$4,000 more!!!

[wdhinn89]

Tauk Bridges just came out with their 2014 rates. Is ABD really worth $4,000 more for our family of 4 to go to Italy. Disney is 9 days and Tauk is 8 days but is 1 extra day and one extra tour guide worth all that money? The itinerary is basically the same and the hotel quality is too. IDK, $4000 is a lot of money. I can go to Disney for a week and stay in a deluxe for that money. I am confused what to do. I really wanted to experience ABD but I don't know if I can justify all that extra money

 

[Bobo912]

I've traveled multiple times with each company. They are very similar and both are excellent. If you look at the price per day for the Italy trips, ABD is $597 and TB is $549. The price is not all that different.

 

[SingingMom]

Tauk Bridges just came out with their 2014 rates. Is ABD really worth $4,000 more for our family of 4 to go to Italy. Disney is 9 days and Tauk is 8 days but is 1 extra day and one extra tour guide worth all that money? The itinerary is basically the same and the hotel quality is too. IDK, $4000 is a lot of money. I can go to Disney for a week and stay in a deluxe for that money. I am confused what to do. I really wanted to experience ABD but I don't know if I can justify all that extra money

Not that this is the "norm", but we originally picked ABD for London/Paris last year because the itinerary fit our needs better than the Tauck. While we were in Paris, a group of us from our tour were in the hotel lobby, laughing and having a lovely time. A gentleman standing nearby had a scowl on his face, just staring at our group. My daughter noticed the man was wearing a Tauck name tag! She whispered to me,"Geesh! Good thing we picked ABD!" Lol.

"SingingMom" ....Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[OKW Lover]

You can't just compare the number of nights and the price to determine if its "worth it". The value of the tours are the quality of the guides/hotels/meals/transportation and the special access you get.

 

[Bobo912]

The OP said she compared the itinerary and the hotels, not just the number of days and price. And the itineraries are very similar. I just went through the same exercise with the TB and ABD Ireland trip and the itineraries are almost identical. There was one difference in the itinerary and based on that I decided to go with ABD this time. Tauck also has special access, such as the after hours visit to the Vatican. We've had excellent guides with both companies, some better than others for both ABD and TB. From my experience, the food is better on TB trips. There are more meals where you can order from the menu vs. a lot of buffets on ABD trips. The difference in the price is not huge, and IMO with ABD you are paying for the extra guide and the Disney name.

 

[wdhinn89]

Thanks for all the opinions

 

[west&east]

So the OP said the price difference was $4K for a family of 4 while two others responded the price difference is not that huge...a quick glance at the Tauck website suggests similar prices. so is it really $4K or is there some miscalculation going on?

 

[Bobo912]

So the OP said the price difference was $4K for a family of 4 while two others responded the price difference is not that huge...a quick glance at the Tauck website suggests similar prices. so is it really $4K or is there some miscalculation going on?

Tauck is $4390 and ABD is $5369, but the ABD trip is a day longer. That's why I broke the cost down by day. So total ABD is $979 pp more, which is pretty close to $4000 for a family of 4. Of course, that is the ABD price today and it will increase when more people have booked and then the difference will be greater. I rushed a bit to book the Ireland ABD because I was afraid a lot of people would book and the price would go up. Tauck had released 2014 dates, but not prices. So I made the assumption that Tauck's prices would increase over the 2013, since a $200 per year increase was typical for some of their past trips that I've researched. But for the Ireland trip, TB's 2014 price is exactly the same as 2013. But it's still not a huge difference between the two. There are only two of us, so the difference doesn't impact me as much as for a family of 4.

 

[emesmom]

I LOVE ABD, but I feel like there are less kids on these trips, than the one Tauck Bridges trip we went on. My daughter likes more kids, she is 12. I wasn't as Happy with my one Tauck Bridges experience, which is why I am willing to pay more for ABD. It is probably the economy, but I wish there had been more kids on our last trip. On the plus side I do feel like my daughter and I had a really good bonding experience this trip

 

[Bobo912]

I LOVE ABD, but I feel like there are less kids on these trips, than the one Tauck Bridges trip we went on. My daughter likes more kids, she is 12. I wasn't as Happy with my one Tauck Bridges experience, which is why I am willing to pay more for ABD. It is probably the economy, but I wish there had been more kids on our last trip. On the plus side I do feel like my daughter and I had a really good bonding experience this trip

It's difficult to judge from just one trip. We took our first Tauck trip the year after we went to Alaska with ABD and it didn't quite measure up, although it was very good and there were many more kids. The Alaska trip is my favorite ABD so far so it was a tough comparison. The other 3 ABDs we've taken, to varying degrees, didn't measure up to Alaska either. Our next Tauck trip was excellent and compared with ABD in every way. Our most recent ABD wasn't nearly as good as either of our Tauck trips.

 

[carpenta]

I've traveled multiple times with each company. They are very similar and both are excellent. If you look at the price per day for the Italy trips, ABD is $597 and TB is $549. The price is not all that different.

I have to agree. Plus the comment about the food is true. We just returned from the SWS tour and was quite disappointed with the food where as there was similar buffet foods and simply not good quality at that IMO. Part of travel is to taste the local fare not belly up to a Golden Corral type buffet.

 

[wdhinn89]

I LOVE ABD, but I feel like there are less kids on these trips, than the one Tauck Bridges trip we went on. My daughter likes more kids, she is 12. I wasn't as Happy with my one Tauck Bridges experience, which is why I am willing to pay more for ABD. It is probably the economy, but I wish there had been more kids on our last trip. On the plus side I do feel like my daughter and I had a really good bonding experience this trip

Why were you not happy with your 1 Tauk Bridges trip?

 

[wdhinn89]

I have to agree. Plus the comment about the food is true. We just returned from the SWS tour and was quite disappointed with the food where as there was similar buffet foods and simply not good quality at that IMO. Part of travel is to taste the local fare not belly up to a Golden Corral type buffet.

What is an SWS tour?

I really appreciate all the comments and replies. We still have not booked or even decided between ABD or Tauk yet because we are not sure of our dates for next summer. I know if we do decide to go with ABD we take the risk of the prices going up but it is the chance we are going to have to take.

 

[sayhello]

What is an SWS tour?

The American Southwest ABD that is now called "Cowboys and Canyons" used to be called "Southwest Splendors", and was abbreviated to SWS. It's been a very popular itinerary around this Forum.

Sayhello

 

[wdhinn89]

The American Southwest ABD that is now called "Cowboys and Canyons" used to be called "Southwest Splendors", and was abbreviated to SWS. It's been a very popular itinerary around this Forum.

Sayhello

Thanks! I have been only reading about the Italy tours and have missed the rest.

 

[emesmom]

I realize it is hard to make a comparison of only 1 Tauck Bridges tour vs 5 ABD, but after the one I have been afraid to try Tauck again. I will try and explain why.

I think having only one guide can be tricky. Ours was rather snarky, maybe a bad week for her, but it set the mood for the entire trip. She was actually pretty good with the kids, but not the adults. We had several grandparents on our trip and, as we all know, we don't hear or process information as quickly as we age. Well, she made it very clear she was annoyed when people asked her to repeat information. She often said "no worries", even though her demeanor implied there WERE worries. To this day I cringe when people say"no worries".

Ok she was one person and that can change, but there were other issues. This was the SanFrancisco/Yosemite/Monterey Bay trip. No walk on guide for our tour of SanFrancisco, just miss crabby to point out things from the bus. I really wanted my daughter to get a good history of the city and that didn't happen. They took us to the San Francisco Academy of Science. We have great Museums like this in Cleveland, that is NOT what I came to SF to see. I've been to San Francisco many times, and they left out some great locations. How great it would have been to get some insight into the Asian culture there, with a local guide who was of Asian descent. We drove through China town on the tour bus, you can't get a feel for it that way.

We did the ferry around Alcatraz with all the other tourists, all our guide did was purchase the tickets for us. Had I known this I would have opted to do something on my own. I really felt like I could have done a better tour on my own, except my daughter wouldn't have had the other kids to hang with.

Yosemite: we had the same Park Ranger guided tours anyone else could do. Of course the ranger talks were great, but again, I could have done that on my own.

The only location I felt like we had any personalized experience was at The Monterey Bay Aquarium. We had a behind the scenes tour there and our goodbye dinner was there. We were the only people in the place for the dinner, so that was very nice.

I have never had a Disney Guide treat guests the way this woman did. I'm sure if they did, they would no longer be an ABD guide. So the guides are my # 1 reason for sticking with ABD. It is hard to put into words the "specialness" of the ABD Trips, but that is why I am willing to spend the money for them and why I am afraid to spend that kind of money on Tauck again.

The End

 

[RSM]

Hi Emesmom,

As an FYI. A good friend of mine just took the Tauck Italy tour in June. They did the Venice, Florence, Rome trip. It was him and his girlfriend and his parents (who are older). He had nothing but superlatives to say about Tauck and the way they handled this particular tour. They are considering another Tauck tour. As a point of reference they have not done an ABD.

 

[Bobo912]

I realize it is hard to make a comparison of only 1 Tauck Bridges tour vs 5 ABD, but after the one I have been afraid to try Tauck again. I will try and explain why.

I think having only one guide can be tricky. Ours was rather snarky, maybe a bad week for her, but it set the mood for the entire trip. She was actually pretty good with the kids, but not the adults. We had several grandparents on our trip and, as we all know, we don't hear or process information as quickly as we age. Well, she made it very clear she was annoyed when people asked her to repeat information. She often said "no worries", even though her demeanor implied there WERE worries. To this day I cringe when people say"no worries".

Ok she was one person and that can change, but there were other issues. This was the SanFrancisco/Yosemite/Monterey Bay trip. No walk on guide for our tour of SanFrancisco, just miss crabby to point out things from the bus. I really wanted my daughter to get a good history of the city and that didn't happen. They took us to the San Francisco Academy of Science. We have great Museums like this in Cleveland, that is NOT what I came to SF to see. I've been to San Francisco many times, and they left out some great locations. How great it would have been to get some insight into the Asian culture there, with a local guide who was of Asian descent. We drove through China town on the tour bus, you can't get a feel for it that way.

We did the ferry around Alcatraz with all the other tourists, all our guide did was purchase the tickets for us. Had I known this I would have opted to do something on my own. I really felt like I could have done a better tour on my own, except my daughter wouldn't have had the other kids to hang with.

Yosemite: we had the same Park Ranger guided tours anyone else could do. Of course the ranger talks were great, but again, I could have done that on my own.

The only location I felt like we had any personalized experience was at The Monterey Bay Aquarium. We had a behind the scenes tour there and our goodbye dinner was there. We were the only people in the place for the dinner, so that was very nice.

I have never had a Disney Guide treat guests the way this woman did. I'm sure if they did, they would no longer be an ABD guide. So the guides are my # 1 reason for sticking with ABD. It is hard to put into words the "specialness" of the ABD Trips, but that is why I am willing to spend the money for them and why I am afraid to spend that kind of money on Tauck again.

The End

The Northern CA itinerary was our first TB trip too. And I had some of the same issues. I think I wrote on this forum about how the guide just bought tickets for some of the activities and then we just joined the hordes, so there was nothing special about it that I couldn't have done on my own. In fairness, the SF Academy of Science was listed on the itinerary, so it shouldn't have been a surprise, but I totally agree there wasn't anything particularly unique about it. I wasn't completely happy with our guide either, but she did go out of her way at times, like taking photos and copying a photo CD for every family that she handed out at the farewell dinner. Our most recent TB was a riverboat tour and we had 4 guides. I only interacted with 3 of them and they were all great. I don't know about the 4th one. - she might have been the crabby one. On our ABD this year, we had no special access to attractions and no step on guides. I totally get what you're saying and there's certainly nothing wrong with sticking with the company that works for you. I hope ABD continues to live up to your expectations.

 

[emesmom]

I have heard good things about the river boat cruises and I would consider doing that with Tauck.

 

[west&east]

I realize it is hard to make a comparison of only 1 Tauck Bridges tour vs 5 ABD, but after the one I have been afraid to try Tauck again. I will try and explain why.

I think having only one guide can be tricky. Ours was rather snarky, maybe a bad week for her, but it set the mood for the entire trip. She was actually pretty good with the kids, but not the adults. We had several grandparents on our trip and, as we all know, we don't hear or process information as quickly as we age. Well, she made it very clear she was annoyed when people asked her to repeat information. She often said "no worries", even though her demeanor implied there WERE worries. To this day I cringe when people say"no worries".

Ok she was one person and that can change, but there were other issues. This was the SanFrancisco/Yosemite/Monterey Bay trip. No walk on guide for our tour of SanFrancisco, just miss crabby to point out things from the bus. I really wanted my daughter to get a good history of the city and that didn't happen. They took us to the San Francisco Academy of Science. We have great Museums like this in Cleveland, that is NOT what I came to SF to see. I've been to San Francisco many times, and they left out some great locations. How great it would have been to get some insight into the Asian culture there, with a local guide who was of Asian descent. We drove through China town on the tour bus, you can't get a feel for it that way.

We did the ferry around Alcatraz with all the other tourists, all our guide did was purchase the tickets for us. Had I known this I would have opted to do something on my own. I really felt like I could have done a better tour on my own, except my daughter wouldn't have had the other kids to hang with.

Yosemite: we had the same Park Ranger guided tours anyone else could do. Of course the ranger talks were great, but again, I could have done that on my own.

The only location I felt like we had any personalized experience was at The Monterey Bay Aquarium. We had a behind the scenes tour there and our goodbye dinner was there. We were the only people in the place for the dinner, so that was very nice.

I have never had a Disney Guide treat guests the way this woman did. I'm sure if they did, they would no longer be an ABD guide. So the guides are my # 1 reason for sticking with ABD. It is hard to put into words the "specialness" of the ABD Trips, but that is why I am willing to spend the money for them and why I am afraid to spend that kind of money on Tauck again.

The End

Thank you for sharing your observations. We have ABD Central Europe booked for next year, so of course it is reassuring to read your comments.

Are all the Tauck itineraries kid friendly or are there certain tours designated for kids? I am surprised that they would have a tour with only 1 guide. That does seem to be a Disney Difference then...