12-Night Magic of the Baltics ABD Cruise Add-on – No Regrets, But Not Likely to Book Another Add-on

[Calfan]

FWIW we just returned from a Nat. Geo. trip that went to Yellowstone/Grand Tetons and it was really good. It was a family trip and we went in three vans which was comfortable and plenty of room.

Great to hear. CaliforniaGirl09 and I are doing their England Coast to Coast hiking/walking trip in Sept., and I am super excited about it. I'm hoping that I love the format so I can start doing some with my family. I'm also looking at some of their family trips.

 

[Bobo912]

Great to hear. CaliforniaGirl09 and I are doing their England Coast to Coast hiking/walking trip in Sept., and I am super excited about it. I'm hoping that I love the format so I can start doing some with my family. I'm also looking at some of their family trips.

I did the Lindblad/Nat Geo Galapagos trip. There are not enough superlatives to describe it. It was the best trip we've taken.

 

[carpenta]

I did the Lindblad/Nat Geo Galapagos trip. There are not enough superlatives to describe it. It was the best trip we've taken.

....Backroads is the company that did the trip we did in Yellowstone. Much better schedule than any other provider. We stayed most of the days in the park hotels and had a Nat Geo expert as well as three other guides for 27 people. I agree with you Bobo "not enough superlatives to describe it". Also on our Tauck river boat trip we had the same passenger/guide ratio and never was crowded on any excursion.

 

[AquamarineSteph]

FWIW we just returned from a Nat. Geo. trip that went to Yellowstone/Grand Tetons and it was really good. It was a family trip and we went in three vans which was comfortable and plenty of room.

I didn't realize National Geographic had a Yellowstone/Grand Tetons trip. They keep sending material for their big trips, and I haven't looked to see what else was available through them. Was it a camping style trip? Did you stay in hotels/cabins? Or what?

 

[carpenta]

I didn't realize National Geographic had a Yellowstone/Grand Tetons trip. They keep sending material for their big trips, and I haven't looked to see what else was available through them. Was it a camping style trip? Did you stay in hotels/cabins? Or what?

They have similar trips as ABD. We stayed in hotels. 1st night Bozeman Mt. 2nd 3rd night in Monmouth Springs Hotel, Yellowstone National Park, 4th,5th night in Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park, 6th,7th night in Jackson Hole Mt.(Grand Teton area). This gave us the most time in the Nat. parks compared to others who only spent a couple days in the parks and had a number of nights on a "dude" ranch. The hotels were as close as you can get to the big areas of the national park.

 

[BluesTraveler]

Tauck Bridges does have some trips that are "small groups" with maximum of 24. I saw a couple when I was poking around their website.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Great to hear. CaliforniaGirl09 and I are doing their England Coast to Coast hiking/walking trip in Sept., and I am super excited about it. I'm hoping that I love the format so I can start doing some with my family. I'm also looking at some of their family trips.

That is great to hear! I've been really impressed with the personal service at Nat Geo and love how they guarantee the trips once a certain threshold is hit (in our case 8). I can't wait for our trip, and I'm really hoping for a great experience as they have *many* more trips that look awesome.

Tauck Bridges does have some trips that are "small groups" with maximum of 24. I saw a couple when I was poking around their website.

Great to know! Thanks so much for mentioning this. 24 is a great number.

 

[aggiedog]

ABD replied to my questions yesterday. DeeDee is the vacationista that I spoke with.

My name is Dee Dee and I am a Vacationista. I am committed to making your Adventures by Disney pre-adventure experience an enjoyable one!

My trip manager responded with the following explanation of planning the daily excursions:

·The Danube River Cruise Adventure will have up to eight (8) Adventure Guides and 1 AMA Cruise Manager with a maximum of 160 Guests on each sailing

·Guests will choose shore excursion options onboard, with enough spots for all Guests on each excursion

·For some excursions, Guests will be divided into groups of approximately 40 people, which will be hosted by 2 Adventure Guides.

·For excursions that can accommodate all 160 Guests (e.g., Aldersbacher Brewery & Pub, Lazar Equestrian Park, Devin Castle, etc.), Guests may be in stagger groups to ensure everyone does not show up at the same time.

I hope this information has been helpful.

I'm not sure it is completely helpful. That is not much more than is on their website. "Approximately 40 people" could mean quite a bit. No mention of max numbers.

Perhaps I am over-worrying about this?

 

[kristilew]

....Backroads is the company that did the trip we did in Yellowstone. Much better schedule than any other provider. We stayed most of the days in the park hotels and had a Nat Geo expert as well as three other guides for 27 people. I agree with you Bobo "not enough superlatives to describe it". Also on our Tauck river boat trip we had the same passenger/guide ratio and never was crowded on any excursion.

So glad to hear this about Tauck! We just booked their family Danube river cruise for next summer. (They allowed us to book a separate cabin for our then-18-year-old without charging a single supplement. Much better than the ABD situation!) Carpenta, did you do a report on this anywhere?

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

ABD replied to my questions yesterday. DeeDee is the vacationista that I spoke with.

·For some excursions, Guests will be divided into groups of approximately 40 people, which will be hosted by 2 Adventure Guides.

·For excursions that can accommodate all 160 Guests (e.g., Aldersbacher Brewery & Pub, Lazar Equestrian Park, Devin Castle, etc.), Guests may be in stagger groups to ensure everyone does not show up at the same time.

I hope this information has been helpful.

I'm not sure it is completely helpful. That is not much more than is on their website. "Approximately 40 people" could mean quite a bit. No mention of max numbers.

Perhaps I am over-worrying about this?

I still haven't heard back from them, although I suspect I will get the exact same reply. I am right there with you in the worrying category so I'm the wrong person to ask I was going to say what you did: not much more than on the website and still doesn't explain much of the logistics. The only new "info" is in the two above, but it's not detailed enough to make a judgment. My suspicion is that they don't know themselves and don't want to box themselves into anything (i.e. the "approximately 40 people"). It still seems like they are assuming that groups will naturally form into even numbers for the excursions, which doesn't seem very realistic. Groups "may be staggered" also worries me--does that mean we are sitting around waiting until its our turn? (I'm having visions of sitting in the Walt Disney theater with my big Port Adventure impatiently waiting to go, LOL).

I think my problem right now is that I just don't have a lot of trust in Disney right now. Before the add-on experience in the Baltics, I would have probably just gone with it and assumed it would all turn out. I'm not sure I'm willing to spend thousands on another vacation that ends up being a big port adventure with lots of waiting time in between activities because of group size. I suspect I'm going to have to make my decision on whether to switch to another trip based on my speculation rather than actual info form Disney. Thanks for posting!

 

[aggiedog]

I agree with you. I'm guessing they don't have the exact details worked out, or are assuming things will naturally even out. That doesn't seem up the usual level of Disney planning, though, so who knows? I did send a reply back asking what the maximum number of guests per group would be, when they were broken down into smaller groups. We'll see if I get a number or a generality.

 

[AquamarineSteph]

They have similar trips as ABD. We stayed in hotels. 1st night Bozeman Mt. 2nd 3rd night in Monmouth Springs Hotel, Yellowstone National Park, 4th,5th night in Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park, 6th,7th night in Jackson Hole Mt.(Grand Teton area). This gave us the most time in the Nat. parks compared to others who only spent a couple days in the parks and had a number of nights on a "dude" ranch. The hotels were as close as you can get to the big areas of the national park.

Thanks for the info! I've seen their material for their other trips, but somehow it completely escaped me that they had anything available here in the States.

 

[carpenta]

So glad to hear this about Tauck! We just booked their family Danube river cruise for next summer. (They allowed us to book a separate cabin for our then-18-year-old without charging a single supplement. Much better than the ABD situation!) Carpenta, did you do a report on this anywhere?

I did not do a report but if you have any questions I will be happy to answer. The ship is beautiful and the crew was wonderful. Food was excellent. We are traveling with Tauck Bridges on their Rhine river cruise next year. We have traveled with Tauck Bridges and have nothing but glowing things to say. If you are able to arrive a day or two in Budapest for it is a lovely city, easy to navigate on your own.

...and it is "approximately" that they got in trouble for overbooking on the add-on in the first place. I don't know why they can't be more definite than that?

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I agree with you. I'm guessing they don't have the exact details worked out, or are assuming things will naturally even out. That doesn't seem up the usual level of Disney planning, though, so who knows? I did send a reply back asking what the maximum number of guests per group would be, when they were broken down into smaller groups. We'll see if I get a number or a generality.

Definitely keep me posted. I want to decide soon to start locking down my airline plans.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

ABD replied to my questions yesterday. DeeDee is the vacationista that I spoke with.

My name is Dee Dee and I am a Vacationista. I am committed to making your Adventures by Disney pre-adventure experience an enjoyable one!

My trip manager responded with the following explanation of planning the daily excursions:

·The Danube River Cruise Adventure will have up to eight (8) Adventure Guides and 1 AMA Cruise Manager with a maximum of 160 Guests on each sailing

·Guests will choose shore excursion options onboard, with enough spots for all Guests on each excursion

·For some excursions, Guests will be divided into groups of approximately 40 people, which will be hosted by 2 Adventure Guides.

·For excursions that can accommodate all 160 Guests (e.g., Aldersbacher Brewery & Pub, Lazar Equestrian Park, Devin Castle, etc.), Guests may be in stagger groups to ensure everyone does not show up at the same time.

I hope this information has been helpful.

I'm not sure it is completely helpful. That is not much more than is on their website. "Approximately 40 people" could mean quite a bit. No mention of max numbers.

Perhaps I am over-worrying about this?

I just heard back from ABD as well about the River Cruise specifics--or rather lack thereof, LOL. The vacationista--as usual--was great. But all they told her was essentially what he'd heard before, and she confirmed that they would be using motor coaches with the number of ABDers "TBD." Not exactly what I wanted to hear. As I mentioned in my earlier reply to aggiedog, I think I'm going to have to make my decision based on guesses about how things will work out. UGH. She did give me some info on the other two adventures I was looking at (Greece and China), so now it's decision time.

 

[Bobo912]

So glad to hear this about Tauck! We just booked their family Danube river cruise for next summer. (They allowed us to book a separate cabin for our then-18-year-old without charging a single supplement. Much better than the ABD situation!) Carpenta, did you do a report on this anywhere?

That's great, kristilew. We loved the TB Danube cruise and it sold us on riverboat cruising. I almost booked another cruise with Tauck for next year, but finally decided to give Uniworld a try. I hope your guides and cruise director are as good as the ones we had. They came up with some great extra activities for the kids (and some that included the adults, as well) that aren't listed in the itinerary. The itinerary is the same as when we took the trip, except they've replaced the white water rafting, with a knight tournament and medieval games. I know they got a lot of negative feedback on the rafting and they dropped it the next year, so the change is good thing. It was on a short man-made training course and involved a lot of lugging the heavy raft back to the start of the run. Everything else about the trip was fantastic. Before the trip, I wasn't particularly excited about the dinner at the palace in Vienna, but it turned out to be a highlight of the trip. I hope you enjoy the cruise as much as we did.

 

[Calfan]

That's great, kristilew. We loved the TB Danube cruise and it sold us on riverboat cruising. I almost booked another cruise with Tauck for next year, but finally decided to give Uniworld a try. I hope your guides and cruise director are as good as the ones we had. They came up with some great extra activities for the kids (and some that included the adults, as well) that aren't listed in the itinerary. The itinerary is the same as when we took the trip, except they've replaced the white water rafting, with a knight tournament and medieval games. I know they got a lot of negative feedback on the rafting and they dropped it the next year, so the change is good thing. It was on a short man-made training course and involved a lot of lugging the heavy raft back to the start of the run. Everything else about the trip was fantastic. Before the trip, I wasn't particularly excited about the dinner at the palace in Vienna, but it turned out to be a highlight of the trip. I hope you enjoy the cruise as much as we did.

Would love to hear what you think of Uniworld after you go. We're thinking about one of their European holiday markets river cruises in 2017.

 

[Bobo912]

Would love to hear what you think of Uniworld after you go. We're thinking about one of their European holiday markets river cruises in 2017.

I'll let you know how it goes. It will be a while though. We're booked for July 2016.

 

[kristilew]

I did not do a report but if you have any questions I will be happy to answer. The ship is beautiful and the crew was wonderful. Food was excellent. We are traveling with Tauck Bridges on their Rhine river cruise next year. We have traveled with Tauck Bridges and have nothing but glowing things to say. If you are able to arrive a day or two in Budapest for it is a lovely city, easy to navigate on your own.

That's great, kristilew. We loved the TB Danube cruise and it sold us on riverboat cruising. I almost booked another cruise with Tauck for next year, but finally decided to give Uniworld a try. I hope your guides and cruise director are as good as the ones we had. They came up with some great extra activities for the kids (and some that included the adults, as well) that aren't listed in the itinerary. The itinerary is the same as when we took the trip, except they've replaced the white water rafting, with a knight tournament and medieval games. I know they got a lot of negative feedback on the rafting and they dropped it the next year, so the change is good thing. It was on a short man-made training course and involved a lot of lugging the heavy raft back to the start of the run. Everything else about the trip was fantastic. Before the trip, I wasn't particularly excited about the dinner at the palace in Vienna, but it turned out to be a highlight of the trip. I hope you enjoy the cruise as much as we did.

Thank you both! You have me giddy feeling that we made the right choice!


OP, sorry to go off on a tangent on your thread. I appreciate the details you shared. It seems to confirm some of the trend we have been seeing toward ABD squeezing their (our) pennies. I wonder if Dusty gave you any indication that he also felt the group was too large? He was our guide in Italy, and was sympathetic in a veiled way toward our triple room issues. (Dusty would never outright say anything Mouse-negative!) He suggested wording for my feedback to ABD, indicating that the only thing that gets their attention is letting them know we have researched other companies and found something better on offer.

 

[Calfan]

Thank you both! You have me giddy feeling that we made the right choice!


OP, sorry to go off on a tangent on your thread. I appreciate the details you shared. It seems to confirm some of the trend we have been seeing toward ABD squeezing their (our) pennies. I wonder if Dusty gave you any indication that he also felt the group was too large? He was our guide in Italy, and was sympathetic in a veiled way toward our triple room issues. (Dusty would never outright say anything Mouse-negative!) He suggested wording for my feedback to ABD, indicating that the only thing that gets their attention is letting them know we have researched other companies and found something better on offer.

The only indication we got that either James or Dusty thought the group size was too large was perhaps their attempts to sell the add-on as being more fabulous than it was. But, honestly, we really didn't get enough chance to spend one on one time with either guide to pick up on any nuances, etc. Maybe their touting of the trip was just natural enthusiasm and guide behavior.