Subsonic Radio

Hello all -
I was wondering if anyone on here has ever made a little side money planning WDW vacations for people? I keep helping friends and strangers plan their WDW vacations in great detail and they all are like, you should make money doing this. And I could definitely use a little extra scratch.
Lemme know if anyone has any experience they'd be willing to share - how you got started, find clients, what do you charge, etc.
Thanks!
-kelp

kelpseaweedkelp wrote:Hello all -
I was wondering if anyone on here has ever made a little side money planning WDW vacations for people? I keep helping friends and strangers plan their WDW vacations in great detail and they all are like, you should make money doing this. And I could definitely use a little extra scratch.
Lemme know if anyone has any experience they'd be willing to share - how you got started, find clients, what do you charge, etc.
Thanks!
-kelp

You could check into becoming a authorized Disney travel agent ~ I know there are a few people here on the forum that do that. I don't know if it is full time work for them or a side job, but I believe the income comes from Disney itself, and the guests are not charged for the service.
If you don't want to do that, I suppose you would have to find out information on similar services in your area and start trying to build a clientele.

Thanks Amy - I'll give it a look

kelpseaweedkelp wrote: Thanks Amy - I'll give it a look

Worth a quick look anyhow ~ if that is the sort of thing you enjoy doing anyhow, it makes sense to make a little bit of money while doing it

kelpseaweedkelp wrote:Hello all -
I was wondering if anyone on here has ever made a little side money planning WDW vacations for people? I keep helping friends and strangers plan their WDW vacations in great detail and they all are like, you should make money doing this. And I could definitely use a little extra scratch.
Lemme know if anyone has any experience they'd be willing to share - how you got started, find clients, what do you charge, etc.
Thanks!
-kelp

I'm an agent with an Authorized by Disney travel agency. And I love my agency: JK Mouse Travel!! So much support and resources and sharing. We are very much a collaborative team and not cutthroat competitors. We are a full service agency in that we book everything our clients want us to book and are "on-call" during your trip to handle anything that comes up. Training has been wonderful and we are planning our first on-site meeting at WDW this fall.

Our services are free to clients, Disney pays a commission based on what we book. I've been doing it just over a year and haven't made much money, but I'm doing it to supplement a normal 40 hr a week job and it's definitely been a fun way to boost income. I don't devote nearly as much time to marketing my services as others in our agency. Not to say I don't want to. My goal is to transition to full time Disney planning over 3-5 years. It's definitely a you get what you put into it kind of job and I'm trying to figure out a way to put more of my time into it. My agency is super duper helpful and now that we are Authorized, we get extra support from our Disney regional manager/coach.

As a single income family with a mortgage to pay, I'm on the slower road to full time Disney planning than some.

To match my current income and cover the purchase of private health insurance, I'll need to be booking about 10 trips per month. Which is way more than I'm booking now. My goal for 2015 is to book 10 clients. Counting my own trip in January, I'm at 5 (working on getting 2 more clients booked for this fall on the free dining plan promotion). My first year (which wasn't a full calendar year) I booked only 3 clients (and one trip was my mom and my sister on an Adventures by Disney trip to England and France). I did sell some DL 1-day tickets only though which count toward sales goals but for which Disney does not pay commission.

I was recruited by one of the owners of the agency because I had used her to supplement a last minute extension on a trip of my own a few years ago. She was impressed with what I had already managed to book on my own and remembered me when she and her business partner started their own agency. So I didn't have to jump through many hoops to get my gig.

And I love doing it. I get a complete feeling of joy helping other people save money and score reservations at the hard to book restaurants. Last Christmas, I got my clients front row seats for the Candle Light Processional in EPCOT. They sent me a great picture of Neil Patrick Harris narrating as they were just feet away from him.

That's great, Jen. So glad there are people like you to help guests get the most out of their trips.

Wow ~ thanks for the inside information JenMuse ~ interesting to hear a little more from someone who knows.

JenMuse thanks SO much for this reply. Really appreciate the time you took to share, including the ups and downs of everything. Super helpful.
Are you going to aim for full time? That's awesome that the family trips counted in your commission - thats a leg up already!!

JenMuse wrote:

kelpseaweedkelp wrote:Hello all -
I was wondering if anyone on here has ever made a little side money planning WDW vacations for people? I keep helping friends and strangers plan their WDW vacations in great detail and they all are like, you should make money doing this. And I could definitely use a little extra scratch.
Lemme know if anyone has any experience they'd be willing to share - how you got started, find clients, what do you charge, etc.
Thanks!
-kelp

I'm an agent with an Authorized by Disney travel agency. And I love my agency: JK Mouse Travel!! So much support and resources and sharing. We are very much a collaborative team and not cutthroat competitors. We are a full service agency in that we book everything our clients want us to book and are "on-call" during your trip to handle anything that comes up. Training has been wonderful and we are planning our first on-site meeting at WDW this fall.

Our services are free to clients, Disney pays a commission based on what we book. I've been doing it just over a year and haven't made much money, but I'm doing it to supplement a normal 40 hr a week job and it's definitely been a fun way to boost income. I don't devote nearly as much time to marketing my services as others in our agency. Not to say I don't want to. My goal is to transition to full time Disney planning over 3-5 years. It's definitely a you get what you put into it kind of job and I'm trying to figure out a way to put more of my time into it. My agency is super duper helpful and now that we are Authorized, we get extra support from our Disney regional manager/coach.

As a single income family with a mortgage to pay, I'm on the slower road to full time Disney planning than some.

To match my current income and cover the purchase of private health insurance, I'll need to be booking about 10 trips per month. Which is way more than I'm booking now. My goal for 2015 is to book 10 clients. Counting my own trip in January, I'm at 5 (working on getting 2 more clients booked for this fall on the free dining plan promotion). My first year (which wasn't a full calendar year) I booked only 3 clients (and one trip was my mom and my sister on an Adventures by Disney trip to England and France). I did sell some DL 1-day tickets only though which count toward sales goals but for which Disney does not pay commission.

I was recruited by one of the owners of the agency because I had used her to supplement a last minute extension on a trip of my own a few years ago. She was impressed with what I had already managed to book on my own and remembered me when she and her business partner started their own agency. So I didn't have to jump through many hoops to get my gig.

And I love doing it. I get a complete feeling of joy helping other people save money and score reservations at the hard to book restaurants. Last Christmas, I got my clients front row seats for the Candle Light Processional in EPCOT. They sent me a great picture of Neil Patrick Harris narrating as they were just feet away from him.

kelpseaweedkelp wrote:JenMuse thanks SO much for this reply. Really appreciate the time you took to share, including the ups and downs of everything. Super helpful.
Are you going to aim for full time? That's awesome that the family trips counted in your commission - thats a leg up already!!

I am hoping to be able to go full time as a vacation planner in 3-5 years. Trying to squirrel away enough money to support myself when I make the leap. Commissions come after stays are completed, so as you might imagine, the monthly income is not always evenly steady and I have monthly living expenses that also fluctuate but not by much.

And yes, my sister is my best client thus far...booked her on an Adventures by Disney and then a trip to WDW (this year) and sold her two day ticket to DL. I'll get to write off most of my own trip expenses from January of this year on my taxes as "research." If audited, I can say I hadn't used a Magic Band or stayed at Old Key West or used the FastPass+ reservation system or dined at the new restaurant in the Mexico Pavillion...

Was running some numbers and after factoring in my recent day job's raise, I need to book 15-18 clients (family of 2 adults 2 kids at a moderate resort with 5 day non-ph tickets, & standard dining plan) per month to match it.

That's a lot of hustling on my end to build a loyal clientele.

JenMuse wrote:Was running some numbers and after factoring in my recent day job's raise, I need to book 15-18 clients (family of 2 adults 2 kids at a moderate resort with 5 day non-ph tickets, & standard dining plan) per month to match it.

That's a lot of hustling on my end to build a loyal clientele.

That is a lot. But I would guess all you need are people that are satisfied after one trip and they will want to come again and also use your services. And if they are happy they will recommend you to others. Definitely will take some time to build it, but as long as you are relatively happy with your regular job in the meantime, and you manage to get some sleep in and around planning all these trips, it would be a fun way to make some extra money in the meantime!