I have been to Disneyland once, and
Disney World twice. I have been planning my own vacations for several years,
the last time I used a travel agent was almost 8 years ago. I am very confident
in my ability to find good deals and plan a vacation perfect for me.
However.
Disney can be confusing. There, I said it. If you are an expert, kudos to you,
but there is a lot of
information out there. I pretty much knew exactly what I wanted for our Disney
vacation, but I thought it couldn't hurt to reach out to a travel agent, so I went online and found Small World Vacations.
I had no intention of actually using them (I'm so rude), I just wanted to see. Well, I got such amazing customer service and it was all so easy that I decided to book my vacation through them and I am very happy with my decision and wanted to share it with you.
Why should you
use a travel agent, when everything is so easy to do yourself online?
I have used a travel agent a couple of
times (London 2007, US 2009 & 2011), although I had never used an American
travel agent before, I'm sure they are very similar to ones at home. It was a
lot easier for me to say what I wanted and have the travel agent book
everything and tell me when to show up. However, once I flew internationally a
few times, I started booking it on my own and haven't looked back since.
Although general travel agents aren't
needed as much anymore, especially because the internet makes everything so
easy and accessible, destination specific agents are definitely invaluable
because they provide such detailed information and guidance for a specific
place. I love to plan, reading and researching for a trip is my favourite part.
However, even I started to get a bit overwhelmed, which is why I turned to an
'Authorised Disney Vacation Planner'.
So, why use a travel agent?
It's free: This is the most important reason. A travel agent is free to you, so why wouldn't you use it? I was a little weary of this so I tallied up all the costs myself and came to the exact same price that I was given by Amber from Small World Vacations. Not a penny difference.
It can save you money: it can also save you money. As noted above, Small World Vacations sometimes offers discounts for Mousesavers newsletter readers, and any discount is better than no discount. I also got a bunch of other discounts, like for Downtown Disney restaurants and such. On top of this, a Disney specific travel agent will know the best time to go (for discounts) and they'll know of discounts that you won't.
They can retroactively add discounts: shortly after I had booked my vacation, I received an email from Amber about a discount that Disney had received that day. It wasn't available at my hotel, but if I wanted to change my dates or hotel, it could be. I didn't want to, but still. It was nice that it was offered.
They can book reservations: apparently they can book your dining reservations and such for you. I don't know this for 100% sure because I didn't ask Amber to do this for me. I did ask her if she had any secrets to getting dining reservations after 180 days that were already booked, but she was unable to. She did say something that made me do some googling and such, and with that I was able to get those hard-to-get reservations (post coming soon!).
You don't relinquish control, not really: I am a super planner freak, as I have mentioned, planning makes me happy. Someone noted that using a travel agent is not for control freaks, but I disagree. The reason I don't use travel agents / tour type vacations is because I don't like when something is out of my control or not my choice (for example, if I go on a guided tour around Europe and can't choose the city or how many nights, I would flip - I could never do that). With
Small World Vacations, I got every single thing I wanted so it never felt like I had relinquished control. If you want to make changes, you do have to go through your travel agent anyway, but I didn't mind.
They have all the knowledge and experience: I like to plan and read like crazy, but not everyone does. My travel agent still shared a lot of information that I was not aware of, even though I'd been there before and
Megan is somewhat of an expert herself. She always responded quickly and always had an answer, no matter how many questions I asked - and I asked a lot.
They can be a sounding board: you all know that KC doesn't love to plan. He also doesn't love when I talk about it - not in a mean way, just in a 'whatever you want!' way. So it was so good to ask questions and have someone give me their opinion.

They can book Non-Disney things: Amber also handled the Universal Studios portion of our vacation, including the transfers, park entry and hotel. They don't handle flights because they have to charge a fee and they are honest about the fact that you can book it cheaper yourself. Other travel agents might be able to book your flights, but because airlines no longer pay a commission, they will likely charge you a fee.
They are super helpful: this is obviously a vague point, but my travel agent, Amber, was ridiculously helpful. I changed so many things, constantly asking questions and asking for help and she never batted an eye (or maybe she did, but she handled me very professionally!). I wouldn't have even known where to start with the changes I wanted to make, and she handled it super efficiently.
You don't have to pay for it all up front: I am an extremely firm believer in not going on vacation unless you can afford it. If you cannot afford to pay for your Disney vacation right now, then you probably shouldn't be going. However. Although we had the money in our accounts, I didn't want to part with it all so soon after Europe, and KC wanted to build a new computer, but I wanted to book Disney before the prices went up, plus I'm just plain impatient. With
Small World Vacations, I put a deposit down (the quote you are sent is valid only for a few days or so) and then I had a due date that was 45 days before the start of my vacation. I didn't want to be a pain in the butt, so I asked Amber if I could make payments or if I had to pay it in one lump sum, and she said I could make payments, so I did.
When I was ready to book, I called Amber and gave her my info, which she kept on file and I would just shoot her an email when I wanted to make a payment. Like I said, I don't think you should be going on vacation unless you can afford it, but Disney is so freaking expensive so it really helped to spread the financial burden out.
Just FYI: This
is not a sponsored post, I am in no way affiliated with any of the companies
listed, I just wanted to share my experience. There are lots and lots of Authorised Disney Vacation Planners, but I cannot vouch for those I have not used, therefore I highly recommend Small World Vacations.
Have you ever used a travel agent?