Do yourself a favor and book with Dreams (a cautionary tale)

Katie Little

DIS Veteran
Joined
Dec 18, 2017
Hi there!

Today I offer you a cautionary tail of epic disaster in hopes that you can avoid the hot mess that I just went through!

I’ve booked with dreams in the past and loved it! Not a single complaint. Kathy was my agent and I highly recommend!

For my current trip; however, I booked on my own online. Not because of any hard feelings or mishandling in the past, but because it was 2am and I wanted that “I’m going to Disney” feeling at that exact moment. Mentality clicking book now and clicking send on an email to start the booking process are 2 different things. This lack of patience on my part turned out to be a huge mistake!

After watching the Disney world discussion today I learned about the 25% in room offer, so I paused the podcast immediately and checked the promo details. The promotion applied to my room. So I call up Disney!!

My original booking.
3 adults
5 days at all star Music
Family suite
3 day park hopper tickets
Memory maker and travel insurance
$5045

The first lady I spoke with, said there were no more family suites available. Then her computer went down. When it came back up she told me that the closest thing she had available was a preferred room at all star sports. It had enough beds and since it was a smaller room it was going to save us like $1400. Not a bad chunk of change. In the middle of updating my reservation; however, the call dropped.

The 2nd lady was super nice and seemed to follow along with my story well. She said they did in fact have a standard at all star music so no need to change resorts. At that news I had her double check the family suite (just cause the 1st lady was having some technical difficulties.) no family suites available. We went ahead with the standard room and she said my credit would be $1089. That number didn’t sound right but between the 2 calls I had been at this for 45 mins so I ended the call.

I promptly went on the site and priced a standard room without the discount and realized why the number didn’t sound right.

Call #3 I immediately ask for a supervisor! I gave the girl my info and she transferred me over. I explained to the cast member my story from start to finish and thankfully he followed along. He asked if I would prefer the standard or family suite. I explained “family if I can get the discount” and he got it taken care of.

Over an hour and a half from my first call I got a credit of just under $200. I was reminded of my honeymoon when I booked with Kathy and how without even asking she emailed me and said “hey got you this $25 discount.” I don’t think I appreciated the amount of work that seemingly went into that discount and I really wish I had a dreams agent on my side tonight!!

The instant booking gratification was not worth it!
 
Yes, Disney-specialist travel agents can be helpful. I use one when I can get a special discount not available to the general public. But when I can't get a special discount through an agent, I prefer to book independently, because if I see availability pop-up for something hard to get, I can get it for sure, rather than waiting & hoping that it's still available by the time my agent sees & responds to my message. I also tend to make a lot of changes, and that's easier to do independently.

To each his own. A good agent is great, but no one need be "cautioned" against booking independently.
 
I had a similar experience today - the site ( as well as the shopdisney site ) is all wonky today. I had accidentally booked myself over Mother's Day Weekend and there would be no living it down if I did not see my mother on Mother's Day.

So I called and held for 20 minutes - not a biggie - I'm off for the holiday so I sat and waited. When I get through to an agent I can barely hear them and they are cutting in and out. After another 15 minutes on the phone I was told the offer wasn't available. I asked them to leave the reservation as is and I would call back.

Immediately after, I went onto disneyworld.com and was able to book my same resort, same room type with the newest offer. I had planned to go online right after and cancel the reservation in My Disney App BUT the cancel button is no longer there. ( I could have sworn that I was able to do that in the past ). Anyways, it'll be call #2 here soon to cancel the original dates.
 
I had a similar experience today - the site ( as well as the shopdisney site ) is all wonky today. I had accidentally booked myself over Mother's Day Weekend and there would be no living it down if I did not see my mother on Mother's Day.

So I called and held for 20 minutes - not a biggie - I'm off for the holiday so I sat and waited. When I get through to an agent I can barely hear them and they are cutting in and out. After another 15 minutes on the phone I was told the offer wasn't available. I asked them to leave the reservation as is and I would call back.

Immediately after, I went onto disneyworld.com and was able to book my same resort, same room type with the newest offer. I had planned to go online right after and cancel the reservation in My Disney App BUT the cancel button is no longer there. ( I could have sworn that I was able to do that in the past ). Anyways, it'll be call #2 here soon to cancel the original dates.
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