My family is currently scheduled on an ABD trip to France that starts in 75 days (July 25) and it is STILL NOT GUARANTEED. This is our third ABD trip. I have been RAVING about how much I love ABD to anyone who will listen, but my opinion has changed significantly due to this issue. We booked this trip ONE YEAR AGO. We plan ahead. We booked flights at least 9 months in advance (and yes, we booked them ourselves in order to get there early and get acclimated to the time change ). We all schedule vacations at work (my sister-in-law is a doctor and has a long lead time to be out of the office for over a week). There are currently only 14 people on the trip. The week before is waitlisted and the week after is waitlisted - so I guess I just picked a bad week? I am a basket case with the "not knowing." We plan vacations in advance to NOT have this level of anxiety. I honestly never suspected that Disney would be treating this division like it is a start-up this far into the game. We paid the reservation in full at the end of 2014. We've spent over $20k and we still don't know if we are going to France this summer? That's crazy.
I have to qualify this by saying that we are DVC members - we are Platinum Level Disney Cruisers - and as I mentioned, this was to be our THIRD ABD. I am a Disney loyalist. But, this situation with ABD is making feel jerked around. Tricked. I did read the small print but I thought by picking a tried and true itinerary in the middle of summer we'd be okay. I also thought that ABD was popular and performing well and would fill up quickly.
They are telling me now that they will make a decision in the next two weeks. Imagine trying to book a tour with someone/anyone for that specific 10 days in July in the next few weeks - how much it will cost - if anything is even remotely available. They make you COMMIT to them - to pay non refundable fees and not make ANY changes - far in advance. But they will not COMMIT to us - and reserve the right to cancel when we are THIS CLOSE.
Anyone else waiting on a trip to be confirmed? Anyone else want to go to France in late July? Please sign up ASAP.