After my husband and I got married in Disneyland California we decided to have our honeymoon at Walt Disney World. It just made sense and at that time I had only ever been to the California parks and my husband hadn’t been Walt Disney World since maybe the 90’s. I always prided myself with being good at planning a Disney vacation, and I was/am good at it. But I had only been going to the California parks. So once we decided on Walt Disney World and a Disney Cruise for our honeymoon, I figured I could just do it all myself, after all I planned all of our other vacations, even the Disney Cruise we got engaged on! Fast forward to me getting on the Walt Disney World website and Pinterest and being completely overwhelmed!

Lucky for me, my husband will talk to anyone and had just happened to meet an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner while we were checking into the Disneyland Hotel for our wedding. We dug out her card and I sent her an email. She responded and helped answer all my questions and took away so much anxiety and overwhelm I had about planning this trip. And let me tell you without her I don’t know what I would have done. Our honeymoon was happening right after Disney reopened during the pandemic and to top it off the NBA decided to do some kind of spring training thing at Walt Disney World, and we got kicked out of every hotel we booked. Lucky for us we had our Disney Travel Agent, and she not only fixed the drama, but we were upgraded big time! Disney, I think felt pretty bad for us and she knew how to advocate for her clients. Basically, we were going to stay at Moderate value resorts but ended up being upgraded to Deluxe resorts like the Contemporary and the Grand Floridian at no additional cost. She also helped us figure out that it would be less expensive to actually extend our trip at Walt Disney World rather than shorten it to accommodate the fact that cruising had not yet resumed due to the pandemic.

All in all we had a great time, fell in love with Disney even more and now almost 3 years later we live in Florida to be closer to the parks and Disney Cruise Line and I’m now myself an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner. In this post I want to go over why using an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner is a good idea and I hope this helps you make well informed choices for your next Disney vacation.

1. Disney has high standards that must be met to be an Authorized Planner. Not all travel agencies are the same. I’m going to be super transparent and let you know I am an independent contractor with Academy Travel. Academy Travel is the company I work for basically, but they have a very cool distinction among travel agencies in the industry. Academy Travel is a Diamond EARmarked agency. Disney’s Earmarked program is reserved for those agencies that have met Disney’s strict requirements, have demonstrated a high level of sales, and maintain proficiency in Disney curated destination training. That last point about maintaining proficiency is super important and why Academy Travel is only one of three agencies worldwide with the Diamond Earmark distinction. Academy Travel and so I as well also have this same prestigious type of distinction for Universal theme parks as well. Now that I’ve let you all know that heavy stuff let’s continue on with why you should an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner i.e., me to book your Disney Vacations.
2. Using a Disney travel agent reduces the stress of planning a Disney vacation. Let’s face it, there are a lot of moving parts to any Disney Vacation from which resort to stay at, where to make dinning reservations, WHEN to make dinning reservations, park tickets, park reservations and transportation between parks, resorts or sport complexes. If you’ve never been to a Disney destination it can be quite overwhelming, so having someone who knows all the ins and outs and will DO IT FOR YOU can greatly reduce stress. Do you want to get up at 6am 60 days out from your vacation just to make dinning reservations? Your vacation planner will do that for you unless you really want to do that. Your travel agent can be a sounding board as well. Not sure which day to do which park? Which restaurant will suit my family the best? Which resort should we stay at? These are all questions your travel agent can assist you with answering and then book them for you. Your travel agent will also be able to help you book things like transportation from the airport to Walt Disney World, wheelchair or ECV or stroller rentals as well. Disney likes to partner with companies who take care of their guests and so frequently Disney will have special relationships with third party companies to help their guests. Your agent will know which companies Disney likes to work with.
3. There is no additional fee to use an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner. Basically, the cost of a travel agent is already built into the price of your vacation whether you or not you decide to use one. So, for example if you reach out to me and want to book a vacation the price, what I quote you is what you yourself could technically find online, the biggest difference is that I have specific training from Disney and know how to get all those discounts and what not. Also, Disney provides me with information about promotions as they become available which is great for you because now you don’t need to scour the Disney sites to keep an eye out for any kind of promotion Disney could be running, I’ll already know and be able to help you take advantage of those savings! If a travel agency charges you for simply using them walk away. Authorized Disney Vacation Planners especially EARmarked ones should never charge you a fee! The biggest takeaway is that you don’t pay me, Disney does. I also do not get any kind of payment until after your vacation.
4. Authorized Disney Vacation Planners have special training. I have mentioned this before in other sections, but I’ll go into more detail here. Disney Earmarked agencies must comply with Disney standards to get those designations. One of those standards is that the travel agent complete and pass College of Disney Knowledge. This is a training program Disney has for travel agents that goes over every Disney Destination and all the ins and outs to give guests the best experience. There are tests that have to be completed and passed to move on in this course as well. The course doesn’t just take an hour, this took me personally over a week to complete and I hit it hard! I was at my computer for hours at a time taking this course. I also received training from agency as well. What’s great about working with an agent who is Diamond Earmarked is that Disney affords us more direct contact with them. If there is an issue with your reservation, I have special lines I can call into that are reserved only for Diamond Earmarked agencies to use. Just another bonus of using that Authorized Disney Vacation Planner.
5. If something goes wrong your Authorized Disney Vacation Planner can help you on your behalf. Sometimes unexpected things happen, and it can really throw a damper on a vacation. If something happens you travel agent can help you from the back end so to speak. Maybe the issue requires calling a phone number or sending an e-mail. Your agent can help take care of that while you continue to enjoy your vacation. At the very least your agent can tell you who to speak to and where to go to help resolve issues if it’s something they personally can’t fix. Sometimes just having someone there to guide you can relieve a lot of stress.
6. Your Authorized Disney Vacation Planner can help you maximize your itinerary. Not only are there a lot of moving parts to planning a Disney vacation but there’s a lot going on once you get there! Your agent can help you understand your priorities. Do you want as many rides as possible? Are you familiar with My Disney Experience and how to use Lightning Lanes? Will Genie+ benefit you on this trip? These are questions your agent can help you with. Did you know Magic Kingdom is most crowded on Mondays? Your agent does! Are you park hopping? Do you know all the different ways to get from park to park or from your resort to the park? your agent can help you decide which transportation to take or give you options so you can decide on the fly.

I hope these reasons have helped you make a decision about using an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner and help you understand the role we play in making your vacation magical!

If you are interested in a Disney or Universal vacation, feel free to contact me! You can submit requests for quotes through my secure website: http://www.acacemytravel.com/stacey or send me an e-mail at [email protected]