B2B ABD trips

[ITGirl50]

We are planning our big retirement trip (we will still be in our 50s) in 2024 and are seriously considering a B2B with ABD if the timelines work. We see in 2023 the British Isles and AMA Rhine River Cruise are perfectly scheduled.

Anyone do this before? Will the guides or ABD help you transition between the two trips? This will be a long trip (19 days plus), so packing for that much time will be hard. I will need to do laundry. I know it’s early, but I want to book them when they are released, so I wanted the advice from experienced ABD travelers.

 

[TravelJunkieHubby]

Back in 2019 - I met a family who had done the Italy and Amalfi coast ABDs back to back in 2018. Since it was the same country it was probably a bit easier. Sorry I don’t recall any other details.

 

[AquaDame]

I was also considering this, but I'd need to get from Sicily to Oslo for departure the next day so ultimately decided against it.

What sort of support are you looking for..? In my case the transfers to and from airports would really have been all I'd need. I wouldn't expect them to send a guide and porter along with me through the airports like they do during the trips themselves.

 

[sayhello]

I've never done back-to-backs, but I can tell you that you can have your laundry done on the AMAWaterways ships that ABD uses for their River cruises. It's really pretty reasonable, and they do an excellent job, and the turnaround was great. Probably if you give them a bunch right at the start of the cruise, not a lot of people will have a whole lot of laundry yet.

I'm sure they will get you to the airport at the end of your first ABD, and I'm sure they will pick you up at the airport at the start of the next ABD, but, like @AquaDame, I'm not sure what other kind of support you are looking for. If you book all your airfare through ABD, I imagine they will likely help you book the flight in between, also. But I doubt they'd book it if you're not doing all of your airfare through them.

When you say they are perfectly scheduled, do you mean that one ends and the other one begins the same day? Because, personally, I would really advise you against that. The chances of flight problems and delays even within Europe is large, and if the cruise leaves without you, you'll have to catch up with them. And that is usually at your own expense. If it was me, I'd be sure and have at least one day between the two. It's not like a back-to-back cruise where they are arriving and leaving from the same dock. You'd have to get from London Heathrow to Basel, Switzerland (and go through customs, as the UK is not part of the EU any more) and the FAQ for the Rhine River cruise says you are to arrive by 2pm. That's going to be a hard time to hit.


Sayhello

 

[ITGirl50]

I've never done back-to-backs, but I can tell you that you can have your laundry done on the AMAWaterways ships that ABD uses for their River cruises. It's really pretty reasonable, and they do an excellent job, and the turnaround was great. Probably if you give them a bunch right at the start of the cruise, not a lot of people will have a whole lot of laundry yet.

I'm sure they will get you to the airport at the end of your first ABD, and I'm sure they will pick you up at the airport at the start of the next ABD, but, like @AquaDame, I'm not sure what other kind of support you are looking for. If you book all your airfare through ABD, I imagine they will likely help you book the flight in between, also. But I doubt they'd book it if you're not doing all of your airfare through them.

When you say they are perfectly scheduled, do you mean that one ends and the other one begins the same day? Because, personally, I would really advise you against that. The chances of flight problems and delays even within Europe is large, and if the cruise leaves without you, you'll have to catch up with them. And that is usually at your own expense. If it was me, I'd be sure and have at least one day between the two. It's not like a back-to-back cruise where they are arriving and leaving from the same dock. You'd have to get from London Heathrow to Basel, Switzerland (and go through customs, as the UK is not part of the EU any more) and the FAQ for the Rhine River cruise says you are to arrive by 2pm. That's going to be a hard time to hit.


Sayhello

Yes one ends one day, then we would have to fly for the next day. I agree it may be too close together. The cost of two ABD trips would also be close to $38K for two people. Which doesn’t include airfare or other things, so if we extend our stay we may just do a river cruise without ABD. We are more interested in the new ABD new British Isle tour. We are trying to figure out our great retirement trip.

 

[sayhello]

Yes one ends one day, then we would have to fly for the next day. I agree it may be too close together. The cost of two ABD trips would also be close to $38K for two people. Which doesn’t include airfare or other things, so if we extend our stay we may just do a river cruise without ABD. We are more interested in the new ABD new British Isle cruise. We are trying to figure out our great retirement trip.

You *can* sail directly with AMAWaterways, of course. You won't get the ABD excursions, but I know people who have sailed directly with them, and really enjoyed it (some are on this Forum). Their ships and their crews are wonderful!

I'm doing the same sort of thing next year in Portugal. I am doing the ABD Portugal trip, doing a post-day in Algarve that I booked through ABD, then taking the train back up to Porto and embarking on a Douro River cruise with Riviera River cruises. I have 3 days in between, so I'm pretty good with that. Riviera has gotten a lot of good reviews, and it was the one that worked date-wise. It was also the one that didn't charge me a single supplement. I had always planned to do a huge retirement trip to Australia, but, unfortunately for that, I retired during the pandemic, so there was no trip at all. Hopefully, Portugal will serve as the make-up blow-out, and I will get to Australia at some point in the future.

You probably know this, but I'm just going to mention it just to be sure: you know the ABD British Isles trip is a land tour and not a cruise, right? You called it a cruise, so I wanted to make sure you were aware.

Sayhello

 

[ITGirl50]

You probably know this, but I'm just going to mention it just to be sure: you know the ABD British Isles trip is a land tour and not a cruise, right? You called it a cruise, so I wanted to make sure you were aware.

Sayhello

Yes I know it’s land tour. Sorry.. we want to do a land tour and not a cruise for British Isles.

 

[Skylarr29]

Our first ABDs were two back to back trips. The second trip started the day the first one ended. We flew from Paris to Austria with no issues. There wasn’t any additional help from ABD but fortunately everything went smoothly. That was our first international trip and we were clueless. I’m not sure how comfortable I’d feel booking it these days.