Genuinely curious here, folks...

[Westcoastwild]

I'm not the tour type but I like to here about other people's perspectives. Why choose ABD? Had you done other tours before? Was it specifically for the child friendly aspect? Something else? I'm assuming it wasn't for the budget, because well, this is Disney we're talking about!

 

[miTnosnhoJ]

I suggest you read through this thread.
https://www.disboards.com/threads/is-abd-worth-the-discussion-thread.3045636/

 

[Westcoastwild]

I suggest you read through this thread.
https://www.disboards.com/threads/is-abd-worth-the-discussion-thread.3045636/

Thanks for the link. More variety of people than I would have expected. I didn't realize ABD has Vietnam/Cambodia tour. I'd be tempted by that.

 

[Cinderella's Slipper 2015]

Thanks for the link. More variety of people than I would have expected. I didn't realize ABD has Vietnam/Cambodia tour. I'd be tempted by that.

Just a word of warning that ABD visits during monsoon season and Hoi An can flood with over 3 feet water during this time. And it will rain for quite heavily for quite a number of hours every day during monsoon season flooding the region. And it's not just Hoi An, its most of South East Asia, including all of Vietnam, Lao and Cambodia. This is from my Vietnam tour guides this past February, one of who leads trips to this region yearly.

 

[Westcoastwild]

Thanks for the warning! Yikes. Maybe not. Were you there doing monsoon season?

 

[tink1970]

We went on our Holiday Danube River Cruise with ABD because it was the only itinerary I could find (and I did a pretty thorough search) that had the Vienna Boys Choir on Christmas Day. My DH decided that was what he wanted so viola! there we were (while we could have done this on our own, wasn't going to-DH doesn't get enough time off for us to be our own tour directors. When I'm alone in Europe I can do it but together...no thanks).

This Christmas we'll be on the Rhine River Cruise with ABD because we'll have DD (17) and want her to have the option of spending time with other teens. If we weren't taking her, probably wouldn't do ABD, to be honest.

I've looked at other, land based ABDs but they never seem to work with our time parameters except once, and that one had many small children so I declined to participate.

Anyway, yes, there are a variety of reasons for doing an ABD tour .

 

[Westcoastwild]

We went on our Holiday Danube River Cruise with ABD because it was the only itinerary I could find (and I did a pretty thorough search) that had the Vienna Boys Choir on Christmas Day. My DH decided that was what he wanted so viola! there we were (while we could have done this on our own, wasn't going to-DH doesn't get enough time off for us to be our own tour directors. When I'm alone in Europe I can do it but together...no thanks).

This Christmas we'll be on the Rhine River Cruise with ABD because we'll have DD (17) and want her to have the option of spending time with other teens. If we weren't taking her, probably wouldn't do ABD, to be honest.

I've looked at other, land based ABDs but they never seem to work with our time parameters except once, and that one had many small children so I declined to participate.

Anyway, yes, there are a variety of reasons for doing an ABD tour .

Very cool. Makes sense. Did a long trip to Europe over Christmas and I've got to admit that was the first time I've ever seen a big plus for tours- namely, someone else doing the planning. That kind of consumed my life for a really long time before the trip.

How was the Vienna boys choir?? I wanted to go to a choir performance, but they were always on the day before or after I arrived in place, lol.

 

[Cousin Orville]

Thanks for the warning! Yikes. Maybe not. Were you there doing monsoon season?

That's probably good advice that I was unaware of when I went during the summer. However, whether we got lucky or not, it didn't rain much during our trip. It rained once in Saigon when we went to the Chu Chi Tunnels. And it rained for 1 or 2 hours in the afternoon in Cambodia. Reminded me of Florida in the summer. My trip report is below. Amazing trip. Still one of the best.

 

[Cousin Orville]

Very cool. Makes sense. Did a long trip to Europe over Christmas and I've got to admit that was the first time I've ever seen a big plus for tours- namely, someone else doing the planning. That kind of consumed my life for a really long time before the trip.

How was the Vienna boys choir?? I wanted to go to a choir performance, but they were always on the day before or after I arrived in place, lol.

We did Cental Europe on our own during Christmas and it was incredible, but it does consume a lot of time. There are pros and cons of ABD compared to traveling on your own. Given the choice, I prefer ABD usual but it depends on the situation. Case in point in the next 18 mo I have S. Africa and China ABDs planned and Japan and possibly Portugal or Croatia on our own that we're working on. So I balance the two. But man, the OYO trips require a lot of planning. At this point, I prefer ABD.

 

[Cinderella's Slipper 2015]

Thanks for the warning! Yikes. Maybe not. Were you there doing monsoon season?

No, we were there the beginning of February actually, we hit the end of Tet (New Year) in Vietnam. We were not with ABD. I have a blog going up about our trip. Message me if you want the link.

 

[Westcoastwild]

We did Cental Europe on our own during Christmas and it was incredible, but it does consume a lot of time. There are pros and cons of ABD compared to traveling on your own. Given the choice, I prefer ABD usual but it depends on the situation. Case in point in the next 18 mo I have S. Africa and China ABDs planned and Japan and possibly Portugal or Croatia on our own that we're working on. So I balance the two. But man, the OYO trips require a lot of planning. At this point, I prefer ABD.

My interests don't usually mesh with tours well, because I'm a museum fiend. And I did enjoy the planning. But Italy was a bit stressful because of my unfamiliarity with the language (Germany and France much easier) so I'm thinking I'd rather do a tour for Asia. the only thing that made Italy easy-ish was that I know a lot about Italian food and culture. Not the case with much of Asia. hope you post a tr of Japan especially!

 

[tink1970]

How was the Vienna boys choir??

DH was very happy we attended. It was a very early am departure (?7) then we waited in the chapel until Mass began. There were lines of people waiting for ticket holders (which we were-ABD gave us tickets) who didn't show so I'm quite glad in the cold and rain we didn't have to do standby!
My husband is the more music oriented person of the two of us and he was pleased so I guess it was good (it was hard enough to stay awake for me to be honest-Mass plus Mass in German was apparently quite soothing...).

Sadly I didn't see the Boys Choir on the schedule for the 2018 Holiday Danube trip, hopefully they will add it or I just missed it. It was one of the highlights of the trip for many people. I'm definitely appreciative of all the details ABD (and other tour groups) takes care of! It really is a "sit back, relax and enjoy your ride" kind of experience.

 

[Cinderella's Slipper 2015]

That's probably good advice that I was unaware of when I went during the summer. However, whether we got lucky or not, it didn't rain much during our trip. It rained once in Saigon when we went to the Chu Chi Tunnels. And it rained for 1 or 2 hours in the afternoon in Cambodia. Reminded me of Florida in the summer. My trip report is below. Amazing trip. Still one of the best.

You probably got lucky. We did when we were in Hue. Apparently it rains there pretty much year round and we hit it on a week when it wasn't raining so the few days we were there it was beautiful.

 

[Cousin Orville]

You probably got lucky. We did when we were in Hue. Apparently it rains there pretty much year round and we hit it on a week when it wasn't raining so the few days we were there it was beautiful.

The other downside of the summer is it was very hot. I had to go when my son was out of school, but when I go again it will likely be over Christmas break. Beautiful countries though.

 

[Cinderella's Slipper 2015]

The other downside of the summer is it was very hot. I had to go when my son was out of school, but when I go again it will likely be over Christmas break. Beautiful countries though.

Yeah, our private tour guide for our pre-trip days said there are two seasons in Vietnam, hot and hotter. I went when it was hot, you went when it was hotter. Sai Gon was hot, Hue was hot, Hanoi was hot, Ha Long Bay was cool, Lao was hot and Cambodia was hot. This was in February. It wasn't humid though so we mainly just had the heat, not a lot of moist heat. Only time I really felt the sun burning me was hiking in Lao and when we were out all day doing the temples in Siem Reap

 

[DCPhotoGal]

Beyond the convenience of everything being planned and coordinated for you along the way, the ABD tours have been nice for us because of the company along the way. I have two daughters, now 11 and 13, and they have really enjoyed traveling with other families. It has been a good mix of time with our family together and then time for them with the other kids and for us with other adults. It really has added to the travel experience for us. For example, in Scotland, there is a lot of necessary travel time between the locations, spent on a bus. If we had gone with just our family, our kids might have sat in the backseat of a car, and either argued or played on their phones the whole time. Instead, they sat in the back of the bus with other kids and had a great time. Same with the boat cruise portion of our Galapagos tour. During the free time on the boat, the kids all hung out together and had a great time.

I may have written about this on the other thread, but we took a self-planned trip to Hawaii last year and it really highlighted to us why we should stick to ABDs instead. We stayed at Aulani, but without any other kids they knew there, my girls quickly got on each others' nerves and spent much more time in the room on their ipads than I would have liked. Not to mention dealing with rentals cars that weren't ready or canceled hotel reservations, activities that we cancelled due to bad weather and not having an alternate plan, and spending a lot of time arguing about what everyone wanted to do each "free" day (all of which actually happened to us). The pace of the ABDs works really nicely for us, and we feel like we fit a lot in for the time spent.

 

[Westcoastwild]

Beyond the convenience of everything being planned and coordinated for you along the way, the ABD tours have been nice for us because of the company along the way. I have two daughters, now 11 and 13, and they have really enjoyed traveling with other families. It has been a good mix of time with our family together and then time for them with the other kids and for us with other adults. It really has added to the travel experience for us. For example, in Scotland, there is a lot of necessary travel time between the locations, spent on a bus. If we had gone with just our family, our kids might have sat in the backseat of a car, and either argued or played on their phones the whole time. Instead, they sat in the back of the bus with other kids and had a great time. Same with the boat cruise portion of our Galapagos tour. During the free time on the boat, the kids all hung out together and had a great time.

I may have written about this on the other thread, but we took a self-planned trip to Hawaii last year and it really highlighted to us why we should stick to ABDs instead. We stayed at Aulani, but without any other kids they knew there, my girls quickly got on each others' nerves and spent much more time in the room on their ipads than I would have liked. Not to mention dealing with rentals cars that weren't ready or canceled hotel reservations, activities that we cancelled due to bad weather and not having an alternate plan, and spending a lot of time arguing about what everyone wanted to do each "free" day (all of which actually happened to us). The pace of the ABDs works really nicely for us, and we feel like we fit a lot in for the time spent.

That's an interesting point. I wouldn't have enjoyed kids in a tour group at that age- I was an introvert- but having other kids around would have lessened the fighting between my sisters and I. And when I travel with my family, I would definitely be thrilled to not be responsible for mediating "free day" arguments or back up plans.

 

[hilarys]

Beyond the convenience of everything being planned and coordinated for you along the way, the ABD tours have been nice for us because of the company along the way. I have two daughters, now 11 and 13, and they have really enjoyed traveling with other families. It has been a good mix of time with our family together and then time for them with the other kids and for us with other adults. It really has added to the travel experience for us. For example, in Scotland, there is a lot of necessary travel time between the locations, spent on a bus. If we had gone with just our family, our kids might have sat in the backseat of a car, and either argued or played on their phones the whole time. Instead, they sat in the back of the bus with other kids and had a great time. Same with the boat cruise portion of our Galapagos tour. During the free time on the boat, the kids all hung out together and had a great time.

I may have written about this on the other thread, but we took a self-planned trip to Hawaii last year and it really highlighted to us why we should stick to ABDs instead. We stayed at Aulani, but without any other kids they knew there, my girls quickly got on each others' nerves and spent much more time in the room on their ipads than I would have liked. Not to mention dealing with rentals cars that weren't ready or canceled hotel reservations, activities that we cancelled due to bad weather and not having an alternate plan, and spending a lot of time arguing about what everyone wanted to do each "free" day (all of which actually happened to us). The pace of the ABDs works really nicely for us, and we feel like we fit a lot in for the time spent.

Absolutely 100% this! Our kids love making new friends and have stayed in touch with many of them. The group tour dynamic is much better for our family whether it is ABD, a cruise, a dude ranch or vacationing with another family.

 

[CrazyZeus1]

We've done 10 ABDs (including Vietnam over Christmas...amazing!), and have lots more booked. For us, it's the EASE of travel. My husband is very Type A and very detailed. For him, it's relaxing to turn all the responsibility over to someone else who takes wonderful care of us. For me, I know we're visiting safe places, eating safe food, and seeing the best of everything and I can just enjoy and not have to worry! What we didn't expect when we took our first ABD, but one of the things we treasure most now, is the friendships we've made along the way with other ABDers! We've done many trips now with folks we've met on ABDs and plan to travel together as much as we can. In fact, one adult mom/daughter duo we met on our very first trip, we've done 4 ABDs together and have 3 booked together this year!

We've never done any other guided travel and unless it's a location we MUST visit that ABD doesn't go to (like Antarctica) then we will only travel with ABD. We appreciate the "pull" the Disney name has, and we really appreciate how much our Guides work to make our trip successful and memorable!