This article is sponsored by Be Our Guest Vacations. Visit them at beourguestvacations.com/wdwnt.

Do you use a travel agent when booking your vacations? If not, why not?

A lot of people think it costs more to use the services of a travel agent. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth! A good travel agent will know the destination, be familiar with deals, keep an eye out for promotions, help you plan activities and dining, and do all of this at no cost to you! We here at WDWNT recommend that you contact our official travel agent, Be Our Guest Vacations, for your trip planning needs.

Of course, there are certain times when you can’t use a travel agent. If you are a DVC owner using your points, you have to book your rooms through DVC. And many people are now comfortable booking flights online. But when it comes to more complicated vacations, such as a trip to Walt Disney World or Disneyland, where you need to book a hotel room, park tickets, and dining reservations, as well as deal with park reservations, then using a travel agent can be a huge time-saver and money-saver for you.

Let’s talk about the money-saving aspects of using a travel agent. I’ve already told you that a good travel agent will not charge you any fees, so it’s no additional money out of your pocket to take advantage of their services. But on top of that, travel agents will also know about discounts and current promotions you may not be aware of. That could save you hundreds of dollars right off the bat.

In addition, they will know about new promotions that may be released after you initially book your trip, and may be able to apply those promotions to your booking, potentially saving you more money. They can also advise you on whether you need tickets with park-hopping privileges, what exactly the water parks add-on gets you, and whether Memory Maker is a good investment for your family.

In addition to not costing you anything, and potentially saving you big bucks, travel agents can also save you a lot of time, both before and during your trip. If you don’t have the free time or inclination to research all the ins and outs of planning a Disney vacation, a travel agent can handle much of that work for you.

The first example of this is the initial booking process. Anyone who’s tried to book anything on the Disney website will tell you that it’s not the most user-friendly booking system. And if you want to price out several different options for hotels and tickets, it can be downright maddening. But a travel agent like those at Be Our Guest Vacations can pull all this information together for you and present several options and their associated prices without you having to sit in front of a computer for hours to do it yourself.

After you’ve booked your hotel and park tickets, you’ll next want to think about dining. Sure you can use the My Disney Experience app yourself, and deal with it crashing way too frequently, or you can just tell your travel agent what restaurants and times you want to eat, and let them book all your restaurant reservations for you.

Thinking about whether it makes sense to buy Genie+ or Lightning Lanes during your trip, but you thought Genie was only for Aladdin to use? Or you can’t tell the difference between a Lightning Lane and a lightning port? Your travel agent can explain it all and tell you the best way to use these services to save time during your trip.

All of the benefits of using a travel agent to book a Walt Disney World vacation we’ve just talked about also apply to Disney Cruise Line vacations, trips to Universal Orlando Resort, or even other cruise lines and theme parks.

How can their services be free? How do they make money? Well, the hotel, cruise line, or resort pays the travel agent a commission for booking your trip. So basically, Disney pays them to help you book your trip! Sounds like a good deal, right? You get all the assistance and expertise you need, and someone else pays! So let our friends at Be Our Guest Vacations handle your next vacation booking, no matter where you want to go, and take advantage of their expert services to see just how easy they can make the whole process.

Visit beourguestvacations.com/wdwnt today to start booking your next escape!

The post How Much Does It Really Cost to Use a Travel Agent? appeared first on WDW News Today.