Problems with Liberty Travel

A good friend of mine through work booked her first WDW vacation and leaves for it next week. She is traveling with her DH and DD2 and DD5. I had advised her to book with MJ, but her husband went to Liberty Travel and booked with them, instead.

She showed me her itinerary last week and it's evident that she is now running into loads of problems. First of all, her DME documents never arrived and she leaves in less than a week. When she tries to contact her travel agent (who takes days to return calls sometimes) about this a few weeks ago, her reply was that Disney sometimes doesn't sent them and that she could just talk to the ticket counter at the airport and they would tag her bags for her. I didn't really think this was a satisfactory answer. I know that she can talk to the DME desk about transportation, but I've never heard asking the departing airport for DME tags?? And when I booked through a local AAA, they received my documents, and I had to go in and they went over every piece with me and sign for them.

Second example, her TA booked DD5 at BBB in the MK at 9:30 AM with the full package, and then booked her a Princess lunch at Akershus in Norway just two hours later. There is not enough time between the two for traveling after she finishes at BBB, especially with two little kids in tow. My friend had no idea that the princess lunch was even in another park let alone how long it would take to travel to another park.

Another thing, she booked her airfare out of Philadelphia, which is two hours away, when we have an airlines 30 minutes away that runs daily trips to MCO. Part of her reasoning was that Philly had AM trips and the local airport has afternoon trips. It would have made so much more sense (especially since they're staying in a hotel before the flight anyway) to take the cheaper flight that is closer to home the day before and stay at a hotel in MCO. She also told my friend that AirTran did not participate in ME.

Her TA, and really, several of them there, don't seem to be very helpful. She is annoyed when my friend calls to ask questions and doesn't provide good answers. I'm trying to help her rectify some of the situation now by rebooking her Princess lunch a little later and writing down tips and directions for her.

I just feel so badly for her because she is so stressed out about this trip. I want her first trip to WDW to be a good one. Is there any kind of recourse for my friend to take? Liberty Travel has been completely unhelpful and downright rude at times. I suggested she talk to her manager, but I'm not sure that would help too much. Who knows...

Now, to top it off, her DD5 fell off the couch yesterday and broke her nose and has to have a hematoma drained surgically on Monday (and they leave on Thursday!). She has a call out to her TA to see if she can change her BBB appointment to later in the week, but I don't know if she'll be able to do that or not.

Anyway, thanks for listening and if you have any suggestions it would be greatly appreciated!

Can she just call WDW herself to make the changes and not trust the TA? (Asks the lady the does all this without a TA and doesn't know the protocol)

Wow, nightmare. Poor woman, and the little girl, ouch. I would say Ms. Mode has the right idea. Stop trusting the TA and just call Disney herself. She should double check all her reservations on her own. If she doesn't have the reservation numbers, they should be able to give them to her. She will need those at check-in anyway. She can even do online check in at her resort. I would feel better trusting myself at that point than to keep putting my trust in an agent I knew was faulty. It's a live and learn experience for her, unfortunately. She should (her husband should) have trusted your advice in the first place. What a shame.

But I can understand it. My husband was reluctant to try MJ last time. "No charge? What's the catch?" But he put his faith in me, and now we're on our second MJ trip and he's recommending MJ to coworkers. Men. :) We learned not to trust local agencies when we were booking our honeymoon twenty years ago and they were all telling us to stay offsite (AAA included). Times have changed, apparently not for all agencies but now we trust MJ.

How awful! :( I agree that she should start dealing with Disney directly at this point. Unless there is someway for her to transfer her trip to MJ so that they can help her?

Normally, I do not post on threads about other agencies ("bad form" as Hook would say).

Yes, you friend can call and speak to Disney directly regarding her BBB and dining reservations to see if she can alter the times/days whatever.

There is also a very good chance that her agent was not aware that the venues were in different parks. A lot of agencies sell everything, and specialize in nothing. It would be like have a Family Doctor doing Heart Surgery- technically he knows how, but do you really want him to?

I hope that once your friend gets there, the magic just takes over and she has a wonderful time.

Nanc