ABD Cost Effective

[familygoboston]

FamilyGo, since you are giving such great advice, and everyone else who would like to pitch in.....

We are DVC members and have soe points accumulated and probably not going to a resort next year. We are 2 adults, no kids and considering either a cruise or ABD trip next year.

Where would be a good starting point to consider?

Thinking about one of the So. America trips...

What do folks recommend?

I cant help with points, other than what my pals ave told us about the " point cost" of the ABD trips being higher than the actual price difference between the WDW stay and ABD if you paid cash. But if you have points going unused at WDW, then it really doesn't matter!

We've done Costa Rica and have Ecuador/Galapagos coming up.

We loved CR...they have a newer one now which includes the turtles...we'd do that one of the two. One thing about CR is that for an ABD, it's usually one of the more affordable ones. Sometimes they ave specials. I agree that 25-50% premium is about right...part of that is the brand, part s the extras, and art is they get the demand because of the points people have to use so they aren't "paying" in cash anyway!

For other SA trips; many of the other tour companies offer Galapagos and Machu pichu in one trip; I dont think ABD does, so if it's going to be a once in a lifetime deal and you want both, you may want to look at one of the combo trips.

Happy planning!

 

[Ginamarie]

For Costa Rica, I've found the ABD trips to be a good value when compared with some of the other operators. I looked into it specifically, since DH and I would like to return to Costa Rica, but we've decided to wait until our kids get older. I definitely recommend using a tour group for Costa Rica if you want to see the sites. The roads are not good- once you get outside of the main cities, it's basically a dirt road in many places, and with the afternoon rain, they do flood.

As some of the other posts mentioned, Tauk is another good option, and they do offer tours in Costa Rica with more availability than you will find for ABD. However, it's not a HUGE savings (say $3000-$3100 for ABD and $2700 for Tauk).