Cost of ABD vs on your own

[bgsnmky]

Has anyone done any calculations to find out what it would cost you on your own to plan most of the same trip vs ABD?

I know there are extras, and the having the tour guides are probably worth it, but I was just curious how it played out.

The ABD trips (cash or with DVC points) seems high and even tho I am dying to go, I am not sure if it is worth the trip.

Also, has anyone done a trip with Disney for the duration of the trip, but then stayed longer on your own.

 

[Mamadis]

We went on the Viva Italia trip earlier this summer and went a few days before the trip and stayed a day after the tour was over. The difference was night and day. It was so nice to have everything just done for you. It was great not to have to worry about lugging luggage around and having everything just taken care of for you.

I spent hours researching and planning the things we did on our own and still it was not as smooth as having Disney do it for you. We hired a guide to take us to Pompeii and he charged us 100E for about a 2 hour tour, granted there were 7 of us( 4 adults and 3 kids). We hired a driver for 2 days to drive us around the Amalfi Coast and to Rome from Sorrento with stops at Herculaneum, Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvuis and he charged us 700E for the 2 days. I shopped around for the driver and several wanted more than that.

I thought the tour was expensive when I booked it, but considering the quality of the accomodations, tours, entrances fees, meals, activities and most of all eliminating the hassle factor of having to do the planning, carrying luggage, standing in lines, etc, the tour was well worth it. We plan on doing another one in the future. Hope that helps.

 

[abdmom]

Here's my calculations for 3 of us for our Enchanted China trip (no discounts):

Cost thru ABD = $15K Oops, deduct the $500 Costco cash card that I received when I returned - takes it down to $14500

To do ourselves:

Hotel: $429 x 5 nights for Peninsula Beijing = $2150
Other hotels: $300 x 7 nights = $2100

Total hotels = $4250

Food - now this is a total guess, because the dinners we enjoyed were essentially special banquets, and not something that we could do on our own:

Breakfasts: approximately $50/day x 12 days = $600
Lunches: approximately $60/day X 12 days = $720
Dinners: approximately $75/day x 12 days = $900
Bottled water: 2 bottles pp pd x 3 people x 12 days x $1-2/bottle = $100
Snacks: approximately $100
Total: $2420

We're almost halfway there with just food and hotel!

Transportation:There's no way we could duplicate what ABD did, but here's a shot

Personal bus driver: $50 pp pd = $1800
Intra country flights: 3 flights x 3 people x $200 per ticket = $1800
River Cruise with lunch $150

Total $3750

Tour guides: $50 per day

Total $600

Admission to various attractions, including Hong Kong Disneyland for 2 days: $500

Tips to porters, waiters etc: $200


Grand Total is $12000

This does not take into account all of the special magic that the ABD tour and guides provided, nor the camaraderie of my fellow travellers, nor the time and effort that I would have had to put into arranging all of that! Those are priceless!

If I had received the early booking discount, my total would have been more than the total with ABD.

 

[theroseofbelle]

My DH and I started looking at ABD and decided that this was the way that I felt most comfortable leaving the country for vacation. Disney has a reputation and they stand behind it in our experience. We have booked a trip to Peru in October. We have not left yet, but I am expecting great things. After booking the trip I started looking at similar tours to Peru and I found ABD prices were right in line with other tours and you were getting more with ABD. For example, REI has a 7 day tour to Peru that goes to Machu Picchu and starts at $2,500. ABD is 9 days and includes better hotels, more meals, and those "special extras" starting at $2,159 for value and $2,699 for regular. I have not really looked into the Europe tours, but for Peru ABD was the way to go. Just my opinion; I still need to go on the trip

 

[bgsnmky]

THIS is exactly what I wanted...thanks everyone! It confirmed my thoughts, but I just needed someone who has already done it to give me the information.

I am the HUGE planner of the family and even enjoy it, but this helped.....

My guess is if we did something in Europe or Africa we would still stay longer just to maximize the plane fair etc.

I really hope we get to do these. One reason I want to buy more points is for these trips! We only have 225. So 3 years (banking and borrowing still only gets us 675) so we would still need to pay one of them with casy.

 

[tiggerk]

I also thought it was kind of pricey beforehand but I did see some other trips to Peru that cost a lot more and had very similar itineraries - staying in some of the same hotels and maybe didn't do as many activities. While we were on the trip other people made the comment, and I definitely agree, you just could never do this on your own - waking up and having your transportation waiting for you for your day, sitting in a church courtyard, having a catered lunch with dancers doing a performance for you, and all the information that the local guide provided. I could go to Machu Pichu on my own, and many of the other sites, but we really got a lot more out of it having someone along to tell the stories about the places we visited.

Now, I'm not sure that I would pay that much for a trip inside the U.S. - I'd have to think about that.

 

[KLondon]

My view - if you did all the same stuff and used the same hotels, restaurants, etc. as ABD, you would likely run out of time and you would pay more. Here are a couple of older threads on this same topic:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=24773923#post24773923&highlight=

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=23614817#post23614817&highlight=

Cheers...

 

[pillow]

I priced the Costa Rica trip for a family of 4 on our own - same hotels, transportation, etc. Of course, there are some things that you can't assign a dollar value to. I found that I could do the trip $3,500 cheaper on my own. I don't think I'm willing to pay the additional money for the Disney extras. If the difference was $1,000-$1,500 maybe, but not $3,500 for a week long trip. I should note that I was looking at summer pricing - where Disney's pricing is "peak", but where its actually off season in Costa Rica - meaning that the hotels are relatively cheap. I'm gussing this is making the dollar gap larger. I really would love to do one of these trips but having a hard time justifying the extra $$.

Jodie

 

[abdmom]

In essence, ABD is well-priced for those people who appreciate going 'first-class'.

I think that KLondon's statement from another thread hits the nail on the head.

if you did all the same stuff and used the same hotels, restaurants, etc. as ABD, you would likely run out of time and you would pay more.

I agree with this as well. I wouldn't have had enough energy after a busy day to get my group going to an evening activity on my own. Many of the activities that you will find on an ABD tour are not mentioned in the actual itinerary - they are "surprises" and are not something that I could have even planned on my own. The Disney name seems to open doors worldwide and make certain activities available to ABD that are available to no one else.

 

[kristilew]

What it boiled down to for us was: On any other trip we've ever taken, no matter how much fun we had, no matter how carefully we planned, tnere has always been some point at which, however briefly, we've gotten snippy with each other. This has either been from
*being hungry and trying to find a good place to eat while being unsure of the area
*worrying if the choices in hotel or transportaion we made from an online review were going to turn out to be the right choice after all
*being so busy trying to navigate/keep safe/drive car that we were unable to attend to a child's needs before she hit the wall
*spending a week with essentially only ourselves to talk to

None of this happened on our ABD because they handled everything. There were always snacks ready before we got grouchy. We were always able to keep dd on track, we had no choices to make, and we had plenty of interesting folks to talk with.

You can't put a price on complete relaxation.

 

[pillow]

You guys are very convincing. I'm gonna be broke!

Jodie

 

[pillow]

I really hope we get to do these. One reason I want to buy more points is for these trips! We only have 225. So 3 years (banking and borrowing still only gets us 675) so we would still need to pay one of them with casy.

I was just looking at the points required for the ABD trips. For example, the Costa Rica trip requires 348 point (adult peak). The cash cost is only $2,399. You'd be better off selling/trading your points on the Disboards for $10 per point and applying your cash towards the trip instead of using 348 points and only getting a $2,399 value for it. Something to think about.

Jodie

 

[3pirates]

I think for most non-DVC experiences you are better off renting and paying cash, the problem is that you have to be able to rent. I don't know what the "taker" rate is on renting points.

I want to add that I was on the same trip as MamaDis. I thought it was expensive when I booked as well, but agree that you really can't calculate the value of the local guides, admissions to all of the places, private transportation, entertainment, etc. The other thing I tell people is that we would have needed to add several days to our trip to cover everything we did. We would have spent much more time at the Colisseum (or actually outside, waiting to get in) and then I guess had to pick another day to do the Forum, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, etc. Same story with the Vatican. We would probably NOT have had a gondola waiting to take us around in Venice, and would have spent awhile trying to figure that whole thing out. We could easily have missed our train in Florence because the guides knew to watch the boards closely to get the proper track information. Once it was posted, you only had a couple of minutes to get there and board before it pulled out again. Especially if we had been toting all of our own luggage, that would have been an interesting experience. Things like that make a big difference.

 

[pillow]

I think for most non-DVC experiences you are better off renting and paying cash, the problem is that you have to be able to rent. I don't know what the "taker" rate is on renting points.

I agree. The going rate is $10 - $12 per point. I've never rented/traded/sold points before, but from what people have said, its a fairly easy transaction.

You made some good points on the ABD trips. I'm not totally sold, but I am intrigued. We would probably need to sell some points in order to partially fund the trip. We'll see. Alaska sounds nice.

Jodie

 

[bonnielynn]

Being green and all.. I dont understand why the hassle of selling points, hoping to have the cash ahead to pay for ABD.. when you have the points to book it upfront...

I know selling points sounds like the better deal, but how do you know you will find someone to rent them.... ? Just to me it is better to have the points and go from there..

Am I just that green?

 

[pillow]

Being green and all.. I dont understand why the hassle of selling points, hoping to have the cash ahead to pay for ABD.. when you have the points to book it upfront...

I know selling points sounds like the better deal, but how do you know you will find someone to rent them.... ? Just to me it is better to have the points and go from there..

Am I just that green?

I'm certainly no expert on selling/renting points, but I have read the rent/sell boards periodically when helping friends find points for their trips. There certainly seems to be tons of demand from non DVC members who want points to book their vacation, so I don't think there would be lots of hassle (maybe a little time spent on the boards and making a few phone calls). In the Costa Rica example above, suppose you have the 348 points and are ready to book your trip. The cash price is $2,400 for the same trip. If you "rent" your 348 points on the Disboards for $10 per point, you would get $3,480. Then pay cash for your trip and you have $1,000 left over. I know there are people who would rather not fool with renting points, but to me, I wouldn't mind a little hassle for $1,000. And keep in mind, thats $1,000 for just 1 adult. For a family of 4, you'd be saving close to $4,000 for one trip.

Jodie

 

[abdmom]

I've rented my points. It was about as easy as falling off a log. Within a week, I had rented all my points that I wanted to. After a few weeks, I had rented out most of the following year's points because one of the groups that I had rented to suddenly had more family that wanted to come and they needed more. I ended up rented to several people. Out of about 6, one person reneged on their reservation. I ended up with points that needed to be used within 2 months. Those were rented easily as well.

There is an incredible demand for rented DVC points, or at least there was last summer, when I rented mine. With the economy, it's possible that there might be less demand. Last summer was my first time renting out the points. I would recommend trying it.

 

[3pirates]

Being green and all.. I dont understand why the hassle of selling points, hoping to have the cash ahead to pay for ABD.. when you have the points to book it upfront...

I know selling points sounds like the better deal, but how do you know you will find someone to rent them.... ? Just to me it is better to have the points and go from there..

Am I just that green?

I think it is just a matter of personal taste. Knowing that I would have been better off renting points, I still have used my points for cruises and now an ABD. I just figure my DVC is helping pay for my vacation, and if that is where I'm going to vacation I will just use it for that. I personally don't like risk or extra hassle, and figure my DVC has more than paid for itself in the past 15 years, so I just use it. Some people don't mind the inconvenience and are willing to tolerate some risk if it means saving $$$$. It's the old, which can you spare more, time or money. (I pick c, none of the above.) It also probably matters how many points you are talking about and what the savings would be...the difference for the Viva Italia I booked wasn't quite as much as the $1000 I saw, and I only used enough points for one reservation. If I thought I could save thousands...that would make a big difference!

 

[bonnielynn]

How many years can you rent? I can bank what is left of 08 (133) and in 09 I could borrow from 10.. which would give me 673 points that I could rent..

I have to figure this all out and see how many points I would need for the ABD trip.. heck, at the moment I have no clue what they will be offering... or how much $$$ it will be...

It seems like a guessing game 1/2 the time.. I guess I have to wait until they come out with next years trips and then decide... and I may not even go to 2010 and that in itself sparks another waiting game..

P.S. Pillow.. stalk away.. and thanks for the advice!

 

[pillow]

How many years can you rent? I can bank what is left of 08 (133) and in 09 I could borrow from 10.. which would give me 673 points that I could rent..

I have to figure this all out and see how many points I would need for the ABD trip.. heck, at the moment I have no clue what they will be offering... or how much $$$ it will be...

It seems like a guessing game 1/2 the time.. I guess I have to wait until they come out with next years trips and then decide... and I may not even go to 2010 and that in itself sparks another waiting game..

P.S. Pillow.. stalk away.. and thanks for the advice!

As long as you aren't transferring (selling from one DVC owner to another - which I think you can only do once/year) and are just booking a vacation and then putting it into someone else's name, you don't have to do it all at once. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you can do it as many times as you like. You can rent your 08 and 09 points now which would give you enough for the ABD deposit and some savings. Then you could borrow from 2010 in a year to pay off some more. Think that would work.

Someone on another thread said that the early booking discounts go fast. Anyone know about that?

Jodie