Janeen

Hi. I am planning a trip to Walt Disney World with my husband and 4 kids (ages 5,6,7,9) in May. Who should I book through? Disney itself or a travel agent? I have a non-obligation quote coming from YOUR DREAMS UNLIMITED but know nothing about them. Anyone heard of them or used them? What about the travel agent (small world) recommended by mousesaver.com? or should I just stick with Disney.

I'm not sure whether we want to stay at Walt Disney World or at a site close by. I'd actually like for someone to give me quotes for both.

I'm a bit lost and overwhelmed as to all the details and the best and cheapest way to do things. Any help would be appreciated?
Thanks a lot.

egret

Maybe I'm just a little different, but I like the control of booking everything myself, from the flight, to the hotel, car rental, etc. I have also found you can usually get better deals booking the trip yourself. The internet is a great help. For your hotels, try going to Tripadvisor.com
Under "search" you can put something like "orlando hotels" and you will have recommendations of places to stay and reviews.

schmerl

I booked through Dreams Unlimited twice and they were great. They kept checking for our rooms to go down in price and we made all our priority seatings for restaurants through them also.

clarkgriswold

We booked our hotel & Disney tickets through Disney....but waited for the airfare to come down before booking that directly with the airline.

cristinab

I like to book all of my own travel and especially for WDW. I would start reading allears.net and also buy The Unofficial Guide to WDW and read it(my favorite WDW guide). This is one place, especially with a party of 6, that you want to know ahead of time what you will be doing (and make advanced dinning reservations). We have stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge, The Swan and The Yacht Club. We loved the AK (by far the best food in WDW - eat at BOMA one night), but would opt for the location of an EPCOT hotel and The Swan is more reasonable than the Disney hotels. Swan and Dolphin are on Disney property (you can walk to EPCOT or MGM), but run by Starwood. You get early entry and transportation like Disney, but can't buy the dinning plan. We still saved money with Swan stay vs. comparable Disney hotel and dinning plan in early Dec. If you book a Disney package there are all kinds of cancelation penalties, etc. I think you can do this a la carte and come out ahead.

Pat_in_Mich

I prefer to book my own airline tickets but I used Dreams Unlimited last year for room booking and have a reservation with them now for next month. They are very good about checking for discounts. Last year a AAA discount came through some time after I had booked and they found it and re-booked me with the lower price. Also my agent alerted me that the cost of Disney tickets was increasing and I was able to buy before the price increase. Highly recommended!

schmerl

I do the sam as Pat_in_Mich. We book our own air and I got my park tickets through AAA, but booked the hotel and dinner reservations through Dreams Unlimited. We have been VERY pleased with them.

cristinab

One more thing...in December we got our park tickets cheaper through the undercovertourist tickets link on Mousesavers.com than the AAA rate. We were there for 6 days and bought the 6 day pass instead of the 5 b/c they were the same price. My kids wanted to go back to MK that morning we left and we rode their favorite rides again esentially for free! Also, we got a special rate for the Swan on the allears.net website. It was cheaper than AAA's rate too. Also, look for info on this site for upcoming Disney promotions. On the phone with Disney reservations you really have to ask for specific specials, they don't volunteer the information.

melh

Janeen ~

I can definitely relate to your feeling of being lost and overwhelmed with all the details! I have felt the same way in planning our Disney trip.
We have our first one coming up in March.

I booked through Disney. While I'm sure that I didn't get the best rate in the world, it was the same as 2 local travel agents that I called and AAA.

As far as planning goes, allears.net has been helpful and I bought the Unofficial Guide too.

Hope you have a great trip!

ajcolorado

WE used www.buildabettermousetrip.com for our last trip. They apply any commissions (either Disney or non-Disney resorts) towards custom itinaries and touring plans and any commissions earned from the booking are applied to the touring plans. We got ours for free.

They told us about this great free activity that our kids really enjoyed. It is the Campfire Sing-Along with Chip & Dale at Fort Wilderness. We bought a S'mores kit so it wasn't totally free but we had a great time. See: http://www.buildabettermousetrip.com...-campfire.html

Postal

Since I live near Disney, I don't know anything about planning the trip. But I CAN tell you that with four children those ages you should definitely stay on property even thought it may be more expensive! This will give you the flexibility you need to break off from the theme parks for a few hours if necessary. In May the weather may already be incredibly hot, and if so there's nothing like taking an afternoon break away from the parks with the kids at the hotel pool!

stumpworks73

For our last trip, I shopped the major sites, Orbitz, Travelocity and priced AAA. To stay at a Disney property, you get best rates and best ticket packages by booking direct with Disney. I would book my own air travel separate. If you decide to stay off site, I would book everything independent. If you aren't buying a room from Disney, the ticket price is the ticket price is the ticket price. No deals outside their system.

Ryan

Certainly booking everything with one travel agency will be easier if you aren't comfortable with researching it yourself.

My suggestion is to peruse this board for hotel recommendations and Disney threads. Then, simply compare the price quoted by Disney Travel versus what a local travel agent will tell you.

If you are on a strict budget, then you might think about the package through Disney that has air, park tickets, hotel, and meals.

BTW, with six people, at Disney hotels you're either looking at 2 rooms or a suite. I understand that the All-Star Music resort has a family suite that will sleep at least 6 for a price of less than $200 a night.