How to book a vacation

[Mark & Donna]

Like most of you we have read a ton of information about booking a vacation to Disney World, and after awhile it all seems kind of jumbled. In 2007 we called Disney and booked the Magical Express with dining through them and had no problems at all. We loved the Port Orleans/French Quarter too!

Would it be cheaper to go through AAA,a travel agent,or try to book the room (with dining if possible) and park admissions separately? We want to try the Caribbean Beach club from March 31-April 7th with 2 children ages 12 and 9. Any input will be appreciated.

[Melanie]

Contact Magical Journeys for a quote. You won't be sorry, and you'll find many, many on here who vouch for their wonderful service.

[KylesMom]

First off, Welcome to INTERCOT!

Our family has been taking annual vacations to Disney World since 2000, and at first we called Disney directly.

Then came on-line booking, and we did that, too.

Now that we're seasoned veterans, we trust Magical Journeys, an INTERCOT sponsor, to book our rooms. Not only is it a non-fee site, but if better rates are announced closer to your travel dates, they'll make certain you get the best deal available.

I know that planning a Disney vacation can be daunting. However, the gals at MJ have your best interests in mind - and will answer any question you may have with expedient service and quality answers.

Our family has AAA room discounts, A/P discounts, Disney Visa discounts and general public discounts available to us. However, we've put our faith in MJ to find us the best deals - and the most up-to-date information available to us. They've never let us down. I would suggest letting them get you a quote - I don't think you'll be disappointed! They'll let you know if you would be better off buying a package or things separately during your dates of travel.

[CleveRocks]

Like most of you we have read a ton of information about booking a vacation to Disney World, and after awhile it all seems kind of jumbled. In 2007 we called Disney and booked the Magical Express with dining through them and had no problems at all. We loved the Port Orleans/French Quarter too!

Would it be cheaper to go through AAA,a travel agent,or try to book the room (with dining if possible) and park admissions separately? We want to try the Caribbean Beach club from March 31-April 7th with 2 children ages 12 and 9. Any input will be appreciated.

If you DON'T like getting bogged down in little details, then your best bet is to book with a true Disney specialist, not just any run of the mill travel agent.

But if you like all the details, then you can do it all yourself, but you really have to do a lot of reading about all things WDW, as much as you can from as many different sources as you can.

One of the problems is terminology. Disney is very exact with it, so you'll need to be, also, if you deal with them directly.

"Magical Express" is a free bus service that takes you to and from the airport ... it's not a type of resort reservation. "Magic Your Way" is their park-ticketing system, and is also a name for package reservations they sell, such as MYW + Dining.

Disney has one resort called Caribbean Beach Resort and another resort called Beach Club. If you go looking for "Caribbean Beach Club" you might be confused about which it is.

Dining can't be bought as a separate, a la carte item ... it's available ONLY as part of a package reservation ... this is just one of the many many details about booking a WDW vacation. It makes no sense. By this I mean that there is no way to use logic or common sense to figure things out ... it's a matter of learning all of Disney's little rules and policies. Personally, I loved learning that stuff and I continue to love it (you need to keep up ... things can change from year to year!).

But if the tiny bit of nit-picky detail I presented above is too much for you, if it isn't fun for you, then by all means you should book with a travel agency that deals ONLY with Disney reservations. Magical Journeys is one of those, and there are numerous others.

But I would never, EVER, book a Disney vacation with just a regular old travel agent. I did that the first time I went, at my mother-in-law's advice, and it was truly terrible. In a few months of studying books and websites, I knew more than the daffy travel agent did, and I ended up saving myself money by rejecting some things she set up for me and requesting things she never heard of.

[Tink#64]

IMHO planning a WDW trip is a lot of work,and to get your money's worth and experience a trip that meets your expectations - you'd better do your homework! It looks like you don't have long to plan, so if you aren't big into planning, Magical Journeys might be your best bet. I've read so many fantastic things about MJ, that if I wasn't a fanatic about planning (for me it's the next best thing to being at WDW) then I would definitely put my trust in them! Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust!

Wishes for a magical trip!

[Genie1953]

Contact Magical Journeys for a quote. You won't be sorry, and you'll find many, many on here who vouch for their wonderful service.

Mark and Donna....Definitely.....Magical Journeys is the only way to go! Here is an example of what they will do for you....
I booked our April 10-18 reservation in October with Magical Journeys. I had emails flowing back and forth to Denise asking tons of questions and pricing out different scenarios. We knew we wanted the Magic Your Way package with park hopping and dining plan. Unfortunately we are checking in on April 10 which is the last day of peak season. This meant we would be paying peak rates for the dining plan for our entire stay. Since we were flying in that saturday and had thought about just doing Downtown Disney that night anyway Denise suggested we do a room only reservation for the first night and begin our vacation package the next day. Doing this allowed us to get regular season rates for our dining plan for the rest of the trip. This saved us around $180. Then on December 21 I received an email from Denise telling me that Disney had released a promotion making us eligible to receive a $500 Disney gift card when we checked in. She had already had the gift card promotion applied to our reservation. We were ecstatic. Then on January 1 we received another email from her. Disney had come out with yet another promotion for a room discount but we could only do one or the other. She had done the math and found that it was a better deal for us and had already had it applied to our reservation but she also gave us the option to switch back to the gift card promotion if we preferred. Of course we decided to stay with the room discount and that has saved us around $620 I think. With that added to the $180 we previously saved...so far Denise has saved us around $800 total on the original reservations for our trip which allowed us to extend our trip by an extra day. All I had to do was drop her an email tellng her we were adding a day and within a short time We heard back from her that she had made the changes to our reservations. She is just awesome.....and I have only seen rave reviews for the other ladies with Magical Journeys as well. Like I said...you definitely cannot go wrong with them.

[BMan62]

to the INTERCOT family!!!

We have booked through AAA and online ourselves, but for the past 5 trips we have gone through Magical Journeys. As other posters have said, it depends on you....

AAA will book you their package and that's the last you'll hear from them.....

Online booking through Disney will give you their current offer and you can go back from time to time to check if anything new and/or better comes out, but you will have to call for any changes....

MJ will take all your information, give you the best option available - whether it be AAA Room Only or one of Disney's myriad offers.....THEN, they will keep track of anything new and/or different and advise you of it; modify your reservation to take advantage of it; and leave you with a big smile on your face and more $$$ let in your wallet!!!!

As CleveRocks has said, there are other Disney Travel Specialists out there, but they don't support the best Disney-related Discussion Board on the Internet ---INTERCOT!!! MJ does!

[BigRedDad]

You can do it anyway you choose. You need to decide on how much involvement you want to have with the reservation. Magical Journeys is great if you know what you want and are ready.

It gets a little more difficult if you do not have solid plans and things change. For me, my next trip was easier to manage myself do to plans changing almost daily.

[RedSoxFan]

Definitely MJ. My first two trips were booked with AAA. My last trip was booked with MJ/Terrisue (our daughters are in the same class). She is great and saved me $400 when new discounts had come out. She also booked my sister's trip as we were going the same time and our rooms were next door.

[PetefromRI]

Welcome to Intercot.You'll soon be an addict like the rest of us!MJ is the way to go.Even if you don't have a clue they will work side by side with you to give you a great vacation.I'm a big planner and I really enjoy it but I still use MJ because if a better deal comes up they change it for me automatically and they make all the calls to Disney.It took me awhile to give up that control but now I'm so glad that I did.

[Ms. Mode]

Welcome to Intercot...lots of good stuff here

[AllDisney]

Another vote for Magical Journeys. They, in my opinion, are the best at what they do....getting people the best deal possible & at the best price possible.

We have used them for our last 2 trips and they have been wonderful at catching any specials that apply to your vacation package

[PAYROLL PRINCESS]

Another vote for MJs. Wendy and the gang seem to take fantastic care of their clients. They make sure they save you as much money as is humanly possible.

[joonyer]

And even another vote for Magical Journeys and Wendy. She has taken care of all our Disney trips the past few years, and I wouldn't dream of arranging another Disney trip without calling Wendy at MJ. You won't regret it.

[LuvSnowWhite]

Can Canadians use this company?

[fielin]

I'm french, and Kathy from MJ takes great care of me, so go for it ! She rocks !

[LuvSnowWhite]

France French or Quebec French?

[fielin]

France french.

We love hearing canadian french when we go to WDW !

[LVT]

No Names, but I have used another Disney specialist Travel agent with great success at getting the better deals as they were announced.