Adventures by Disney have lot's of great experiences

[Kevin O'Brien]

The Adventures by Disney tours I wish to do are
Adriatic Expedition Cruise
Norway
River Cruise
South Africa
Private jet adventures

 

[AgentMama]

I wonder how many people have actually done the Private Jet Adventures? That is $$$

 

[sayhello]

I wonder how many people have actually done the Private Jet Adventures? That is $$$

As far as I know they sold out last year's adventure. So somebody has the $$$.

The two scheduled for this summer are still available.
Sayhello

 

[AgentMama]

As far as I know they sold out last year's adventure. So somebody has the $$$.

The two scheduled for this summer are still available.
Sayhello

I'd love to see reviews (not that we'll ever be taking that trip, lol)

 

[gatordoc]

I'd love to see reviews (not that we'll ever be taking that trip, lol)

I heard a podcast review (sorry, can’t remember which one) after the first one. The overall opinion given was that it was exhausting. The plane apparently was not as special as one might expect (not lie-flat seats, for example) and the theme park visits were not even full days, so everything seemed rushed.

 

[Donalyn]

Well - exhausting and not enough time anywhere are my major issues with the itinerary. (And to be honest, the price tag too.) But said it before - I'd rather take the money it would cost my family and take 10 separate ABD trips than this one.

 

[sayhello]

Well - exhausting and not enough time anywhere are my major issues with the itinerary. (And to be honest, the price tag too.) But said it before - I'd rather take the money it would cost my family and take 10 separate ABD trips than this one.

Amen to that! Me, too.

Sayhello

 

[bookbabe626]

We’re booked for the June jet departure. We opted out of a lot of the non-park activity options to give us more time in the parks, and we are pretty excited about some of the exclusives and backstage stuff. And we’re retired, so I can sleep at home afterwards. lol

For what you get, the pricing isn’t bad, especially when you think about the stuff that you can’t get access to outside of a tour like this. You can’t compare the pricing to a regular Disney vacation, think of it more along the lines of a luxury cruise, and the pricing isn’t that out of whack.

 

[sayhello]

We’re booked for the June jet departure. We opted out of a lot of the non-park activity options to give us more time in the parks, and we are pretty excited about some of the exclusives and backstage stuff. And we’re retired, so I can sleep at home afterwards. lol

For what you get, the pricing isn’t bad, especially when you think about the stuff that you can’t get access to outside of a tour like this. You can’t compare the pricing to a regular Disney vacation, think of it more along the lines of a luxury cruise, and the pricing isn’t that out of whack.

I don't think anyone is here is comparing it to a regular Disney vacation, we're comparing it to other Adventures by Disney trips, which are considered luxury tours and tend to have a lot of exclusive and backstage stuff. And compared to that, on a cost-per-day basis, the pricing honestly does seem a bit out of whack.

ETA: I figured I really should quantify my statement, so using the Japan trip (currently one of ABD's most expensive land trips) the Japan ABD, at $11,599 per person for 10 days comes to $1,156 per person per day. The round the world jet adventure, at $114,995 per person for 24 days comes to $4,792 per person per day.

I imagine a lot of that is the cost of the private jet and it's staff, but I guess the question is, is that mode of transport worth it for the rushed, exhausting trip? I'm sure it is for some folks, but I, like @Donalyn , would much rather take, for example, the Japan trip, the China trip, the Grand Europe trip and the Africa trip for a total of 40 days (NOT all at once!) for a total of around $100,800. If you looked at it from the perspective of the 24 days of the jet trip, it's still less per day ($4200) than the jet trip. But you're getting 16 more travel days out of the regular ABD's. But that's just me. YMMV.

Sayhello

 

[AquaDame]

I don't think anyone is here is comparing it to a regular Disney vacation, we're comparing it to other Adventures by Disney trips, which are considered luxury tours and tend to have a lot of exclusive and backstage stuff. And compared to that, on a cost-per-day basis, the pricing honestly does seem a bit out of whack.

ETA: I figured I really should quantify my statement, so using the Japan trip (currently one of ABD's most expensive land trips) the Japan ABD, at $11,599 per person for 10 days comes to $1,156 per person per day. The round the world jet adventure, at $114,995 per person for 24 days comes to $4,792 per person per day.

I imagine a lot of that is the cost of the private jet and it's staff, but I guess the question is, is that mode of transport worth it for the rushed, exhausting trip? I'm sure it is for some folks, but I, like @Donalyn , would much rather take, for example, the Japan trip, the China trip, the Grand Europe trip and the Africa trip for a total of 40 days (NOT all at once!) for a total of around $100,800. If you looked at it from the perspective of the 24 days of the jet trip, it's still less per day ($4200) than the jet trip. But you're getting 16 more travel days out of the regular ABD's. But that's just me. YMMV.

Sayhello

how many of those days are travel days where you are on the plane...? I know there are short hops on the ABDs (we had two legs on the Arctic journey and will have a few on SE Asia in January) but these are looooong plane rides, no? I appreciate having those hours not be ones I am paying a premium for too.

 

[bookbabe626]

I think only two days are fully devoted to travel, all the rest it’s relatively short hops and part days of activities. We will likely use the India and Egypt days as downtime as well, our focus is the parks not sightseeing. And we are retired, so it’s not like I have to worry about being overtired for work when we get back.

For us, it’s a little more expensive than comparable trips we’ve taken that include luxury rooms, business class airfare, guided tours and a lot of hand-holding (this will be our first AbD, but we’ve done a lot of high-end cruises, most recently five weeks with Viking) but not really out of whack for what we’re getting, IMO. And the complete “all the parks in one whirlwind trip” is a big bucket list factor for us. Could we do all the areas cheaper and at a slower pace? Sure, but we don’t want to, and luckily we are in the position of being able to book this, so why not.

It’s definitely a situation where it’s not for everyone. I think last year’s sellout did cause them to overestimate demand, neither of this year’s trips are sold out, although our guide did say that both are booked enough to run. I’ll be curious to see the actual numbers when we join up with the group.

 

[sayhello]

how many of those days are travel days where you are on the plane...? I know there are short hops on the ABDs (we had two legs on the Arctic journey and will have a few on SE Asia in January) but these are looooong plane rides, no? I appreciate having those hours not be ones I am paying a premium for too.

Day 6 from Oakland, CA to Tokyo is a full day of travel, and Day 17 from Egypt to Paris appears to be most of the day. Day 20 is basically a full day from Paris to Orlando. There's also 4 half-day flights that include lunch, and the short hop from Anaheim to San Francisco.

Sayhello

 

[bookbabe626]

Day 6 from Oakland, CA to Tokyo is a full day of travel, and Day 17 from Egypt to Paris appears to be most of the day. Day 20 is basically a full day from Paris to Orlando. There's also 4 half-day flights that include lunch, and the short hop from Anaheim to San Francisco.

Sayhello

Only the day 6 travel day is completely lost to activities. The others, there’s at least dinner and fireworks in the evening. The half day flights and the short hop are pretty irrelevant to us, especially flying private where there is likely expedited security and checkin. We live on an island, so it’s an hour flight to get to the closest Walmart, and two to WDW where we have APs. lol. We do the ten hours to/from London pretty regularly, so long flights are just a part of life for us. Heck, because of where we live on island, it’s an hour drive to town to get groceries or see a movie.

But yeah, I can see how if you don’t do a lot of flights the flight times might be a bit of a negative.

For us, though, we’re excited and feeling (at this point) like the trip will be worth the expense, even the upgraded rooms we’ve added are worthwhile in our opinions. We’ll see how we feel in July, but we are definitely looking forward to the trip, no matter how many internet naysayers we run into. YMMV, but we’re paying the bill and feel good about the expense.

 

[sayhello]

Only the day 6 travel day is completely lost to activities. The others, there’s at least dinner and fireworks in the evening. The half day flights and the short hop are pretty irrelevant to us, especially flying private where there is likely expedited security and checkin. We live on an island, so it’s an hour flight to get to the closest Walmart, and two to WDW where we have APs. lol. We do the ten hours to/from London pretty regularly, so long flights are just a part of life for us. Heck, because of where we live on island, it’s an hour drive to town to get groceries or see a movie.

But yeah, I can see how if you don’t do a lot of flights the flight times might be a bit of a negative.

For us, though, we’re excited and feeling (at this point) like the trip will be worth the expense, even the upgraded rooms we’ve added are worthwhile in our opinions. We’ll see how we feel in July, but we are definitely looking forward to the trip, no matter how many internet naysayers we run into. YMMV, but we’re paying the bill and feel good about the expense.

I was not implying that you should not feel the trip was worth it. That's personal to you and your situation. "Worth it" is vastly different from person to person. @AquaDame was asking about the flight times in order to evaluate whether the trip is worth it to her or not, and that's why I posted it in reply to her comment. I'm pretty sure her situation is vastly different from yours.

Sayhello

 

[AquaDame]

I was not implying that you should not feel the trip was worth it. That's personal to you and your situation. "Worth it" is vastly different from person to person. @AquaDame was asking about the flight times in order to evaluate whether the trip is worth it to her or not, and that's why I posted it in reply to her comment. I'm pretty sure her situation is vastly different from yours.

Sayhello

I am certain our situation is different. At 115K per person it would be the cost of our entire house, if that puts it in perspective. We're comfortable enough to splurge mindfully, but not generally.

I play mental gymnastics with hotel rooms and flights; really anytime I'm paying a premium for a specific number of hours. I'm willing to pay more if we can enjoy the amenities, but not so much if its an 'arrive in the evening and up early the next day to hit the road' spot. Our $600 a night stay at the Trapp Lodge in October will be worth it. We'll make sure we are there at check in time, have dinner there, and make time to tour the farm and facilities. $500 a night for a nothing special hotel in downtown Portland Maine though..? Pass. I was shocked at that... we'll just stay outside the city and drive in for dinner if that is the cost of convenience. I also refused to pay $300 more for 4" of legroom on a 6 hour flight, but paid for first on another, much shorter, flight for lounge access as I know we'll be stuck for a long layover with jetlag from Japan and I want to be comfortable this time (February was pretty bad in that regard).

I think you're going to have a wonderful trip!

 

[sayhello]

I am certain our situation is different. At 115K per person it would be the cost of our entire house, if that puts it in perspective. We're comfortable enough to splurge mindfully, but not generally.

I play mental gymnastics with hotel rooms and flights; really anytime I'm paying a premium for a specific number of hours. I'm willing to pay more if we can enjoy the amenities, but not so much if its an 'arrive in the evening and up early the next day to hit the road' spot. Our $600 a night stay at the Trapp Lodge in October will be worth it. We'll make sure we are there at check in time, have dinner there, and make time to tour the farm and facilities. $500 a night for a nothing special hotel in downtown Portland Maine though..? Pass. I was shocked at that... we'll just stay outside the city and drive in for dinner if that is the cost of convenience. I also refused to pay $300 more for 4" of legroom on a 6 hour flight, but paid for first on another, much shorter, flight for lounge access as I know we'll be stuck for a long layover with jetlag from Japan and I want to be comfortable this time (February was pretty bad in that regard).

I think you're going to have a wonderful trip!

You will love the Trapp family Lodge! It was great!

Sayhello

 

[starry_solo]

Only the day 6 travel day is completely lost to activities. The others, there’s at least dinner and fireworks in the evening. The half day flights and the short hop are pretty irrelevant to us, especially flying private where there is likely expedited security and checkin. We live on an island, so it’s an hour flight to get to the closest Walmart, and two to WDW where we have APs. lol. We do the ten hours to/from London pretty regularly, so long flights are just a part of life for us. Heck, because of where we live on island, it’s an hour drive to town to get groceries or see a movie.

But yeah, I can see how if you don’t do a lot of flights the flight times might be a bit of a negative.

For us, though, we’re excited and feeling (at this point) like the trip will be worth the expense, even the upgraded rooms we’ve added are worthwhile in our opinions. We’ll see how we feel in July, but we are definitely looking forward to the trip, no matter how many internet naysayers we run into. YMMV, but we’re paying the bill and feel good about the expense.

Have a great time @bookbabe626 . If you collect pins (or not), would you mind posting pictures of them? I would like to see if they are different than the ones given out during the inaugural tour.