How did you first hear about ABD?

[Cousin Orville]

ABD is quite a niche product that not many people really know about. I'm curious - how did you hear about ABD and what made you decide to try it out?

I'm at WDW now and was just a little sad to see the ABD (and DCL) promo channel on TV was on Ch 47! Must Do's on Ch 5. DVC on Ch 7. When I was going to WDW years ago, I used to watch this and all the promo channels so at least I had heard of ABD even if I didn't fully appreciate it. That combined with the Dis Unplugged partial review of the Australia ABD is what really peaked my interest. In 2012, we wanted to take a DCL cruise in Europe, but none were offered that year. So, we decided to take an ABD in France. The rest as they say.... Well you get the idea.

So how did you hear about ABD and what made you try it out?

 

[Bobo912]

I first heard about ABD from watching the video that is played on the Magical Express on the way from MCO to WDW. If they get you to your resort too quickly, you won't see that part, because it's at the end. That was probably in 2007. I booked our first ABD in 2008 when I received an email about the Early Booking Discount being extended for the Costa Rica trip. I wanted to go to Costa Rica, but I don't speak Spanish and I had a 7-year-old at the time, and ABD seemed like the perfect way to go. I booked it at the end of May and traveled in July.

 

[tgeorge]

Since I've done a couple DCL trips I get emails from my old TA about upcoming Disney trips. One highlighted ABD. I was interested and I looked into it. Then I found this board and I've been so excited to actually take my first trip. Reading all the reports makes me even more excited.

I tell a lot of people about it. Unfortunately, I always get that look whenever I say it is Disney. But once I explain how the trips aren't with Mickey Mouse and all of the extras you get because Disney is able to use their name to get you those things people start to understand. Once I was able to explain to my husband all the extras we would get by doing Australia through ABD he thought it sounded good.

 

[Moms]

Although we had seen the television "promos" for ABD on numerous tips to WDW we never paid much attention to them preferring to take "grown up" trips through other travel "venues" (we love river cruising). We were, however, looking for a trip that we could do within the confines of our winter break this school year. My daughter and I are both educators and have to schedule our travels around the school calendar. Most of the trips we were finding were just a little too long and we had just about decided to do a trip to WDW instead when on a whim I thought I would check into ABD. Being a family oriented company I thought they just might have trips during the school breaks and sure enough! We did a little research and decided on Peru for this year and have already booked the Amazon trip next winter.

 

[sayhello]

In 2006, I was looking at doing something big for a milestone birthday. Among other things, I went to AAA, and picked up a bunch of brochures. One of them was for ABD. (I don't think I had any idea what it was at the time - it was a large, colorful brochure, and said "Disney"). I actually didn't do an ABD that year - I was particularly looking at the Hawaii trips, and they just didn't appeal to me. (I ended up doing an Alaskan cruisetour with Princess - amazing!)

But in 2008, I was looking at doing something similar again, and picked up another ABD brochure. The Southwest Splendors trip immediately caught my eye. It had been 17 years since I'd been to Sedona & the Grand Canyon - always worth another visit. And it included Monument Valley and Arches National Park, both of which I'd always wanted to see. I started searching the web for information about it, and found Deb Willis' review of the trip. The description in the brochure and that review convinced me that it was the trip for me, and I signed up for the trip for mid-May 2008.

And the rest is History.

Sayhello

 

[kristilew]

I heard about it on allears.net. We had been doing a lot of WDW trips up until about 2007, and then were looking to branch out. I was a daily reader on allears - hadn't discovered Disboards yet! When the trips first started coming out (I think around 2005)there were rumbles about them, then Deb Wills took her SWS trip in 2007 and blogged about it. Right after that, the new trips were out. When we saw Peru, we booked it for the next summer and started the addiction!

 

[RSM]

Our method was probably one of the boring ones, but we wanted to go to France on a family vacation. So, we did a google search on family friendly vacations to France (or some combination of those words). Amongst the search results was Adventures by Disney. We really liked the Paris and Provence itinerary, and after a lot of research decided to do it. Unfortunately ABD discontinued this adventure before we could take it, however, we found a more than suitable alternative in the Alpine Magic itinerary (adding on a week in Paris), and we have taken a total of 4 since.

 

[SingingMom]

We promised our daughter a trip to London and Paris for her high school graduation (a year later, since our 25th was the same year & we trumped picking a trip that year! Lol)

She did all the research and found Adventures by Disney had the itinerary she liked the best. We had such a wonderful time we chose Germany ABD the following summer! This past summer the trips we wanted were already sold out, so we went to Disney's Aulani resort in Hawaii. This coming summer we are hoping for another ABD!

 

[EthanClara]

On the shuttle bus going to Disney world

 

[georgiagirl2]

I saw the ABD channel in our room at WDW in 2007 and requested a brochure. Probably read through that brochure 20 times trying to choose our first adventure.

 

[calypso726]

If memory serves correctly, I first heard about ABD back in 2008. I honestly don't remember the source but I can narrow it down to 3. It would have either been here on the DISboards, All Ears, or a channel ad on the tv while at WDW. I remember looking into it online and thinking it would be way out of our budget range but wanted to do it "someday" simply because it was Disney and I just knew the experience would be wonderful. Then came the Scotland itinerary a few years later and the rest is history! We have completed 3 ABD trips now and the 4th and 5th ones are already booked for 2015. The ABD website and brochure should come with a disclaimer, " book with caution, ABD trips may be habit forming in some individuals."

 

[smadath]

DH and I haven't been on an actual "go somewhere" vacation in several years. So, I'm an Armchair Traveler. I like to surf travel sites on the internet, and read about all the fun places that I'm not.

I joined DIS because it's fun hearing about everyone's trips, and plans, and general banter. That said, I learned about ABD here, after joining and reading around the various threads. Oh, and I learned about HERE by Googling "Disney," and DIS popped up!

 

[Amanda999]

There was alot of advertising for it at the parks (at least I remember that from a couple of years ago - in particular I remember a kiosk near America Pavilion at Epcot, with a CM manning it to discuss the trips).

 

[SnarkyMonkey]

I got some info when it first began with my trip planning video from Disney, the year it began.