Using a Disney Travel Agent - are there benefits?

[alisonette]

I am in Australia and am planning to book a once in a life time trip to WDW and Universal for end of Nov/Dec 2023. I've thought about this for years and regularly do research on the Disney website etc about rates and packages.

My question is: are specialist Disney Travel Agents (particularly the US ones - idk if they accept Australian customers?) worth it? Can better rates be found through them?

I am thinking I will need to book soon, but have noticed in previous years that packages and sales for low periods tend to come out throughout the year. If I booked through a travel agent, can they apply the discounts? Is this something I would be able to do myself? I usually book holidays myself through things like booking.com and don't do anything fancy, so understanding the Disney ecosystem is a bit confusing.

Any advice or recommendations on how to do things would be appreciated!

 

[AussieNSW]

I have tried it both ways. It does depend on the quality of your American travel agent. If I am going on a Disney cruise I use dreams unlimited otherwise I book myself. I book through Disney.
I tried to book through dreamsunlimited this time but it was staying on property at WDW and Disneyland no cruise. The person made contact and said they whet back to me. I waited but eventually I just decided to do it myself as I was concerned that I would miss out on booking the hotels I wanted.
Do some you tube searches there is a heap of info from people that will help you understand I have enjoyed Tim tracker, paging mr morrow. There is some who will explain genie plus and how to structure your day.

 

[Royal Consort]

I own DVC now so don't require a TA but when I used to book on cash I did so via UK travel agents or Disney UK who would offer free dining and discounts on Disney hotels. Unfortunately this is a thing of the past now. I use a TA booking cruises because the TA can call Disney on my behalf to add requests and make changes so I don't have to bother with the time difference (I change cruises a lot).

You can apply discounts yourself or cancel and rebook a discounted package if you so choose. Travel agents don't get any better deals than the general public, they just call for you to apply the discount.

 

[alisonette]

Thanks! I might do some more research and see if I can just do it myself thorugh Disney. I'll also look into UK agents, I hadn't considered them!

 

[kirstyfly]

When I went to WDW a number of years ago I booked everything myself.

Last year we went to Disneyland and I used a USA based company for Disney tickets (5 day park hoper and one day ticket) and 2 nights DLH. I booked other accommodation by myself at a cheaper hotel.

The reason I used the USA based company was that they had a peace of mind insurance that we could add to package and for any reason at all we could cancel and get our full amount back. I did use this when I cancelled our 2 day park hopper ticket. It was important for me to not loose all that money on Disneyland tickets if we couldn't go.

Back in Oct 2020 we were booked to go and had our airline stop flying because of covid.