Disney Specialists: New Consumer Tools Don’t Hurt Us

Disney is all about continually improving the guest experience. Outdated shows? There’ll be a new one in a few months. Long lines at your favorite attractions? Get a FastPass.

Most recently, the company has rolled out several booking and planning services for consumers. They include FastPass+, which allows guests to reserve up to three attractions daily up to 60 days prior to travel, and My Disney Experience, which features online and mobile booking and planning tools for consumers.

How do Disney’s new services and technologies for consumers affect travel agents who specialize in Disney vacations? Do all those tools and services for travelers put Disney specialists at a disadvantage by encouraging consumers to book direct?

‘We have to wonder’
“Despite the fact that we get perks and presents, and they have a whole fleet of sales managers who are there to support us, when we see stuff like this, we have to wonder what they’re thinking,” said Elizabeth Foss, a Disney specialist and president of My Travel ELF in Naples, Fla.

But Foss, a self-described Disney fanatic, said she doesn’t see the new services as cutting agents out of the booking picture. The more products and services Disney launches for customers, the more complicated planning a Disney vacation becomes, she said.

“In a way, they’ve made us even more valuable, because we know our way around the system. We know where the potholes are.”

Another agent, who asked that her name not be used, commented that “many of our travelers just want to go on vacation; they don’t want a Ph.D. in Disney. It’s easy for us, because we specialize in Disney.”

A little assistance
Travel agents, especially Disney specialists, bring other advantages to the table too. Their in-depth knowledge of money-saving options is a real plus for clients who are paying “Disney prices,” Foss said. “People don’t like to drop that kind of money without a little assistance.”

Marliisa Yarberry, a Disney specialist at Poe Travel in Little Rock, Ark., also noted the complexity of Disney’s offerings. “There are not just three hotels and one park anymore.”

As for Disney’s newest planning and booking tools for consumers, “most people were not aware of them until we made them aware,” said Poe, whose agency is affiliated with Virtuoso.

In fact, Disney test-marketed its FastPass+ program with travel agents last fall, according to Rosemary Saganic, a Disney specialist and owner of Anderson Travel, a TRAVELSAVERS member in Babylon Village, N.Y. Saganic participated in the test.

Help with technology
Amanda Mann is a Disney travel planner for Mouseketrips, a Disney-only agency in Draper, Utah. Mann, who works out of her home in Rochester, N.Y., said she spends half her time planning travel for clients and half showing them how to use Disney technology, like setting up their My Disney Experience accounts and uploading Disney’s mobile apps.

“The pieces they are planning themselves are what they’ll do while on vacation,” she added. “We still do the preliminary planning, like booking the resort or package and making dining reservations.”
 
Client info
Other agents also reported that clients are requesting their help in setting up their Disney accounts. This gives the agency access to customers’ Disney usernames and passwords so it can reserve FastPasses and other perks on their behalf, one noted.

The flip side is that Disney is gathering more information on agency clients.
 
Disney customer services like FastPass+ that require travelers to create online accounts using their email and mailing addresses give the company access to clients’ contact information that Disney can then use for direct marketing purposes, said the agent who asked to be quoted anonymously.

Credit for direct bookings
As for agency clients who book direct with Disney, the theme park giant requires customers to sign a form if they want their direct bookings to be transferred to their travel agent, agents told Travel Market Report. This must be done within 30 days after the client makes a deposit.

Likewise, if a travel agent reserves a Disney vacation for a client, the customer cannot take over the business without the agent’s consent.

“Disney will only deal with the party that made reservation,” said Foss, adding, “Really, that’s the way we want them to handle it.”

Strong agent relations
Despite Disney’s longstanding quest to enhance the guest experience with new services and technologies – including by providing guests with ways to access Disney programs on their own – the company’s relationship with agents has strengthened, according to Mann.

“They’re giving us a lot of great tools to help us help our clients,” she said. For example, Disney has updated its online and video training, so that agents can learn the technology.