I have not done an ABD yet, though I have a deposit for our family of 8 (4 kids, 11-17, 2 grandparents, dh and I) that I've moved thru two different trips and is now "parked." The back story - after returning from our very awesome
DCL Baltic cruise, where I arranged a week in Iceland and Copenhagen on my own, and half of our port excursions, the idea of ABD doing the entire trip for me seemed like a dream. On vacation, I'm the TA/manager/mediator/etc, and I was wanting a vacation for ME. I'd been eyeing ABD's prior, and when the new river cruises were announced, I jumped. Then, income from my business went down, and I decided I couldn't pull the trigger on that much money. We switched to Costa Rica. Then I looked at my two seniors about to graduate and go to college, looked at the type of trip I can do planning myself, and parked the deposit.
So, the idea of someone else doing it all sounds sooo appealing. I'm currently in burnout planning our summer trip to France. With such a large group, we don't typically feel the need to travel with others, but since i'm the activities director for the 8 of us, there's a certain pressure even when it's vacation. The river cruise still looks so good to me.
So I'm torn. Dh and I have talked about just doing one ourselves, to offset the ginormous cost, but we really like traveling with the kids. I suspect once we go, we'd love it.