Why You Should Use A Disney Travel Agent
Using an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner can take the stress out of planning a Walt Disney World vacation, which is complicated and overwhelming for first-timer tourists. Travel agent can make the process easier by booking reservations, making itineraries, securing discounts, and more. (Updated April 11, 2023.)
One thing that regulars often forget once we’ve learned the ropes is just how convoluted it is to plan and take a trip to Walt Disney World. Thanks to years of experience and research, WDW veterans know the basics of planning–from tricks for booking Advance Dining Reservations to leveraging discounts, using Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, navigating virtual queues, making ideal itineraries to beat the crowds, and more–inside and out. However, the whole process is foreign and daunting to newbies, which is why there’s huge value in using an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner.
If all you’re looking for is a travel agent recommendation, Be Our Guest Vacations is our preferred Authorized Disney Vacation Planners. They offer no-cost planning, their agents have years of experience and visit the parks multiple times per year, and their team is talented and tight-knit. However, this is not simply a sales pitch for Be Our Guest Vacations…
Our advice to use a travel agent holds true regardless of which agency you end up choosing. The point here is more broadly that it’s incredibly advantageous to use Authorized Disney Vacation Planners–any of them! While some agencies and agents do a better job and have more thorough knowledge of Disney than others (more on these pitfalls in a minute), the vast majority are helpful. Suffice to say, if you’re overwhelmed by planning, a Disney TA can help.
More importantly, there’s no shame in needing help or being overwhelmed! We travel around the globe, and nowhere that we visit is as complicated or intimidating for first-timers as Walt Disney World. It’s literally the size of a city, and Walt Disney World has its own quirks, policies, and unwritten rules that are not easily understood. It’s a bit like learning Na’vi, a language without much real world value but that will endear you with a hardcore community of fellow-fans!
The first and biggest reason to use an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner is the service. Imagine the knowledge-base of this blog (assuming you think I’m knowledgeable), but in a form that can apply the tips here to your particular circumstances, preferences, and needs. That’s what a good Authorized Disney Vacation Planner provides. It’s a back-and-forth dialogue, and they’re there to hold your hand and give you personalized advice.
Unlike traditional, large-scale travel agencies, most Disney-specializing agents got into it not due to a desire to build some highly profitable business empire, but because they love Disney and really enjoyed planning their own trip. This is why I distinguish between “Authorized Disney Vacation Planner” (the words you want to look for) and traditional travel agents. The latter are professionals who book trips to myriad destinations, but don’t have a Disney focus. This usually means they don’t have the expertise to provide high-quality service for Disney destinations.
For this reason, we do not recommend national, non-Disney travel agencies when booking Disney vacations. No offense to Costco or AAA, but they simply cannot compete with the ‘mom and pop shops’ in terms of quality service and knowledge. Agents at the big companies are booking myriad destinations with little experience at many of them.
It’s entirely possible that the agents at Costco, AAA, or other big box travel agencies have never visited Walt Disney World, or at least not within the last year. The best Authorized Disney Vacation Planners visit the parks multiple times per year and keep abreast of all the latest changes. They are Disney specialists, not travel industry generalists.
Unfortunately, big box agencies aren’t the only ones to avoid. In recent years, there has also been a proliferation of Disney travel agencies that are thinly-veiled multi-level marketing schemes (MLMs). These are agencies that exist not to provide exceptional service to clients, but primarily to recruit more agents and grow by charging initiation and training fees. The problem with these agencies is similar to the big box ones–a lack of quality control and subject matter expertise. They will hire any agent who expresses an interest in joining (because that’s their actual business, not helping clients) and don’t care about the caliber of client service or knowledge of their agents.
There’s no easy way to identify which Disney travel agencies are primarily MLMs. An obvious indicator would be if they recruit you despite your lack of knowledge, but it’s not always that obvious. To each their own, but my rule of thumb is avoiding agencies with hundreds of agents. When it comes to Authorized Disney Vacation Planners, size is a liability and not an asset. Go for a boutique business and get better service.
The second biggest reason to use an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner is the time-savings. This has become a particularly pronounced advantage in the last couple of years, and is arguably the biggest reason to use a travel agent now–especially if you’re already knowledgeable about Disney.
Currently, Walt Disney World and Disneyland both have staffing shortages. This is a problem throughout the parks and resorts, but nowhere is it more pronounced than the call centers. It used to be the case that you’d wait on hold for a long time only on the days that discounts, special event tickets went on sale, or something else major and new was released.
Long hold times have become the rule rather than the exception. You might think that this is no big deal, as you’ll simply book everything online. That’s a good plan…until something goes wrong.Â
Disney IT also isn’t the most reliable; between that and problems with reservations, there’s a strong probability that you’ll need assistance via a call center representative at some point during the planning process. Having an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner deal with this and advocate on your behalf will save you headaches and time waiting on hold, and the benefit of that cannot be overstated.
The third biggest reason to use an Authorized Disney Vacation Planners is saving money. This is not to say travel agents have access to better discounts than you or anyone else–they don’t. (I don’t know why there’s this mistaken belief out there that some travel agents find better or worse prices when it comes to Disney–any variance in pricing is a result of games Disney plays with its inventory and special offers at different times.)
The advantage they do provide when it comes to price is that they are knowledgeable and diligent about discounts, and continue monitoring your reservation even after booking. This can be particularly beneficial if you book far in advance before discounts are released–relevant right now as 2024 Walt Disney World Vacation Packages will be released in June 2023.
I know several Authorized Disney Vacation Planners who get up at 3 a.m. every time Walt Disney World releases a new discount in order to quickly apply the deal to all eligible reservations they’re managing. By contrast, if you learned about the deal a few days later and called Disney to book, a lot of availability would already be gone.
They also know the ins and outs of tweaking reservations so they fall within Disney’s eligibility parameters and are less likely the be excluded from promotions. (All too often, we hear from readers who technically qualify for a discount to be applied to their existing reservation, but Disney finds a way to exclude them due to lack of availability under the promotion or something else.)
So, in that sense, Authorized Disney Vacation Planners are finding better prices for many of their clients, but it’s indirectly as a result of that knowledge and diligence.
The fourth biggest reason to use an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner is for booking Advance Dining Reservations or ADRs–Disney’s term for restaurant reservations. Guests staying in Walt Disney World resorts can make reservations up to 60 days in advance plus the length of their stay (up to 10 days). This little 60+ days rule quirk is something that can be difficult to explain and comprehend, but knowledgeable travel agents know it well–and exactly how to leverage it.Â
Using the length of stay + 60 day rule, a skilled travel agent will book your ADRs in order of difficulty, so you’re more likely to get the most elusive reservations. And with many restaurants still operating at reduced capacity, ADRs are more competitive than ever–by the time the 60 day mark hits, some will already be fully booked. So if you want character meals or other popular restaurants, your best bet is having an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner make your ADRs.
Beyond that, there are some generalized reasons to use Authorized Disney Vacation Planners. For one thing, they are almost always fans themselves who exclusively plan Disney travel. Most I’ve encountered over the years are good people. The overwhelming majority became travel agents because they’re passionate about planning vacations and became the go-to resource for their friends and family, and just decided to turn it into a job. Out of the Disney TAs I’ve encountered, this is true at least 95% of the time.
And, because they’re passionate about Disney, they actually know about Disney. A traditional travel agent faces obsolescence because they were (basically) just someone to outsource the booking of vacations and had no firsthand knowledge of destinations to which they booked trips.
On the other hand, Authorized Disney Vacation Planners are only becoming more relevant thanks to the service and answers they provide in response to Disney vacations becoming increasingly complex. They know Disney inside and out (they are literally tested on it!) and have lots of first-hand experience.
They will be up at the 60-day mark to make your Advance Dining Reservations (ADRs), come up with plans to help you score the prime Lightning Lane selections, constantly monitor new discount offers to see if they can reduce the cost of your trip, and generally able to assist with other facets of trip planning.
Beyond that, there’s no cost to you for most travel agents specializing in Walt Disney World or Disneyland. Authorized Disney Vacation Planners are paid commission by Disney on the trips they book, so you’re usually not paying anything extra. I don’t know why Disney pays them, but my educated guess is because it’s essentially Disney ‘outsourcing’ the planning resources they’d otherwise need to provide. If you’re calling your travel agent, you aren’t calling Disney directly, tying up their guest services or other Cast Members.
This is win-win-win. Disney doesn’t have to deal with your questions, the Authorized Disney Vacation Planner is able to make money doing what they love, and you’re able to get free advice and help planning your trip. The biggest ‘winner’ there is you. One point person gets to know you, is responsive to your requests & questions, and feels a vested interest in making sure you have a great trip. You don’t call Disney, wait on hold for an interminable amount of time, and receive inconsistent answers from random Cast Members.
With that said, an increasing number of Authorized Disney Vacation Planners are charging an additional flat fee or hourly rate for their booking and/or planning services. This comes at a time when Walt Disney World vacations are more complicated than ever, and dealing with Disney (due to the aforementioned staffing shortages) is more time-consuming.
Without question, travel agents are worth these extra fees, as their professional expertise and experience is valuable. Whether you want to pay such a fee when free alternatives exist is a matter of personal preference. (Be Our Guest Vacations, the agency we recommend, currently does not charge any consulting fees.)
The added value and expertise offered by Authorized Disney Vacation Planners is especially true in the era of My Disney Experience, MagicBands, Genie+, etc. The Authorized Disney Vacation Planner is a liaison (or buffer!) between you and Disney, putting out fires and fixing problems as they arise. They save you headaches and stress in solving these problems.
Again, I speak from the experience of having to deal with these headaches myself–although things are getting better with these systems. I love Disney Cast Members in the parks, but my experiences have not been overwhelmingly positive on the phone.
With all of that said, using a travel agent isn’t for everyone. Some people have obsessive personalities and like total control over their vacations, or actually enjoy spending hours reading blogs like this one (and thank you to those of you who tolerate all of my corny jokes! 😉 ). Although we used Authorized Disney Vacation Planners years ago, I’ll admit that this now describes me. I love figuring this all out for myself, and I’m a total control freak.
Even if you are a control freak like me, it might make sense to book through a vacation planner so they monitor discounts and be your liaison with Disney in the event My Disney Experience issues arise, while you can do the “fun” stuff like planning ADRs and Genie+. Most vacation planners are as hands on or off as you specify, and it’s pretty easy to let them know what expect of them and what you’d like to do yourself.
If you’re convinced that a travel agent is for you, there are a few things to consider when choosing one. First, while I think it’s poor form to comparison shop or seek information without actual intent to book through them–as this is their job and they’re only paid on bookings they actually make–I do think it’s a good idea to make sure you “click” with an agent after requesting a quote.
It should be pretty easy to tell based on their first email or two whether they’re someone you want to work with, but if you’re still unsure, request a quick phone call. You are trusting this person with your vacation and (potentially) will communicate with them a lot, so you should make sure they aren’t impersonal or will treat you like a number. This is typically a total non-issue, as most vacation planners I’ve encountered are incredibly pleasant and enthusiastic, but it’s good to double-check if things don’t seem right from the get-go.
Second, make sure they’re providing the level of service detailed here. If you want someone to make your ADRs or make recommendations with things like stroller rental, make sure those are things they do. Not all agencies offer the same services, so be sure the one you’re considering will help in the areas you’d like assistance.
Finally, they have to know their stuff. Confirm they’ve been to whichever Disney destination you’re considering (and have been there recently). If you’re planning a Walt Disney World trip, you don’t want a Disneyland regular–they’re totally different destinations from a planning perspective. If you’re taking a Disney cruise, your travel agent having stayed at every Walt Disney World resort hotel is meaningless. You get the idea. I’m not saying they need to spend 50+ days per year in the parks, but you want them to know their stuff.
Your Thoughts
If you’ve used an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, how was your experience? Which Disney TAs do you recommend? Any other tips you’d like for choosing a vacation planner? Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below!
We have been to Walt Disney World 4 times a year since 1989 and never used a travel agent. We read Birnbaum’s Official Guides to Disney and the Unofficial Guide to Disney plus Disney’s own site (you can even see the menus at all the food places at the resort including at hotels, etc) and their free video and blogs like yours. It’s pretty simple to call Disney and reserve your hotel (Beach Club/Yacht Club usually) and get your park hopper tickets and order the Platinum Plan which includes help from one of Disney’s own planners. You can go ahead and make all your reservations then too.
What is that blue ice cream thing?!?!
I was drooling over that myself.
I am SOOO glad I used an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner!! Planning a Disney trip can be overwhelming. She did everything you mentioned… stayed up all night to get us discounts and got our restaurant reservations…but she also knew which parks to visit on which days (hint: NOT the ones with extra magic hours!) She also knew the best place for a family of 5 to stay–a regular travel agent only knew to recommend we get two rooms at the least expensive resort.
Jennifer,
Can you please email your contact? I am overwhelmed with booking my first trip and looking for a reliable person as it sounds you have found an excellent vacation planner.
Thank you!
Sarah
Hi Jennifer; was this for CA of FL? My husband and I want to go to Disneyland in CA soon. We are in our 60’s and haven’t had a vacation in 8 years – – – when we went to Disneyland! I was born in ’55 same year as Disneyland and it has always been special to me. I celebrated my 30th birthday there. So now we want to come out for my/their 60th celebration!!! I was a children’s librarian in 2 small schools in LA where we lived for 7 years, and both my husband and I loved Disneyland better than anything else in LA! Except for our neighbors, Disneyland was one of the few things we missed about CA when we left over 20 years ago. I don’t know when we will be ever able to get back so I don’t want to make mistakes on this trip. Are you able to let me know who this Planner is, if she is for Disneyland, of course. Thanks so much! ~ Karen : )
Hi Jennifer,
Would you be willing to share your travel agent info? We are just starting to plan our trip and overwhelmed doesn’t even cover it! Thx.
To those who have requested info for an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, the one I highly recommend is Be Our Guest Vacations. I’m not sure who Jennifer used, but we’ve had tons of readers have excellent experiences with BOGV: http://www.beourguestvacations.com/ 🙂
How do you know the agency you are working with is actually authorized by Disney? Is there somewhere to go to check if the agency is legitimate?
I was wondering the same thing Sherrie! Is there a way to make sure the agent is from a legit business and not some random hacker looking to score a little extra cash?
Hi Jennifer,
Same request for the TA you worked with….would really appreciate it!
Thanks!
Kerry
I’m at Disney World as we speak (write?). Been coming here since 1973. Used a travel agent twice, once for a Disney cruise (AAA), and once for a land trip that offered a large discount if booking through AAA.
Other than those two, I’ve had complete control, and have loved every minute of the process. Of course, My Disney Experience and Disney blogs have helped, as well as past vacations. By this time, we know what we want and what we don’t want. We know what is available and no longer available. However, planning trips without the use of blogging sites like yours, Tom, would make the process a lot more difficult. So thanks for putting the time and effort in.
Have a magical day.
I whole-heartedly agree! Sites like this are crucial for optimizing a trip. You may still have a good time without the advice, but it will definitely be much better using the tips learned around here. Many thanks, Tom.
It’s amazing how many people still just “wing-it”. Those are the people you see on the 50 minute Stitch line, paying $26 for the sad Chicken Parm at Tony’s, or waiting for the 3rd monorail to MK when they could just board the next Resort train 😛
What exactly is a resort train? And where do you find them?
I LOVE the process of booking everything on my own. I love reading through blogs to get the latest information and trying to score the best rooms, best ADRs, best Fast Passes, etc. I go to Disney World at least once a year, so I have this all down pretty well and it is an enjoyable part of the whole vacation for me. (Sometimes planning it is even more fun than actually doing it–I know I’m crazy).
I am going on my 2nd Disney Cruise in October though, and this time I am using an authorized Disney vacation planner. I realized on my 1st cruise that it would be nice to have the extra onboard credit they offer and they were able to verify specific options I wanted in my cabin that I didn’t know how to do on my own.
We love Disney so much (4 visits a year since 1989) and the cruises too! I love planning and always do it myself too.
Using a Disney-specialized travel agent is really a great call for a lot of reasons (disclaimer, I am one!) It’s true that most of us are just HUGE Disney fans who enjoy talking about Disney vacations and planning trips. I, for one, am a former Cast Member who missed working with Disney an awful lot when I moved from the Orlando area, so I decided to open my own business to help people plan their trips. A good Disney travel planner will stay up late to make your FastPass+ reservations, get up super early to make your Dining Reservations, and can answer any Disney parks/resorts/dining question off the top of his/her head! Plus, using a travel planner takes a lot of the stress and anxiety away from planning a Disney vacation as the planning can be VERY overwhelming for non-experienced Disney fans!
I recommend to any who read the article, take the advice about “clicking” with an agent first and foremost! Also the advice about checking what their service provides and will do for you. Our first trip we used a very well known national Disney-only travel agency. I had read good things and though I had read all the blogs and such, I was still scared to do it myself. We had no such personal service like mentioned in this article. For example, when I would ask for advice, I’d either get a price quote or just no reply at all. I had to do my own FP reservations. By the end of it, I wished I HAD done it myself or used a different TA (I did look into transferring to a different service, but that’s its own can of worms!)
Take extra caution in choosing your Disney TA to make sure they mesh well with you personally as this article suggests!
My only comment on this would be to not necessarily focus on the title ‘Authorized Disney Vacation Planner’ as that distinction only applies to an agency as a whole and not the individual agents of the agency. It is complicated but something to be somewhat mindful of. There are agents that are stellar and extremely knowledgeable about Disney that aren’t, for technical reasons, allowed to be called ADVP but they are still a wonderful resource for your vacation needs. Ultimately you should connect with an agent that you feel comfortable with and that meets your needs, while also being a Disney expert and taking the stress out of your vacation.
We’ve just booked out 3rd trip thru a Authorized Disney Planner and plan on using her again in the future… we wife and i both work and she can make calls / book rooms while we work… totally worth it..
Great article thank you so much for hi-lighting what we do in such a non-biased way! I only had 1 clarification I don’t think we take the power away from the guests who like to plan at all. Yes the payments to Disney will need to be ran through the TA or any resort changes (room, resort, discount application) but the actual planning of the trip can still fully be in your hands (dining reservations, Fastpasses, itinerary decisions, etc). I like to say I will as heavily involved in making your vacation awesome as you want me to be.
Great article thank you!
We are using an authorized vacation planner for the first time on our upcoming trip in Nov. It will be our third trip to Disney and I am a controlling planner, but with us trying to get free dining, I decided a TA was the way to go this time! And I’m so glad I did! She got us free dining on Monday at 4 am, but had to move us to the dreaded pirate rooms at CBR. But she called this morning and she was able to get us back into a regular room by adding an extra night to our stay – and it was actually $100 cheaper, and we get another full day of meals! I wouldnt have even thought to try that myself, but she had kept working on our behalf the last few days to get us the best deal possible. Highly recommend! Even if you do like to control all the details!
Good points in the article. I used a TA on our first trip and then: “Some people have obsessive personalities and like total control over their vacations” I realized that was me! And we didn’t use one after that. 🙂
I was on an exercise bike at my daughter’s gym last week and a TA was sitting down with a couple next to the bike helping them with a trip this summer. These people had never heard of a magic band, extra magic hour, fastpass, etc. This guy was doing a great job of breaking it all down for them and helping to recommend an itinerary. He was definitely providing a good service for them.
In regards to Disneyland only, NO.
There simply isn’t enough information available far enough in advance to make a travel agent of any use. However, if you want to buy over-priced packages with bonuses like plastic luggage tags, go ahead and throw away your money.
You are right in that Disneyland does not require planning quite as far in advance as WDW, dining reservations are not as difficult to secure and there is no FP+ system to figure out, but there are 40+ hotels/resorts to choose between! A good TA will also help you out with tips and hints to make your trip just a little more magical. And, as was stated above, you are not paying anymore than you would pay if you booked directly through Disney.
I highly recommend using a travel agent. Have been to Disney several times….maybe 4 or 5 trips ago I went to a travel agent for convenience. I actually had met her on my job (I am a nurse, and she came to the facility I was working). I could not believe how knowledgeable she was and she got me a great deal including a free dining package and encouraged me to try a different resort than I had in mind (Animal Kingdom Lodge which is now my new place!). My son and daughter in law were going with us and my son said “oh Mom a travel agent” until he started investigating packages on line and said he could not beat our package through the agent.
This is a great article.
Similarly, I wouldn’t use one – I enjoy the planning too much. But Disney is so complex you’re bound to make mistakes the first time around, it’s just a question of which ones, and whether they cost you in money, enjoyment, efficiency or all three.
My “tale of horror” (a.k.a. First timer mistake) was deciding I wanted 3 days in the theme parks and 1 day in the water parks. What did I buy? A 4 day ticket plus the Water Park option. Now, I’m sure I’m in the minority in making that specific mistake but there are plenty of other mistakes to befall first-timers… And any vacation planner would have spotted this error immediately. Plus, in my case, it was “only” two tickets. The more people in your group, the more every mistake costs you.
The other advantage of a vacation planner is not in getting you advantages but in setting expectations. When you look at Disney’s web site, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s a happy land where you can breeze from headliner to headliner without a care in the world and still have time for a lazy morning, a hearty breakfast, lunch and dinner (and this is what most first timers want, I suspect). Accepting a 90 minute queue, or discovering that you will have to give up Y if you do X, is a lot easier if you’ve been told beforehand by someone who can gauge your expectations and react to them rather than being let down on the day. I’ve no idea if most planners do this, but they should – a little less of the pixie dust beforehand makes for a much more pleasurable experience.
There was a great post on this very blog about First Timer Mistakes and that’s a great resource of things a planner can help you avoid.
We use an authorized Disney planner who is also a “regular” travel agent in a national chain. Living in Maine not a lot of choices.She truly loves Disney, and has been many times. .We have some good friends in common. We trust her planning and advice. She always gets ADR AND FP that we want. I love going in and sitting down with her. We were so late when when free dining was announced, we just got excited about Disney at Christmas on Tuesday! She sat on the phone for a couple of hours and checked combination s of dates and resorts. We feel like she understands us and have found her such an asset in planning. We are pleased to plan with her a Rhine cruise which she has been on. We appreciate her and tell her and her manager. In our 70’s, tho still alert, we are glad to not have to go about the confusion of dealing directly. I enjoy reading your blog and some others and have found many helpful hints. Thanks for sharing.
Do you have any in the uk? And Is there a way to become a Dvp?
I am a crazy OCD planner, but I still use an authorized Disney travel agent to book our trips. Our first family vacation back in 2013 was before the days of online ADRs, and I had no clue where to eat. She handled all of that for us and even made my daughter’s BBB and son’s PL reservations. Our second trip in 2015 was just me and my husband so while she booked the package and later added our flight info I did all the research and spread my own wings in planning. Our next trip is this coming December, and she was an invaluable source of info as I compared resorts and added the grandparent factor. My trip was booked before free dining was announced, but she was the one that sat on hold to get my packaged changed. I’ll be hounding her again soon to add MVMCP tickets once they go on sale…are they on sale yet? I need to go check…
I’ve also known her for years so I don’t mind letting her book my stuff if it puts some money in her pocket.
I could not agree more. We took a recommendation from a very informed blogger (…eh hem…) and found a phenomenal agent. She’s a fellow parent and has been an absolute pleasure to work with. I’ve admittedly geeked out on this whole planning thing, and she’s put up with — and answered — ALL of my questions.
She even got us Free Dining (while I was asleep)!!
I really, really wish I could post her name. That Disney magic everyone talks about starts with an Authorized DVP like her. I don’t normally write reviews, but I’ve already done one for her on her Facebook page and we’re still months away from our trip.
If you’re not based in the US it can be really advantageous to use a Disney Travel Agent to get the US only offers. Also, on our first trip the dollar was really weak so booking through an agent was a real benefit to us.
Great tip!
I wish we could do that from the other side: book from the US using a UK DT Agent to get the BOGO week free UK deals. Hmmm… now there’s a business someone should start, lol.
Agreed. I wonder if there’s a way that this would be possible because some of the UK deals are insane compared to what we get in the US!