US for our first Disney trip told us that he could sell us 'day passes' to Disneyland, but we would have to pay extra to get in at night, and we had to do that when we got there
es.

Wow that's some seriously bad information! Good thing you knew better - Generally speaking a Travel Agent should know better! One quick look at Disney's website and they could have been better informed....shocking

 

[izzybjenn]

We have had bad experiences with Aussie Travel agents and misinformation too. When we initially were planning we had them do up a quote and everything was way over priced what you were quoted when we googled!

Not only that but apparently "DH is still undergoing rennovations, so you wouldn't want to stay there"! I ended up sending them the Disney web address and telling them to read it.

Sad, as I would normally support the local product. We ended up going with the Magic for Less Travel and with the exception of the "no you can't get gift cards sent international" which you guys cleared up for me, they have been good.