I think it really depends on the trip/itinerary. If the adventure is out of country and goes off the beaten path, then I think it's more worth it (but that's just my opinion).
We went to Japan for 9 days over Spring Break (we had been contemplating Aulani or Backstage magic), but we decided to do something more exotic. I planned the whole thing and it was a really fabulous vacation - but it did take me hours and hours over many weeks to do all the planning. I called it "Adventures by Mommy" and we all had a really good time.
Overall, we spent $19k including airfare....I'm sure if it were ABD, it would have been nearly double.
There are definitely advantages to ABD:
- the local tour guides are all fabulous. I hired 4 different private tour guides in 4 cities in Japan, and only 2 were really good. Even with lots of planning, it's hard to always get the right guides.
- other kids to play with. 'Nuff said.
- meals/snacks on-time. We often ate meals late on our own because we didn't know where to go or how to order (but we always figured it out).
- a lot of stress for Mommy who was basically the adventure guide on the trip!
But the benefits were that we got to set our own itinerary and got to do stuff that wouldn't have been included in ABD (like going to a sumo match since the tournament happened to be in town the week were in Osaka). And of course, we saved a lot of money vs. ABD.
We're doing an ABD Baltic cruise add-on this summer, and I have to say, I'm so excited that I don't have to do as much planning for the trip.