Have you used a Disney Vacation Planner? Worth it?

[mihtaylor]

I haven't been able to spend enough time planning our upcoming trip. I keep hearing how people use Disney vacation planners (for free?) and rave about their experience.
Nervous about ceding control over the trip and about increasing costs. Have you used one and found it to be worth it?

 

[scrappinginontario]

Please note these boards are hosted and sponsored by Dreams Unlimited Travel.

 

[Robber Baron]

I feel I know more about Disney & the resorts than 99% of the TA's out there. I can't give up control of my reservation, many times I make changes on the fly and I'm a bit on the impatient side when I want to make a change.

I have used a TA a few times, but, that was only because of availability of an agency exclusive.

I may be weird, but for me the planning is really part of the vacation.

For someone who doesn't have the knowledge or time to plan a Vacation Planner is the way to go.

 

[fbarker]

If you are familiar with WDW and have a good understanding how it all works then I agree that part of the vacation fun is the planning aspect. I tried a TA, from here, on our last vacation in August, and the Agent provided very little benefit to me and my family. We ended up doing most of the planning ourselves and she was unable to provide us with any insights to enhance our experience. She did not contact me unless i contacted her myself and I even had to contact her about a promotion that came up after we had booked. The promotion saved us quite a bit on the cost of a room, it was a 25% discount promotion. So I will always do my own planning in the future.

 

[PaladinButters]

We use Dreams Unlimited (obviously as a fan of the Dis) to book our trips because it's very nice to wake up to an email from your TA that says "I just saved you a bunch of money on your exact trip" but there are limits to what they can do. How much "planning" do you still need to do ?

 

[danceintherain]

I've used a TA pretty much every time. I switched to a new one this time, because she would do Genie+ and ILL for us, so I didn't have to think about it at 6AM.
I've never really felt a loss of control, and it keeps me from making changes every 5 minutes.
Also, I HATE making phone calls, but military discounts have to be reserved over the phone.

Finally, we had some flight delays when we were leaving last time. It was nice to be able to text the TA about getting us another night, rather than having to take the time to figure it our myself.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I've used a TA pretty much every time. I switched to a new one this time, because she would do Genie+ and ILL for us, so I didn't have to think about it at 6AM.
I've never really felt a loss of control, and it keeps me from making changes every 5 minutes.
Also, I HATE making phone calls, but military discounts have to be reserved over the phone.

Finally, we had some flight delays when we were leaving last time. It was nice to be able to text the TA about getting us another night, rather than having to take the time to figure it out myself.

Ooh, G+ booking is at 7am but still having a TA handle it so I could sleep in for no additional cost would be reallly nice! Didn’t know any offered that.

 

[rdaky]

We have never used one. I have seen and heard some travel planners go incredibly wrong, so I would keep that in mind and use one with a solid reputation and not just someone who went to Disney a couple of times and is now a planner and has outdated info. You want someone who is an expert.

A couple of things to keep in mind: In general, they cannot get any deals for you that you can't get on your own. The more you spend, the more they earn. I have a friend who used a planner and the planner definitely was an upseller and even gave her incorrect information. I tried to give her the correct info, but in the end she believed that the planner was the expert.

On the flip side, I think that if you don't have time to plan, don't want to plan, or have absolutely no idea what you're doing, a planner can be incredibly helpful. But again, make sure it's someone who knows what they're doing and not just a mom who has been to Disney once and wants to get a free trip for her family by planning your trip. (I know someone who falls into this category and I cringe thinking about her planning trips)

 

[_19disnA]

Have never used any 3rd party to 'plan' our Disney vacations. Are you talking about a 'travel planner' who isn't a travel agent? If you have NEVER been to Disney before, I am not sure how someone else can make plans for you since you have no idea what you will like doing, which parks you prefer, what rides/shows you like, which are your preferred restaurants, etc. If you are a frequent Disney traveler, you would already know those things and you can use the free Disney website to make your plans. Some travel agents might offer a discount not otherwise available to the general public. That is probably the only real benefit I could imagine.

Besides your hotel, park reservations and ADR's, there really isn't much else you can 'plan' ahead of time. I believe those various Genie paid ride options can still only be purchased the day of use. Some people want to have elaborate plans of how to walk around a park but it seems those go out the window the first time a ride is down for bad weather or maintenance. Others don't want that sort of regimentation on their vacation. No amount of advance planning is going to make any Disney park less crowded. It is nonsense to think you can plan for how busy a park/ride will be months in advance. Even Disney has no idea if locals with AP's will suddenly decide to show up one day. If your 'planner' has different ideas then you do about how you like to vacation, I don't seem them as being of much value. In either case, you would likely have to spend a LOT of time explaining your preferences to them.

 

[kwdw]

I haven't been able to spend enough time planning our upcoming trip. I keep hearing how people use Disney vacation planners (for free?) and rave about their experience.
Nervous about ceding control over the trip and about increasing costs. Have you used one and found it to be worth it?

I haven’t used one, but know friends and family who have. Personally, I think sitting down with me for 1-3 hours for free would have been a better use of their time. I’m not a 100% expert, but one I think got upsold on things they really didn’t need and one was unprepared onsite to be able to rethink their plan when things weren’t going right.

So, my advice is to find a friend or co-worker to help you, or just ask all your questions here. Besides airfare, hotel, transportation to and from airport and tickets, the other choices in planning - dining reservations or not, which parks on which day, understanding Genie+ and ILL - that stuff is very personalized and decisions you should know how to do yourself.

Now, despite the fact one was upsold on things, they really did not want to spend anytime learning on their own, so in that case, it still may have been a good choice for them because it was better than showing up without park reservations or any ADRs.

 

[titojackson84]

I personally think either you or someone you are going with should be pretty involved in the planning. Even if they don’t know anything, they can still do research. I think asking questions here is better because people here aren’t getting a commission so you won’t be upsold.

 

[kylenne]

We have used the same TA since 2017, initially for the “agency exclusive” discounts but we still stick with her solely because she’s awesome and prompt. I still do all of the planning myself. She’s literally just a personal assistant I can outsource the annoying and tedious parts of planning to, which 99% of the time means phone calls. That alone is worth it to me, especially on days when discounts drop and the phones are slammed, trying to get hard to book recreation at 60 days out when I can’t stay on hold for ages bc I gotta commute to work, etc. More than once I have gotten up in the morning to an email about a discount dropped and it’s already applied. But during the height of the panini when we were constantly having to cancel and reschedule she was truly a godsend.

I find that pretty much all of the complaints people have about TAs are down to having crappy ones and because mine is fantastic (does it full time as opposed to a side gig) I don’t have those problems. “I need control of my reservation!” is a nonissue when this lady is up at 5am applying discounts for me. Her agency is platinum earmarked and has cultivated relationships with Disney which has paid off at least once, getting us special event ticket refunds that were on paper non refundable. Plus she’s just a sweet person, always having cookies and treats for us waiting at the resort for special occasion trips. We are relying on her much more for our cruise next year bc DCL is brand new to us and she’s been an invaluable help even past the OBC.

 

[mickeymom629]

I agree with everyone who has already shared advice. My planning is my fun. Having just went to WDW with 12 of us, I had a general plan but we really just tried to learn the app and use it as best we could to see wait times, sign up for VQs and get G+ a couple of days (but you don't need to do it at all if you want to keep costs down). We don't do table service (for $ and time reasons) so we don't need to worry about ADRs. If your trip is after 1/9/24, you won't need to worry about park reservations. I would say that you should just do your own booking for hotel (I just found a great deal on Price LIne for an upcoming trip with just DH and myself) and tickets (Undercovertourist or Boardwalkticketing).

 

[gharter]

We haven't used them for WDW, but did use Dreams Unlimited in the past to book a cruise and for Universal. But this was when you needed to call for the dining reservations rather than book online. They were helpful in saving me time on hold and getting everything we wanted. Today, with it all online, I do it myself.

 

[leebee]

I have a travel agent I use for room-only reservations, as she will watch for discounts as they come up. Other than that, I do my own planning (tickets, ADRs, etc.). If a travel agent makes your ADRs, they are the ones who "own" the reservation and only they can make changes. To me, that's just a hassle.