What parts of Disney trip planning do you expect from your TA? - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
What parts of Disney trip planning do you expect from your TA?
I'd love your feedback as I contemplate signing on with a home-based agency here in Canada. It seems they do the bare minimum this side of the border. Many do book the flights, even though they make no commission from that. So I'm wondering about flights, ADR's, fastpasses, etc.
For me I just expect my Disney TA to get me the best deal on my room and tickets and meal plan (as I always get the meal plan) and to always watch if something better happens. But for the rest of it is is all me. Guess am too much of a control freak.
Is this a Disney Authorized vacation Vacation Planner? One who specializes in Disney?
I wouldn't use any that weren't.
What I expect from a TA is to book my room or wdw package at the best possible rate and continue to check for discounts released for my dates. Doing the Disney Math and advising me on what the best promo is for us.
TAs who don't specialize in Disney vacations don't do this. They just book your room and are done.
I expect them to make my payments for me. I mostly do room only and love just being able to send an email and have TA take care of payment. So easy. No long waits on the phone.
That's it. I prefer to watch flights and book my own. I also prefer to do my own adrs and FP+.
I also want them to do the ADRs and book any extra tours.
I'm debating asking her to do tickets for Universal - not really sure if I want to take a day out of the World.
When I used a TA, I have them book the room or package and schedule ADRs and I take care of flights. I have always used a Disney authorized TA and they have let me know of any deals that come up for my vacation and have offered suggestions. My daughter-in-law used just a random TA last year and she really did nothing for them but reserve a room/package. I am pretty sure there were some deals that came up because they made the reservation 11 months in advance and the vacation was not during a one of the busy times. She did not listen to me.
Currently in Canada you can't call yourself a Disney specialist, etc. you can focus on just selling for Disney, but you can't get that designation. I will be doing the Disney training modules and you get a certificate from that.
Luckily in my neck of the woods, they're just looking for someone who is really knowledgable about Disney. I have helped several friends plan every detail of their trips and they've all asked me over and over to go into the biz. Agents around here book the trip and leave it at that. Very few do ADR's. I got tired of giving mine business when I knew more about Disney than she does! She also travels alone, so she was no help in planning a trip with small kids.
I'm just looking to do this as a little part-time work to feed my addiction. The perks are an added bonus to make it worth my while. If I book a handful of friends in the first year, I'll be satisfied. Besides, I can even make commission off our own trip and my parents'.
For me I just expect my Disney TA to get me the best deal on my room and tickets and meal plan (as I always get the meal plan) and to always watch if something better happens. But for the rest of it is is all me. Guess am too much of a control freak.
Except, we always get ParkHopper which is why we can't turn over booking ADR's or choosing FP+. As we're checking for what ADR we can get when, we're determining a touring schedule that will get us to each and still allow for downtime.
We simply make too many changes after the fact to turn anything but booking the package and maybe a special event or tour over to a TA.
__________________
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
Yes, I can't imagine handing over control of booking ADR's! We don't park hop, so we carefully plan ADR's around park selections - and I follow easywdw for that. My friend was here making her chart last night : )
I don't know what I'd expect of a TA that I have book a Disney trip for me. I've never used a TA for Disney and it's been years since I've used a TA for any non Disney travel. Between the internet, library, phone and even newspaper articles there's tons of information readily available about anyplace you care to travel to or anything you care to do. Plus since every airline, hotel chain etc. has a website it's very easy to book yourself. If I have questions I either call or email the company/hotel with the question if I can't find the answer online. If it's a general travel question I call my mom as she's worked as a travel agent in the past and if it's Disney related I either post here or call Disney.
Don't mean to derail the thread, but here's a question for everyone: Is it likely that very few of us PPers would have a TA book ADR's and FP's? I would guess so, which is why we may be a very unrepresentative group except for first-timers who might welcome more help than most of us want.
__________________
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
I think that's very likely, dot. Though when my friend sat here yesterday charting her days, she wanted character dinner suggestions at each park and rec time frames. She still was keen to book them herself. I can't believe most of our choices for second week of November were sold out!
Early on, my TA booked the single TS meal we wanted for us (we only do one TS per trip). Since they put dining reservations online, there is no need to ask her to do that. Even when she did it, the one thing she wouldn't try to book was the Castle; you were on your own on that one. It was not unusual for her to spend several hours at a time on the phone booking tables for clients. It's probably a relief to agents that so many of us can now book our own meals.
Second week of November opens a free dining window so that's probably why you are having problems. Try fooling around with times and days. Also, checking back from time to time can sometimes give you a happy surprise as people do cancel.
Yeah, I can't imagine bust ta's spending hours to book ADR's when they only make 10% commission off your trip package - before taxes and any further deductions.
I thought you were talking about what people ask TA to book cause you were thinking of using one, not that you were thinking of becoming one, lol!! Oops!
In BC there sure is a lack of knowledgable WDW TAs! Years ago I went to BCAA to get a quote from their so called WDW specialist. The quote was higher then what I saw on the wdw web site. I asked where she got that quote from, she says from Sun Fun Holidays what? So they were going thru a vacation broker, and if wdw puts out a promo, too bad for the client I guess. Not that I think they'd even check for released promos. This was their specialist?
No thank you.
Canada sure needs more TAs who are knowledgable in Disney booking. I guess there may be some who know about DL here, since I guess most people on the west coast tend to go to DL more. I may be the anomaly going to wdw.
Don't mean to derail the thread, but here's a question for everyone: Is it likely that very few of us PPers would have a TA book ADR's and FP's? I would guess so, which is why we may be a very unrepresentative group except for first-timers who might welcome more help than most of us want.
I don't like the like of direct control I have if I let a ta book my Disney trips. Of course the last time I used a ta was in 1996/97 when I had the one a lot of my family used at the time book a 3 1/2 week tour of Great Britain & Ireland.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Mary - not enough trips!
what? So they were going thru a vacation broker, and if wdw puts out a promo, too bad for the client I guess. Not that I think they'd even check for released promos. This was their specialist?
Linear Mode
