Ready to Try our First ABD in 2016 or 2017 - some questions

We've been looking at ABD for a few years, but just as our son was old enough for us to start to be able to bring him along, we adopted our daughter. Now our daughter is 4, and by the time we're looking at a trip, she'll be 5 or 6. So it's coming into the realm of reasonable again. We travel with my mother, and so we've been trying to balance our daughter's youth with my mother's health, particularly for some of the active vacations. We really wanted to do ABD to Galapagos next summer, but our daughter will only be 5, so we booked Celebrity instead.

We can't go this year; we're cruising (so easy with a 4 year old!) twice instead. So we're looking at 2016 and/or 2017.

We don't mind booking in advance. (We're used to it; we have DVC.) Is it generally better to book right when the itineraries are released, or better to wait and see if prices drop or trips fill?

We would have a party of 5 or 6, depending on the itinerary. (My step father will come with on some of the trips, but not all.) Do you have to pay a single supplement if you have an odd number of people? Do they have rooms that will consistently sleep 3 or 4?

Are there any discounts or small perks for DVC members?

The trips we are seriously looking at are Australia, South Africa, and the new river boat cruises. The kids would be 5/6 and 11 next year at the times we are looking, and 6/7 and 12 the following year.

It looks like they are about to announce the 2016 trips. Is about halfway through the year pretty typical? Are the trips likely to change significantly? If we're thinking South Africa in 2017, can I plan on it being more or less the trip currently offered, or does it change enough from year to year that I shouldn't even bother studying itineraries.

So, I know this is getting long, but I wanted to ask specifically about Australia, since my mom is really pushing for it. I've been to Australia, but not in almost 20 years, and no one else in our party has been. Do you really feel like ABD has a real value add for Australia? We speak the language, and the people are super friendly. I know some of the ABDs clearly get you into places or do things that you couldn't have done on your own easily if at all. Is that as true there? I could plan a really amazing Australia trip. In fact, I've done so. I know DD would prefer to be on a trip with other children. I don't know a) if there will be lots of children on an Australia ABD trip, or b) if her desire for company is worth paying about twice what I could plan the trip for. Any advice would be appreciated!

Golden Rose said:

We don't mind booking in advance. (We're used to it; we have DVC.) Is it generally better to book right when the itineraries are released, or better to wait and see if prices drop or trips fill?

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In *general* it's better to book right away, as the lowest prices are when the trips are first announced. The prices on trips, in general do not drop, they go up as the trips fill. On *occasion* they will discount a particular departure of a particular trip, but that rarely seems to happen any more. HOWEVER, since you are DVC, you get opening day pricing whenever you book as a perk of DVC membership, so that doesn't really apply. Your only concern would be if you don't have a lot of flexibility on dates, and the date you want fills up.

We would have a party of 5 or 6, depending on the itinerary. (My step father will come with on some of the trips, but not all.) Do you have to pay a single supplement if you have an odd number of people? Do they have rooms that will consistently sleep 3 or 4?

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Yes, you have to pay a single supplement if someone ends up in a room alone. Most trips *don't* have rooms that sleep 3 or 4 (especially the European trips. Rooms that large just don't exist for the most part). You'd have to check with ABD or your Travel Agent for the itinerary you're interested in.

Are there any discounts or small perks for DVC members?

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See above about pricing.

It looks like they are about to announce the 2016 trips. Is about halfway through the year pretty typical?

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Yes. The first couple of years, they released the new departures in August. Recently, they'd been doing it in May. This year, they slipped it back to June.

Are the trips likely to change significantly? If we're thinking South Africa in 2017, can I plan on it being more or less the trip currently offered, or does it change enough from year to year that I shouldn't even bother studying itineraries.

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*Generally* not. There's frequently tweaks to the itineraries, but they don't totally revamp the trips that often.

Sayhello

I was on the Enchanted China trip in 2013 with my DH and DD (age 12). We were able to get one room for three people. We are getting ready to leave for Viva Italia and again, have one room for the three of us. My aunt went to South Africa as a single and did pay a single supplement. Unfortunately, I don't have answers for your other questions.

As Sayhello pointed out, being DVC member you do get the opening price regardless of when you book. The advatage of booking early would be to get a triple or quad room. We have done all of our ABD's in a triple. Most times availabilit hasn' been an issue. However, for our trip last year we ended up waitlisted as there were only 3 triple rooms for the trip. We eventually got in when someone cancelled.

Is it worth it to do Australia?
I'm biased, because I'm doing the Australia ABD this year. As you said, language is not an issue. I agree. For Australia, there's no language barrier, but honestly that didn't factor in much for me in deciding whether it was worth it. I'm pretty comfortable traveling in areas that don't speak English. You can hire local guides, and even without the guides, you can still do fine. So, despite the obvious advantages it is to have guides who speak the language, that's not the most important reason to me for traveling with ABD. (ABD China would be my one exception. Language is key there.)

So, why do Australia with ABD.
1) ABD shines in it's quality of guides. We travel around without ABD from time to time and often have private guides. Usually they're good, but not as good as ABD guides.
2) I do ABD's often with my oldest son, now 10yo. He loves them. Although he likes DCL, WDW, and probably tolerates traveling abroad without ABD/DCL... He loves ABD the best. He loves the friendships he makes with the other kids and the guides.
3) The logistics of planning these trips is a pain. The tours, the hotels, the traveling between cities (Australia has lot of that). Can it be done on your own? Sure we did a central Europe trip last winter with my children who are too young for ABD. I patterned quite a bit of it off the Prague, Vienna ABD. It took a lot of work. Some of it I enjoy, but figuring out how to shuttle 3 young children around from tour to tour and town to town is stressful sometimes. ABD is stress free.
4) There are special perks with ABD as you mentioned.
5) It's fun traveling with like minded other people. You form a bit of a family.

Those are the big reasons.

FWIW, in January my Dreams agent, Kevin, checked on the number of kids on our upcoming Australia trip: at that time 19 guests, 10 of which are children from age 10-17. On last year's China ABD, the youngest was 8 with lots of kids. And SE Asia before that the youngest was 6 with lots of other kids.

I love that there are so many kids on the trip to Australia! I am pretty excited that our daughter is old enough for some of the trips. (I was really unhappy that she was too young for the ABD Galapagos and Amazon trip next year. We were limited to Lindblad or Celebrity for Galapagos with a (then) 5 year old.) I'm one of those people who loves to travel, travels a fair amount, and generally plans my own vacations in excruciating detail. (I'm also more or less fluent in Spanish, and speak passable Italian, so I can get by in several parts of the world fairly comfortably.) I haven't been on a land based tour with a tour group in um, (does the math) 32 years, when I was a preteen. With the rise in what I would call family tours, I'm finally starting to admit that the right kind of tour group might actually be superior to what I could plan myself. We also have a seriously extroverted daughter (the currently 4 year old) who is so So SO much happier when there are other children around. Our son is shy and introverted and really loves spending time with his family on vacation, but our daughter would live in a kids' club if she could. We generally do two or three vacations a year, and I would love for ABD to start being one of those if we love it.

Will booking start pretty much immediately when the tours for next year are announced? Is it like DCL, where if you have been on enough previous trips, you can book earlier than someone who has never been?

Are South Africa or Australia good places to leap into ABD? Are we out of our minds to be considering some of these tours with a child the minimum age? (She's a moderately good little traveler, although her brother was even better at that age.) She does car trips to WDW really well, which involve two days of driving each way for us, so she's used to spending a long time in vehicles to get to interesting destinations, and she's flown with us to California and Hawaii. I'm worried about the flights to reach the destinations more than I am worried about the actual tours.

As far as the Australia tour goes, I've spent a week each in both Cairns and Sydney, both of which I loved, and I would have to add on time in Cairns since ABD isn't doing three of the things I most remember loving in the area (a night time animal spotting excursion in the rainforest, horseback riding in the bush, and breakfast with the birds in Port Douglas.) I haven't been to Uluru or Tasmania, both of which look like they'd be fascinating. I admit I am really, really tempted by the trip.

I have one South Africa worry. This is going to sound like a silly question, but did anyone ever worry about their kids on a South African safari? I've seen how the predators at the zoo eye small children. Do you feel safe the entire time you're out looking at animals?

Golden Rose said:

I love that there are so many kids on the trip to Australia! I am pretty excited that our daughter is old enough for some of the trips. (I was really unhappy that she was too young for the ABD Galapagos and Amazon trip next year. We were limited to Lindblad or Celebrity for Galapagos with a (then) 5 year old.) I'm one of those people who loves to travel, travels a fair amount, and generally plans my own vacations in excruciating detail. (I'm also more or less fluent in Spanish, and speak passable Italian, so I can get by in several parts of the world fairly comfortably.) I haven't been on a land based tour with a tour group in um, (does the math) 32 years, when I was a preteen. With the rise in what I would call family tours, I'm finally starting to admit that the right kind of tour group might actually be superior to what I could plan myself. We also have a seriously extroverted daughter (the currently 4 year old) who is so So SO much happier when there are other children around. Our son is shy and introverted and really loves spending time with his family on vacation, but our daughter would live in a kids' club if she could. We generally do two or three vacations a year, and I would love for ABD to start being one of those if we love it.

Will booking start pretty much immediately when the tours for next year are announced? Is it like DCL, where if you have been on enough previous trips, you can book earlier than someone who has never been?

Are South Africa or Australia good places to leap into ABD? Are we out of our minds to be considering some of these tours with a child the minimum age? (She's a moderately good little traveler, although her brother was even better at that age.) She does car trips to WDW really well, which involve two days of driving each way for us, so she's used to spending a long time in vehicles to get to interesting destinations, and she's flown with us to California and Hawaii. I'm worried about the flights to reach the destinations more than I am worried about the actual tours.

As far as the Australia tour goes, I've spent a week each in both Cairns and Sydney, both of which I loved, and I would have to add on time in Cairns since ABD isn't doing three of the things I most remember loving in the area (a night time animal spotting excursion in the rainforest, horseback riding in the bush, and breakfast with the birds in Port Douglas.) I haven't been to Uluru or Tasmania, both of which look like they'd be fascinating. I admit I am really, really tempted by the trip.

I have one South Africa worry. This is going to sound like a silly question, but did anyone ever worry about their kids on a South African safari? I've seen how the predators at the zoo eye small children. Do you feel safe the entire time you're out looking at animals?

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I've done 5 ABDs, 2 Tauck Bridges tours, and the Lindblad trip to the Galapagos. Without a doubt the Lindblad trip topped them all.

Regarding the age of the child and the right ABD to start with... I don't think there's one best answer. We started my son at age 7 with an ABD in France. He was the youngest on the France ABD and he did fine. It just depends on the child. Your extroverted child would love ABD. That's like my oldest son. Are you crazy for wanting to start with one of the longer and more exotic ABD's with young children? I don't think so, but I'm sure there is a strong argument for starting with an ABD that's a bit shorter and maybe has more young children as guests like Italy or Germany. Honestly, I don't think it makes much difference. Your kids sound like they're good travelers, and you seem very motivated to try. That's mostly what counts IMO traveling with children. Just keep in mind ABD days typically start early and often are full days.

Yes, ABD's flights out to Uluru and Tasmania are what really attracted me to the trip. ABD does that so well. They pick these out of the way places that are often left off itineraries or difficult to do on you're own and they go there and they're awesome. The Loire Valley, Laos, Hoi An, Guilin all come to mind. Even on the Backstage Magic, going out to Griffith Park to see Walt's Barn. I wouldn't have gone to see that on my own, and it was awesome.

Bobo912 said:

I've done 5 ABDs, 2 Tauck Bridges tours, and the Lindblad trip to the Galapagos. Without a doubt the Lindblad trip topped them all.

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I'm curious what was it about the Linblad trip that was so good. They guides? The itinerary? The food/accommodations? I don't know anything about Linblad. Is it geared for young families?

Cousin Orville said:

Yes, ABD's flights out to Uluru and Tasmania are what really attracted me to the trip. ABD does that so well. They pick these out of the way places that are often left off itineraries or difficult to do on you're own and they go there and they're awesome. The Loire Valley, Laos, Hoi An, Guilin all come to mind. Even on the Backstage Magic, going out to Griffith Park to see Walt's Barn. I wouldn't have gone to see that on my own, and it was awesome.

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The same is true for the Scotland ABD's flight to the Isle of Lewis. It's very time consuming and/or expensive to get to the Isle of Lewis on your own. ABD charters a small plane just for your group, and flies you out there for the day. I totally loved the Isle of Lewis, and it was one of the highlights of the trip!

Sayhello

sayhello said:

The same is true for the Scotland ABD's flight to the Isle of Lewis. It's very time consuming and/or expensive to get to the Isle of Lewis on your own. ABD charters a small plane just for your group, and flies you out there for the day. I totally loved the Isle of Lewis, and it was one of the highlights of the trip!

Sayhello

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Yes! The Isle of Lewis is what one day soon will sell me on the Scotland ABD! I really want to do that.

I'm curious about Lindblad, too. I will say, they had the only Galapagos trip whose brochure was covered with pictures of young children. (Lindblad to Galapagos was actually my preference, but my mom really wanted to go on a trip that started in Quito. Lindblad starts in Guayaquil. We can fly direct Houston to Quito, which makes a difference when traveling with young children.) Lindblad seems to do sort of luxury adventure travel that is very welcoming of families. And they partner with National Geographic. We actually had figured out which of the Lindblad trips we were going to take, when my mom panicked about Guayaquil and we switched to Celebrity. Which Lindblad trip did you do? Would you recommend them for all types of trips? ABD, Tauck Bridges, Lindblad, and Abercrombie and Kent Family are the tours we've been looking at. In general, we've been thinking we'd do tours to exotic destinations, and just take ourselves to places we're comfortable with. If we fall in love with ABD, we might consider joining tours to other destinations.

My son can't decide whether to be really excited about all the exotic travel we're discussing, or really grumpy with me for booking that many vacations that aren't WDW. I keep reminding him that when we took him to Europe for 3 weeks when he was 5, he actually said, "Wow, Mom, Europe is way better than Disney World!" He now insists he never said such a thing, and that he would never say such a thing, but he did! When we were discussing the fact that we have 3 cruises planned, the first thing out of his mouth was, "at least one of them is a Disney cruise, right?" I think I'm so proud, I've indoctrinated him so well, and then I worry that maybe I've indoctrinated him too well.

We're from Houston too. The numbers of direct flights overseas feels like it's shrinking for Houston. Take advantage of them when you can. I was unaware about Quito.

Also thanks for mentioning the Breakfast with the Birds in Port Douglas. I had not heard of it before and just googled it. Looks pretty cool, and I think we'll sign up for it when we're in Cairns. The night tour also sounds really cool, but with jet lag my son will probably be going to sleep a bit too early to enjoy it. If you have any suggestions for Sydney, we're there a few days before Cairns and I'm still looking at options.

I'm curious. Is your avatar picture from this year's Star Wars Weekends? It looks like Greedo (or some character) that was hanging out at the Rebel Hangar Lounge.

My Avatar is from last year's Star Wars Weekends, at the Sci Fi Dine In Star Wars Villain meal. We thought our daughter might be scared of the villains; we really booked it for our son. She spent approximately 10 seconds saying, "ooh, I so scared! They are so scary!" to Darth Vader and Boba Fett (who greet you and pose for your initial photo) before hopping into the photo and beaming at the camera. My Avatar photo is our daughter giving hugs and kisses to Greedo. She was totally in love with him, and he kept coming to our table and making "I love you" gestures, bringing his hands in a heart shape to his heart. I don't think bounty hunters are really supposed to romance little princesses, but it was super cute. She gave him all the gifts she got when she traded with the Jawas. We have not let her watch Episode 4 (the original Star Wars)! Whether or not Han shoots first, it still ends the same way for poor Greedo.

I agree that Houston has fewer flights really good direct flights to places I really want to go these days. I'm going to be really unhappy if they cancel the direct flight to Quito before next summer. Our choices for getting to Guayaquil with just one stop were changing planes in Miami, Panama City, Quito, or Bogota, if I recall correctly. We honestly have chosen so many cruises and vacation destinations based on what we could get to with a single flight when traveling with young children. We have been traveling with a child 5 or under for the past 10 years!

The Breakfast with the Birds was amazing, although admittedly, I did it many years ago. They served local fresh fruit, some of which I had never seen before, and haven't ever had again. The wildlife habitat that presents it had a pet flying fox, a fruit bat, that they let you play with back then. I used to have a video of me petting and playing with the fruit bat, which was one of the most amazing experiences of my life at that point. The fruit bat was surprisingly cute and cuddly; it was soft, furry, and friendly. It was actually far more engaging than the koala we posed with at some point during the trip. I was a complete animal nut in my younger days (I was even a docent at the Houston Zoo for a while), so I booked a lot of animal adventures. The night time animal search we did was really neat - it started in the evening, and we went and looked at wild rat kangaroos and platypuses, then we had dinner, then we went up into the rain forest with red tinted spotlights (so as not to disturb the animals) and we walked down a dirt road while our guide spotted nocturnal animals for us. Many of them were fearless and let us approach the trees they were just hanging out in. It's funny, we used a group called Wait A While tours, and they appear to still be in business, still doing almost the same tour! If you're anything like us, though, you won't sleep well on the plane, and you'll be absolutely exhausted when you get there. I doubt any of you will want to do anything other than collapse. But if you have a couple of days, I would definitely recommend both Breakfast with the Birds and Wait a While evening and night tours. When we go, I'm planning to build in enough time to add them when we are in the Cairns area.

We were in Sydney for a full week because my now ex-husband was speaking at a conference. We did one day up in the Blue Mountains. Honestly, I'm not sorry to have done it, and we saw some interesting scenery, but it wasn't one of the highlights of the trip. I'd go back if I were traveling with someone who wanted to see some of the more interesting rock formations, but I personally feel no need to return. I would definitely go back to the Opera House. The Sydney Opera House is actually a large complex with multiple theaters and restaurants. I did a tour of it, but we also went over for multiple meals, and attended a play one afternoon in one of the small theaters and an opera one night in the main one. (I'm a huge opera fan, so that was really, really high on my priority list.) I also absolutely loved the Taronga Zoo. They have a lot of native Australian species, so they have animals that aren't in captivity many other places in the world. If you are traveling with animal nuts, it is a must do. Plus, you can take a ferry over, which is fun in itself. I also did a harbor tour, which I enjoyed. Let's see. I also spent a couple of days doing several of the things in the harbor district of Darling Harbour, including the Sydney Aquarium, which I could walk to from our hotel. I liked Sydney; I found the section were we in a very walkable city, even as a young woman doing a fair amount of touring alone. I was not impressed with the art museum; I wanted to like it, but I was underwhelmed. Maybe it's improved by now. I liked the botanic gardens right next to the opera house.

Golden Rose said:

My Avatar is from last year's Star Wars Weekends, at the Sci Fi Dine In Star Wars Villain meal. We thought our daughter might be scared of the villains; we really booked it for our son. She spent approximately 10 seconds saying, "ooh, I so scared! They are so scary!" to Darth Vader and Boba Fett (who greet you and pose for your initial photo) before hopping into the photo and beaming at the camera. My Avatar photo is our daughter giving hugs and kisses to Greedo. She was totally in love with him, and he kept coming to our table and making "I love you" gestures, bringing his hands in a heart shape to his heart. I don't think bounty hunters are really supposed to romance little princesses, but it was super cute. She gave him all the gifts she got when she traded with the Jawas. We have not let her watch Episode 4 (the original Star Wars)! Whether or not Han shoots first, it still ends the same way for poor Greedo.

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Haha!

Great info about Cairns and Sydney. We'll be in Sydney for 3 days after flying over from Dallas. And then of course ABD hits Sydney again during the adventure. We were planning on taking the ferry over to the zoo one of the days and maybe going over to Manly Beach. Neither of us have any strong desire to go out to the Blue Mountains. It looks similar to other places we've been, and it would make for a long day. Our hotel is close to the Rocks and the Opera House so I suspect we'll spend a fair amount of time enjoying that area. I'll look into the Darling Harbour area as well.

Golden Rose said:

I'm curious about Lindblad, too. I will say, they had the only Galapagos trip whose brochure was covered with pictures of young children. (Lindblad to Galapagos was actually my preference, but my mom really wanted to go on a trip that started in Quito. Lindblad starts in Guayaquil. We can fly direct Houston to Quito, which makes a difference when traveling with young children.) Lindblad seems to do sort of luxury adventure travel that is very welcoming of families. And they partner with National Geographic. We actually had figured out which of the Lindblad trips we were going to take, when my mom panicked about Guayaquil and we switched to Celebrity. Which Lindblad trip did you do? Would you recommend them for all types of trips? ABD, Tauck Bridges, Lindblad, and Abercrombie and Kent Family are the tours we've been looking at. In general, we've been thinking we'd do tours to exotic destinations, and just take ourselves to places we're comfortable with. If we fall in love with ABD, we might consider joining tours to other destinations.

My son can't decide whether to be really excited about all the exotic travel we're discussing, or really grumpy with me for booking that many vacations that aren't WDW. I keep reminding him that when we took him to Europe for 3 weeks when he was 5, he actually said, "Wow, Mom, Europe is way better than Disney World!" He now insists he never said such a thing, and that he would never say such a thing, but he did! When we were discussing the fact that we have 3 cruises planned, the first thing out of his mouth was, "at least one of them is a Disney cruise, right?" I think I'm so proud, I've indoctrinated him so well, and then I worry that maybe I've indoctrinated him too well.

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We did the 10-day trip on the Endeavour. We didn't add any pre or post days, so I'm not sure what there is to see or do in Guayaquil since we spent so little time there. We actually spent less time there than expected because our flight on American from Miami to Guayaquil was delayed for 5 hours due to mechanical issues and we got to our hotel in Guayaquil around 4:00AM and had to leave at 5:30 for our flight to the Galapagos. We booked a date when Lindblad provided free airfare from Miami and there were 70 of our fellow travelers on the flight. Lindblad has a rep at the Miami airport to take care of the guests before the flight and the poor lady had a long night. She took great care of us and there were a couple Linbdlad folks at the Guayaquil airport to greet us, who were remarkably cheerful for 4:00AM. Although it could have been a miserable start to the trip, it actually turned into an opportunity to get to know some of the other travelers before the tour started. The naturalists and ship crew were fantastic. They have a lot of cool scientific equipment and underwater cameras onboard. A National Geographic videographer also traveled with us and we received a video after the trip. Food and service on the ship was great. We traveled during our spring break in March and there were a lot of kids on the ship. They were together constantly and everybody started referring to them as "The Posse". Lindblad also brings a local family on the cruise. Even though they live in this amazing place, most of the locals don't get to see the sights of all the different islands. It was great to meet them and the kids really enjoyed having the son on board. Anyway, it was a great trip. I would take another trip with Lindblad in a heartbeat, but the others are all so expensive I can't justify the cost.

Bobo912 said:

We did the 10-day trip on the Endeavour. We didn't add any pre or post days, so I'm not sure what there is to see or do in Guayaquil since we spent so little time there. We actually spent less time there than expected because our flight on American from Miami to Guayaquil was delayed for 5 hours due to mechanical issues and we got to our hotel in Guayaquil around 4:00AM and had to leave at 5:30 for our flight to the Galapagos. We booked a date when Lindblad provided free airfare from Miami and there were 70 of our fellow travelers on the flight. Lindblad has a rep at the Miami airport to take care of the guests before the flight and the poor lady had a long night. She took great care of us and there were a couple Linbdlad folks at the Guayaquil airport to greet us, who were remarkably cheerful for 4:00AM. Although it could have been a miserable start to the trip, it actually turned into an opportunity to get to know some of the other travelers before the tour started. The naturalists and ship crew were fantastic. They have a lot of cool scientific equipment and underwater cameras onboard. A National Geographic videographer also traveled with us and we received a video after the trip. Food and service on the ship was great. We traveled during our spring break in March and there were a lot of kids on the ship. They were together constantly and everybody started referring to them as "The Posse". Lindblad also brings a local family on the cruise. Even though they live in this amazing place, most of the locals don't get to see the sights of all the different islands. It was great to meet them and the kids really enjoyed having the son on board. Anyway, it was a great trip. I would take another trip with Lindblad in a heartbeat, but the others are all so expensive I can't justify the cost.

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Looks great! Can the cabins accommodate more than 2 passengers? That wasn't clear from what I was reading.

It seems like ABD needs a longer Galapagos trip. They have the Amazon/Galapagos which does look really cool. It's one I've considered for next year, and I may still do it. However, there are only 3 days in the Galapagos. We saw one of the Galapagos IMAX movies a couple of years ago and it looked amazing. But all the islands seem so different. I would imagine you need several days to see the variety. ABD's 8 day Galapagos trip spends 4 days in the Galapagos. The Lindblad trip spends 7 days by my count. I guess on the other hand ABD does give you more time in Ecuador and Quito.

Cousin Orville said:

Looks great! Can the cabins accommodate more than 2 passengers? That wasn't clear from what I was reading.

It seems like ABD needs a longer Galapagos trip. They have the Amazon/Galapagos which does look really cool. It's one I've considered for next year, and I may still do it. However, there are only 3 days in the Galapagos. We saw one of the Galapagos IMAX movies a couple of years ago and it looked amazing. But all the islands seem so different. I would imagine you need several days to see the variety. ABD's 8 day Galapagos trip spends 4 days in the Galapagos. The Lindblad trip spends 7 days by my count. I guess on the other hand ABD does give you more time in Ecuador and Quito.

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ABD had the full 7-day Galapagos cruise one time, I think two years ago. I figured it didn't sell well since they did not repeat it the following year. They now use the La Pinta yacht. We went on a different one when we did it 5 years ago.

Cousin Orville said:

Looks great! Can the cabins accommodate more than 2 passengers? That wasn't clear from what I was reading.

It seems like ABD needs a longer Galapagos trip. They have the Amazon/Galapagos which does look really cool. It's one I've considered for next year, and I may still do it. However, there are only 3 days in the Galapagos. We saw one of the Galapagos IMAX movies a couple of years ago and it looked amazing. But all the islands seem so different. I would imagine you need several days to see the variety. ABD's 8 day Galapagos trip spends 4 days in the Galapagos. The Lindblad trip spends 7 days by my count. I guess on the other hand ABD does give you more time in Ecuador and Quito.

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There are a few suites that I believe accommodate 3 people. The standard cabins will only sleep two. There is always something going on and we were hardly ever in the room - mainly just to sleep or shower. I went to the Galapagos the first year ABD offered the itinerary and at that time it was only a 3-day cruise (which they have returned to after a year or two offering the longer cruise). That is the reason I didn't go with ABD. I wanted to spend more time in the Galapagos and not on the mainland. So it just depends on what you're looking for. IMO, 3 or 4 days is not enough. Every island has completely different terrain and the wildlife is different on each island. Lindblad makes large contributions to support the national park and in return they get to visit some areas that other tours can't visit. In some areas we saw other ships nearby, but sometimes we were the only ones around. Thinking about it is making me want to go back. Another cool thing they do is post a daily expedition report on their website so your friends and family back home can read daily about what is happening on your tour while you are there, or you can read the report and relive your trip after it's over. If you check the report for the current tour, a few days ago they departed from the planned itinerary and sailed to the northern part of Isabela to see the Wolf Volcano erupt. I would have loved to see that. That video is amazing! Arenal was erupting when we were in Costa Rica a few years ago and I thought that was awesome, but it was not even close to being as impressive as this eruption.

I was really tempted by the ABD Amazon and Galapagos tour, but our daughter isn't old enough, and yellow fever shots and malaria pills are suggested for the Amazon. I really want to take the kids down the Amazon, but my mom and step-father really can't do the yellow fever shots at their age, so that is going to be a trip we have to do without them. For the next few years, while they are still healthy and willing to travel, we're trying to do as many trips with 3 generations as we can.

We were going to do the Lindblad Endeavour 10 day next summer, but have instead booked the Celebrity Xpedition 10 day because it starts and ends in Quito. We couldn't even consider ABD for Galapagos next year because our daughter will only be 5. I also wanted more than 3 days in the Galapagos. Celebrity will take any age. I don't think their onboard programs are as good for kids on that route, but I think they'll be the best for my mom. Galapagos 7+ day tours look very demanding, 2 hikes and a snorkel a day, and my mom just didn't want to wait. She had wanted to do it this year, but I REALLY didn't want to take a 4 year old. I also really didn't want to leave her at home with other friends or family. Lindblad and Celebrity both do one week going through the islands; when you make it longer (like the 10 day we have booked) they meet you and do a very small amount of touring with you in Ecuador (Quito for Celebrity, Guayaquil for Lindblad.) Lindblad often offers free airfare from Miami to Guayaquil, as Bobo912 got, but we really hated to fly from Houston to Miami and just add another layer of complication and an extra 4+ hours of travel time with 2 kids. Celebrity definitely HAS suites that will sleep 3, but they won't let more than one or two families book them, from what I can tell. We've actually booked 2 suites and a guarantee cabin so we could book 6 people on board, although both suites actually sleep 3. It's a little silly, but it is what we had to do.

I _think_ what we're going to book is a trip to Costa Rica for spring break 2016 to try something close to home first, and assuming we like it, book Australia for 2017. (We're planning to go to Australia in 2017. We'll just be trying to decide if we'll book it with ABD, or do it on our own.) We're going to put South Africa on hold for a couple of years until our daughter is at least a little older.