Just returned from Viva Italia

[grumpy-1]

We just got back from Italy yesterday. The "Viva Italia", tour was everything we expected and much much much more.Our Disney tour guides were Vincenzo, (Vinnie) and Marco (Mandrake). These two men were wonderful. From the very first day, When we arrived in Italy, but our luggage didn't. (The airlines left it in Philadelphia). I told Mandrake about it, and he got right on it. I also called my daughter back in the states to see what she could do from that end. Both Vinnie and Mandrake worked extremely hard fighting the airlines misinformation and got us the bags. They were always extremely informative, helpful, and funny. I will definately do another ABD tour. I have read on here many people questioning cost of the ABD tours. I can't comment on any others, but,the Viva Italia tour is worth every penny.

 

[TewEpcot]

Welcome Home! Glad to hear that you enjoyed your trip. Give us more details (and pictures) when you are rested up!

 

[redzinner]

We just got back from Italy yesterday.

Glad to see you made it back okay grumpy-1! Did your luggage make it back to Albany? Hug Maria Anna for me. We are in Zurich now and miss the Italian 'boys' tremendously .
Ciao!

 

[grumpy-1]

Ciao Redzinner,
It was a long flight back home, but our luggage did arrive with us . How is your trip progressing? Both Maria Anna and I miss you and your DH, and hearing Vincenzo and Mandrake say "Adventurers, Andiamo" every day. I know the contented smile with dissapear from our faces, but not any time soon. We are pouring over the hundreds of photos, trying to pick out the best ones. When will you be back in the states?

 

[Nursejilly]

Hi, I am interested in Viva Italia for 2010 and would love to hear more about your experience! How far in advance did you book it? How many people did you have to share your guides with? We belong to DVC so it would be partially booked with points. Thanks for any info you can give me!

 

[grumpy-1]

Hi, I am interested in Viva Italia for 2010 and would love to hear more about your experience! How far in advance did you book it? How many people did you have to share your guides with? We belong to DVC so it would be partially booked with points. Thanks for any info you can give me!

We booked it almost a year in advance, and got the early booking discount. We had 34 people in our group, it was an adults only tour. We also belong to DVC, but didn't use our points.

The Guides were soooo good as I said earlier. there were a wonderful group of people, that all got along very well. We met Redzinner and her DH the first day and hit it off and were fast friends all through the tour. Just as an example of how good thevtour was and how everyone felt about it. On the last night after the farewell meal and it was time to go...many of us did not want to get up from the table, we knew that when we did it wouild be all over, so we tried to prolong it as long as we could. When we finally did get up and started saying our goobye's there were a lot of the women crying and a few of the men had a tear in their eye. We knew that when we left for our rooms that night that the friends we made would not be by our side the next day.

 

[Nursejilly]

That is so awesome! So you were able to request adults only? I am actually doing the legwork for my parents. They are the ones who will be going on the trip, sigh (i would love to go one day, when my kiddos are older).One of the questions they had was if it was going to be lots of kids versus couples. Thanks for the info!

 

[grumpy-1]

If you go on the ABD website you can find tours that are noted as adults only. My wife and I both work in the schools here, and we love kids. We just felt that we wanted to be away from them for a couple of weeks.

 

[grumpy-1]

I will be posting some pictures as soon as we go through the more than 800 that we took.

 

[grumpy-1]

It has been a week now since we returned from Venice. Our bodies have finally adjusted to eastern time. We went to Rome one day early to get used to the 6 hour time change in Italy which didn't seem as bad as the return trip. On the 1st day we met with Redzinner and her husband and took a trip to Ostia Antica. Both Redzinner and I had read about it here in the Disboards. If you are in Rome and have the time I would highly recommend seeing Ostia Antica. It is an old town from the 1st century which is remarkably preserved. It is not as well known as some of the other ancient ruins, so it is not croweded at all. You can wander around through the town and see amazing mosaics, and other ancient artifacts. The ampitheater is in almost perfect condition. It is truely amazing. The ride there by subway and train took about 30 minutes and only cost 1 euro each way. It was a great start to our adventure

 

[Kris10luvsDisney]

I just returned from Viva Italia yesterday and I have to say with all that is included in your tour price, the extra surprises that come your way everyday, the Disney "fastpasses" you have at all of the major attractions and the overall service and experience you get from an ABD tour are beyond any other tour company in my opinion.
We saw many tour groups that were around the same size as us and they only had one guide. Having 2 makes a huge difference, as you get to know each other very well and don't feel like just a number in a huge crowd. (I saw some tour groups wearing numbers!!)
Plus the local experts you have at each city are very knowledgable and fun too (especially Christina in Rome - we love her and wanted to take her with us on the rest of the tour!!)

As far as when to book, if you are looking in the summer months, the earlier the better because that is the busiest time of year.
I found September to be perfect. We had sunny, 75 degree days every day of our trip. The crowds were still heavy, I can't imagine what they are like in July and August. You are less prone to have kids on your tour in September because they will be in school. We only had 3 kids on our tour and they were wonderful! Our guide told us of a tour they had during the summer that had only 11 adults and 18 kids.

 

[grumpy-1]

Hi Kris10
I'm sure your Adventure was every bit as great as ours was. Did you have Vincenzo (Vinnie) as one of your guides? He is very very bright and funny. All of the extras that you get from Disney are what makes it so special. Others charge for bottled water , and snacks that we got every day. I would never reveal what the surprises are, and spoil it for someone else, But I can tell you that you have one more surprise comming.

 

[Kris10luvsDisney]

grumpy- yes we did have Vincenzo as one of our guides. He was fantastic!!

We have another surprise coming??? I was so thrilled to see a postcard waiting for us when we got home, but another one besides that?? Ooooh, I will be checking my mailbox everyday!

 

[PatriciaH]

We had Vinnie and Marco as our guides on 8/28 as well. They were awesome! They used to work at Epcot together

 

[grumpy-1]

We had Vinnie and Marco as our guides on 8/28 as well. They were awesome! They used to work at Epcot together

those were the 2 guides that we had, but Marco was going to England to work after our tour ended, Vinnie went back to Rome for the next tour.

 

[profdsny]

On the 1st day we met with Redzinner and her husband and took a trip to Ostia Antica. Both Redzinner and I had read about it here in the Disboards. If you are in Rome and have the time I would highly recommend seeing Ostia Antica. It is an old town from the 1st century which is remarkably preserved. It is not as well known as some of the other ancient ruins, so it is not croweded at all. You can wander around through the town and see amazing mosaics, and other ancient artifacts. The ampitheater is in almost perfect condition. It is truely amazing. The ride there by subway and train took about 30 minutes and only cost 1 euro each way. It was a great start to our adventure

Glad to read this part. ELW did this about 35 years ago, and I'd love to see it. Can you do it in a half day?

 

[grumpy-1]

Glad to read this part. ELW did this about 35 years ago, and I'd love to see it. Can you do it in a half day?

You can, but it is cutting it a little short, remember you will be spending at least an hour of the time on the train to and from.

 

[disneytraveler]

Good to see you enjoyed the tour. I took it last summer and it was a wonderful time

 

[redzinner]

You can, but it is cutting it a little short, remember you will be spending at least an hour of the time on the train to and from.

I agree with grumpy-1 that you could possibly 'see' it in about 4 hours, commando style. It is a huge complex. We chose to amble and enjoy each others company during the 3 hours that we were there so we only managed about half of the site. If you are going in the summer months take sunscreen and water!

 

[grumpy-1]

Good to see you enjoyed the tour. I took it last summer and it was a wonderful time

To quote the ABD slogan, it truely was the trip of a lifetime. I can't remeber when we had so much fun.