Our first ABD trip - Peru, Adult only

[RebelHawk]

After talking about it for years now we finally pulled the trigger and booked our first ABD trip for Sept 2016 to Peru. When we got our confirmation emails last night we were immediately excited but it's now sinking in that we are still over a year away. We used Dreams Unlimited Travel and our agent Tracey Heinrichs (who we have used for 4 DCL bookings now) was of course super quick to respond to our request.

I've read some wonderful trip reviews but all I have found have been from family groups. We have booked the adult only trip and are wondering if there are any major differences for Peru. It sounds like most of the other adult only ABD trips are almost identical to the family trips. However the Peru trip might be a bit more of an adventurous ABD trip so we were wondering if it might be more tailored for adults.

I think that we would arrive in Lima a day or two early just to get our feet under us prior to beginning the official trip. Do most people add on the rooms through ABD or book themselves? Generally when we cruise with DCL we stick to only official excursions and having Disney handle our arrival sounds nice. I just didn't know if the experiences people have had is worth that extra Disney up charge. I mean I can hail a cab myself to get to the hotel.

We will continue to research some of the details of the itinerary but I have concerns about the river rafting segment. Sounds like the water can be pretty gross and many have reported cases of lower abdominal distress shortly there after. Certainly international travel comes with hazards of this nature but did anyone else skip this completely? I wonder just how dicey it can be. I wouldn't think Disney would continue to book an activity that large number of people are getting sick on.

Now we just need to brush up on our spanish and follow these boards watching for more information. My biggest challenge is going to be not driving my wife crazy with spreadsheets and over planning our "on your own" portions of the trip.

Tom

 

[tgeorge]

You guys sound like me. I've been researching and coming up with lists for ABDs for a couple of years and this year I finally booked my first one. Long San Francisco weekend in October 2016 to celebrate my 40th birthday. I'm so excited, but like you, have realized that I have a long time to wait. We too are going on an adults only trip.

I did book an extra night through ABD at the Fairmont. It seems to be split. Some people will book with ABD while others will do it on their own. It seems to be a bit (if not a lot) cheaper on your own, but I didn't want to have to deal with it so I just booked it with ABD. From what I understand, and I'm sure other's will correct me if I give you incorrect information, is that ABD will provide you with transportation from the airport to the hotel if you arrive early even if you don't book the pre-stay with ABD. That's what it sounds like to me, but again...I know others will chime in.

Since my first ABD is a month after yours I can't add anything about the trip, but I would love to hear about it when you return. I would also do the adult exclusive and love to hear about your experiences. I have some other trips that are higher on my list, but this one certainly does interest me. Although, who am I kidding, I think there is probably only a couple that I look at and really have no interest in

I totally understand your planning obsession. I drive my husband crazy with it most of the time. Although, he's not really into traveling so most of my traveling is solo. Every once in a while I can talk him into things. For some reason, he really wants to go to Australia which is absolutely fine with me!

Good luck planning and researching. I hope that someone can give you more answers on the actual Peru questions you have. I'm sure you will have a fabulous time!! We can also commiserate together on our long waits!!

 

[Bobo912]

If you do a web search using "Adventures by Disney trips we've taken" it will return a link to a Peru trip report for an adult trip. It is fairly old, but I think the only thing that has changed since then are first and last hotel. The reviews are by a travel agent, so I won't post the link. I found it when I was researching this trip a few years ago.

My experience with booking pre-nights in Lima with ABD was that they charged double what I would have paid if I had booked the room on my own.

 

[sayhello]

The new ABD policy is that if you book your pre-days on your own, ABD will still provide transportation to the hotel the ABD starts at. So if you book the same hotel, you are good. If you book a different hotel, you still have to get yourself from the ABD hotel to your hotel, but that's probably a quick taxi ride vs. a longer transfer from the airport.

Sayhello

 

[RebelHawk]

After we booked our trip we sent an email to a number of our friends just seeing if there was any interest in joining us on the ADB trip. We just heard back from another couple and they are going to join us. I know from previous WDW and DCL trips you can easily link reservations together. Is there any need to do this for ABD trips? Seems like they are pretty small groups and everyone travels together anyway.

Tom

 

[sayhello]

After we booked our trip we sent an email to a number of our friends just seeing if there was any interest in joining us on the ADB trip. We just heard back from another couple and they are going to join us. I know from previous WDW and DCL trips you can easily link reservations together. Is there any need to do this for ABD trips? Seems like they are pretty small groups and everyone travels together anyway.

Tom

You are correct. The only thing is, you both might want to mention it to ABD if you want to have your hotel rooms near each other. I'm sure they can't guarantee it, but they'd do their best to get you near each other.

Sayhello

 

[kaceyisme]

After talking about it for years now we finally pulled the trigger and booked our first ABD trip for Sept 2016 to Peru. When we got our confirmation emails last night we were immediately excited but it's now sinking in that we are still over a year away. We used Dreams Unlimited Travel and our agent Tracey Heinrichs (who we have used for 4 DCL bookings now) was of course super quick to respond to our request.

I've read some wonderful trip reviews but all I have found have been from family groups. We have booked the adult only trip and are wondering if there are any major differences for Peru. It sounds like most of the other adult only ABD trips are almost identical to the family trips. However the Peru trip might be a bit more of an adventurous ABD trip so we were wondering if it might be more tailored for adults.

I think that we would arrive in Lima a day or two early just to get our feet under us prior to beginning the official trip. Do most people add on the rooms through ABD or book themselves? Generally when we cruise with DCL we stick to only official excursions and having Disney handle our arrival sounds nice. I just didn't know if the experiences people have had is worth that extra Disney up charge. I mean I can hail a cab myself to get to the hotel.

We will continue to research some of the details of the itinerary but I have concerns about the river rafting segment. Sounds like the water can be pretty gross and many have reported cases of lower abdominal distress shortly there after. Certainly international travel comes with hazards of this nature but did anyone else skip this completely? I wonder just how dicey it can be. I wouldn't think Disney would continue to book an activity that large number of people are getting sick on.

Now we just need to brush up on our spanish and follow these boards watching for more information. My biggest challenge is going to be not driving my wife crazy with spreadsheets and over planning our "on your own" portions of the trip.

Tom

We are doing our first ABD this September, and it is the Adult Only Peru trip! When we get back, I will let you know how it went! We are not doing the rafting (and we have let them know that already) because of the reports of filthy water and dead animals along the banks of the river. They said that they will send a car for us to transport us from the Sol y Luna to the next activity. We booked a long time in advance, and we just got our box on Friday! It really makes it real now!

 

[RebelHawk]

For those that have or are planning on doing the Peru trip what flights did you book? I fly Delta almost exclusively for work so I was planning on burning some air miles for our flights but I just check on them. The arrival and departure times are horrible. Arriving just after midnight and departures are 1AM. I've check other domestic US airlines and they typically aren't any better.

Anyone run into any issues other than exhaustion for arrivals or departures?

 

[DCPhotoGal]

I booked our ABD to Peru and booked flights on Copa, connecting in Panama. We flew Copa (a United partner) to Ecuador in April and it was fine. The Copa flights to Peru from DC were only a little over $500 per person. We are not flying a redeye, but will arrive home around 1pm. I purposely chose an 8 hour layover in Panama with hopes we can go out and explore a little on the way home.