pricing for adventures by disney

[jenbadeaux]

New here and looking for a little insight. From reading everyone's posts, it appears many of you know much more than I do! Just booked my first adventure by disney for next year. Going to do Southwest Splendors Aug.2, 2008 with my husband and 4 kids. Is there any way to get a discount on these trips? I do have the early booking and child discounts, but my oldest daughter is 18, so I actually have 3 adults, 3 kids and MY STARS this is expensive! I know it will be worth every penny and the experience is priceless, but just curious how some of you are managing so many disney vacations in so little time! Do ya'll do the DVC and what the heck is that? We go to Disney World once or twice a year, but usually just for 3 or 4 days at a time. We've been on the Disney Cruise once and loved it. But ABD is a whole other price package! We try to go skiing every year, and I thought that was an expensive trip!! Just curious if there is a better way to be doing this. I do have a Disney Visa and accumulate Disney Rewards through that. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[3pirates]

It is expensive, and I haven't done it, (but am looking into it.) But the best argument I've seen is that it includes so much. For instance, when you do a cruise your meal and lodging are covered, but if you want to do excursions you pay extra, and there is always tips. With ABD your entire itinerary, tips, and many meals are included, as well as guides, transfers, high end hotels, etc.

Now as much as you seem to like Disney, you should look into DVC (my personal bias, I've been a member for years.) It is Disney's timeshare. You can go for 3 - 4 days and change it up. They do it based on a point system. DVC can be used for ABD, the cruise line, stays at Disney Resorts, and exchanged through several exchange programs. (You don't pay a fee if you exchange within Disney. And unlike some other timeshares, you don't have to belong to the program to make the outside exchange, but there is a fee.)

The only other discount I've heard about is Disney VISA, and you're already on top of that one. Maybe someone else has some ideas....

 

[global_mom]

I know what you are saying about the cost of ABD! We are dying to do a ABD trip but the price has stopped us. We also own DVC and cant say enough good things about that. We have been going to WDW 2-3 times per year and decided that DVC would be a good fit for us. If you go to WDW 2x per year, I would look seriously at DVC. We do have some extra points that we could put toward an ABD trip but I think that we will stick to using the points at WDW instead.

We are dying to do the Knights & Lights tour this summer but will need to save some serious $$$ between now and then as we dont use credit cards. Actually, I should put that a different way....we do use a Disney Visa so that we can get the reward dollars and then we pay off the card immediately so that there are no finance charges. We still consider that as paying cash so what I meant was that we dont finance things on a credit card. If we dont have the money on hand to pay the card then we have to wait until we have the cash. Sure wish that I could win Mega Millions tonight b/c it is up to $355 million, then I could take the family on a couple of ABD trips!

 

[abbyjt]

We have gone on 2 ABD trips. We are not especially Disney people, our last trip to WDW being 7 years ago (we are going in Jan). These trips are really expensive, expecially for a big family. They are great. They are comparable in price to other high end tours like Tauck. I think you get a lot more with Disney. (we did Tauck without kids). If you want to see REALLY expensive, check out Abercrombie and Kent. We are trying to decide what trip to do next year with ABD.
Anyway, for this summer 2007 we booked early and got the early discount and the child discount. They even gave us a $100 pp discount for being a repeat customer which they are not doing for 2008. We went to Spain. Since Spain wasn't filling up like say Italy or some of the other trips, Disney started offering children for free. They didn't offer this until about april or may. We know at least one family on our trip took that deal. It seemed to work out about the same because there wasn't an early booking discount by then and the airfares were considerably more by then.
I hope you love your ABD trip. let me know if I can answer any other questions for you.

 

[MJGirl]

I was looking at the pricing for the London/Paris tour. I went in July and paid $6598 for 1 adult and 1 teen. It looks like the price for this year is $6398. Both prices include the early booking discount. It appears this tour has gone down $200. Looking at the itinerary, it appears that the differences include:

1. Doesn't mention it includes the London Eye
2. Lion King instead of Mary Poppins
3. Doesn't mention where the Tea is at. Ours was at Harrods and I believe that Harrod's was mentioned in the description.

Everything else looks the same!

 

[Joan1]

The prices for 2 people aren't that much different from 2007 but the pricing for 3 and 4 people has gone up considerably for 2008

 

[slg]

What happens if you are a family of 5 now? Is it 2 doubles + a single? That seems ridiculous! One person has to be in a room by themself? Plus last year kids were 14 and under and now they are 12 and under. Makes a difference to a large family.

I was looking forward to booking, but now I don't know. Families of 5 are always a problem.

 

[3pirates]

What happens if you are a family of 5 now? Is it 2 doubles + a single? That seems ridiculous! One person has to be in a room by themself? Plus last year kids were 14 and under and now they are 12 and under. Makes a difference to a large family.

I was looking forward to booking, but now I don't know. Families of 5 are always a problem.

I have a family of five. On the tour we're considering, the rooms were all maximum of four so we were going to have to do two rooms anyhow. The pricing is essentially adult or child, with some consideration given to the season. They will have two people in one room, three in the other. No discount for the third person (except for the child) and no penalty for the two that have their own room.

In our situation it we didn't end up any worse off.

 

[global_mom]

I have a family of five. On the tour we're considering, the rooms were all maximum of four so we were going to have to do two rooms anyhow. The pricing is essentially adult or child, with some consideration given to the season. They will have two people in one room, three in the other. No discount for the third person (except for the child) and no penalty for the two that have their own room.

In our situation it we didn't end up any worse off.

We were also told that we would be booked as a triple and a double since we are 5 people. Our children are all under 11 so sharing beds is not a problem. THey said that they would make every effort for the rooms to be connecting so that we would not be too far from each other.

We are still really on the fence with the pricing. On one hand we are dying to give ABD a try and on the other hand it just seems like a ton of money plus the airfare, additional meals etc.

Are the tours really worth the $$$?

 

[Californialady]

Global Mom,

As a family of 5 that just did the Viva Italia, I can totally understand the heartburn over the price. My fantasy was to do a Knights and Lights Tour back to back with the Viva Italia. That fantasy lasted as long as it took me to do the math and gasp. So, we did a week on our own in Paris ( London got nixed) and then flew to Rome for the tour. I highly recommend the ABD tour and truly felt it was worth the price. I also highly recommend doing a trip on your own, as that can be cheaper and a wonderful experience in a different way.

Without speaking a word of French, I rented an apartment near the Louvre-way cheaper than two hotel rooms. We had a huge livingroom and small kitchen. This allowed us total flexibility and we saved even more money by cooking dinner several nights. We spent an entire week, were busy every day, and still did not have time for Versailles or Disney Paris.

We went to the Louvre and climbed the Eiffel Tower and many more of the "Must Dos". We also waited in lines for each of those things. And throughout the day we spent time interpreting Metro maps and consulting guide books. Although our visit to see Mona Lisa was fine, I am sure my kids would have gotten a kick out of the "treasure hunt" activity that ABD includes. I know we got way more out of the Rome, Florence and Venice because of the information provided by the local guides. Your kids are younger, will they be interested in listening to a guide talk about art and history?

The impressive aspect of the ABD tour was the number of activities they cram into a short time. There is no way we could have seen everything in Rome in two days if we were on our own. The day is organized to cover as much as possible. We didn't wait in lines to buy tickets, we never had to search out bathrooms or snacks/water. Meals were ready when we got to the restaurants, we were pre-checked in at the hotels. No need to consult maps or guidebooks either. It may not seem like much, but had we needed to take care of those little things throughout each day, we would have needed to spend more time in each location to cover the same territory.

My advice is to think about how much time you have to spend. If you need to do as much as possible in a week, then the ABD tour is the way to go. If your schedule is more flexible, you can certainly plan a London to Paris trip yourselves, and have a fantastic trip and probably save a considerable amount of money. Do you like to do research and plan?

If you do decide to book with ABD, you might want to seriously consider flying in a couple of days early. Jet lagged kids and parents is not conducive to happy touring.

Good Luck!

 

[dingoballs]

We were also told that we would be booked as a triple and a double since we are 5 people. Our children are all under 11 so sharing beds is not a problem. THey said that they would make every effort for the rooms to be connecting so that we would not be too far from each other.

We are still really on the fence with the pricing. On one hand we are dying to give ABD a try and on the other hand it just seems like a ton of money plus the airfare, additional meals etc.

Are the tours really worth the $$$?

I believe they are worth the $$$. As CaliforniaLady said, being on an ABD tour is very worthwhile if you are not familiar with the area/country and have a limited amount of time to visit. I would add that an ABD tour is worth the extra money just for the fact that you have 2 ABD guides who take care of EVERYTHING for you and all you have to do is enjoy the sights and take alot of photos! And don't forget all the special little Disney touches & surprises that you won't get on any other tour or if you decide to do it yourself.

 

[tammydel]

What happens if you are a family of 5 now? Is it 2 doubles + a single? That seems ridiculous! One person has to be in a room by themself? Plus last year kids were 14 and under and now they are 12 and under. Makes a difference to a large family.

I was looking forward to booking, but now I don't know. Families of 5 are always a problem.

I think in this case you would have two rooms one with two people and one with three. You would all pay the same rate. This of course is depending on your trip and if all hotels can accomodate 3 in a room. On the ABD website at the bottom of the pricing page they have some room/bedding info.