The Benefits of a Disney Travel Agent

Up through August 2008, I booked all my Disney trips myself.  Then when Charlene and I decided to do our resort-hopping vacation, I decided that it was maybe a bit more than I wanted to handle on my own (Disney doesn’t let you book separate hotel rooms in one reservation, so I actually had to have three separate reservations created and managed individually).  I decided to try out a Travel Agent specializing in Disney vacations, as I’d heard so much about on various podcasts.

The Travel Agency I contacted was MEI & Mouse Fan Travel.  I filled out their quote request form, and within a day or so, got a call from Stephanie Hudson.  I explained our situation to her, and she gave me the forms I needed to have her agency take over my three reservations.  Since then, I’ve used Stephanie for all on-property Disney reservations.  I email Stephanie and tell her when and where I want to stay, and what restaurant and special event bookings I want.  She takes care of the rest.  Neither she nor her agency charge any fees for this service. They get paid by Disney.  It is completely free to us the end user.

I’ve found that whether or not a Travel Agent is right for you depends largely on the type of personality you have, when it comes to planning your Disney vacations.  If you are the kind of person who just knows what they want to happen, and doesn’t want to have to plan it out in detail, the Travel Agent will quickly become your best friend.  If you are the kind of person who needs to be completely in charge of every detail of your vacation at every step of the way, it might not be the best option for you.  I have a tendency to fall into the latter category.  When I decide what hotel I want and when, I want that reservation made now. I want to have the reservation exist in Disney’s systems now, I want to have the confirmation number now.  That won’t happen with a Travel Agent.  You contact your travel agent, usually via email, and tell her what you want.  Then she takes care of it, and gets back to you with the relevant confirmation numbers and payment requirements.  If you want to make a change to your reservation, you have to email your travel agent again.  You can’t call Disney directly and have any modifications made.  For the kind of personality I tend to fall into, that is close to nervous-breakdown-inducing.   But that’s my failing, not the Travel Agent’s.

The other huge benefit of using a Disney-specializing travel agent is that they are constantly on top of all new discounts that come out, and can and will apply them to your reservation automatically.  That very first time I used Stephanie, I got a phone call one day.  She told me “Hey Paul, guess what, Disney released a discount for the Beach Club.  You just got $150 back for that reservation.”  With no input and no work on my part, she basically had Disney give me a hundred and fifty dollars.  Nice!

If you are the kind of anal-retentive must-be-in-charge need-to-know-every-detail planner, a Travel Agent might not be the best for you.  If you can remember to check MouseSavers.com every day, if you don’t mind spending all the time navigating Disney’s incredibly annoying phone tree to get those discounts applied, if you can remember to set your 180 day countdown calendar to make dining reservations, if you can remember to book Magical Express separately, then more power to you.  If any of those “if”s don’t apply to you, allow me to suggest you head over to http://www.mousefantravel.com, and fill out their no-obligation quote request form.    Or just email Stephanie directly at stephanie@mousefantravel.com and tell her I sent you. 🙂