23 Days on the Magic, including 12 Night Baltic ABD add-on/UPDATED Complete with pics!

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Californiagirl, I concur 100%. My husband did the math for me (I can't do math!). Our ABD for a 7 day cruise, of which there were 4 actual days that we had "adventures" was $2100 and change per person. The literature we got/read promised no more than 40 people per tour. So, adding another 5 people translates to the tidy sum of $10,000 in ABD's coffers for ONE trip. On your add-on, 9 additional people x $3349 = $30,141 for essentially zero additional overhead.
That's a LOT of money.
I don't mind paying for a premium product. But, this was not it.
There are plenty of folks out there who insist that "Disney can do no wrong!" I'd like to see how those people feel getting stuck in a 30 minute bathroom line at the Hermitage or losing 40 minutes of a 5 hour port day at a photo stop. That is a lot of time when you have limited hours in port.
Geez, why not just add another ABD on the cruise and make both experiences exclusive and wonderful?
I think this being the first batch of Baltic add-ons might have something to do with it. You can bet that if we do another ABD, I'll make sure we are in the sophomore group, at least.

I totally agree (and I can't do math either, LOL). That is pretty stunning on the pure profit, but I think it is so short-sighted on their part. It make work for them in the short run, but I don't think it will in the long run. Even people who can afford premium products want to feel as if they are getting good value for their money. ABD is different from other Disney products--unlike the cruises and parks, I don't think they can afford to lose loyal customers. These trips aren't going out full, it's not like there are thousands of people ready to take our places.

I could not imagine the add on with 49 people PLUS the guides....I did the second 7 night Baltic add on (June 13 sailing)....we had 42 people plus our 2 guides. It should have been 44 people but 2 people were unable to leave the US due to passport issues (not valid for 6 months). I think our group was a good size (my two previous ABD's were land based and smaller (26 & 22). Our group had a mix of adults and kids. I never really noticed the size of our group except at meals. Never really saw an issue with bathroom breaks but I think because ours were usually at meal times, people were able to space out the times so it wasn't a long wait...I think the only time it was an issue was when we went to the restaurant in St. Petersburg after Peterhoff Palace and the Hydrafoil (sp?) boat ride...but when I saw 2 stalls and a long line I just waited until partway through our meal (I always carry Purell to clean my hands before eating) and there were only 2 people in line...I think Dusty and James did a great job with our group and I'm sorry that you had such a large group that it impacted your experience. I would definitely let ABD know your concerns.

Thanks so much! So glad that you had a better experience and weren't as impacted by the large group. It was certainly NOT what I signed up for. Believe me, they will definitely be hearing from me. I also received a survey, LOL. Boy did they mail it to the wrong person

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Wow, I can't imagine spending all that money and not having your passports in order!

I know! I wonder what happened? Maybe they didn't know they needed to have 6 months on it. If you don't travel overseas often, I can see how this could be missed.

 

[Calfan]

Hi, all. I am a little late to chime in, but my family traveled with CaliforniaGirl09 on the recent Norway/Iceland/Scotland and Baltics B2B, and we were also on the ABD add-on for the Baltics cruise. I just posted a thread that gives my overall thoughts on the add-on, and I thought I would link it here if anyone is interested:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/12...ut-not-likely-to-book-another-add-on.3433633/

 

[aggiedog]

I posted this on the other add-on review, but figured I'd cover more ground. We are booked for the ABD river cruise next summer and my concern is with 160 passengers, any given excursion could be very full, since the sell is that you don't sign up until the day before and any excursion is an option. There is no max number per excursion. I called ABD today to ask what their plans were to accommodate this, referencing the add-on reviews posted here, with the 49 member group size. The vacationista replied that was impossible, as the groups are always under 44. Then said those extra people surely were just the guides. I politely referred her here, saying that more than one person had experienced it.

She volunteered to send a message up the chain and said they would get back with me regarding my concerns. We'll see what happens.

What really concerns me is the best days we had on our Northern Europe cruise were the days we did private tours, just the 8 of us. I really did not enjoy our DCL Stockholm tour. It was crowded and very rushed. If the river cruise is going to let 45+ (up to 160?) do the same excursion, as they say will be possible, I wonder how they will manage the logistics?

For those of you who have done 40 person ABD groups, was it "worth it?" I know that they are always advertised as a max of 44, but so many seem to be much smaller when the trip actually happens.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

What really concerns me is the best days we had on our Northern Europe cruise were the days we did private tours, just the 8 of us. I really did not enjoy our DCL Stockholm tour. It was crowded and very rushed. If the river cruise is going to let 45+ (up to 160?) do the same excursion, as they say will be possible, I wonder how they will manage the logistics?

For those of you who have done 40 person ABD groups, was it "worth it?" I know that they are always advertised as a max of 44, but so many seem to be much smaller when the trip actually happens.

As I mentioned on the other thread, I'm very concerned, too--I just don't see how they can accommodate all 160 of us in certain places, etc. You know my experience with 49, LOL. I noticed a difference between the 37 or so that we had on our Scotland and at the 41 or so on BSM. I would hesitate to do another one if I knew it was over 40. I really wish they'd aim for 25-35, which was part of my suggestion. I want to say in the early days when I did Ireland in 2006 or 7 (can't remember), the trips were limited to 35. Might be wrong on that, but that's my recollection.

 

[Bobo912]

I posted this on the other add-on review, but figured I'd cover more ground. We are booked for the ABD river cruise next summer and my concern is with 160 passengers, any given excursion could be very full, since the sell is that you don't sign up until the day before and any excursion is an option. There is no max number per excursion. I called ABD today to ask what their plans were to accommodate this, referencing the add-on reviews posted here, with the 49 member group size. The vacationista replied that was impossible, as the groups are always under 44. Then said those extra people surely were just the guides. I politely referred her here, saying that more than one person had experienced it.

She volunteered to send a message up the chain and said they would get back with me regarding my concerns. We'll see what happens.

What really concerns me is the best days we had on our Northern Europe cruise were the days we did private tours, just the 8 of us. I really did not enjoy our DCL Stockholm tour. It was crowded and very rushed. If the river cruise is going to let 45+ (up to 160?) do the same excursion, as they say will be possible, I wonder how they will manage the logistics?

For those of you who have done 40 person ABD groups, was it "worth it?" I know that they are always advertised as a max of 44, but so many seem to be much smaller when the trip actually happens.

I know there are a lot of people who have had larger groups with no issues and maybe it is somewhat dependent on the destination. My experience is that having more than 40 people has a negative impact on the trip. I don't want to pay the high price for an ABD and then spend my time standing around waiting for everyone to use the restroom or be crammed together at the dinner table like sardines in a can. The ABDs I've taken with 30 or less were much better than the ones with 40 or more.

I don't know how ABD is handling the excursion on the riverboat cruise, but on our Tauck Bridges trip it was never an issue. The ship we were on had a max of 118 guests and it was at capacity for our cruise. We always had 4 groups for each excursion and there were never more than 30 people in a group and sometimes fewer. Having no max, doesn't sound like a good plan to me.

 

[Ralphlaw]

We had 44 people on our Baltic cruise that started on July 22nd, but it wasn't a problem. Luckily we did not have that irritating person or family that annoys everyone else. We also weren't constantly waiting outside bathrooms, which is equally annoying at times. For us anyway the large size was not an issue, and we didn't get stuck with 2 hour lunches because James and Dusty seemed to do a good job at keeping the restaurants moving. European meals can be agonizingly slow for an American (once you're done, why can't they bring the check right away?)

The restaurants, guides and drivers I think know full well that one bad word from the ABD guides is all it takes to damage your career. I like that. We got the best of the best. With our ABD, it kept moving. Overall we were very happy. Dusty and James made it great. No complaints.