As you read this my husband and I are finally enjoying our vacation at Walt Disney World! We got here by the help of a travel agent. When people found out I was using a travel agent for our trip they had a lot of questions. Does it cost extra? Can they really save you money? Couldn't you just plan the trip yourself? "What if you don't like how they plan it?" Maybe you have the same questions, if so keep reading because I'm going to answer them.
"Does it cost extra?"
Our agency is Zip a dee doo dah Travel Inc. The reason we chose this agency is because I knew an agent. I had actually traveled with her before (years earlier) so I knew our travel styles were compatible. With Zip a dee doo dah there were no hidden fees or extra costs. Our trip cost the exact same whether we booked through them or directly through Disney. The difference is I had someone to help plan my trip and answer all my questions without having to call in and wait on hold for someone at Disney to answer. I'm not downing Disney here at all, they are just very busy, so it's nice to have someone to help when you're trying to make travel decisions. I have heard of agencies that charge a "planning fee." My advice is to choose a different agency, there are plenty of agencies out there who will not tack on additional fees and Zip a dee doo dah is one of them.
"Can they really save you money?"
There is no secret button that they can push to cut your costs in half. What they do have is expert knowledge and a fast track to the information source. They will be the first to know about any deals being offered and can add them to your package as soon as it's available. If you're not sure when to book your agent can tell you when the best time is to go, like when hotels are the cheapest. A concern I had when booking the trip was "what if I book now but in two months a really good deal comes out and the room is cheaper, or free dining is offered, do I miss out because I already booked?" Nope! If any deal had been offered that we were eligible for my agent would have applied it to our package and we would still get those savings. In fact a deal was released a few months after we booked, my agent contacted me to let me know about the deal and that unfortunately our hotel wasn't eligible for it. When we booked originally she let us know that our hotel traditionally was not included in deals so it wasn't unexpected that we weren't eligible.
"Couldn't you just plan the trip on your own?"
Well, yes, I could but having an agent takes off a lot of pressure and if it's not costing me anything extra...why wouldn't I use one? As I mentioned earlier it's nice to have someone on hand that you can bounce ideas off of. Things like: "What's the best day to visit Magic Kingdom?", "How intense is the Rockin' Rollercoaster?", "What's the best restaurant at Animal Kingdom?" These are all very normal questions you may have when planning a trip and they're not exactly the type of thing you need to be calling Disney about. Our agent also booked all of our dining reservations, which are very important to have at Disney, and not always easy to get. With our agents help we picked out the restaurants that we would need reservations for and she got them for us. I'm a part of a few Disney Vacation Facebook groups and the days leading up to our reservation day I saw tons of people disappointed because they couldn't get the reservations they wanted. I was a little nervous that would happen to us as well. We had two highly sought after restaurants on our list and our agent had told us they can be hard to get, and suggested we have back-up options just in case. On our reservation day she had all our restaurants booked before I had even gotten out of bed!
"What if you don't like how they plan it?"
This may have been the most popular question I've come across. What if your agent plans a trip that's too fast paced for your travel style or vice versa? Well to start with the agent isn't (or shouldn't) be booking your trip without knowing what you want. We had multiple conversations about the type of trip we wanted, we discussed everything from budget to what our food preferences were. It's also important to know that they can as involved as you want them to be. That means if all you want them to do is book it and watch for deals while you do all the planning then that's what they'll do. If you want to give them your information and let them plan it how they would plan their own vacation, you can do that too. There is no one size fits all vacation and your opinion will be gathered throughout the planning process. Your plans also aren't set in stone! If you decide to change a restaurant reservation, you can. If you decide to change your park days, you can. It's still your vacation.
Check out Zip a dee doo dah Travel Inc. here: https://www.zipadeedoodahtravel.net/
