I own and run two Disney travel agencies. My first was started in 2002. At the time, I was running one of the largest Disney forums on the internet. I hated my day job, and it seemed like a great opportunity to launch a Disney-focused travel agency. In 2002, there weren’t many agencies that only focused on Disney, maybe a handful. Most of the legacy travel agencies were dying off, and to launch a new agency was a bit crazy, but it worked. Originally I did all the work. At some point, I brought on a friend of mine to help with the workload. We eventually added outside agents to help. We have between 20 – 30 agents. We like to keep a close-knit group. The intention from the start was to keep it a size that we could handle, personally know our agents, and provide them with plenty of work.

In 2019, I launched a Disney host agency. I help others start their own travel agencies. I do all the hard work, provide an IATA number, build and host their website, and provide extensive training. It works well for those who want to own their own agency but just want to deal with clients and not all the other work. All of my host agencies are Disney-focused. Unfortunately, with COVID shutting down theme parks and cruises in early 2020, we lost many of our new agencies. Over the last three years, I have built it back up again. We are now at 20+ agencies with 6 more in training. I hope to build this to have a total of 50 agencies running, which should happen by the end of 2024.

Tiki Room Travel intends to be a regular travel agency, similar to my first endeavor. The difference, however, is that I hope to attract as many agents as possible. While my standard agency is artificially limited to about 25 agents, give or take a few, Tiki Room Travel will not be limited. The website has been resurrected (Tiki Room Travel Origin Story) and is ready for a refresh. Social media accounts will be cleaned, new blog posts launched and advertising dollars spent. I will chronicle each step here, no matter how boring, I hope you find it interesting.

By the way, why Tiki Room Travel? Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room is one of my favorite rides and the one where I can still “see” Walt Disney, especially the Disneyland version. If you were to give me half an hour in Disneyland, I would grab a Dole Whip and spend my time with the Tiki Birds. Also, if you bring up the time when the Tiki Room was under new management, you are dead to me.