The Unofficial Guide to WDW & mousesavers.com both recommend them. Thoughts/reviews? Thanks all!
We used them on our last trip in November. They were great! I booked one year out, and they immediately applied the free dining when it was offered during our trip. Very helpful in answering questions, as well. I had a lot of questions since this was our first trip staying at a Disney resort and only my third time ever going to Disney.
I liked them so much that I have already booked a September 2016 stay through them.
I was thinking about using them too for our next trip to WDW, so thank you for your post.
When you book through the TA, do you still get all the communications from Disney directly and have access to MDE just as if you had booked it yourself?
I am using them for my January trip. It’s our first Disney trip so I don’t have much to compare it to, but I can say, so far so good. My travel agent has been really good with communicating with me, she said she would be on the lookout for any discounts that might apply and take care of that for us, and what we are paying for 6 of us plus an infant is about $600 less than I could get myself on the Disney site. Not sure how that worked exactly, but I’ll take it!
And @RobertSch6, I still have access to MDE and receive emails from them. I can make ADRs (well, in 5 days I can!) and set up fast passes and all that good stuff. 
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I did have access to MDE and received emails and regular mail from Disney. I had no trouble making my ADRs or Fastpasses. I can be a bit of a control freak so I wanted to make the ADRs and Fastpasses selections myself.
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Well, so far I am really not impressed with Small World Vacations. 
Their site says that they will respond within 24 hours to requests for quotes. If they did respond within 24 hours, they barely squeaked it in. Unfortunately, I didn’t note the time that I submitted my request, but they got back to me after 7:30 pm the next day. It was really close to that time that I submitted the request.
I requested a guaranteed quote for a 2016 trip, because I had every intention of booking it. The e-mail I received said that they couldn’t guarantee the price they quoted and that it was for reference only – which is not what I asked for. STRIKE 1! 
The price they quoted was the same that I came up with on the Disney Web site myself when I was researching it. It was to the penny. But I understand that it was early and that any discounts might come up later – if at all. I thought about just canceling right then and there, but I thought, “If they can find a discount later, great; if not, I’m getting it for the same price I would have anyway on my own and I’m helping someone to get an easy commission too. What have I got to lose?”
I e-mailed them back saying that I’d like to go ahead and book the vacation, and I asked them to call me back so that we could work out the payment details. I provided the times I’d be available, which was until 10:00 pm that night and from 6:00 am until 5:00 pm the next day. They called me back after 6:00 pm the next day. STRIKE 2!
When I talked to the TA, I kept everything very simple. I’m taking care of everything else personally – flight, ADRs, FPPs. In fact, when we were done she said that that was really easy. After we had disconnected, I thought of a question for her, so I called her right back. She kind of acted annoyed that I had called her back and answered my question with at duh-you-should-have-known-that attitude. I’ve taken care of all of our previous Disney trips myself, so I am by no means a neophyte. My question was simple and pertained specifically to how something was going to work through the TA, since I had never used one before. FOUL BALL!
She told me that she would book the trip and that she would send me an e-mail confirmation today. Well, it’s nearly 10:00 pm now. I still haven’t heard from her, and I don’t expect I will within the next two hours. But I will give her what is technically left of today to do so. I will then have to wait until Monday to contact her, because she isn’t available Saturdays or Sundays. A SWING AND A MISS!
If I could just get the e-mail confirmation with the reservation numbers, etc., I would feel a lot better.
I’m thinking that, if I don’t hear back from her tonight, maybe I’ll go ahead and book the trip myself tomorrow, If this is how on top of things this particular TA is, I doubt she’ll be able to act in time to apply any discounts that might come up anyway.
Maybe I’m being too harsh. I know that not all TAs are created equal. If there are any TAs out there with some perspective on the subject, feel free to chime in. But if she would have just e-mailed me today like she promised I wouldn’t be posting this now.
Has anyone had any experience cancelling a trip with Small World Vacations and booking it themselves instead? Or in this case in reverse order? If I do that and the TA has already booked something in my name, I don’t want Disney to cancel both reservations accidentally,
Sorry to hear that. I can’t really speak for most of your points except for the first one. All the TAs that I have used or requested quotes all gave quotes but they aren’t guaranteed until you actually book it since Disney can change the price at any time. It isn’t something that the TA can control.
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Oh no! Sorry to hear things are not working out for you with them! I think you are right, though. It probably depends a lot on the TA that you get set up with. I do my planning with Kate, and she has always responded when promised.
I don’t have any experience cancelling with them. I would think that if you explained that you were unhappy that they would immediately rectify the situation, or if you would want to cancel, they would do that immediately and then you could go with Disney directly.
When I set up my last trip for September 2016 the TA emailed me the confirmation number that same day, maybe a couple hours after we spoke over the phone. From there I was able to link the reservation to my MDE account.
I hope things work out for you!
That would make total sense. I looked at using a few other TAs, and none of them offered a guaranteed quote. However, when you request a quote from SWV, they give you the option of whether you want “a guaranteed price quote” or you want “a price for reference only.” Regarding this their Web site site says: “When Small World Vacations checks for the best price for you, we usually set up a no-obligation reservation with Disney for you. Booking a courtesy hold is the only way to guarantee discounts, price and availability while you review your emailed price quote.” I simply selected one of the options that they offered.
I wish I would have known about Kate in advance. I would have requested her specifically.
I don’t know if the agent I got is new or maybe she just had some emergency come up. I really like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but there were three or four bad signs in a row that made me doubt her abilities.
Before going ahead with making my own reservation with Disney, I decided to check my credit card statement. I see that the deposit to “Walt Disney Travel” was made yesterday, so it appears that she must have made the reservation. She just didn’t e-mail me the confirmation number, as she said she would.
So I’ll probably let it go for now and hope that she will send it to me soon. Maybe I can request to be switched to Kate.
We’re in the process of using Small World Vacations for our March/April Disney World Trip.
I am 110% satisfied with their service. YES, I could go online and book the trip through Disney myself for the same exact price. I actually asked our travel agent, Kersie, what the benefit to using a TA is. Pretty much, they are doing some of the work for you and making sure your trip happens without any problems. IF there are any additional discounts they are supposed to apply them on their own ( I can’t speak to this because a discount hasn’t come up for our travel time.)
I’m so impressed with the TA we’ve been using through Small World because of her amount of knowledge and her level of patience with me. I asked her a ton of questions (an hours worth of talking) before I committed to booking our trip. She’s experienced in her job as well as personal travel to Disney. She sends follow ups when she says she’s going to and I absolutely love all the Disney information they send out (first time Disney trip for us).
I would recommend this company in a heartbeat, especially their agent Kersie.
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We have used many times, mostly for DCL, and have always had a positive experience (we work with Amber Vaughan). Currently have a Summer’17 cruise booked with her and would not hesitate to continue to work with SMV / Amber.