ABD 2025 Who is going on a trip?

[jillinastoria]

Congrats, chuff88! And I'm booked now as well--so excited for Backstage Magic, and maybe even equally excited about getting the early booking discount, ha!

 

[Donalyn]

Alas, no 2025 ABD for us. But 2026 river cruise in the works. Hope everyone gets what they want.

 

[sayhello]

Currently no 2025 ABD for me, either. Looking to re-book my Maui trip that got cancelled due to the fires. Not sure what may be in the budget beyond that!

Sayhello

 

[MickeyMouse718]

@Donalyn @sayhello could you elaborate on why no ABD for 2025? Were you looking for new itineraries this year that weren’t released? Has the current line up become stale for you? Do you feel priced out?

 

[Donalyn]

just too much happening summer of 2025 for us to add an ABD. But planning Danube for 2026.

 

[sayhello]

@Donalyn @sayhello could you elaborate on why no ABD for 2025? Were you looking for new itineraries this year that weren’t released? Has the current line up become stale for you? Do you feel priced out?

For me it's a combination of I'm retired now, so I can't really afford to take more than one big trip a year, and this year I'm planning on going to Maui. I was supposed to go last year, but I cancelled it due to my trip being right after the horrible fire in Lahaina. (They asked people not to come because resources were stretched thin). Maui for me is usually not hugely expensive because I rent a friend's timeshare for 2 weeks (just for the maintenance fee) and I've been there before, so I don't feel a need to do a ton of stuff. But I used one of the banked timeshare weeks this year to go to Sedona, so if I go to Maui, I'll need to find something else to do for that second week, because I'm not flying that far for just one week. And that extra week is likely to end up being pricey. Honestly, I've skipped a year here & there over the last 16 years since I started doing ABDs. A trip to Maui in 2012, a trip to London with friends in 2015, a trip with Classic Journeys in 2021.

And let's face it, ABD *IS* hugely more expensive than it used to be, so there honestly will be more years where I just can't afford to take an ABD.

I'm not sure what would have happened if there'd been a new itinerary that I really, really wanted to do this year. But there wasn't, so I found I just wasn't interested in booking at this time. Maybe 2026. Or maybe I'll find after my Nova Scotia ABD in August that I'm dying to do an ABD in 2025, and I book something with the bounceback offer. We shall see. There just wasn't much interest on my part to book during the frenzy, and possibly not at all this year.

Sayhello

 

[disnygirl55]

Adult-exclusive ABD Nova Scotia Aug 31, 2025 - booked and excited! I am hoping to see some trip reports once the Nova Scotia 2024 trips begin so I can live vicariously until then!

 

[sayhello]

Adult-exclusive ABD Nova Scotia Aug 31, 2025 - booked and excited! I am hoping to see some trip reports once the Nova Scotia 2024 trips begin so I can live vicariously until then!

Congrats!

I'm doing the Aug 25, 2024 Adult-Exclusive Nova Scotia ABD. I will definitely be doing a trip report. I know a few other people had mentioned being interested in this trip when it was first announced, but I don't recall if any of them signed up for it.

Sayhello

 

[Donalyn]

Now that I'm at a computer, I will also elaborate on my answer. We have only done two ABDs. 2019 and 2023. So, 2026 is sort of just about right for our schedule - about every 3ish years.

Time commitment: When I travel a good amount around the world, I like to make that airfare and jet lag seem worthwhile. That means spending around 2 weeks in that part of the world. With my job, that is hard to do every year. My colleagues are happy to back stop my big trips when they don't happen every year. (And even with them backstopping me, I have to work a fair amount on my trips.) Also, my kids are older now. We have internships, and grad school applications and summer jobs to think about. Also have aging parents and other family commitments. All of this makes long-haul travel more difficult.

Costs: An ABD and extra days to get you to two weeks in Europe (or where ever) for a family of 4 - I mean our ABD trips, when you add it all up, each cost more than my parents' house cost. (Yes, they bought it in the 70s and in rural America, but still.) Could we have done the trips cheaper - yes. And I'm not saying that I don't see great value in ABD trips. I'm just saying that it is ALOT of money. And I am getting to that two kids in college/grad school phase of life. (On the up side, that also means some trips with just the two of us.) And it is easier to splurge on an ABD when I don't do it every year.

Itineraries: There are a number of itineraries that I'm interested in - Scotland, SE Asia, Iceland, Sicily, China, Backstage Magic. However, some of their recent "reimaged" itineraries, to me, are NOT improvements. I wasn't that interested in the old Australia itinerary, but I really dislike the current one. (We are currently planning an on our own trip there for our 30th anniversary in a few years.) I also am sad about this year's changes to the central Europe trip. (And yes, I get all of the reasons, but it was a trip I was planning to do and now it is not.)

It is possible that other new itineraries could interest me - totally. India, for sure.

So, this summer, we have a low key trip to Canada on the menu (not to a place covered by ABD). Next summer? Up in the air if we do anything. So much already on the calendar.

 

[tink1970]

Now that I'm at a computer, I will also elaborate on my answer. We have only done two ABDs. 2019 and 2023. So, 2026 is sort of just about right for our schedule - about every 3ish years.

Time commitment: When I travel a good amount around the world, I like to make that airfare and jet lag seem worthwhile. That means spending around 2 weeks in that part of the world. With my job, that is hard to do every year. My colleagues are happy to back stop my big trips when they don't happen every year. (And even with them backstopping me, I have to work a fair amount on my trips.) Also, my kids are older now. We have internships, and grad school applications and summer jobs to think about. Also have aging parents and other family commitments. All of this makes long-haul travel more difficult.

Costs: An ABD and extra days to get you to two weeks in Europe (or where ever) for a family of 4 - I mean our ABD trips, when you add it all up, each cost more than my parents' house cost. (Yes, they bought it in the 70s and in rural America, but still.) Could we have done the trips cheaper - yes. And I'm not saying that I don't see great value in ABD trips. I'm just saying that it is ALOT of money. And I am getting to that two kids in college/grad school phase of life. (On the up side, that also means some trips with just the two of us.) And it is easier to splurge on an ABD when I don't do it every year.

Itineraries: There are a number of itineraries that I'm interested in - Scotland, SE Asia, Iceland, Sicily, China, Backstage Magic. However, some of their recent "reimaged" itineraries, to me, are NOT improvements. I wasn't that interested in the old Australia itinerary, but I really dislike the current one. (We are currently planning an on our own trip there for our 30th anniversary in a few years.) I also am sad about this year's changes to the central Europe trip. (And yes, I get all of the reasons, but it was a trip I was planning to do and now it is not.)

It is possible that other new itineraries could interest me - totally. India, for sure.

So, this summer, we have a low key trip to Canada on the menu (not to a place covered by ABD). Next summer? Up in the air if we do anything. So much already on the calendar.

You really took many of the reasons out of my mouth (not that I was asked, lol). With aging mothers and dogs, time away from home has to really be worth it...and DH has failed retirement (sigh) but now works out of town as a contractor so for any fun things like expensive trips he'll work out of town...so an expensive ABD must be worth 15 days of DH being away from home. Many of the line ups just aren't worth the sacrifices...notably the "reimagined" (which looks a whole lot like the OLD) Central Europe trip --I'd planned on going the first year it was released but sigh...that was 2020 .

While I really love ABD idea, the guides, and the trips my family has done, right now they have added more free time, changed several of the itineraries and of course the prices are escalating. So...to have this 5 time ABD person return, they'll have to either have to come up with something different (unlikely!) or I'll continue to seek other tour companies (much more likely) in the future. Which is fine...sad, kind of, but fine.

 

[dawnandnala]

Booked for China September 2025!

 

[rebeccam31]

Adult-exclusive ABD Nova Scotia Aug 31, 2025 - booked and excited! I am hoping to see some trip reports once the Nova Scotia 2024 trips begin so I can live vicariously until then!

I’m doing the inaugural Nova Scotia trip in 28 days (got my box today)! We are already scheduled for Egypt in January 2025, and my daughter and I are doing the tulip River cruise in April 2025. Other than that, we decided to finally pull the trigger on Wyoming (we’ve been discussing it for years…) for September 2025z

 

[calypso726]

Currently no 2025 ABD for me, either. Looking to re-book my Maui trip that got cancelled due to the fires. Not sure what may be in the budget beyond that!

Sayhello

Same here. Things within my company have changed a bit and 2 weeks at a time is no longer an option after this summer for me. I'm not quite ready to peace out and retire though. So next year will likely be shorter trips and mostly travel hacked to boot. Honestly though, if the Winter in Wyoming ABD was still on the table I would be very likely to do that one again.