Nashville Long Weekend

[kimdesimone]

So, I scrolled through and saw no one talking about this ABD Nashvile. What gives? Has anyone done it? We are on the fence about it since:

1. doesn't look popular and we may need to go ahead and book before they remove it
2. it is relatively close for us and we feel like we could do the long weekend on our own

I also want to hear from someone who has done it and how Day 1 works since you are suppose to begin at breakfast but the previous night is not part of your tour.

thanks for any feedback! Kim

 

[tgeorge]

I haven't done this trip, but we are signed up for the San Francisco ABD next October. Ours will also begin at breakfast on Thursday morning. We are flying in the day before and staying at the Fairmont so we can be there to start our day with breakfast. It seems like everyone else who has done the long weekend trips does this or else you will miss out!

I haven't seen anyone talk about the Nashville trip either. I hope that someone who has done it chimes in to answer your other question

 

[emsstacey]

I live close to Nashville and it sounds like a great itinerary but I could do it for a fraction of the price on our own!

 

[morgan98]

I live close to Nashville and it sounds like a great itinerary but I could do it for a fraction of the price on our own!

This exactly. It is $2200 per adult or so for 3 nights in Tennessee? I really do not mean to insult other's choices, but this seems like highway robbery. There are meals that are not even included as well.

 

[dmc6469]

I'm in Nashville and I know that there is no way that you would book something for 3 nights at that cost. Even at the Opryland Hotel or the Omni downtown. They are ripping you off for that price!

 

[RSM]

Hi dmc6469 . We are considering this tour at some point. Obviously, if the experience was simply the hotel stays, transport around Nashville, and guided experiences you could do on your own, the cost would not make sense. In looking at the itinerary, you could easily do some of the experiences on your own. However, others look to be somewhat unique. Given that you live in Nashville, do you know if you could do the following on your own: WSM station tour & record a station ID; meeting songwriters at the Bluebird café and writing a song; RCA studio tour and record a song; and going backstage at the Grand Ole Opry during a performance. For this ABD, I believe Disney is trying to put a premium on experiences you couldn’t do on your own. How much value you put on this and how much you're willing to pay is subjective.

 

[OKW Lover]

I'm in Nashville and I know that there is no way that you would book something for 3 nights at that cost. Even at the Opryland Hotel or the Omni downtown. They are ripping you off for that price!

Please keep in mind that the price you are paying for any ABD is not just for the hotel and/or the meals. It also covers access to various experiences/venues, some of which the average person can't get into at any cost.

 

[Bobo912]

Most of the activities on the Nashville ABD are available to anybody and they range in price from $15 to less than $30. And you can bundle the tickets and get them for less. There used to be after hours tours at the Hermitage, but I think they are only for groups now, except at Christmas, when individuals can purchase tickets. Unless you happen to arrive at the same time as a school bus, the Hermitage is not crowded anyway. I guess the most exclusive thing is the before hours visit to the Bluebird, but personally, I would rather be there for the actual performances. I would recommend that visitors stay downtown and not at Opryland. There are a lot of nice hotels downtown and a lot to do there. Fans of the TV show might want to stay at the Homewood Suites on Chruch Street. It is the location of the ficticious record company on the show and they shoot there and at other locations downtown pretty often.

Some ABDs have more exclusive acitivites, but in a lot of cases you can do the same activities on your own. If you search the internet you can even find after hours tours of the Vatician (probably really need to plan far in advance to get those though). On our last two ABDs I don't believe there was anything that was actually exclusive to our group. What we were really paying for was the convenience of having somebody else arrange it, buy the tickets, and transport us, and hopefully the security of having the guides handle anything that might go wrong. In a foreign country that has more value. Not so sure that it's worth it for Nashville. We were voted Travel & Leisures's friendliest city in America this year. If you get into trouble here, I think you can find somebody to help you. We've definitely got some traffic issues though, so it would be nice to have somebody drive you around.

But whether you do a tour or come here on your own, I highly recommend a visit. I've lived here for years and it just gets better all the time. It's a lot of fun and just a great place to be. And I do not work in the tourist industry.

 

[AquamarineSteph]

So, I scrolled through and saw no one talking about this ABD Nashvile. What gives? Has anyone done it? We are on the fence about it since:

1. doesn't look popular and we may need to go ahead and book before they remove it
2. it is relatively close for us and we feel like we could do the long weekend on our own

I also want to hear from someone who has done it and how Day 1 works since you are suppose to begin at breakfast but the previous night is not part of your tour.

thanks for any feedback! Kim

I have not done this trip; however, I just returned from an ABD experience and met a couple who did. They quite loved it.

As far as the breakfast part goes, we arrived the night before the tour began. We had a letter from our guides waiting for us when we checked into the hotel that told us where and what time to meet for breakfast.

Hi dmc6469 . We are considering this tour at some point. Obviously, if the experience was simply the hotel stays, transport around Nashville, and guided experiences you could do on your own, the cost would not make sense. In looking at the itinerary, you could easily do some of the experiences on your own. However, others look to be somewhat unique. Given that you live in Nashville, do you know if you could do the following on your own: WSM station tour & record a station ID; meeting songwriters at the Bluebird café and writing a song; RCA studio tour and record a song; and going backstage at the Grand Ole Opry during a performance. For this ABD, I believe Disney is trying to put a premium on experiences you couldn’t do on your own. How much value you put on this and how much you're willing to pay is subjective.

As a Nashville native, I can tell you that some of these experiences can be done on your own. If you are a country music fan or a fan of the show Nashville, I expect that this would be a fantastic way to conveniently see many things in a short amount of time. But as far as what can/can't be done by a private individual -

The Hermitage tour can be done on your own, but general public tours do not include biscuit making or dancing as described in the tour itinerary. The general tour does not always include ghost stories either, although there is an optional ghost story tour that can be done seasonally.

The WSM station tour and station ID is somewhat unique. I no longer know anyone who works at the station, but previously the station was not open to the general public for tours.

The Bluebird cafe has regular performances, but going there to meet/talk with a professional songwriter is not anything they usually offer to the general public.

The RCA studio tour runs almost daily, but at one point recording a song was reserved for group tours only.

Individuals can book a VIP backstage experience at the Grand Ole Opry, but it does not include the dancing and dinner outlined in the tour description. And while you can never predict who'll make an appearance at the Opry, it's almost always an entertaining show.

I do agree with the comment above about Nashville's traffic. Our traffic is hideous. I'd rather drive in Los Angeles, but having said that, we have far fewer drivers and shorter distances. Your maps app on your phone will get you from point A to point B just fine. But I don't know if I could pack all of this into one weekend as efficiently as Disney does.

 

[mare1203]

I haven't done this trip, nor do I plan to, however you should keep in mind: the long weekend trips are pretty much designed as stepping stones to the "bigger" ABD's. ABD hopes that these might convince families on the fence about ABD to see the product and then they will do a longer or abroad trip the next time around. The North American trips in general have a different audience than the trips abroad. The same can honestly be said of the more "exotic" trips in comparison to the European or Central American trips. Many families will start with Ireland, Italy, or Costa Rica and then move on to South Africa or Asia. However, Disney recognizes that not everyone might want to start with a familiar European destination and thus offers some of the North American ones (and now offer both the longer trips and the weekend trips...another way for them to possibly reach new markets). The return rate for families who have done ABD is quite high, but they're always looking for new customers, of course!

The DisBoards only have a very small fraction of the total number of adventurers going on ABD trips, so I wouldn't use the chatter on the boards as a determination of how popular a trip might be. Heck, they've been offering the Switzerland trip since 2009 and very few people here have been on it, but my trip was pretty full and all the others available itineraries also had the average 30-35 adventurers. I've never run into another Dis'er on my trips, nor do I honestly expect to. If you're interested in checking out the ABD product go for the Nashville trip!

 

[sayhello]

The Disney Parks Blog had an entry last week about the Nashville Long Weekend ABD:

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/bl...le-long-weekend-really-is-music-to-your-ears/

Sayhello