It might surprise you to learn that despite all the time I spend researching Disney World, visiting the parks, and planning my own trips, I rarely handle my own bookings anymore. Indeed, we have for many years relied almost exclusively on a travel advisor to book our trips. In this post I’m going to outline why I always book my Disney trips with a travel advisor, including the list of times I was most glad I had an advisor.
If Anyone Could Get By Without An Advisor…
This is my fifth draft of this section, and fine, I’ve removed anything that sounds braggy. Suffice to say we have plenty of travel experience, and even plentier Disney travel experience. If anyone could get by without booking trips through a travel advisor, it would be us. But I still do use one, basically every single time. Let’s talk about why…after a quick sidebar…
Do travel Advisors plan Disney trips for free?
Some travel advisors charge fees to plan and book your trip, and others do it at no cost to you. Those who aren’t charging are often still collecting a commission from the supplier, though this will vary by supplier and what’s being booked. As you’ll see in the next paragraph, the specific advisor we work with does charge fees.
This post covers the sorts of benefits offered by many, if not most, advisors, but I can only speak to specifics about the one I’ve worked with.
My Favorite Advisor, and a Disclosure
In this post, I’m reflecting on my experience being helped the past few years by Lauren Quirk At Travel With Character LLC. Travel With Character LLC’s fees for their planning services can be found over on their site.
I’m obliged to disclose that Lauren doesn’t charge me fees. As you might imagine, I book many trips in a year, most of which don’t make use of Lauren’s full expertise. (That said, she always goes above and beyond and, as noted extensively below, has gotten me out of several jams over the years.)
I also refer people to Lauren via the Get A Quote page on this site, but I don’t receive any benefit for those referrals. I’ve been referring people to her since 2018 simply because I’m glad to match people who need travel planning help with someone who is a travel planning expert.
You’ll have to take it on my word that, in my opinion, Lauren’s expertise—and that of her team—is worth her fee, particularly given the already high costs of a Disney World vacation. If you doubt me at this moment, feel free to keep reading and make the evaluation on your own.
Do All Travel Advisors Offer the same services?
Absolutely not, and this matters a ton when it comes to Disney World vacations. Disney World trips typically involve:
a bunch of research before you book anything
booking a hotel, tickets, flights, transportation to/from the airport, dining reservations, dining plans, ticketed events, and travel insurance
planning your days in the parks
actually visiting the parks, including knowing rope drop strategies and how to use Lightning Lanes and Virtual Queues.
The work done by an advisor could range from just booking a hotel for you to assisting you with everything on that list (and more, see below). Make sure you know what to expect from an advisor before you agree to work with them.
Some Benefits of Booking Your Disney Trip With An Advisor
Here are some of the things advisors might help guests with when it comes to Disney trips. Keep in mind that not every advisor offers the same set of services, and you need to confirm what they can and can’t do for you before agreeing to work with them.
Booking your hotel and park tickets. Each Disney world hotel has several room types with different combinations of bed sizes. All of them have pros and cons in terms of location, transportation, and dining options. Picking and booking your hotel is a lot simpler with an advisor. Park tickets aren’t as complicated, but you might need help deciding whether to hop or not, or which add ons you’ll need.
Helping you get from MCO to the hotel. Since Disney ended Magical Express this is a big one. You can sort it out on your own, but this is personally one I valued a lot when we had an infant and Uber wasn’t a good option. Being able to work with a car service you know you can trust is a great perk of working with an advisor.
Advising you on your time in the parks. I’m biased and think you probably should spend a weekend reading through all of our park content, but if you prefer working with a person who can give you personalized advice, then an advisor is going to be the better route. There are a lot of factors (park hours, ticketed events, dining reservations, Lightning Lane / Virtual Queue availability, etc.) that go into planning your park days.
Helping you with Lightning Lane reservations. Advisors handle this a variety of ways, but the best will usually have customized material to help you master the Lightning Lane system. (The second best will just refer you to our Lightning Lane content, *wink*.)
Making Advance Dining Reservations. This one can be huge for some people. Reservations come and go a lot at Disney World. If you’re set on getting a specific reservation, advisors often have the tools necessary to maximize your changes of getting it. (It’s also worth remembering that reservations for dining and other activities can open at awful hours. Having a dedicated professional ready and willing to wake up early to book these for you is a big plus.)
Linking My Disney Experience Accounts. This is a pretty basic thing that’s incredibly important for your trip and that a lot of people struggle with. I once was helping a friend plan her visit and it took a few hours of back and forth and emails to other people in her group to get everything set up correctly. If you don’t do this correctly, you won’t be able to do crucial things like book Lightning Lane reservations for everyone in your party.
Helping with Disney Dining Plans. No amount of help will ever get me to properly use the Disney Dining Plans (returning 2024), but if you have no idea what your credits are good for or if you’ve booked too many or too few meals, a travel advisor will help a lot.
These are all good things to have help with, and they’re reason enough to have help booking a trip. When it comes to Disney World, having an expert who is focused on helping you is going to streamline a lot of the needless complexity that comes with these trips.
The Times I’ve Been Most Thankful to Have a Travel Advisor
All of that basic “Disney is complicated” truth aside, I want to highlight some of the times I’ve been most thankful to have a travel advisor helping me. I think it’s helpful for you to see just a few real-world examples that might not have even occurred to you until they happened to you…
All the times she applied new discounts to my reservation. I’ve typically got a handful of trip reservations booked at any time, and every time Disney has announced a new discount that could be applied to my existing reservation, Lauren was quick to get it applied. If you paid, say, $300 per night for a five-night stay, a 20% discount that popped up after you booked would save you $300.
The time she found a car to save my family from Universal Studios. When Zoe was still an infant, we found ourselves enjoyed a day at Universal when we realized we had no safe way to get Zoe back to our Disney hotel (i.e. we had no car seat). Lauren and her team worked incredibly to find us a car service with same-day availability to get us home. (No, Zoe wasn’t old enough for Uber Car Seat.)
Every time I have a weird question. I know the basics required to put together a Disney World trip that fits basically any length, budget, and group. But if I need to know what rooms at Disney World have space for five people? Or if all the rooms at Grand Floridian have been refurbished yet? Or how to get access to Tower Club at Contemporary? Those require additional research.
They require additional research that forums and other sites might help with, but ultimately the answer will have to come from a professional or directly from Disney. And I don’t want to make the time to call Disney. So, working with an expert who knows or is willing to learn these details is important to me.
The time she held recover my lost refund. Lauren had booked me a night at Paradise Pier Hotel on my Disney Rewards Redemption card that I had to cancel. The refund never showed up. While I had to deal with the Chase side of things (my bank won’t talk to my travel advisor), Lauren clearly understood the problem and worked through the Disney side of things until I finally got my $443.43 back.
The time she helped me through Hurricane Dorian. Hurricane Dorian was scheduled to hit Florida shortly after the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, which we were on hand for. We wound up having to cut our ten-night trip short, and Lauren was there for every step responding to ideas we had, providing quotes, and clarifying what our cancellations/rebooking rules would be in this rare circumstance. I don’t think anyone wants to take their own time to learn the rules around refundable Disney tickets /packages / hotel stays.
The time she got my ticket date for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party changed. This is Part II of the Hurricane Dorian saga, but we had to change the date on our Halloween party tickets, and Lauren was able to accomplish that (to be clear, Disney had implemented a policy allowing this, which it usually isn’t).
The time she escalated my IT issue until it got resolved. When I booked a stay at Best Western Lake Buena Vista (Disney Springs), the reservation didn’t link to My Disney Experience correctly. Lauren went through a few phone calls, escalating the issue through Disney’s IT department, and they eventually resolved it. (At the time, this was a huge deal because that linking was needed for the 60-day FastPass+ window.)
The time my plane broke and I missed After Hours. I’d booked an After Hours ticket and a hotel stay for one night, only to be kicked off my flight when the plane broke. Lauren was able to get everything modified so that I could visit the event later in the month.
All the time’s she’s been quick to book for me. Disney parks blogging can be absolutely chaotic some days. And every time some new thing is announced, Lauren takes only a few minutes to respond to my email requests for a quote covering the dates I’d need to be in Florida or California.
All the phone time she’s saved me booking tours. As documented in my review of the Keys to the Kingdom Tour, you can spend quite a long time on the phone booking these tours.
Finally, Travel Advisors Are “Magicians” Not Magicians
If something can be done for my trip to Disney World, I have all the confidence that Lauren can get it done. But if something simply cannot be done—because a room type is fully booked, or a deal isn’t applicable to my room type, or whatever else—then I don’t expect Lauren to magically conjure up a solution. To offer workable alternatives? Sure. But travel advisors don’t have some secret talent to move the Sun to fit their clients’ sunbathing needs.
That said, travel advisors are experts in ways that most of you aren’t (and even in some ways that I’m not). And they’re here to put in the hard work to make your experience easier. That does pay off in the form of “magic” occasionally. This might mean they snag a hard-to-get reservation at Cinderella’s Royal Table, or they apply some new discount to your trip that saves you hundreds (or more) of dollars.
Overall, I’ve found things are a lot easier when I’ve got help booking and managing my Disney trips. I’m planning to stick to what I do best, and I’ll lean on my travel advisor for what she does best!
Click here to Get a Quote from Travel With Character LLC!
All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered
Don't be overwhelmed by Disney World planning! Take a second to check out our most important content and you'll not only be an expert, but you'll save big $$$ along the way.
Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney World planning guide! If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney World crowd calendars. For picking your hotel, check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.
When it comes time to book we’ll help you find discount Disney World tickets. Decide whether you need a dining plan in our Complete Guide to Disney World Dining Plans! And don't forget to book those Disney World Advance Dining Reservations!
Don't forget to master your Disney World Lightning Lane Guide and Strategy a few months in advance. We'll keep you out of long lines so you can maximize the magical time in the parks! We've got park-specific guides as well: Magic Kingdom Lightning Lane Strategy, Epcot Lightning Lane Strategy, Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane Strategy, and Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Strategy.
Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.
Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you're interested in saving, there's no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.