European ABD vs. European Disney Cruise?

ToyStory3

DIS Veteran
Joined
May 29, 2013
Hi - we are becoming more and more interested in seeing Europe as a family. We don't have a specific area of Europe that we're most interested in at this point. Every place looks amazing so we haven't narrowed it down, yet. I'm trying to compare cruising to Europe to an ABD. Both would be amazing I'm sure. I know that a cruise isn't going to be quite as immersive since you'll be moving on to different places each day. And, we wouldn't have the intimacy of the small group and a tour guide. But, you can see a lot of different places on one cruise. At first glance it looks like a cruise would be much more affordable. Just wondering if there are other pros and cons to either from those who have done both ABD and European cruises.

Thanks!
 
Personally, one of the things that I think makes ABD better than a cruise is the fact that, since on a cruise you have to get back to the ship, you tend to leave places at like 4:30 in the afternoon. I really miss having dinner in a local place, watching the sun go down, etc. They are both wonderful, but I really prefer the land trips. You *might* want to also consider the ABD River cruises, which are a happy mix of both. You still don't have the intimacy of the small group (your tour group can be any combination of the 140+ people on board.) They're generally limited to 40 people per excursion, but it's a different 40 people each time. You do, however, have the Adventure Guides with you. Or, if you decide a cruise is really what you want, you might look into doing one of the ABD add-ons to the European cruises.

Sayhello
 
We did a DCL Mediterranean Cruise in 2016 with a side trip to Berlin on our own afterwards. We much enjoyed the sampling of places that comes with a cruise. That being said the port days were jam packed and required extensive planning in order to take advantage of the minimal time in each port. For 2018, we are booked on our first ABD, the Germany trip along with a Baltic European Cruise afterwards. I'm looking forward to spending even more time in Germany and really getting to experience it in a unique way with a group tour. While more expensive than our cruise, the ABD doesn't require us to plan each day and will be a real vacation. On the other hand, the cruises allow us to visit new places without having to pack up our bags every couple of days and do have an inclusive feel on the ship, which is nice. For us, if we really like a particular city, that will serve as a jumping off point for our next European adventure.
 
I understand from your post that you don't have a fixed destination in mind yet. Totally understandable! Europe is amazing and huge! Is there something specific that you and your family want to see while in Europe for the first time? Food? Shopping? History? Museums? Do you like the great outdoors? Have you ever been on a cruise before? Are you comfortable experiencing something completely different from what you might encounter in the US?

I think it comes down to what you want from your trip. If you want the convenience of only unpacking once and having a familiar environment for the entire trip, perhaps a cruise would be more to your liking. If you want to see a bunch of different places, but only for a short time, again, this might be your best first experience.

If you don't mind packing/unpacking and want to sample more of the area while you are there, the land tour might be a better fit for your expectations.

At the end of the day, it depends on what you want out of the trip. You'll have a great time either way, but it helps to know a little more about what you want to experience to make a better recommendation.
 


We are a family of 6, kids ages 12-18, that travel with 2 grandparents usually. For us, so far, cruising is easier because of the traveling hotel room - no packing, unpacking, figuring out transportation, etc. However, I also really like the times we are land based and can relax in a city, soak in the atmosphere, take in a coffee break or a long dinner at a sidewalk cafe.

How you travel depends on several things - how comfortable you are with cost, the amount of planning you have to do, how comfortable your family is with new experiences, how much you want to be in charge once you get there, and where you want to go.

Honestly, the Med is generally a very port intensive cruise. You won't get as much ship time (without giving up port time), so maybe paying the premium for DCL is not worth it. I'll also say that coming from Texas, even we were completely wilted by the summer heat of the Med.

If you cruise, you will need to decide what to do in the ports. You can pay nothing and just explore, you can do DCL excursions (so minimal planning on your part but more costly), or you can do DIY excursions you plan yourself via research on TripAdvisor, CruiseCritic, etc (FWIW, I think those are much more cost effective and enjoyable - having done it both ways.)

If you do ABD, almost everything is taken care for you, minus some OYO time in certain cities, but there's the factor of changing locations, though ABD will take care of your luggage and get you there. You can also do ABD add-ons to a cruise. Other posters here can give you more specifics on that, but that seems to allow you to do certain combinations of port excursions without having to do the planning, and more than the average DCL excursion, and/or do the city extensions before or after the cruise. Doing an ABD is definitely more expensive per person, assuming you are not cruising concierge on DCL. The cruise/ABD combo would be the most expensive option, however.

For us, with 7 people trailing behind me, and me the travel planner, I'm not happy being the one making all the "how do we get from A to B, etc" decisions once we get in country. Cruises eliminate a lot of that. I just need to find a guide that will meet us at the port. If it were just dh and I, I'd be ok with figuring it out as we go.

There are other companies that do package group travel, enough that there is a long "Other Options" thread here. If you are hesitant to do Europe without some help, I'd suggest you look at several options.

We've done a Baltic DCL cruise, with half DCL excursions, and half DIY. We looked at DCL for the Med, but for half the cost, cruised concierge with MSC, saving enough money to do a week in France first, where the arrangements, transportation, guides, were planned by a company called "France Just for You" but which did not include a 24 hr guide like an ABD. We've done enough European travel that I was comfortable with that.

To be honest, I have an ABD deposit (originally for the Danube river cruise) that is currently sitting waiting to be used. With 2 kids in college now, I can't pull the trigger on and ABD cost, and can travel more with less money using other options. I'm still trying to decide if I want to just lose the money or commit to a hefty cost for the 6 of us for sometime in the future.

I hope that helps.
 
We’ve done several ABD’s and DCL European cruises. They’re both great. At the risk of pointing out the obvious, DCL offers the chance to see Europe while enjoying a cruise. It’s a nice blend of both worlds. I prefer ABD for the most part, but DCL is generally more relaxing. Ironically there’s more planning involved with a cruise though.
 
We did a DCL Mediterranean cruise with the ABD add-ons, and really feel like it was the best of both worlds, so if you can afford it that's something I definitely recommend. We did the pre-cruise add-on in Barcelona, so got to know our group, and the majority of the group also did the ABD on the ship. We got some new additions on the ship as well. While we were within the crowd of the ship, it still felt like we had our own intimate group. Our guides took care of us and the excursions were well-planned...it was the trip of a lifetime!
 


You could fly to Europe & join a European Cruise Co. for your Cruise .

Or

You could fly to Europe & join one of the many European Coach Tour Co. & do their tour.


OR

You could Fly to Europe & Hire a car & do your own " tour Plan & Hotel stays "

( Munich Airport for S. Germany , Austria & Switzerland & Italy )

Hotels Best Western , Marriott , Ring Hotel Chain ,& Leonardo Hotels & many other great Hotels

Book Direct with Hotel & Book Half Board ( Dinner & Bed & Breakfast )

Car Hire ...... use Holiday autos .com or rentalcars .com ( All use Budget, Dollar, Sixt etc. )

Most cars will be Gear shift ( Stick ) not many Automatic .

Volkswagon Skoda ... Opel & try for Diesel
 
First a disclaimer: we haven't done an ABD on a cruise.

Having said that, we've done two European ABD's (Viva Italia and Alpine Magic) and can't imagine doing them as part of a cruise. There is so much more that you do in each location when you are on a land-based ABD. You really get immersed in the culture of each location. Dining at local places and seeing a lot of things that a day-trip just doesn't have time for.
 
We've done both. We did the Austria/Czech Republic ABD the first year it was offered (and added Hungary onto that on our own) and we also did B2B Norway, Norway/Iceland/Scotland cruises 2 years ago. Both were AMAZING, but very different. The ABD was very "tour" heavy. A lot of switching of hotels and you are with a bigger group of people the entire time. If you are outgoing, don't mind walking a lot and are really interested in an historical, immersive experience, ABD's are great. My DS was 7 when we did the ABD and while he enjoyed it, it was a bit much for him at times. We chose to do the cruises the following year and we still got an incredibly immersive experience, but it was definitely more laid back than the ABD. After a day of touring (and some of those days were LONG, like the Golden Circle tour in Iceland, but SO worth it!), DS could decompress at the kids club or in our room. It was also nice to not have to pack and unpack every few days. The cruise was a great balance of getting a taste of European ports and also being able to relax and enjoy what DCL has to offer. On the cruise we still made sure to sample the local cuisine when we could (so we weren't just eating the cruise food all of the time) and did a few tours on our own. We also did pre-days in Copenhagen and post-days in London to spend some more concentrated time there. If you would rather have more private time with your family, a cruise may be a better option. If you are more interested in more inland destinations and not just ports, ABD might be the better option. I would do either again in a heartbeat, though I know DS would prefer the cruise. In fact, I'm weighing both of these options for 2018 RIGHT NOW!!! LOL!
 
When my friend told me they had to be up, eat, and on the bus at 8 am, I knew a land tour would never work for my kids/teens. We prefer cruises with a pre-cruise land stay. We pick a place and then train or fly to the cruise such as London, Rome, Paris or Germany before Copenhagen cruise.
On the cruise, We pick 1-2 days that we must be up early-like for a Russia tour, and other days do a bit later excursions or diy. There’s a big difference in getting off a boat at 9 and being packed up for a bus at 8.
We know our teens are good for 9-2 or noon-5 for most days. And enjoy coming back to the ship to relax as prior poster said.
 
Cruise vs. ABD Europe.......the difference between the Cliff notes and the novel. The notes (cruise) gives you a skimming of the culture where ABD gives you a savoring experience of the culture.. Both are a good choice for your first time. Happy travels.
 
Cruise vs. ABD Europe.......the difference between the Cliff notes and the novel. The notes (cruise) gives you a skimming of the culture where ABD gives you a savoring experience of the culture.. Both are a good choice for your first time. Happy travels.

I agree. I did the Swiss/Italy ABD and details abound. I did the ABD Rhine and it was an overview- you could easily spend days in Amsterdam, Strasbourg/Aslac and Germany. But its a nice "cliff notes" version. I am also doing the Viking Dis cruise and feel its similar- cliff notes. But lets be honest, how many of us plan on going to Bari when we go to Italy. I am going to go to places that I normally wouldn't.
 
We did the Baltic DCL last summer and are doing Ireland this year, but I am most of all looking forward to the Danube river cruise next summer. For all of the reasons above, a cruise was "easiest" when we had 3 kids ages 5-11, and the ship time is wonderful, but you only spend a few hours in each city and we had 4 port days in a row, which can be tiring. I am looking forward to the river cruise because you get the cultural immersion of being someplace for several days, but you don't have to move hotels. And since many places have morning&afternoon excursions, you can pick what you want and skip or do on you own time so easily.
 
We've done the Italy ABD, a med cruise with Royal Caribbean, and a Danube river cruise with Tauck. Loved them all! I do adore only unpacking once. On the other hand, I love all the little out-of-the way local eateries our guides led us to on the ABD. We've also done large parts of Europe on our own. We like how a cruise lets you dip your toes in to several countries, which helps us decide where we want to go back and spend more time. I felt like the ABD did the same with the cities of Italy, and we did go back to Venice on our own another time.

None of this answers your question, because the answer is "it depends." Least amount of work for Mom is definitely an ABD. But if your kids might benefit from a little bit of familiar along with their foreign, you can't beat an American cruise line on a European cruise. They can explore bravely in port, then eat pizza or a burger on board the ship.

Let us know what you decide!
 
As someone who has done a number of DCl cruises including Europe I would choose ABD. DCl European cruises are expensive. Going forward if I was going to spend that amount of money I think ABD would be better. A European cruise on another cruiseline... I would choose a cruise. I popped over here because I'm interested in ABD China. I'm not part of the 1% club. ABD is a stretch for me financially, but I thought I would do some research and check it out.
 

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