Gift Basket From DU

[diznymom]

When 2 people from 2 different households sail together on a Disney cruise, who does the gift basket from Dream Unlimited go to?

Thanks

 

[Capitalangel]

I would assume whatever address the reservation is under.

 

[jeffbeardreams]

Assuming you mean two people in one stateroom, in which case the basket would go to the lead guest's home. If you wish to do something different, let your agent know and they can communicate with the team that assembles and ships the baskets.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

Following. Is a gift basket the reason people choose DU as their TA? Never used a TA but interested in the process.

 

[diznymom]

Following. Is a gift basket the reason people choose DU as their TA? Never used a TA but interested in the process.

The gift basket is not the only reason. They also give great customer service and a really decent OBC (On Board Credit)

 

[Cruising Engineer]

Are they doing what I would normally do? For the customer service, do they stay up until midnight to book Palo brunch, cabana on CC, tastings, and such? Do they book the staterooms on the morning they are released? And what does this service cost?

 

[diznymom]

Are they doing what I would normally do? For the customer service, do they stay up until midnight to book Palo brunch, cabana on CC, tastings, and such? Do they book the staterooms on the morning they are released? And what does this service cost?

The service does not cost the customer anything. They get a commission from the cruise line.

Example of service: We are Gold CC members. When the bookings for the Hawaii cruises came out, my TA was able to get my room before I could even log in to see what was available. The whole cruise sold out later that day....like around noon. Those that were Silver CC members and the general public didn't even get a chance to book anything that week. I had read that the ones that were trying to book for themselves were on the phones forever and a lot of the did not get rooms that day.

As far as booking things at midnight, I'm not sure. But, probably. (We are sailing concierge and the land side concierge team does this for us.)

 

[Geomom]

Are they doing what I would normally do? For the customer service, do they stay up until midnight to book Palo brunch, cabana on CC, tastings, and such? Do they book the staterooms on the morning they are released? And what does this service cost?

The customer usually still does the online check in part--booking brunch, tastings, etc themselves. The TA books the room (calls up Disney when you have a placeholder, etc). Any 'room' changes need to go through the TA--if you want to change rooms, change the people in the rooms, all payments, etc. I've had my TA add Disney transportation, had her request a dining rotation for me, had her add our passport #'s to our first cruise reservation before online check in, so it wouldn't take as long, etc.

We use Dreams Unlimited to get the on board credit. The gift basket mailed to your home is just a nice bonus that helps us get excited about the upcoming trip.

 

[JoeFromSeoul]

I asked DU to look into an email advertised discount for our next cruise. They found the discount, but found one we qualified for that was nearly $1000 cheaper for the same stateroom; and they gave us the OBC. We may not get the gift basket this time since we are once again living overseas, but I think they can be forgiven for that! In addition, we get frequent email reminders about booking dates and packing tips. I recommend DU to all of my friends looking into cruising.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

@diznymom , @Geomom , and @JoeFromSeoul thank you all for this information. I never knew what a TA did but everyone always seems to love their DU. I'm going to look into this. PS: We're gold cc and missed out on Hawaii !

 

[evedein]

I can only contact my TA at DU by email. I have no phone number for her, so I have to wait until she checks her email. Is this the norm now. The last time I used a TA was years ago, pre-internet. My concern is if there was an emergency (eg: missed connection, etc), I may not be able to reach her quickly.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

Not an answer to OP's question, but in answer to subsequent ones, our DU TA got us exactly the room we wanted even though we were new cruisers. I couldn't even log in or when I did Stitch kept eating the page. And we got a nice onboard credit and the gift bag, which I actually took with me on 2 of our excursions to hold Uncrustables, apple juice, and other snacks for the kids. My DH and I used our DU travel coffee mugs quite a bit as well. The only hiccup we had was that Disney sent our cruise booklet to the DU address and they had to forward it, and we had to have DCL resend a copy because we couldn't find it. (Ended up finding the original the day before we left for the cruise, so we had 2).

 

[Geomom]

I can only contact my TA at DU by email. I have no phone number for her, so I have to wait until she checks her email. Is this the norm now. The last time I used a TA was years ago, pre-internet. My concern is if there was an emergency (eg: missed connection, etc), I may not be able to reach her quickly.

DU works through email. There are other TA's out there that would work through phone or office visits, but they may not offer OBC.

For my purposes, email works great. I already know what I want by the time I'm contacting the TA, and if there was an emergency, I'd be contacting Disney directly.

 

[diznymom]

Yes, DU uses email / on line (their website). However, I have never had a problem. We use Beth F. and she answers all emails very promptly even when she is on vacation. She lets us know who to contact in emergency if she is not available.

If you are still wanting Hawaii, contact them and see what they can do. It probably won't be immediate. People are cancelling all the time.

 

[olafLover]

.

 

[JoeFromSeoul]

I am living in Korea, so my daytime is mostly the US nightime. I emailed a question to Elaine E. at DU around 10 am my time and received a reply in minutes. I imagine that, as with any profession, some people are more attentive than others. I have always had great luck with DU though.