Is ABD really that GOOD?

[iloveflounder]

I am new to the Disboards and I never knew about Adventures by Disney till I saw this Disboards.

And all the trip reports i read seems great.

And i am amazed that some of you has done multiple of these trips and you have been craving about how great their tour guides are.

So are the trips really that good? Is it because its disney?

And what about those guides? Why do you love them so much?

These are all random questions I have in my mind.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[sayhello]

Short answer: YES! They are that good!

Long answer:

So are the trips really that good? Is it because its disney?

The trips are really quite varied itineraries that, in general, include access to special activities that you likely could not arrange on your own. And yes, part of this is because of the Disney name. Plus, there is a quality to Disney products in general that is definitely reflected by these trips. The Guides are wonderfully trained by Disney, and go through a pretty rigorous selection process. Pretty much everyone agrees that the Guides are fantastic, and, in a lot of ways, really make these trips what they are.

Most everything is taken care of for you (checking in & out of your hotel, transportation, most meals, luggage transportation, activity fees, etc). It's a really relaxing way to travel.

And what about those guides? Why do you love them so much?

Well, besides what I answered above, there are 2 guides for every trip, which allows them to cater to the different abilities & interests of the people on the tour. One thing someone who took a tour with Tauck commented on is that the ABD Guides are really a part of the tour group. They are always with you, except during designated "free time". Even if there's a local expert, the Guides are still there with you. They take meals with you, travel with you, become a little like family. They do a tremendous amount of work, and it shows in how flawlessly the trips tend to go.

What else would you like to know? I'm sure you'll get plenty of folks chiming in here as to just why they love ABD.

Oh, and one thing that made me really love ABD? After the first one I took (Southwest Splendors) I realized I was having SUCH a great time, I didn't think about work for the entire week. THAT was worth the price alone!

Sayhello

 

[HappyGrumpy]

I am new to the Disboards and I never knew about Adventures by Disney till I saw this Disboards.

And all the trip reports i read seems great.

And i am amazed that some of you has done multiple of these trips and you have been craving about how great their tour guides are.

So are the trips really that good? Is it because its disney?

And what about those guides? Why do you love them so much?

These are all random questions I have in my mind.

Thanks for sharing!

Guides were wonderful! Period!

Being that its Disney is just the icing on the cake!

My husband and I were just talking about how it's coming up on our one year anniversary since our adults only Wyoming trip and how much we LOVED IT!

We were so scared that it was not going to live up to the expectations b/c for us it was a TON of money we dropped. As a matter of fact we had NEVER spent that kind of money on a trip so I needed it to be pretty much perfect!

The only and I mean the only complaint we had had nothing to do with ABD. It was the fact that the hotel in Yellowstone had no AC and no TV! My husband and I are polar bears and he loves Sports Center at night.Our guides got us two fan that we kept going 24/7. It was VERY HOT! After the group dispersed for the night in Yellowstone there was nothing to do. Yellowstone claims no AC b/c they want to keep the setting as natural as possible however there is a GIANT gift shop in the middle of the property that sells beer. But I digress Thank God we brought our Mac and season 3 of LOST!

It was awesome to see Old Faithful but there are even better geysers there that don't get the attention they deserve! It was worth a one night stay but I would like to see it changed to 3 nights at Brooks Lake Lodge! Absolutely positively the best part of the trip with #2 being Jackson white water rafting. #3 Was hiking to the upper and lower falls! Simply breathtaking! BTW even though Brooks Lake Lodge did not have TV'S there was so much more to do there and it did not matter!

I know that we would never have taken the time to see this part of our country and there is truly no better way to see it! We are sold and at this point if they announce they are doing ABD add ons for the Alaska Cruise I will be signing up! We are on the MV in Alaska and what a huge weight off my shoulders to not have to figure out excursions! I trust them that much!

Ok so now that I have truly confused you have a great time picking your first ABD!!

 

[Diskidatheart]

I have to agree that these trips are worth the money. We went to Italy in May on our first (but not last) ABD trip. The trip exceeded my expectations by so much. The guides Heidi and Marco were absolutely wonderful. They bend over backwards to ensure you are enjoying your time. If someone is a little slower on a walking tour, no worries...one of the guides stay back with them so that they don't feel rushed.

I was so concerned that after doing the Italy trip I would have been exhausted and in need of a relaxing vacation because it is so much walking and so much to do. On the contrary, I WAS relaxed because you don't have anything to do but enjoy yourself! The trips are expensive and there is some sticker shock, but believe me, if/when you go on one, you'll come back feeling as if you got a bargain on the price.

 

[tchrrx]

We just returned from the Spirit of America trip. We went to Philadelphia, DC, Jamestown, and Williamsburg. We would have never taken a trip like this on our own. The road closings around DC on the 4th would have been enough to discourage us!

Honestly, I will be surprised if we ever take another vacation on our own. It is too incredible having someone take care of everything (and I mean, everything!) for you.

 

[disneyphx]

Worth every penny!
We just got back from Enchanted China and so many things made it worth it:
amazing hotels
packing in activities that would have taken weeks to plan
including activities that you could not plan yourself
easiest plane flights and dealing with luggage ever
would have taken much longer to do all activities as a family
virtually no out of pocket costs - just souvenirs and alcoholic drinks (and sometimes even those were included!)
guides who anticipated every need - like ordering special food for a somewhat picky 5 year old
....I could go on and on.......
We were exhausted when we got home - not from travel stress but from having done so many different things!

 

[WeLoveABD]

Can only echo all of the well-placed comments above. We have been on four trips now--each very different, but all high quality and definately worth the cost. I particularly like having all of the stress removed from overseas trips, and after each trip have felt that we actually experienced local life/culture (and not just do a series of photo opportunities).

 

[SanFranciscan]

I am not an ABD veteran, but I do have an opinion on the value of all-inclusive tours such as ABD and why you may very well find ABD to be worth it for your family.

The cheap tour companies are not necessarily inexpensive tour companies. Take a look at which excursions are listed as "optional," always meaning much more out of your pocket. If every entertainment, every meal, and seemingly every everything is "optional," you will be paying a high price for your "budget travel" you thought was going to save money for you.

 

[abbyjt]

We have been on 4 ABD's and just booked our 5th. The quality of the tours and the fantistic guides make it worth it. We just returned from a trip with a local group (not ABD). It was a great trip, but the guide was not and the planning was weird (we spent many hours on the bus going back to areas we had already been before, rather than visiting all those things on the same day). When we returned, my husband could not wait for the Disney itineraries to come out. When I showed him some other companies with good ratings, he just said, only ABD from now on.
We have been on Tauck without our kids. It was pretty close to ABD, but I do like the way ABD guides are a part of the group. I could give you 1/2 dozen stories about ways ABD guides went out of their way for us without us asking, just to make sure everything was perfect.

 

[Icemann]

Just got back from Alaska with only a few bumps in the road but it was not Disey's fault but they offered to help, and it was great.Ditto on the comments everyone are making.Worth the money and the guides are the best,they make the trip happen.

 

[Bobo912]

Just got back from Alaska with only a few bumps in the road but it was not Disey's fault but they offered to help, and it was great.Ditto on the comments everyone are making.Worth the money and the guides are the best,they make the trip happen.

Icemann, were Mike and Carlene your guides? They are fantastic!

 

[sayhello]

Just got back from Alaska with only a few bumps in the road but it was not Disey's fault but they offered to help, and it was great.Ditto on the comments everyone are making.Worth the money and the guides are the best,they make the trip happen.

Welcome back, Iceman! What kind of "bumps" did you experience? Who were your Guides? Glad you enjoyed. Are you going to do a report?

Sayhello

 

[LoveMickey]

Guides were wonderful! Period!

Being that its Disney is just the icing on the cake!

My husband and I were just talking about how it's coming up on our one year anniversary since our adults only Wyoming trip and how much we LOVED IT!

We were so scared that it was not going to live up to the expectations b/c for us it was a TON of money we dropped. As a matter of fact we had NEVER spent that kind of money on a trip so I needed it to be pretty much perfect!

The only and I mean the only complaint we had had nothing to do with ABD. It was the fact that the hotel in Yellowstone had no AC and no TV! My husband and I are polar bears and he loves Sports Center at night.Our guides got us two fan that we kept going 24/7. It was VERY HOT! After the group dispersed for the night in Yellowstone there was nothing to do. Yellowstone claims no AC b/c they want to keep the setting as natural as possible however there is a GIANT gift shop in the middle of the property that sells beer. But I digress Thank God we brought our Mac and season 3 of LOST!

It was awesome to see Old Faithful but there are even better geysers there that don't get the attention they deserve! It was worth a one night stay but I would like to see it changed to 3 nights at Brooks Lake Lodge! Absolutely positively the best part of the trip with #2 being Jackson white water rafting. #3 Was hiking to the upper and lower falls! Simply breathtaking! BTW even though Brooks Lake Lodge did not have TV'S there was so much more to do there and it did not matter!

I know that we would never have taken the time to see this part of our country and there is truly no better way to see it! We are sold and at this point if they announce they are doing ABD add ons for the Alaska Cruise I will be signing up! We are on the MV in Alaska and what a huge weight off my shoulders to not have to figure out excursions! I trust them that much!

Ok so now that I have truly confused you have a great time picking your first ABD!!

Hi there Happy Grumpy

Today I was just thinking how excited we were last year at this time. It was a great trip wasn't it.

It was a trip of a lifetime. I was just telling that to someone today.

Everything was perfect from the arrival at the airport to the White Water Rafting to Brooks Lake Lodge. I could go on and on.

We ran into Daniel at Fantasmic on our last trip and he was doing the Australia ABD this year.

 

[Jeff & Stacy in NYC]

We are huge fans of ABD especially Backstage Magic. We have done the tour twice, once in 2008 and the second trip was with the podcast crew this past July. Both trips were special in their own ways. We weren't home for a day and we signed up for the July 2011 trip!

 

[ennuiphobe]

We've done two ABD tours. Just got back from K&L and did QftW in 2009. We LOVED QftW. It was truly magical, the guides did a fantastic job, not only in their their constant attention to detail, but in creating an environment of ease, safety and conviviality that transformed a group of strangers into friends, young and old, sharing a great experience. We're still in touch with 2 families we met on the trip, skiing with one earlier this year and joining another on the K&L tour.

K&L was a bit of a let down and I'm still trying to figure out why. The guides handled everything smoothly, ABD delivered on everything promised, yet that extra magic was lacking. It was an efficient well-run trip and I think everyone had a good time, but I can't see how it differed from any other competently run tour.

Part of it may have been the nature of the two trips. Maybe on K&L, the guides have more balls in the air to juggle, so have less time to deal with the intangibles. Maybe it was because K&L was a 'seeing' tour while QftW was a 'doing' tour. Maybe the QftW trip just lends itself better to group integration. Maybe it was just the different compositions of the two groups.

Whatever the reason, my enthusiasm for ABD has tempered. After QftW, I felt the premium charged by ABD was well worth it. Now I'm not so sure. We had a good time on K&L and I'll still consider ABD in the future, but will look at other companies as well.

FWIW, K&L was the third ABD tour for the family we traveled with and they had a similar impression.

 

[marcemch]

We've done two ABD tours. Just got back from K&L and did QftW in 2009. We LOVED QftW. It was truly magical, the guides did a fantastic job, not only in their their constant attention to detail, but in creating an environment of ease, safety and conviviality that transformed a group of strangers into friends, young and old, sharing a great experience. We're still in touch with 2 families we met on the trip, skiing with one earlier this year and joining another on the K&L tour.

K&L was a bit of a let down and I'm still trying to figure out why. The guides handled everything smoothly, ABD delivered on everything promised, yet that extra magic was lacking. It was an efficient well-run trip and I think everyone had a good time, but I can't see how it differed from any other competently run tour.

Part of it may have been the nature of the two trips. Maybe on K&L, the guides have more balls in the air to juggle, so have less time to deal with the intangibles. Maybe it was because K&L was a 'seeing' tour while QftW was a 'doing' tour. Maybe the QftW trip just lends itself better to group integration. Maybe it was just the different compositions of the two groups.

Whatever the reason, my enthusiasm for ABD has tempered. After QftW, I felt the premium charged by ABD was well worth it. Now I'm not so sure. We had a good time on K&L and I'll still consider ABD in the future, but will look at other companies as well.

FWIW, K&L was the third ABD tour for the family we traveled with and they had a similar impression.

I think you echo what has happened to many of us (although not all!) on our ABD second tour, and why I was willing to try a different company this year. While I do think some of the letdown is due to the fact that it's all not new and a surprise, I do think some it has to do with the specific tour and group dynamics.
What I missed the most on our second tour (1st was Germany and second was Alaska) was the lack of surprises and the feeling that "no other tour company would do this". Other companies can give you great hotels, bypass admission lines to busy attractions, competent and fun guides who help facilitate group interaction (we got all of those on our Tauck Bridges trip this year) etc., but who else would give you the appearance of a ghost in an old castle? Or a tour given by the Grimm brothers themselves? Or magically have photos of your family from the day appear in your room while you're at dinner? These things made our Germany trip special - and made me feel like a kid myself to be surprised and "wowed" all the time!
If I KNOW some of these things would happen on an ABD trip, I might chose to pay the extra that ABD charges. If not, I likely would save the money (and sometimes we're not talking about insubstantial amounts here!) and go with another company.
Did your K&L have any of these type surprises or extras?
Would be interesting to do a poll to see how many of us experienced a letdown on our second ABD tour.

 

[jomat]

That's exactly how we felt - marcemch and ennuiphobe. Our first ABD- the imperial cities (Austria and Czech Republic) was truly magical but our second- the Knights and Lights -some of the magic seemed missing. We tried Tauck Bridges this year and like marcemch thought that it was an excellent trip too.I think you both pretty much covered most of the reasons why the feeling of 'not upto expectations' happens on repeat ABD trips for some of us.

 

[knewton64]

I think you echo what has happened to many of us (although not all!) on our ABD second tour, and why I was willing to try a different company this year. While I do think some of the letdown is due to the fact that it's all not new and a surprise, I do think some it has to do with the specific tour and group dynamics.
What I missed the most on our second tour (1st was Germany and second was Alaska) was the lack of surprises and the feeling that "no other tour company would do this". Other companies can give you great hotels, bypass admission lines to busy attractions, competent and fun guides who help facilitate group interaction (we got all of those on our Tauck Bridges trip this year) etc., but who else would give you the appearance of a ghost in an old castle? Or a tour given by the Grimm brothers themselves? Or magically have photos of your family from the day appear in your room while you're at dinner? These things made our Germany trip special - and made me feel like a kid myself to be surprised and "wowed" all the time!
If I KNOW some of these things would happen on an ABD trip, I might chose to pay the extra that ABD charges. If not, I likely would save the money (and sometimes we're not talking about insubstantial amounts here!) and go with another company.
Did your K&L have any of these type surprises or extras?
Would be interesting to do a poll to see how many of us experienced a letdown on our second ABD tour.

.....we all need to have room to briefly list why we felt a let down on our second ABD tour.


Anywho -

on a different note, I will be posting in a few weeks my reflections on the diffrences bewteen ABD's Backstage Magic and WDW's Backstage Magic tours (and KTTK tour as well) per my upcoming WDW vacation in........1752 hours - but hey...who is counting?.
WIll promise to keep it objective.


T.T.F.N.

 

[marcemch]

That's exactly how we felt - marcemch and ennuiphobe. Our first ABD- the imperial cities (Austria and Czech Republic) was truly magical but our second- the Knights and Lights -some of the magic seemed missing. We tried Tauck Bridges this year and like marcemch thought that it was an excellent trip too.I think you both pretty much covered most of the reasons why the feeling of 'not upto expectations' happens on repeat ABD trips for some of us.

Do you have ideas for next year's trip, Jomat? Do you think you all will do another Tauck Bridges trip or ABD? (BTW, Jill from our TB trip booked TB's Cowboy Country already! Guess she's sold on group travel for families after their first trip!)

 

[jomat]

Do you have ideas for next year's trip, Jomat? Do you think you all will do another Tauck Bridges trip or ABD? (BTW, Jill from our TB trip booked TB's Cowboy Country already! Guess she's sold on group travel for families after their first trip!)

Haven't decided yet. I thought I could let my oldest child decide since it would be a high school graduation celebration trip for her. Maybe another ABD....maybe.