Have you ever had an ABD cancelled due to a low number?

[AquamarineSteph]

Our first ABD was to Italy with a grand total of 12 guests. It was wonderful.

Every trip since then has been packed to the gills, but none of them have been cancelled.

 

[mathgeek]

Are you on the May 26 or June 30th cruise?

June 30th

 

[Chirple]

Our one and only ABD two years ago (AZ/UT) had 11 people on it, but we had one guide. Still one of best vacations, and we just spent time visiting two of our tour mates last week.

 

[mathgeek]

Our first ABD was to Italy with a grand total of 12 guests. It was wonderful.

Every trip since then has been packed to the gills, but none of them have been cancelled.

Our one and only ABD two years ago (AZ/UT) had 11 people on it, but we had one guide. Still one of best vacations, and we just spent time visiting two of our tour mates last week.

I think I have you two beat. BSM with 6 people. One guide. It did not get cancelled. Apparently there was another family that was booked but cancelled after the trip was locked in. I'm not sure the other 4 people knew what they'd gotten themselves into as it seemed they had booked it as a neat way to do the parks. It certainly made for an interesting first ABD experience.

 

[Figment_Fan]

I was going to start a thread to ask how often the pre-cruise ABD's sell out. Anybody know when the 2018 pre-cruise trips went to waitlist?
I'm looking to book the 2019 for Barcelona.

 

[sayhello]

I was going to start a thread to ask how often the pre-cruise ABD's sell out. Anybody know when the 2018 pre-cruise trips went to waitlist?
I'm looking to book the 2019 for Barcelona.

I've heard that some of the itineraries, they've decided to do 2 groups on some of the departures. You'd have your own group of 40-ish people, your own 2 Adventure Guides, etc, but if one sold out, you still might be able to get another. My understanding is that the add-ons sell out pretty quickly. But I can't tell you what "pretty quickly" is. You should really check with ABD. I think this may be one of those things you need to act on sooner rather than later.

Sayhello

 

[Figment_Fan]

Thank your for the response. I will be contacting my TA tonight.

 

[RebelHawk]

We are booked on the Montana Adventure departing on August 26. As of today, with 11 guests signed up, the trip is still not official. I was told that the decision either way would be made by the 60 day prior date. It was also suggested by ABD that booking my flights with them would allow for the easiest resolution should the trip be cancelled. In our case, rescheduling to a different departure day is not a possible option. Keeping our fingers crossed.

Looks like there are currently only 8 people booked on the 22 Aug Adult Only Montana trip. This sounds like a perfect option for ABD to merge these trips to get enough people to go if they don't fill up.

I just heard from our TA. The 22 Aug Montana has been cancelled and they're trying to move everyone over to the 26 Aug trip. Looks like your dates might be safe @MrsW if they combine the trips. My wife and I are going to do a review of the other itineraries offered but will most likely move to the 26th trip.

 

[MrsW]

I just heard from our TA. The 22 Aug Montana has been cancelled and they're trying to move everyone over to the 26 Aug trip. Looks like your dates might be safe @MrsW if they combine the trips. My wife and I are going to do a review of the other itineraries offered but will most likely move to the 26th trip.

I'm sorry this changes your plans, but at least they didn't wait until the last possible minute to let you know. Hopefully they make a decision about the August 26 trip soon. Thanks for this update!

 

[sayhello]

I'm sorry this changes your plans, but at least they didn't wait until the last possible minute to let you know. Hopefully they make a decision about the August 26 trip soon. Thanks for this update!

I'd like to think that if ABD is consolidating the Aug 22nd trip into the Aug 26th trip, that means the Aug 26th trip *will* go. When I got ABD to move me to the Alaska trip when my Montana/Canada trip got cancelled, I asked them if that meant the Alaska trip was definitely a go, and they told me yes; they wouldn't move me to a trip that wasn't definitely a go. How awful would that be to have your trip cancelled twice in one year? I can't imagine ABD would be that mean. I'm sure they made a decision that Aug 26th was a go before they offered it to the folks on Aug 22nd. If that's not the case, even I don't think I'd ever sign up for an ABD again!

Sayhello

 

[Grifdog22]

I just heard from our TA. The 22 Aug Montana has been cancelled and they're trying to move everyone over to the 26 Aug trip. Looks like your dates might be safe @MrsW if they combine the trips. My wife and I are going to do a review of the other itineraries offered but will most likely move to the 26th trip.

I hope you go - you will LOVE Montana and the sights. Lamar Valley is like what we imagine North America was like 500 years ago. Ousel falls is a paved easy path - and the sights are like you spent a week getting there in the backcountry. I hope you will also share your thoughts on this trip.

 

[RebelHawk]

After much debate and review of itineraries my wife and I have opted to cancel our Montana ABD trip and setup a DIY Paris/Disneyland Paris trip. The cancelation process was super simple for us. We informed our TA and she handled everything. As we expected we received a 100% refund of our deposit and trip insurance. As we haven't booked air travel yet we didn't have to worry about that.

Now we have a private two day tour booked with a local travel company in Paris, DLP New York hotel booking and we're working on a private one day VIP tour of the parks with Disney. Then a few days on our own to explore, and by explore I mean sit at a street cafe and drink wine.

 

[MrsW]

Good News for us! The August 26 Montana Trip has been guaranteed. At this time there are 22 signed up, so perhaps some from the August 22 trip did change weeks. We are so happy we didn't have to wait until June to find out the trip status. It's nice to be able to say we ARE going on an Adventure, rather than we might be going.

 

[tgeorge]

After much debate and review of itineraries my wife and I have opted to cancel our Montana ABD trip and setup a DIY Paris/Disneyland Paris trip. The cancelation process was super simple for us. We informed our TA and she handled everything. As we expected we received a 100% refund of our deposit and trip insurance. As we haven't booked air travel yet we didn't have to worry about that.

Now we have a private two day tour booked with a local travel company in Paris, DLP New York hotel booking and we're working on a private one day VIP tour of the parks with Disney. Then a few days on our own to explore, and by explore I mean sit at a street cafe and drink wine.

We just returned from Paris a few weeeks ago. We had a private guide for three days (one in Normandy) and it was the best way to see everything! You will not be disappointed. We did lots of sitting and drinking wine too.

My husband didn’t want to do DLP, but I will get back someday. Have a great trip!

 

[carpenta]

The rescheduling from Aug 22 to Aug 26 is a prime example of how ABD “doesn’t get it”. Some families like mine cannot change our vacation dates by a day or two. We schedule our vacations 1 1/2 to 2 years in advance and a change like that is mostly impossible to achieve.

 

[kristilew]

The rescheduling from Aug 22 to Aug 26 is a prime example of how ABD “doesn’t get it”. Some families like mine cannot change our vacation dates by a day or two. We schedule our vacations 1 1/2 to 2 years in advance and a change like that is mostly impossible to achieve.

We have the same issue - schedule is just too hard to coordinate!

Also, the one time we had a trip canceled (Southwest Splendors) and we moved dates, the whole thing felt “off.” It was the one ABD we regret, the one time we didn’t bond with other travelers, the one time the guides were less than amazing. I know dates should not make a difference for those things, but I do believe some things are just not meant to be.

RebelHawk, you will love Paris and DLP!

 

[Jason Martin]

Figured I would come back and close the thread. Just back from the trip. We had 23 total with 2 guides which was a great number. My two DD (ages 7/9) were the youngest and there were other kids (12-17 range). Great time !

 

[twentyco]

NONE!!!! All they (ABD) did is notify us of the cancelation. No reimbursement for airline fees. No other communication other than the cancelation notice. Not a nice way to treat your LOYAL customer(s). It was at that time I started looking at other family trip companies.

We were scheduled on this same trip. It was scheduled at Spring Break, and the time in Rome fell over Easter. ABD never said this, but my guess was that they didn’t have the ability to book hotels and the Vatican tour, etc in that time frame. All they told me is that they were not able to book the experience that we were expecting, or some similar euphemism.

We ended up rebooking with ABD for a different departure, and they gave it to us for whatever price we had paid (I think it was higher priced by the time we rebooked) and did pay our airline change fees (not booked through ABD, and they were significant). It was still an incredibly disappointing and frustrating experience, though we did have a great trip. It was our first, and to date only, ABD.

 

[EllinK]

Figured I would come back and close the thread. Just back from the trip. We had 23 total with 2 guides which was a great number. My two DD (ages 7/9) were the youngest and there were other kids (12-17 range). Great time !

Please consider doing a trip report! I would love to hear more about this Adventure.