Other Options...

[Calfan]

Calfan,

Glad to hear that you had a great time on your Thompson China Trip. Thanks for the detailed comparison with ABD tours. My husband and I are going with ABD to China this October. I am a little concerned about the OYO time while in China. While I was very comfortable filling in OYO times on our Europe tours the idea of getting around in China's crowded cities without the ability to communicate may be a problem. If I knew the exact times that we were on our own in each city I would just hire a private guide as I have for our first day in Beijing. Where did you stay in Shanghai and how long did it take you to get to Shanghai Disneyland? Do you have any tips regarding visiting Shanghai Disneyland? Thanks.

We stayed at the Regal Shanghai East Asia Hotel, which is in the French Concession. Not my favorite hotel or location of the trip. We took the subway from the hotel to Shanghai Disneyland. Door to door, I'd say it was about an hour and a half to the park, including walking from the hotel to the subway, the subway ride itself, walking to the park on the other end and clearing two separate lines, one for security and another to enter the park. The subway in Shanghai is very easy to use, as there is an English version on the ticket machines, and all of the stations are listed in both Chinese and English. We did a Premier VIP tour on our first day in the park, which was expensive but key in enabling us to get on all of the rides, since the more popular rides had really long wait times (120 to 150 minutes). We were able to Fast Pass Tron on our second day, but by the time we were eligible for a second fast pass, fast pass distribution for Roaring Rapids and Soaring Over the Horizon had already ended for the day (around 1 pm). Pirates of the Caribbean Battle for the Sunken Treasure had shorter wait times (30 to 40 minutes) and is a fantastic ride. My favorites were Tron (way cool), Pirates, Roaring Rapids and Soaring. The Crystal Grotto ride is very cute as well. We waited about 50 minutes to do the Snow White enchanted story walk through in the castle, and felt it was worth it. The castle is very impressive. The Alice in Wonderland maze is with doing too. Let me know if you have any specific questions, and I'll try to answer.

 

[distravel]

We stayed at the Regal Shanghai East Asia Hotel, which is in the French Concession. Not my favorite hotel or location of the trip. We took the subway from the hotel to Shanghai Disneyland. Door to door, I'd say it was about an hour and a half to the park, including walking from the hotel to the subway, the subway ride itself, walking to the park on the other end and clearing two separate lines, one for security and another to enter the park. The subway in Shanghai is very easy to use, as there is an English version on the ticket machines, and all of the stations are listed in both Chinese and English. We did a Premier VIP tour on our first day in the park, which was expensive but key in enabling us to get on all of the rides, since the more popular rides had really long wait times (120 to 150 minutes). We were able to Fast Pass Tron on our second day, but by the time we were eligible for a second fast pass, fast pass distribution for Roaring Rapids and Soaring Over the Horizon had already ended for the day (around 1 pm). Pirates of the Caribbean Battle for the Sunken Treasure had shorter wait times (30 to 40 minutes) and is a fantastic ride. My favorites were Tron (way cool), Pirates, Roaring Rapids and Soaring. The Crystal Grotto ride is very cute as well. We waited about 50 minutes to do the Snow White enchanted story walk through in the castle, and felt it was worth it. The castle is very impressive. The Alice in Wonderland maze is with doing too. Let me know if you have any specific questions, and I'll try to answer.

Thanks for the info! Just picked up our visas from the Chinese consulate in NYC today so starting to get excited for the upcoming trip. Do you think we will be able to buy two entry tickets each to the park thus doubling our number of fastpasses? I know they check your passport so I'm not sure it would be allowed. May try anyway. Would love to see as much as possible in one day during our short return trip to Shanghai before heading home ( The 2016 ABD China trip ends in Hong Kong). I am hoping ABD will surprise us with a trip to the park on our free afternoon in Shanghai with a bonus handful of fastpasses but I didn't realize the park is so far from the city center.

Did you visit any of the Watertowns near Shanghai? We plan to do a day trip to Suzhou and Tongli Water Village from Shanghai in lieu of another day at Disneyland.

 

[Calfan]

Thanks for the info! Just picked up our visas from the Chinese consulate in NYC today so starting to get excited for the upcoming trip. Do you think we will be able to buy two entry tickets each to the park thus doubling our number of fastpasses? I know they check your passport so I'm not sure it would be allowed. May try anyway. Would love to see as much as possible in one day during our short return trip to Shanghai before heading home ( The 2016 ABD China trip ends in Hong Kong). I am hoping ABD will surprise us with a trip to the park on our free afternoon in Shanghai with a bonus handful of fastpasses but I didn't realize the park is so far from the city center.

Did you visit any of the Watertowns near Shanghai? We plan to do a day trip to Suzhou and Tongli Water Village from Shanghai in lieu of another day at Disneyland.

They did not check passports at the park entry (it was the VIP tour that required my passport), but I suspect they won't give you more tickets than you have people, even if you have online tickets for four people. Just like at Disneyland, they give you an actual ticket after scanning your online ticket printout. We did not anything additional in Shangahi other than Shanghai Disneyland.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I so did not mean to bum you out!! I even thought about that as I was writing some of this, but I wanted to be as honest as possible, especially for others that haven't yet made a decision about which tour company to use. I think you are going to have a fabulous trip with ABD, and that the parks component is going to be key for DS. I have never heard anything but glowing trip reports about ABD's trip to China.

I did really like our guides. They definitely weren't the rah rah type that you can find with Disney, and I wouldn't characterize either as bubbly (a la Hanni) or goofy (a la Zoe), but they were very friendly, easy to talk to and have conversations with and happy to answer any kind of question and to impart their extensive knowledge about China. Our main guide gave us some mini Chinese lessons during some of our bus time, and also passed on information on things like his experiences in the Tiananmen Square student protests, how the government works, how you get a driver's license in China, etc. All manner of things. He also did some of those extras that the ABD guides are known for. When I told him that I needed to bring my passport to Shanghai Disneyland to show to our tour guide for the VIP tour, he was concerned about me having to carry my passport around and called Shanghai Disneyland for me to confirm that I really needed the passport (I did.) He also gave us a map that he had marked with directions from the hotel to the specific subway line for us to get to Shanghai Disneyland, which we were doing on our own. And he gave me his cell phone number and told me to call if we ran in to any trouble while we were on our own. He gave similar help to the other family who was going on to Hong Kong. He also gave everyone a small gift at the end of the trip. The rafiki for the kids was also great. He sat with the kids on the bus and brought out cards and small games to entertain them. He also taught them a Chinese card game.

We did have to tip our guides at the end, and Thomson provided recommended tip guidelines. I'm totally with you on this one. It would be so much better if the tips were just included in the base price of the trip. Thomson made it very clear, though, that all other tips throughout the trip were included in the trip price (e.g., local guides and drivers).

LOL, no I'd rather be a little bummed out and hear your perspective--going forward I think it is going to be really useful. As ABD gets away from the special touches and VIP experiences, I'm not feeling so loyal (especially after that 49). Even though I really enjoyed Greece, the bloom is still definitely off the rose. I've been using our ABD Scotland as a barometer of ABD, and the more trips I go on, the more I realize that is not the way the ABD is moving and that experience isn't going to be repeated or equalled. I think we were really lucky to be on that trip when we were. It was so well rounded, with awesome hotels, tons of VIP touches, a manageable size group, and amazing guides. I think to grow ABD has moved away from the VIP/upscale/special, unique experiences to a more traditional tour model. That's fine, but for me it isn't why they stood out.

The cynical side of me can't help thinking that the reason there seems to be so much on your own time and on your own meals in the ABD itineraries is because that is an easy way to eliminate something that most people won't notice (or care about) and increase profits. I suspect that's also why they take down the previous year's itineraries when they post the new ones. It makes it harder to compare. The increasing of on your own time and meals also gives them an ability to make their prices look more competitive or stay below a certain price threshold. Ditto for why they don't include the tip. That extra $500 at least pp for the Greece ABD doesn't make it as attractive price-wised. For example, the Scotland trip we paid for on opening day was under $5000 pp with incentives. That trip was one day longer than now, including another night at a hotel, more meals, and a private airplane ride to Lewis. There are a number of other changes as well. Someone who is just looking at price though will see that it's still opening in the $5000 range not realizing all the things that have been eliminated.

Love hearing about the guides, too. They sound more in the vein of Mary who we had on our last ABD trip. She was great.

 

[BluesTraveler]

Calfan, thank you so much, this is incredibly helpful.

 

[Rapunzellover]

CaliforniaGirl- the previous itineraries are not taken down. They are on the site under rates and dates, under the section that covers that *previous itinerary clause. Difficult to find, yes, but still there for comparing.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

CaliforniaGirl- the previous itineraries are not taken down. They are on the site under rates and dates, under the section that covers that *previous itinerary clause. Difficult to find, yes, but still there for comparing.

Sorry, I should have been more specific--I did know those were there. But I think they are only up as long as those trips are still running (i.e. 2016 itineraries are up for 2016 trips that haven't gone), and as soon as those trips are done they take it down, right? In other words, there's only a small window to compare and someone has to be pretty determined, LOL. It is hidden! The links to the old trips (PDF) that I've had in the past didn't work or took me to the new itinerary. I've thought about downloading a bunch of them to compare year to year to see how things get whittled away. Unfortunately, I didn't download the PDFs of all my trips--I wanted to compare the Ireland trip we took in 2007 to what they do now (someone had mentioned the ring of kerry, and I thought we'd done that). I actually have my book somewhere, I should just go try to find it!

 

[tgeorge]

Sorry, I should have been more specific--I did know those were there. But I think they are only up as long as those trips are still running (i.e. 2016 itineraries are up for 2016 trips that haven't gone), and as soon as those trips are done they take it down, right? In other words, there's only a small window to compare and someone has to be pretty determined, LOL. It is hidden! The links to the old trips (PDF) that I've had in the past didn't work or took me to the new itinerary. I've thought about downloading a bunch of them to compare year to year to see how things get whittled away. Unfortunately, I didn't download the PDFs of all my trips--I wanted to compare the Ireland trip we took in 2007 to what they do now (someone had mentioned the ring of kerry, and I thought we'd done that). I actually have my book somewhere, I should just go try to find it!

That's a great idea. Print off the itineraries to keep. Never thought of that,but it would be helpful I'm sure

 

[Calfan]

I thought of a few more points that I should have made in my Thomson vs. ABD comparison post:

One big negative about Thomson that still galls me every time I think about it is that they don't take credit cards for the balance payment. The deposit can be paid by credit card, but not the final payment in full. (Or rather, you can use a credit card, but Thomson charges a 3% fee to do so.) It KILLED me to write the check for the balance of our China trip. All I could think about were the foregone miles/points, which would have been significant with that balance, especially with my Chase Sapphire Preferred card that gives double points for travel expenses. I even ran the math more than once to see if it was worth it to use the credit card and pay the fee, but each time it was clear that this would result in paying way too much per point. This is actually a pretty significant difference maker to me. If I were choosing between comparable small group itineraries, say Thomson and NatGeo, I would almost certainly go in the direction of the company (NatGeo) that will let me pay for my whole trip with a credit card. I have some hope, however, that Thomson might change this policy. A few weeks ago, I participated in an interview with a company that is helping Thomson redesign its website. I made the point several times that I think it is a competitive disadvantage for Thomson not to accept credit cards for the balance payment and that it might dissuade me from taking a Thomson trip in the future if there were a comparable alternative to choose. Hopefully that hit home.

Another difference between Thomson and ABD is that our Thomson guides did not eat with us at meals. We actually asked them about this, and they said it had to do with needing to closely supervise the kitchens at the restaurants to make sure we were getting exactly what the guides had ordered for us (all of the Chinese meals were family style; as an aside, we had some pretty funny moments related to Lazy Susan etiquette throughout the trip!). So I'm not sure if this is typical of all Thomson trips, or maybe just China where kitchen supervision is more important. On the one hand, it would have been nice to have the guides share our meals so we could get to know them even better. On the other hand, with such a small group, there was ample time to talk to the guides outside of meals, so this didn't really feel like a missed opportunity. It also gave us the opportunity to talk about our experiences on the trip without having to be sensitive to the guides' feelings.

Another thing I wanted to point out is that I really like how Thomson coordinates its trips pre-departure. Similar to NatGeo, as soon as you book, you are put in contact with a person at Thomson who acts as trip coordinator for your particular departure. You can dialog with that person by email or phone to ask any questions, send in requested information (like flight arrangements), etc. Our China trip coordinator also handled the arrangements for our pre-night in Beijing and our post-nights in Shanghai. It is really nice to have a dedicated contact at the tour company who is very knowledgeable about the itinerary. I much prefer this to needing to call ABD and getting a different vacationista each time (some of whom seem more knowledgeable and helpful than others) or having to go through a TA for everything. And you can end up building relationships with your coordinator. For my NatGeo hiking trip in Ireland this Sept., we have the same trip coordinator as on the England Coast to Coast trip CaliforniaGirl09 and I did last year.

The last thing I want to point out is that Thomson has some pretty generous early booking and repeat traveler discounts. We got a $500 per person discount for booking our China trip soon after the itineraries were released.

 

[Calfan]

LOL, no I'd rather be a little bummed out and hear your perspective--going forward I think it is going to be really useful. As ABD gets away from the special touches and VIP experiences, I'm not feeling so loyal (especially after that 49). Even though I really enjoyed Greece, the bloom is still definitely off the rose. I've been using our ABD Scotland as a barometer of ABD, and the more trips I go on, the more I realize that is not the way the ABD is moving and that experience isn't going to be repeated or equalled. I think we were really lucky to be on that trip when we were. It was so well rounded, with awesome hotels, tons of VIP touches, a manageable size group, and amazing guides. I think to grow ABD has moved away from the VIP/upscale/special, unique experiences to a more traditional tour model. That's fine, but for me it isn't why they stood out.

The cynical side of me can't help thinking that the reason there seems to be so much on your own time and on your own meals in the ABD itineraries is because that is an easy way to eliminate something that most people won't notice (or care about) and increase profits. I suspect that's also why they take down the previous year's itineraries when they post the new ones. It makes it harder to compare. The increasing of on your own time and meals also gives them an ability to make their prices look more competitive or stay below a certain price threshold. Ditto for why they don't include the tip. That extra $500 at least pp for the Greece ABD doesn't make it as attractive price-wised. For example, the Scotland trip we paid for on opening day was under $5000 pp with incentives. That trip was one day longer than now, including another night at a hotel, more meals, and a private airplane ride to Lewis. There are a number of other changes as well. Someone who is just looking at price though will see that it's still opening in the $5000 range not realizing all the things that have been eliminated.

Love hearing about the guides, too. They sound more in the vein of Mary who we had on our last ABD trip. She was great.

So glad we jumped on Scotland that first year. That is going to be a very hard trip to top, and I completely agree that it is the shining example of what an ABD can be.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I thought of a few more points that I should have made in my Thomson vs. ABD comparison post:

One big negative about Thomson that still galls me every time I think about it is that they don't take credit cards for the balance payment. The deposit can be paid by credit card, but not the final payment in full. (Or rather, you can use a credit card, but Thomson charges a 3% fee to do so.) It KILLED me to write the check for the balance of our China trip. All I could think about were the foregone miles/points, which would have been significant with that balance, especially with my Chase Sapphire Preferred card that gives double points for travel expenses. I even ran the math more than once to see if it was worth it to use the credit card and pay the fee, but each time it was clear that this would result in paying way too much per point. This is actually a pretty significant difference maker to me. If I were choosing between comparable small group itineraries, say Thomson and NatGeo, I would almost certainly go in the direction of the company (NatGeo) that will let me pay for my whole trip with a credit card. I have some hope, however, that Thomson might change this policy. A few weeks ago, I participated in an interview with a company that is helping Thomson redesign its website. I made the point several times that I think it is a competitive disadvantage for Thomson not to accept credit cards for the balance payment and that it might dissuade me from taking a Thomson trip in the future if there were a comparable alternative to choose. Hopefully that hit home.

Another difference between Thomson and ABD is that our Thomson guides did not eat with us at meals. We actually asked them about this, and they said it had to do with needing to closely supervise the kitchens at the restaurants to make sure we were getting exactly what the guides had ordered for us (all of the Chinese meals were family style; as an aside, we had some pretty funny moments related to Lazy Susan etiquette throughout the trip!). So I'm not sure if this is typical of all Thomson trips, or maybe just China where kitchen supervision is more important. On the one hand, it would have been nice to have the guides share our meals so we could get to know them even better. On the other hand, with such a small group, there was ample time to talk to the guides outside of meals, so this didn't really feel like a missed opportunity. It also gave us the opportunity to talk about our experiences on the trip without having to be sensitive to the guides' feelings.

Another thing I wanted to point out is that I really like how Thomson coordinates its trips pre-departure. Similar to NatGeo, as soon as you book, you are put in contact with a person at Thomson who acts as trip coordinator for your particular departure. You can dialog with that person by email or phone to ask any questions, send in requested information (like flight arrangements), etc. Our China trip coordinator also handled the arrangements for our pre-night in Beijing and our post-nights in Shanghai. It is really nice to have a dedicated contact at the tour company who is very knowledgeable about the itinerary. I much prefer this to needing to call ABD and getting a different vacationista each time (some of whom seem more knowledgeable and helpful than others) or having to go through a TA for everything. And you can end up building relationships with your coordinator. For my NatGeo hiking trip in Ireland this Sept., we have the same trip coordinator as on the England Coast to Coast trip CaliforniaGirl09 and I did last year.

The last thing I want to point out is that Thomson has some pretty generous early booking and repeat traveler discounts. We got a $500 per person discount for booking our China trip soon after the itineraries were released.

Interesting about the meals, although I think we only ate with Chris and Mary once on our Greece ABD and they were up floating about most of the time.

OUCH on the credit card policy. That is a huge deterrent. You should have heard me grousing in Athens about not being able to use my credit card at restaurants--that hefty deposit is much more painful. BTW, I fully blame Calypso for this, LOL.

 

[Calfan]

Interesting about the meals, although I think we only ate with Chris and Mary once on our Greece ABD and they were up floating about most of the time.

OUCH on the credit card policy. That is a huge deterrent. You should have heard me grousing in Athens about not being able to use my credit card at restaurants--that hefty deposit is much more painful. BTW, I fully blame Calypso for this, LOL.

I definitely felt sympathy pangs when reading about your inability to use your credit card at restaurants in Athens, LOL. I'm really hoping Thomson changes this policy because I agree that it is a big deterrent, which is a shame given the quality of their trips that have so many features I like. As a side note, I would definitely watch use of your credit card in China. I used ours a few times, when the guides said it was safe to do so (e.g., at the tea shop where we did our tea ceremony and at the art museum where we had our art lesson), but they definitely discouraged using credit cards at any of the markets or in shops that might have a questionable reputation. This worked out fine because I had brought a lot of Chinese cash in the hope that I could pay a ridiculous amount to hold a baby panda. Since this was a no go, we had Chinese cash to spare and defaulted to using cash before we ran out on the last day of our trip. It was also really easy to use Chinese cash, because they really don't use coins, so you are almost always dealing in bills. We did use cc's at Shanghai Disneyland and at the Beijing airport, and those seem to have been fine.

 

[Cinderella's Slipper 2015]

Another difference between Thomson and ABD is that our Thomson guides did not eat with us at meals. We actually asked them about this, and they said it had to do with needing to closely supervise the kitchens at the restaurants to make sure we were getting exactly what the guides had ordered for us (all of the Chinese meals were family style; as an aside, we had some pretty funny moments related to Lazy Susan etiquette throughout the trip!). So I'm not sure if this is typical of all Thomson trips, or maybe just China where kitchen supervision is more important. On the one hand, it would have been nice to have the guides share our meals so we could get to know them even better. On the other hand, with such a small group, there was ample time to talk to the guides outside of meals, so this didn't really feel like a missed opportunity. It also gave us the opportunity to talk about our experiences on the trip without having to be sensitive to the guides' feelings.

I wonder if maybe this had something do with someone having an allergy or food sensitivity. It would make sense as to why the guides had to supervise the kitchens. This is going to be an interesting challenge for me on our upcoming Central Europe ABD. I've recently discovered I can't have dairy so meals will be interesting.

As for guides dining with you, our guides dined with us on our Southern California trip, but only with the same guests all the time. Every meal we had the guides sat with the same 4 people, never sitting with anybody else.

 

[Calfan]

I wonder if maybe this had something do with someone having an allergy or food sensitivity. It would make sense as to why the guides had to supervise the kitchens. This is going to be an interesting challenge for me on our upcoming Central Europe ABD. I've recently discovered I can't have dairy so meals will be interesting.

As for guides dining with you, our guides dined with us on our Southern California trip, but only with the same guests all the time. Every meal we had the guides sat with the same 4 people, never sitting with anybody else.

Could be. One of the girls in the other family had nut allergies (and her twin brother might also have been allergic to something). The interesting thing is that a lot of the dishes did have nuts, and she just avoided those. But maybe the guides were making sure no nuts crept in to other dishes where they might not be expected. Strange about your SoCal trip and the guides always sitting with the same family.

 

[Cinderella's Slipper 2015]

Could be. One of the girls in the other family had nut allergies (and her twin brother might also have been allergic to something). The interesting thing is that a lot of the dishes did have nuts, and she just avoided those. But maybe the guides were making sure no nuts crept in to other dishes where they might not be expected. Strange about your SoCal trip and the guides always sitting with the same family.

My guess is they were making sure that her dishes never had any nuts touch them and any utensils/boards used to prepare her meals were never used to prepare the ones with the nuts. The dish doesn't have to actually have nuts in it for her to have a reaction, it just has to be cross contaminated by an uncleaned knife or cutting board so they were making sure that didn't happen.

The problem was these ladies were So Cal natives and Disneyland regulars. Once the lead guide found that out, that was it. That's where they sat at every meal. Nobody else really existed. They helped us when needed and everything and did the tour as they should have but that extra little bit of Disney magic was missing.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

The problem was these ladies were So Cal natives and Disneyland regulars. Once the lead guide found that out, that was it. That's where they sat at every meal. Nobody else really existed. They helped us when needed and everything and did the tour as they should have but that extra little bit of Disney magic was missing.

That's a bummer! Usually the guides are pretty good about spreading their time around the group. As the guides are such a big part of the Disney mojo, I can definitely see how some of the magic would be missing.

 

[carpenta]

I believe that the cash only policy has to do with the Greek financial crisis and 1) Banks not able / willing to get involved with handling credit card processing 2) People not willing to have large amounts of cash sitting in any bank because of the last bank run in Greece 3) Paying in cash does allow the owner to avoid taxes and not report to the government on income. Tax payments in Greece is sort of "voluntary" at best. I agree with the dining situation and sever cut backs on dining quality.

Pray for those poor souls in Munich.

 

[Cousin Orville]

I am a little concerned about the OYO time while in China.

Honestly there's not much OYO time on the China ABD. In its current form really we just had one evening free in Beijing. There was a couple of hours in Chengdu where we had just enough time to go to a park and pick up a Starbucks mug, and a couple of hours after arriving in HK. Probably the least OYO one I've had on any ABD. But for China I think that's a good thing. I like a little OYO time to balance out the scheduled activities, but the communication barrier in China makes it a little tough. HK and probably Shanghai aren't so bad, but you should have a clear idea of where you're going to in the other cities.

 

[calypso726]

I thought of a few more points that I should have made in my Thomson vs. ABD comparison post:

One big negative about Thomson that still galls me every time I think about it is that they don't take credit cards for the balance payment. The deposit can be paid by credit card, but not the final payment in full. (Or rather, you can use a credit card, but Thomson charges a 3% fee to do so.) It KILLED me to write the check for the balance of our China trip. All I could think about were the foregone miles/points, which would have been significant with that balance, especially with my Chase Sapphire Preferred card that gives double points for travel expenses. I even ran the math more than once to see if it was worth it to use the credit card and pay the fee, but each time it was clear that this would result in paying way too much per point. This is actually a pretty significant difference maker to me. If I were choosing between comparable small group itineraries, say Thomson and NatGeo, I would almost certainly go in the direction of the company (NatGeo) that will let me pay for my whole trip with a credit card. I have some hope, however, that Thomson might change this policy. A few weeks ago, I participated in an interview with a company that is helping Thomson redesign its website. I made the point several times that I think it is a competitive disadvantage for Thomson not to accept credit cards for the balance payment and that it might dissuade me from taking a Thomson trip in the future if there were a comparable alternative to choose. Hopefully that hit home.

Well, that just guaranteed that DH and I wouldn't even consider booking with them. Our River cruise and post Prague ABD was probably the most expensive ABD we have done so far. There is no way I would have paid that kind of money and forego the miles. Wow just thinking about it makes me queasy For us one of the big advantages of doing tours with ABD is the fact that we can pay with Disney gift cards. At the very least I can straight up buy Disney GCs at 5 miles/points per dollar. Usually, we take it a step further and buy Target GCs at 5 miles/points per dollar, use the Target GCs to buy Disney GCs online and get an additional 5% off the cost of the trip. So the river cruise and post Prague ABD got us 68,900 airline miles and wound up costing 5% less out of pocket and we will get an additional 2% back in the form of Disney GCs for paying through the DVA account. Our Ireland trip was not too far off the mark from the cost of ABD Ireland and I hated that we couldn't pay it with Disney GCs to get 5 miles/points per dollar. At least they took credit cards so we got 2 miles/points per dollar. Your trip sounded absolutely awesome though. I dunno, I guess if Ashford Castle only took checks for a stay there and doing the hawking I'd deal with and pay it because it was so amazing. We are SO going back there.

So glad we jumped on Scotland that first year. That is going to be a very hard trip to top, and I completely agree that it is the shining example of what an ABD can be.

You and me both. Still my favorite trip!

OUCH on the credit card policy. That is a huge deterrent. You should have heard me grousing in Athens about not being able to use my credit card at restaurants--that hefty deposit is much more painful. BTW, I fully blame Calypso for this, LOL.

You're welcome *takes a bow*

 

[carpenta]

Can't you use one of those "checks" mailed to you from the credit card company which is still credited to you credit card balance account? I must get a number every month mailed to me to use for anything I want........except they want me to PAY for the financial number I enter on the dollar line on the check....lol.