AAA or Disney Travel Agent?
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AAA or Disney Travel Agent?
| Tue, 09-11-2007 - 10:04am |
Our family (me, DH, DMIL, and our girl/boy twins 3 1/2) are planning a 3-4 day WDW trip for next summer. We are hoping to stay at the Fort Wilderness cabins. This will be part of a larger road trip for everyone except DMIL, who will be flying to Orlando to meet us. I was trying to compare booking through AAA vs. a DTA. The AAA storytime sounds neat, but I understand it fills up fast. The bus service from the airport with the Disney package would be a big plus to get DMIL to the resort, as we would be driving from New Orleans the day she arrived, and I don't think we could coordinate meeting her flight. Does anyone have a preference? TIA!
-Sarah

I have no BTDT experience to offer you, but just wanted to let you know that one of the CL (ktbugsmom) here is a Disney TA and I am confident would do an excellent job. Just be careful who you book through. From what I have read some of the AAA agents are not knowledgeable at all about Disney, and once you book through an agent they "own" your reservations (meaning you are not able to make any changes on your reservation yourself). Hopefully someone else will jump in with some personal advice.
Have fun planning! My DS was 4 on his first trip to Disney and loved it (except for the characters, LOL). I think it is a great age to experience the Magic :)
Charis
I'm going to guess it's just a matter of taste. I booked through AAA, and my agent has been to WDW 9 times, lol, and was very helpful.... Just my .02...
Veronique
I prefer to book everything on my own. If a discount code comes out, I can call myself and have it applied. I guess I'm just too anal to let someone else have control, if you will.
However, if I were going to use a TA, it would be Sonya (cl-ktbugsmom) here on the board. The problem with some TA's, is they aren't all the same. If you use a TA, look for one that is a Disney specialist. They should not charge a fee for their services.
Hope this helps!
Steph
Edited 9/11/2007 5:49 pm ET by bigbabyblues
We went through AAA last trip and our AAA TA was great. She is a Disney Specialist and very knowlegable. I'd book through her again in a heartbeat. We were not able to work out the AAA Story time but my boys weren't really interested in that anyway. I did call though for available times, and there were still spots available like 4 weeks before we left. I think you also get a discount in some places (World of Disney rings a bell) through AAA (it's like 10% or something).
We've used different TA's before (Disney Specialists) and we've also booked on our own. I just liked our AAA lady so much that I'd use her again!
Marcy
The only problem I've read with large corperation TAs, like AAA or American Express etc is that you have a chance of getting a TA who knows nothing about the destination (It's be like me trying to book someone on a tour in ummmm Nigeria or somewhere I could only locate on a map and pull up web info on).
I just wanted to add that not all AAA agents are Disney Specialists. The AAA we belong to just so happens to have an actual "Disney Desk"...it's in a corner of the office and is decorated like a castle...very cute! And that AAA agent has done whatever one needs to do to have the title of Disney Specialist. We were very lucky...she was totally on the ball.
When we went on our honeymoon, we also used AAA, but a different agent in a different branch. She knew absolutely NOTHING about Disney. Then again, neither did we. But looking back, it really was a stinky trip, due to really poor planning and bad advice from our AAA agent.
I agree with Sonya that you need to feel comfortable and "connected" to whichever agent you use!!
Mom to Joshua and Matthew
Adding my 2 cents here...
The AAA I just went through also has a "Disney specialist", but it was a horrible experience.