ABD Announces Private Adventures for 5 Countries

[vinotinto]

I have never taken an ABD, but this peaked my interest because we did a big trip to Costa Rica in 2015 with our family (2 kids), my SIL's family (2 kids) and my BIL's family (2 kids): 12 people total. We did private tours because there were 12 of us. We had a blast and have been talking since then about doing something again...

Anyway, I got all excited when I saw this, but I was disappointed that the 4-person price and the 12-person price is not that much different. Does not seem to include that much for the cost. If you have 12 people, you should be able to pull a really nice group trip for much less than this, using private drivers and guides. Am I missing something?

 

[lovetotravel]

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[Mathmagicland]

I appreciate all the comments,questions, and postings here - thanks, everyone! They have all just about convinced me that private AbDs are likely not for me/my family. It feels more and more like it is AbD cobbling together a lot of either private tours I could book myself, or getting tix for public tours we’d be joining that I could also get myself.

If I’m paying for AbD, I want the full AbD tour experience. If I’m going on my own, I’ll put it together myself & save paying a premium for someone to do that for me. There are people and groups, such as Tours by Locals, who offer all sorts of private Tour experiences.

And I very much agree with the post about wishing AbD would offer smaller groups of their full tour experience. Disney started offering this type of option on some of their DCL shore excursions a couple of years ago, at a higher price point than the larger tour of the same experience. The smaller group port adventures seem popular as most I’ve seen will sell out before the regular tours, same as the adults-only options can sell out first.

AbD is now offering more adults-only tour options, so maybe Disney tests the waters with DCL and we might see smaller Group AbD tour options in the future? If they were concerned about higher costs for lodging or some tours due to losing a large-group booking discount, they could run two small group tours on the same dates to take advantage of some pricing benefits and run them separately with two sets of guides. They did this once with a DVC Member Cruise NYC AbD and it seemed to work. The two tours did most things separately, ie had slightly different order of things, but did a couple of things together like the first night group meet, the Broadway reception & the show at the end.

 

[sayhello]

Update to the above! I did call this morning to ask. Apparently, there will be local ABD adventure guides as @sayhello indicated. Some trips will have one local ABD guide, others may have multiple "depending on availability and the time of year". They will be "ABD trained", and might be an experienced guide or might be someone newly trained who is guiding an ABD for the first time.

One other thing I learned that I did find sort of off-putting is that on Private ABDs, some activities are what they are calling "mix-ins". This means the activity may involve your party mixing in with another ABD group for that activity, or with a different tour group altogether. In my opinion, this defeats the purpose of paying a premium for a private trip if you're going to end up interacting with groups anyway. If you have covid concerns, this may actually end up being riskier in the sense that you'd be potentially interacting with multiple different groups over the course of your trip instead of largely staying with the same ABD group. I'd suggest calling and asking which aspects of your Private ABD of interest are "mix in" activities.

Also, doesn't seem like there is opportunity for customization at all based on my inquiry. Hope others find this useful.

You know, I just re-read this post, and remembered that your first paragraph struck me as odd. (I was definitely distracted by the second paragraph, about the "mix-ins"!) Does anyone else think it's odd that they are planning on charging more for these private tours, but plan to use brand-new, first-time Adventure Guides to lead them rather than using experienced Guides, like you'd expect for a "premium", private experience? It doesn't give me warm fuzzies about the level of service they're planning. I mean, I get it, everyone has to start out as a newby, but they're normally paired with an experienced Adventure Guide while they're learning the ropes. In this case... Not sure I like that. Honestly, so much about this product seems cobbled together, and not what I would expect from a really expensive private tour.

Sayhello

 

[Magnum_PI]

You know, I just re-read this post, and remembered that your first paragraph struck me as odd. (I was definitely distracted by the second paragraph, about the "mix-ins"!) Does anyone else think it's odd that they are planning on charging more for these private tours, but plan to use brand-new, first-time Adventure Guides to lead them rather than using experienced Guides, like you'd expect for a "premium", private experience? It doesn't give me warm fuzzies about the level of service they're planning. I mean, I get it, everyone has to start out as a newby, but they're normally paired with an experienced Adventure Guide while they're learning the ropes. In this case... Not sure I like that. Honestly, so much about this product seems cobbled together, and not what I would expect from a really expensive private tour.

Sayhello

It stuck out to me as well when speaking with the ABD rep, and it only came up because I explicitly asked if these were experienced guides after they used the phrase "ABD-trained" to describe the local adventure guides. I think they anticipate using ABD-experienced local guides, but it is possible depending on demand/availability there may be newly-hired people in the mix.

Particularly with Egypt, this seems likely because none of the normal/non-private ABD trips have actually departed/happened yet so I think they're in a rock and a hard place there! Given we're booked for Egypt, this was a big factor, among other things, in us deciding to (most likely) stick with our group ABD for the moment.

 

[sayhello]

It stuck out to me as well when speaking with the ABD rep, and it only came up because I explicitly asked if these were experienced guides after they used the phrase "ABD-trained" to describe the local adventure guides. I think they anticipate using ABD-experienced local guides, but it is possible depending on demand/availability there may be newly-hired people in the mix.

Particularly with Egypt, this seems likely because none of the normal/non-private ABD trips have actually departed/happened yet so I think they're in a rock and a hard place there! Given we're booked for Egypt, this was a big factor, among other things, in us deciding to (most likely) stick with our group ABD for the moment.

OK, that makes sense. Still doesn't seem like a good idea.

Sayhello

 

[lovetotravel]

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[sayhello]

I really like the US guides. I wonder how they feel about being left out of the private tours. In fact the US guides are some of the best we’ve ever had as they are some of Disney’s best. I know our US guide from Peru (Marissa) had her own emergency kit of US supplies she brought with her. These are the little things I value about ABD and how they understand their guests. With this element removed, what I’m paying for is an inflated OYO trip.
I know they did let go of ABD guides with the massive layoff. Perhaps they only have limited guides left?

Perhaps their employment agreements are different with Adventure Guides who are not Americans? Maybe it's easier to hire them on an as-needed basis on short notice?

Sayhello

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

You know, I just re-read this post, and remembered that your first paragraph struck me as odd. (I was definitely distracted by the second paragraph, about the "mix-ins"!) Does anyone else think it's odd that they are planning on charging more for these private tours, but plan to use brand-new, first-time Adventure Guides to lead them rather than using experienced Guides, like you'd expect for a "premium", private experience? It doesn't give me warm fuzzies about the level of service they're planning. I mean, I get it, everyone has to start out as a newby, but they're normally paired with an experienced Adventure Guide while they're learning the ropes. In this case... Not sure I like that. Honestly, so much about this product seems cobbled together, and not what I would expect from a really expensive private tour.

Sayhello

It definitely struck me as well. I was going to say something, but I didn't know how to phrase it. It sounds to me as if they are hiring new guides and training them. IMO it won't be the same without the former castmember type ABD guides. When I think back no my favorite ABD guides they are all former cast members or US based. That isn't to say the local guides aren't usually great, but when I think ABD, I think the more rah rah spirited guides if that makes sense?

 

[sayhello]

It definitely struck me as well. I was going to say something, but I didn't know how to phrase it. It sounds to me as if they are hiring new guides and training them. IMO it won't be the same without the former castmember type ABD guides. When I think back no my favorite ABD guides they are all former cast members or US based. That isn't to say the local guides aren't usually great, but when I think ABD, I think the more rah rah spirited guides if that makes sense?

I get what you're saying, and in some cases, that's true, but our Greek Adventure Guide, Elena, who was actually an archeologist as well as a travel guide, was warm and funny and *so* engaging, and she and Landon just clicked! Same with Tomomi. She was an amazing Adventure Guide, and for Japan, it was really "Tomomi & James" and hard to separate the 2. But as much as I adored Joe on our China ABD, he just didn't have the personality of Ralph!

But yes, the more outgoing, spirited of the pair *tends* to be the US-based Adventure Guides.

Sayhello

 

[AquaDame]

I still have contact with our two guides and, at least for now, they both are saying they are ABD guides....

 

[st40]

Suspect this will become more common- I noticed the Peru private adventure totally skips Lima and heads straight to Cuzco. One of the one hand it seems nice to book whenever it’s convenient for you but I think i would miss the interaction/conversations both the kids and us get to have with others on the adventure.

I agree...there is the appeal of less exposure to crowds, but we have been on several ABD and found that the conversations and friendships with others is one of the best parts.

 

[leannak]

Is the thinking that they will start with these private tours before regular tours start up? (Due to Covid.)

 

[sayhello]

Is the thinking that they will start with these private tours before regular tours start up? (Due to Covid.)

Nobody knows what ABD thinks. I believe it's a way to appeal to people who are still too nervous or scared to sign up for a trip with a bunch of people they don't know.

Sayhello

 

[OKW Lover]

Is the thinking that they will start with these private tours before regular tours start up? (Due to Covid.)

Interesting thought. It might be a good way to iron out the kinks in dealing with new restrictions.

 

[WeLoveABD]

Nobody knows what ABD thinks. I believe it's a way to appeal to people who are still too nervous or scared to sign up for a trip with a bunch of people they don't know.

Sayhello

Agree-- a transitional set of tours--but who knows it may have to be small groups for a while...

 

[SingingMom]

Interesting thought. It might be a good way to iron out the kinks in dealing with new restrictions.

but Im sure the prices will be insane!