Age 12 is an adult

[Grifdog22]

Okay, maybe I've been under a rock.

My son is 21 and in our last two ABD trips I had no blinks at paying the adult rate - he turned 18 on our Costa Rica trip and was 19 in Peru. My twins are 10 now, but will be 12 in December of 2011 when we were looking at our next trip...and cost the adult rate.

Is this relatively new, or has ABD always charged 12 year olds as adults? Am I out of line thinking this is a bit much?

Always appreciate the good feedback from this board. Hope all is well with all of you.

-Grifdog

 

[kristilew]

Okay, maybe I've been under a rock.

My son is 21 and in our last two ABD trips I had no blinks at paying the adult rate - he turned 18 on our Costa Rica trip and was 19 in Peru. My twins are 10 now, but will be 12 in December of 2011 when we were looking at our next trip...and cost the adult rate.

Is this relatively new, or has ABD always charged 12 year olds as adults? Am I out of line thinking this is a bit much?

Always appreciate the good feedback from this board. Hope all is well with all of you.

-Grifdog

Not new. But typical ABD stick-it-to-you. Every other high end tour company we've looked at recently has discounted rates through age 18. It's one of the reasons we did not book an ABD for this year, when DD is 12. It's also one of the reasons we are so on the fence for booking Egypt for next year, even though we really want to go. The other contender for our family is Classic Journey's Morrocco trip, which gives a hefty discount for teenagers. (If CJ was doing an Egypt trip, there'd be no contest, even though I do love ABD trips.)

I guess ABD figures we'll happily pay more for their products, and I can't say they're completely wrong. But it is frustrating.

 

[Bobo912]

Well, this is the same company that charges adult admission to their theme parks for 10 year olds, so I guess it's not surprising. But personally, I think it's crazy. They fall behind in some other areas too, like their cancellation policy. I haven't found one other company that even comes close to having such a restrictive policy. I think there are some people (maybe including myself) who will pay, but they haven't really been able to expand the number of trips they offer, so if they're trying to grow that doesn't seem to be working for them. The one year that they offered a lot of dates for each trip, they ended up with the cancellation debacle.

 

[Turtlemom]

Unfortunately, the 12 yr. old "adult" phenomenon has been around for awhile. We got hit with that with our DD13, this year and last. She still enjoyed hanging out with her little sister, DD10, and the junior adventurers though, and the Guides let her float into whichever group she wanted to be in.

 

[Sharkbyte]

I too think that charging an adult price at age 12 is ridiculous! MAYBE 16 although think when traveling it should be 18. ABD makes that much more money every year. They also might do this for age 12 because of the other affiliated excursions that we all go on..they might have an over 12 policy and charge more, hence Disney needs to charge more.

 

[tippytoes89]

Sad but, true, maybe the average body size is a factor as well? I'm a younger parent, I've seen it a lot growing up, so it's sort of a 'norm' for me.

 

[daraddg]

I was pretty shocked when planning next years tripto wdw that my daughter is now "adult" at 10 yrs old!She is no where near an adult size,she isnt even an avg 10 yr olds size!

 

[abbyjt]

ABD's adult policy has changed over the few years they have been around. On our second ABD 14 was an adult, and we paid for 3 kids. By our 4th adventure in 2009, 12 was an adult. We will be paying for 5 adults when we go to Egypt next summer, our youngest turned 12 recently.
If your kids are not too young, get two rooms. The quad price is about $100 per person less than booking 2 rooms. You have to put an actual adult (18 or over) in each room on the reservation, but we just put kids in one room and parents in the other. I find the extra space and not seeing the way the kids just throw all their stuff in their suitcase worth the money (we actually don't have a choice with 5 people, 2 rooms is it).

 

[pacrosby]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I honestly believe that Disney knows exactly what they are doing and it has little to do with the desire to rob people. They are certainly well aware that a fair number of people are not truthful about their child's age. Therefore, by setting the number on the lower side they end up maximiizing their profits. I think they are a lot smarter than many people give thems credit for

 

[Bobo912]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I honestly believe that Disney knows exactly what they are doing and it has little to do with the desire to rob people. They are certainly well aware that a fair number of people are not truthful about their child's age. Therefore, by setting the number on the lower side they end up maximiizing their profits. I think they are a lot smarter than many people give thems credit for

I agree with you that Disney, like any business, is trying to maximize their profits. They don't appear to be making any attempt to grow this segment of their business though. I suppose if it were to their advantage to fill every trip to capacity they would offer big discounts for children as they do on DCL occasionally. They charge what the market will support, just like at WDW or Universal where a 10-year-old child is considered an adult. I dont think they are attempting to appeal to a clientele who would lie about their children's ages to get a discount and I seriously doubt if that is a consideration. Even if it were, many of the trips are outside the country and ABD requires that we supply our passport ids. They have enough information on us to verify our ages if they want to. I may be naive, but I can't imagine anyone on any of these trips being the kind of person who would lie about their children's ages.

 

[sayhello]

I agree with you that Disney, like any business, is trying to maximize their profits. They don't appear to be making any attempt to grow this segment of their business though. I suppose if it were to their advantage to fill every trip to capacity they would offer big discounts for children as they do on DCL occasionally. They charge what the market will support, just like at WDW or Universal where a 10-year-old child is considered an adult. I dont think they are attempting to appeal to a clientele who would lie about their children's ages to get a discount and I seriously doubt if that is a consideration. Even if it were, many of the trips are outside the country and ABD requires that we supply our passport ids. They have enough information on us to verify our ages if they want to. I may be naive, but I can't imagine anyone on any of these trips being the kind of person who would lie about their children's ages.

I tend to agree with you. Partially because of the type of people taking these trips, but also because it doesn't have the relatively anonymous nature of, say, buying tickets at Disneyworld, and saying your kid is 11. When you are buying those tickets, no-one knows who you are (unless you use a credit card) and you don't have to tell them which kid is going to use the ticket. It could be for anyone, including a neighbor's kid. Whereas, when you sign up for an ABD, you give them the names & ages of exactly who is traveling. Even if it's domestic, and no passport is needed, I don't think folks are going to lie about something so specific as that.

I tend to think, also, it's more of a "what the market will bear" situation. What is the "adult" age cutoff for Tauck & Linblad?

Sayhello

 

[Bobo912]

I tend to agree with you. Partially because of the type of people taking these trips, but also because it doesn't have the relatively anonymous nature of, say, buying tickets at Disneyworld, and saying your kid is 11. When you are buying those tickets, no-one knows who you are (unless you use a credit card) and you don't have to tell them which kid is going to use the ticket. It could be for anyone, including a neighbor's kid. Whereas, when you sign up for an ABD, you give them the names & ages of exactly who is traveling. Even if it's domestic, and no passport is needed, I don't think folks are going to lie about something so specific as that.

I tend to think, also, it's more of a "what the market will bear" situation. What is the "adult" age cutoff for Tauck & Linblad?

Sayhello

Tauck and Thomson are both 12. Lindblad is 18.

 

[sayhello]

Tauck and Thomson are both 12. Lindblad is 18.

So it's not like ABD is being unreasonable if 2 other comparable companies are doing the same...

Sayhello

 

[pacrosby]

You are right.....I wasn't taking into consideration that ABD vacations are typically out of the country and require a passport. My error.

But for the record I wasn't trying to insinuate that they would be trying to 'appeal' to a clientele that would be untruthful about their child's age.................just that they are aware of it and likely even consider it when setting their guidelines. Imagine for example that they placed their age limit for an adult ticket at 12 instead of 10. It is then quite likely that a fair number of people would be passing off their 12 and 13 year olds as 11. I'd say Disney is just being realistic.

I actually do think that it's nice of you (however yes, perhaps a wee bit naive) to think that it takes a certain "kind of person" to consider fudging their child's age. When it comes to saving some serious cash, even an otherwise honest and upstanding individual will often cave

 

[Bobo912]

You are right.....I wasn't taking into consideration that ABD vacations are typically out of the country and require a passport. My error.

But for the record I wasn't trying to insinuate that they would be trying to 'appeal' to a clientele that would be untruthful about their child's age.................just that they are aware of it and likely even consider it when setting their guidelines. Imagine for example that they placed their age limit for an adult ticket at 12 instead of 10. It is then quite likely that a fair number of people would be passing off their 12 and 13 year olds as 11. I'd say Disney is just being realistic.

I actually do think that it's nice of you (however yes, perhaps a wee bit naive) to think that it takes a certain "kind of person" to consider fudging their child's age. When it comes to saving some serious cash, even an otherwise honest and upstanding individual will often cave

A person would have to be brazenly dishonest to lie to ABD about their children's ages just to save a couple of hundred dollars. Besides passport id, ABD asks for birthdate, city/state/country of birth, and even height, for each guest. You travel with a group of people, including 2 Disney employees, for a week or more and get to know them fairly well. Your children would need to be trained to lie, as well, since it's almost certain that several of your friendly fellow travelers will ask them how old they are. I certainly hope there aren't people out setting that kind of example for their children.

 

[pacrosby]

A person would have to be brazenly dishonest to lie to ABD about their children's ages just to save a couple of hundred dollars. Besides passport id, ABD asks for birthdate, city/state/country of birth, and even height, for each guest. You travel with a group of people, including 2 Disney employees, for a week or more and get to know them fairly well. Your children would need to be trained to lie, as well, since it's almost certain that several of your friendly fellow travelers will ask them how old they are. I certainly hope there aren't people out setting that kind of example for their children.

Perhaps you missed my first sentence

Yes, I said I was in error. The rest of my post was not about ABD. No need to turn this into something more than it was intended to be so I'll say no more