Travel agent perks?

[nhtravels]

I know CC does not allow us to request TA recommendations.  But I do have a question.  I know other TA's (for NCL, Celebrity, etc.) offer perks for booking (ie. OBC, prepaid gratuities, etc.). Do any TA's that book for Disney offer that?  

 

I usually book our NCL cruises through their Casinos At Sea, so I don't have a cruise TA.

 

TIA!  Our family of 17 is excited to book our first Disney Cruise for April, 2024

[mz-s]

Sure. Just call a few and see what they can do for you.

[phissy]

We are seasoned cruisers but, new to Disney.
We are looking to book a multi family cruise with Disney.

I sent possible booking to our usual cruise TA. He offered OBC of approx. 7% of cruise fare . NCF is port fees and taxes.

 I then looked into Big Box travel offering. No OBC but, dollar amount sent upon completion of cruise.

Ended up booking directly with DCL.
Only two cabins left in category we wanted. Decided to book and get cabins locked in. 
I now have 30 days to transfer booking to TA, and receive additional perks.

 

[Shmoo here]

52 minutes ago, phissy said:

We are seasoned cruisers but, new to Disney.
We are looking to book a multi family cruise with Disney.

I sent possible booking to our usual cruise TA. He offered OBC of approx. 7% of cruise fare . NCF is port fees and taxes.

 I then looked into Big Box travel offering. No OBC but, dollar amount sent upon completion of cruise.

Ended up booking directly with DCL.
Only two cabins left in category we wanted. Decided to book and get cabins locked in. 
I now have 30 days to transfer booking to TA, and receive additional perks.

 

Be aware some TAs don't offer the same level of perks on a transferred reservation vs booking through them directly.

 

 

[Woody14]

On 4/14/2023 at 8:58 PM, nhtravels said:

I know other TA's (for NCL, Celebrity, etc.) offer perks for booking (ie. OBC, prepaid gratuities, etc.). Do any TA's that book for Disney offer that?  

generally there are 2 kinds of perks that are possible with a TA

1. is if the agency the TA works for has negotiated 'group pricing' or specials which could be for a specific cruise or cruise line and usually are only good for certain time periods or till they sell out.    some times they may have some perks that they always offer on all cruises (usually OBC)

2. is agent specific perks - this could really be anything (OBC, special dinning, wine, et all) ultimately a portion of this comes from the agents commission and is often split with the company they work for.

 

At least that is my experience after 25+ years cruising and 3 years where I supplemented my income working as a cruise agent for a travel agency specializing in cruises.

[vakamalua]

Our TA gives a generous % of the cruise fare as a rebate.

[nolatravelgirl]

If you are in the US I would highly recommend using Costco. We got about 10% of our cruise fare back in the form of Costco gift cards and it also counted as spend on our executive membership which is an additional 2% back. Well worth my exec membership fee. I am a fan of using a TA usually but for Disney cruise it was a no brainer to bank the cash.