DestinationWeddings.com * Post all experiences, info and questions here! *

[Missjacks]

FI and I are still using Destinationweddings.com for our wedding. We are currently working with Becki and she has been great so far. I had posted back in May about needing to switch TA's because the first one named Michelle we were working with seemed so incompetent.  It worked out either way because I found out she ended up quitting the company.

 

We ended up finding the resort ourselves by doing research and going on reviews in Trip Advisor.com. I'm sure any TA can give great reviews for a resort because they probably get a commission.  Because of that my FI and I put our trust in people that actually visited these locations by doing our own research, reading reviews and looking at pictures that VISITORS took not professional photos.

 

There have been so many times we traveled at a hotel and the resort or the room looks nothing like the pictures on the website.

So yeah, Destinationweddings.com is somewhat of a glorified travel agency. Once all the travel arrangements have been set, you pretty much then work with the WC at the resort for the wedding.

 

The positives have been that Becki has been very helpful with my guests. Some had to change travel plans, others had to either add or remove a guest from their travel arrangements. She would respond right away with any questions or concerns. Plus DW.com has a payment plan on their website that helped my guests pay for the trip at any time of the day.

 Other agencies we looked into you had to either call them to make payments or go to the agency location which was inconvenient since they had “banker’s hoursâ€.

 

Our wedding is in 3 weeks, so by then I should have more information on how everything all went. Whats more important is on how things go ON THE DAY OF THE WEDDING and once you get to your destination than when PLANNING the wedding.

 

I would rather have planning  the wedding to be hectic and the wedding day go PERFECT than the other way around. Or preferably both go perfect.

[LCBride2007]

Originally Posted by ashleeandkurt11 

 

Excuse my newbie to the board here but something is bugging the death of me.  So many people in this one alone talk about how bad or problems with them but this board has an advertisement of them up in the top right hand corner.  I don't get it.  Maybe they don't know then someone should tell them.  Are they endorses them or not?  I'm confused.

 

 

those ads are by Google, not necessarily chosen or endorsed by this forum.  this particular vendor is just another vendor that couples on this forum may or may not have used, and may or may not have liked, but these opinions have nothing to do with the owner and administration of the forum. 

[Cvantine]

You are lucky that Becki's been great with your guests...mine has turned out to be so rude to our guests that it's almost unbelievable. They forward me the things she e-mails back to them and I just want to scream. One word answers like "No," or "I can't do anything about that." I just apologize and grit my teeth because you are right...it's what happens the DAY OF THE WEDDING that will be the most important, not all these prep plans. I just wish we could have had a totally different experience...
 

Originally Posted by Missjacks 

FI and I are still using Destinationweddings.com for our wedding. We are currently working with Becki and she has been great so far. I had posted back in May about needing to switch TA's because the first one named Michelle we were working with seemed so incompetent.  It worked out either way because I found out she ended up quitting the company.

 

We ended up finding the resort ourselves by doing research and going on reviews in Trip Advisor.com. I'm sure any TA can give great reviews for a resort because they probably get a commission.  Because of that my FI and I put our trust in people that actually visited these locations by doing our own research, reading reviews and looking at pictures that VISITORS took not professional photos.

 

There have been so many times we traveled at a hotel and the resort or the room looks nothing like the pictures on the website.

So yeah, Destinationweddings.com is somewhat of a glorified travel agency. Once all the travel arrangements have been set, you pretty much then work with the WC at the resort for the wedding.

 

The positives have been that Becki has been very helpful with my guests. Some had to change travel plans, others had to either add or remove a guest from their travel arrangements. She would respond right away with any questions or concerns. Plus DW.com has a payment plan on their website that helped my guests pay for the trip at any time of the day.

 Other agencies we looked into you had to either call them to make payments or go to the agency location which was inconvenient since they had “banker’s hoursâ€.

 

Our wedding is in 3 weeks, so by then I should have more information on how everything all went. Whats more important is on how things go ON THE DAY OF THE WEDDING and once you get to your destination than when PLANNING the wedding.

 

I would rather have planning  the wedding to be hectic and the wedding day go PERFECT than the other way around. Or preferably both go perfect.

[royalbride610]

I am using destinationweddings.com for my wedding planning and travel and my experience so far has been excellent!  I am getting married June 10, 2011 at The Royal in Cancun.

 

My Specialist is Susan Ryan and she has definitely been a BIG help with my planning so far.

 

I started off looking for resorts on my own and reading reviews from TripAdvisor, so once I found a few resort's I liked, I started with destinationweddings, told Susan about some of the resorts I was interested in and also asked for more options.  At first she did try to sale me into the Karisma Resorts, but once I told her exactly what features I wanted in the resort and what our budget was, everything has been smooth ever since. 

 

She is always extremely timely in getting back with me, and she always lets me know when she will be away weeks in advance just in case anything comes up.

 

One reason why I went with destinationweddings.com was because most of the time the travel agents have visited the resorts before and since we had no intention on going to see the resort, we wanted someone who would be familiar with it.  Also, their travel agents (are supposed to anyway) have years of experience with travel.  My specialist has 25 years of travel experience and has done destination weddings since the beginning. 

 

I also know three other people who have used destinationweddings.com, 2 for weddings, and 1 for a honeymoon, and they've all had fine experiences. 

 

Another reason is because I didn't want to take the risk of using expedia or travelocity because people have SUCH bad experiences with them.  My cousin who was a guest at a wedding in Jamaica used travelocity to book her travel instead of going with the couple's destinationwedding.com specialist, and had soooo many problems - the room description was not correct, they told her she'd have to pay extra once she got to the resort for the room she wanted, the transfers were not done correctly, and the room that she had originally reserved was "overbooked" so she wouldn't have been able to get it anyway. 

 

I rather be on the safe side and use destinationweddings.com in case any of my guests run into problems with their flights, or the resort, they will have someone to contact who is United States based to help them.

 

Also, destinationweddings.com has a "price match guarantee" so they are supposed to be able to get you a matching or better price from their vendors if you find a cheaper quote.  I personally looked up quotes on travelocity for the Royal Cancun when my Specialist got my first quote, and when I told her I found it cheaper she had already submitted a price match for it because she'd done her own research.  I got non-stop flights for about a 40% discount and my resort rates were about $250 less per person.  I think that's a great deal!  So while I still looked up prices to make sure we were getting a good deal, the time I spent was still worth it because I did get a much better rate than the first quote. 

 

Also, if you're skeptical about using one of their Specialist, ask them to allow you to contact their previous clients, I did it and the couple was very happy with the help of our Specialist.

[royalbride610]

They actually don't charge for their services, the $50 goes toward your trip.  They applied my $50 to my deposit for the resort (or the airfare)....
 

Originally Posted by peterpanpixiedust 

I was interested in them too, but they asked for $50 as a way to show you are serious. I heard some girls say they used other places that don't charge, so I choose not to use them. No bad reviews from me, just... why use a place that charges when there are free places. If you use a TA on here, I'm sure you will have plenty of help. I'm probably saying what everyone else has, but I thought I'd just help. Feel free to delete if this is redundant.

[theharold]

David Victor is a complete joke. I was forced to work with DestinationWeddings.com when a friend's first choice travel agent fell ill and redirected her whole party through David Victor. From the very first conversation with David he was brash, hurried, unable to remember information I gave him mere seconds prior, and completely technologically inept.

After it became clear that he was tacking on 30% to the flights between my home town and the destination I let him know I would either allow him to take a lower rate or I would book it myself through alternate means. This is when he became openly hostile and indignant. Was I supposed to play the part of the rube and knowingly give him a unnecessary multi-hundred dollar bonus for doing  nothing? Apparently- from this point on nothing came easily from Travel Agent David Victor. I was forced to call several times to clarify payment information and follow up on overdue vouchers. He claims fault on Apple Vacations but through his own slip he indirectly proved he had been the culprit.

I figured since I had spent so much of his time- regardless of how unpleasant he was, I would book the accommodations for the resort through him and give him the $30.00 he quoted me over Apple Vacations direct price. He promised no-hassle non-stop round-trip transfers that only he could provide. BULL! He obviously and intentionally booked both arrival and return transfers for the flights to and from the destination that arrived/departed just before both of our booked flights. I had read him the correct flight numbers and no others. He left us sitting in a Mexican airport, accosted by scam artists, for almost 2 hours. Thankfully I had migrated my iPhone voice and data to international and was able to safely arrange travel.

David, if you read this- Please know that you are a relic of a bygone era. People don't need Yankee jerks like you anymore and you can't skate by on your middle man business model much longer. As soon as the boomers go- you go too. I know you are probably a boomer yourself. You are a terrible Travel Agent and Person that intentionally (or through lack of effort or ability) put people in very dangerous situations. You are a failure, and I intend to make sure nobody else is  subjected to your potentially fatal lack of care.

Look elsewhere fair bride, I would bet almost anyone is better than Travel Agent David Victor.

Best,
theharold

[Jacki7896]

Oh how I wish I could go back in time to change my decision to use destinationwedding.com. The only good thing is the fee is the low cost of $50, but the $50 only buys you more headache. We signed up with the website already knowing what hotel we wanted to book. We are doing a hotel resort takeover, so I paid the deposit to the hotel, and all destinationwedding.com had to do was take the $$$ from our guests for their rooms and keep track of who was in what room. We had at least 20 guests ready to pay right away. Unfortunately, after talking with our coordinator, everyone freaked out and is now hesitant to come. OUr coordinator gave everyone wrong information about the room prices, the deposits, the cancellation fees, etc. The majority of my wedding planning time is actually spent correcting the coordinator's mistakes and reassuring our guests. When we finally contacted destinationweddings.com corporate office to request a new coordinator, they simply patched us back through to the coordinator, who spent an hour telling us that our guests were lying to us. I am sorry, but I trust my family and friends who I have known my entire life over a coordinator I have never met. We have no animosity towards the coordinator personally. She is perfectly nice. We just want someone who: (1) can accurately quote hotel prices, deposit information, and cancellation fees; (2) tells all guests the correct information in a consistent manner; and (3) when we have concerns, offers solutions rather than blames everyone but herself. I so wish we could just fire them and deal with the hotel directly, because the hotel's coordinator has been AMAZING, but unfortunately 17 of our guests have already booked through destinationwedding.com, and I dont want them to lose their deposit money.

So future brides and grooms.... learn from my mistakes. The $50 fee that woos you, the politeness of your first few phone calls... all of it just disguises that they are unorganized, have nothing really to offer you that you couldnt do yourself, and will never try to fix anything. I am so disappointed that I am stuck with them. I so wish I had it to do all over again......

[H-Town Liz]

I'm so sorry to hear about your troubles.  It sounds a whole lot like my experience.  You are doing the right thing by letting others know about the potential issues they may have and steering them away from trouble.  

 

Congrats on the engagement!!  Only a month and 1/2 to go!!  

[rpingree001]

One thing they can offer that you can't get on your own is a payment plan for your guests to pay for their package through.  My guests were able to hold their room with a deposit and pay out the remainder as they chose - up until 2 months before the wedding.  When your on a budget - this is a wonderful option so people can start planning without having to come out of pocket all at once.

 

My experience with DW has been great and she has even helped me with some of the wedding planning when I was in need. 

 

For me, they are worth it. 

[Jacki7896]

Rpingree001, do you mind sharing the name of your specific dw.com coordinator?  We spent over an hour on the phone with the corporate office again requesting a new coordinator, because ours (Barbara) keeps quoting inaccurate information, and I got more stressed calls from guests yesterday.... we are pleading desperately with dw.com to just provide us a new coordinator since we are trapped with the company.... maybe if we have the name of a good coordinator, we might actually have a decent turnout at the wedding.   I am so stressed and upset about everything... and I am generally a laid back person.  I dont really care about any details for the wedding, I just want my guests to get the correct quotes on costs, deposits, and cancellation fees!