I have done all the reservations, planning, etc. for our last 5 WDW trips. ((see below for dates & resorts)). Up until our stay at the Contemporary I've never had a problem watching for discounts to be released and snaggin them. As luck would have it, I was **not** able to get any discount for the stay at Contemporary..when it would have made the most impact. The reason was even though I called at 8:00 a.m. the morning I saw the discount codes release all the availability for the discounted rooms like mine were sold out. That had never happened to me before. It made a huge impact in my mind because the day the discount codes appeared I watched oodles of people on this forum singing the praises of Kingdom Konsultants because KK was able to get the discounts applied for them. So the way I see it, discounts and Disney travel is what KK does. Period. They seem to know when the discounts are announced immediately and have a better chance of grabbing them for me. I don't have to stress over trying to catch it in time. To me, my best chance of getting good discounts is by using KK for my travel agent. They work with you and do as much or as little as you want them to. They can do the entire ballgame or just your room-only reservation.
I've been working with Pam for my two upcoming trips this year. So far I've only utilized her services to book my rooms and Magical Express. I've been doing my own dining reservations. I'm constantly changing and/or adding things with my dining ((much more so than with the addition of nights, Pam :lol
) so I take pity and don't ask others to hustle so much due to my issues of indecision. In the end, just as I suspected, the morning the discounts came available for our POFQ stay she grabbed one for me and sent me a quicky email letting me know. I did the math. She saved me just over $500. Incredible. I don't think my chances of getting that discount would have been good without her. I didn't log onto the internet to look around the forums until later that afternoon because I had doctor's appointments that day. I'm sure I'd have been SOL if I'd been trying to call and get a discount later in the evening.
I've never used any other travel agency so I can't really speak about the service or lack-thereof with others. I've currently got 2 different vacation reservations booked through Kingdom Konsultants and couldn't be more delighted in their service. I highly recommend them now.
For me, part of knowing the in's and out's of planning a WDW vacation and maximizing discount opportunity is knowing when to hand over portions of the tasks to someone with more edge than I have. As of right now that's really really paid off for me, too.
Have fun on your trip!:wave: