I booked, Italy Family Vacation !!

[helenk]

I decided today to go ahead and put my deposit down for the May 27th to June 4th trip.
Now I need to figure out if I want to go a day early or not, and decide when to buy our airfare.
I looked at other tour groups and I just really liked what ABD had to offer. They were only about $80 per person more than Tauck, but since I booked with Dreams Unlimited and I'll get a $400 Am Exp gift card.

 

[Turtlemom]

That's great! The Italy trip looks wonderful!!!!!
How was your experience with Dreams Unlimited?
I booked through Costco last year for Quest for the West and got a $450 rebate card through them. . . but I hear that the Costco card rebate was discontinued. An Amex card would be just as welcome though!

Is the Amex gift card advertised through Dreams Unlimited???? Just wondering.

Turtlemom

 

[sayhello]

Congrats, helenk! Everyone who reports on the Italy trips seems to really love it! It's one of ABD's most popular itineraries. Now the really hard part is waiting until your trip!

Sayhello

 

[glassslipper2004]

I encourage you to book a pre-day, and a post-day too. The pre-day is nice for getting acclimated, and the post-day would be nice because Venice is so incredibly amazing you just don't have enough time to spend there. If I had to choose I'd do another day in Venice, and visit Murano and some of the villas on the Grand Canal.

Have a wonderful time!

 

[Diskidatheart]

Congrats helenk. I think the little bit of extra money is well worth it. The good news is that the research is over. The bad news is that the trip is not until next summer.

I was fortunate enough to book my flight using frequent flyer miles, so I wanted to get them booked ASAP. We decided not to spend an extra day in Rome for our trip. It would have been nice, but we didn't want to spend the extra money.

 

[WeLoveABD]

Great trip! We went a day early (we like to do that to adjust to the time and explore a bit on our own; it also gives us an extra day to travel just in case of weather or other unexpected delay). We did not book it through Disney, ended up at a hotel by the airport that had a free shuttle into Rome--so we did that on our own, walked around and then took the hotel airport shuttle back to the airport the next day and met up with the Disney folks. (Heidi and Marco!) Heidi actually called us at our airport hotel to say hello and confirm the pickup time the next day--at that point I knew we were in the right hands. I weigh the higher cost of an add on (pre or post) via Disney with doing it on our own each time--and we have done so many variations. If money were no object, I'd just book it all through Disney as it sure saves a lot of hassle and lugging around bags for the four of us.

 

[helenk]

That's great! The Italy trip looks wonderful!!!!!
How was your experience with Dreams Unlimited?
I booked through Costco last year for Quest for the West and got a $450 rebate card through them. . . but I hear that the Costco card rebate was discontinued. An Amex card would be just as welcome though!

Is the Amex gift card advertised through Dreams Unlimited???? Just wondering.

Turtlemom

So far so my with Dreams has been fantastic. I have already been contacted by Kevin who has answered my questions, gave me information about the trip insurance and sent me an e-mail with the cost of the hotel for a pre-trip stay.
As far as I know the card is being advertised through Dreams, here is a link
http://www.dreamsunlimitedtravel.com/abd/specials.htm
From reading the info, you need to book by September 15th.

 

[helenk]

Congrats helenk. I think the little bit of extra money is well worth it. The good news is that the research is over. The bad news is that the trip is not until next summer.

I was fortunate enough to book my flight using frequent flyer miles, so I wanted to get them booked ASAP. We decided not to spend an extra day in Rome for our trip. It would have been nice, but we didn't want to spend the extra money.

I am a compulsive planner so it is all I can do to stop myself from booking the airfare now.
We are close to Phila airport and Allentown and the cost to leave from Allentown, a smaller airport is about $500 cheaper than leaving from Phila. Interestingly enough the flight then goes to Phila and then we leave from there so go figure.
So I am considering leaving from Allentown and then with the "savings" stay an extra night before the tour starts.
So much to think about.
I called my daughter at school to tell her I booked and she really started to get excited. Italy is one of the places that she has always wanted to visit so she is thrilled.

 

[helenk]

I encourage you to book a pre-day, and a post-day too. The pre-day is nice for getting acclimated, and the post-day would be nice because Venice is so incredibly amazing you just don't have enough time to spend there. If I had to choose I'd do another day in Venice, and visit Murano and some of the villas on the Grand Canal.

Have a wonderful time!

I am considering at least a pre day hotel, but Venice looks wonderful too so I am torn as what to do.
It is a once in a life time trip so I hate to cut corners.

 

[Tozzie]

I decided today to go ahead and put my deposit down for the May 27th to June 4th trip.
Now I need to figure out if I want to go a day early or not, and decide when to buy our airfare.
I looked at other tour groups and I just really liked what ABD had to offer. They were only about $80 per person more than Tauck, but since I booked with Dreams Unlimited and I'll get a $400 Am Exp gift card.

Yeah!!! I am glad you were able to get a trip you wanted.

 

[Diskidatheart]

I am a compulsive planner so it is all I can do to stop myself from booking the airfare now.
We are close to Phila airport and Allentown and the cost to leave from Allentown, a smaller airport is about $500 cheaper than leaving from Phila. Interestingly enough the flight then goes to Phila and then we leave from there so go figure.
So I am considering leaving from Allentown and then with the "savings" stay an extra night before the tour starts.
So much to think about.
I called my daughter at school to tell her I booked and she really started to get excited. Italy is one of the places that she has always wanted to visit so she is thrilled.

I've never understood airlines. We were going to pay one way from Pittsburgh to Rome and use FF miles from Venice to Pittsburgh. For some reason, the flight from Pgh to Rome was $1,500 cheaper if you booked it round trip versus if you booked it one way (it was the same flight, same seat, same everything except price). Doesn't make sense to me especially since we were booking both legs through USAir, it just happens that one leg was using miles. Your situation is another great example of why airlines are so confusing. $500 less for a longer flight. Makes no sense but I'm glad it works out well for you.

 

[pandafan]

It is smart to book the extra pre-day. On our first ABD trip a tornado delayed our flight and we missed the first day! We booked the pre-day on our next trip and had a blast touring on our own.

 

[sayhello]

I've never understood airlines. We were going to pay one way from Pittsburgh to Rome and use FF miles from Venice to Pittsburgh. For some reason, the flight from Pgh to Rome was $1,500 cheaper if you booked it round trip versus if you booked it one way (it was the same flight, same seat, same everything except price). Doesn't make sense to me especially since we were booking both legs through USAir, it just happens that one leg was using miles. Your situation is another great example of why airlines are so confusing. $500 less for a longer flight. Makes no sense but I'm glad it works out well for you.

No one really understands airlines. They are out to maximize their profits, but don't seem to have any really good ideas on how to do that. I think they see one-ways as the kind of thing most people *have* to book (very few people will buy a one-way for vacation. It's usually for a move, or an extended stay) so they charge more for it.

All you can do is try your hardest to wade through it all, or get a TA to do it for you!

Sayhello

 

[Turtlemom]

Thanks Helenk!
I'm glad you had a good experience with Dreams. If only the airlines were as easy to deal with as booking the rest of the trip!
Keep us all posted and let us know how it works out!
Turtlemom

 

[Turtlemom]

By the way--speaking of airfare--I did a quick Orbitz search from D.C. to Rome, and then Venice to D.C. --for next summer (end of June, early July) and Ouch!!! The airfares were around to $1500! Does it get any better that that???? Round-trip from Rome was about $1000, but is it worth the extra hassle of trying to get from Venice to Rome to save $$??? or does it end up costing the same by the time all is said and done.

Just wondering what others have done.

Helenk--glad airfare is cheaper out of the smaller airport. That doesn't really make sense, but few things do when you are dealing with airlines.

Turtlemom

 

[Diskidatheart]

When I was pricing out the flights, it was about $850 per person whether I flew back to Pittsburgh from Rome or Venice. It didn't matter whether it was round trip or multi-city trips as long as it was on the same airline. The price sky rocketed up to $1800 when I tried to fly one-way to Rome.

I looked at the same thing on Orbitz and found flights from DC to Rome and then from Venice to DC for a little over $1,000 per person on Swiss Air (operated by United). The flight was actually $699, but they must have some horrific taxes on it. It must depend on the time of year you go also. I looked at the same flight in early May and it was $800 per person and in early June the cheapest was over $1,100.

 

[a1tinkfans]

Hi
I was looking at the Italy vacation for july 2010 for my family, we'd be counted as three adults and the prices I got was 12k(basic trip) to 17k for a 9 day trip.

I would really love to know if those of you that did the trip thought the value was worth it.
I am also considering renting a villa (we'd be going with a large family group) and that was in a similar price range in Tuscany for a two week period. Since some of us can actually take 2-3 weeks off.
Is the disney trip really enough time, 7-9 days with the long flight??????????????????

Any opinions would be appreciated............Spending 15k is not totally out of the question, but its a lot of money that of course I'd like to get the biggest value for.............TIA!

 

[WeLoveABD]

We went in 2007--which was also when the Disney cruise ship was in the Med, so we flew to Rome and went on the ABD, then flew from Venice to Barcelona and went on the med cruise--with an extra day at the front end to adjust to jet lag and see a bit of Rome on our own, and a couple of days inbetween to do Barcelona (which was great). But the stars have to line up--so maybe ck the cruise dates and the ABD dates, if you want to do that (the cruise went to many ports--and when it had options for the Rome port we did other things, having seen enough of Rome on our own and with ABD!)

 

[helenk]

We went in 2007--which was also when the Disney cruise ship was in the Med, so we flew to Rome and went on the ABD, then flew from Venice to Barcelona and went on the med cruise--with an extra day at the front end to adjust to jet lag and see a bit of Rome on our own, and a couple of days inbetween to do Barcelona (which was great). But the stars have to line up--so maybe ck the cruise dates and the ABD dates, if you want to do that (the cruise went to many ports--and when it had options for the Rome port we did other things, having seen enough of Rome on our own and with ABD!)

Wow that sounds like it was a great trip. A bit long for us though as my daughter will have to get down to the business of finding a job in the real world. She'll be graduating from college on May 8th.
I am going to book a day before the tour begins to adjust to the jet lag. I am going to start looking a few quick trips to do on our own when we arrive. Any suggestions?

 

[WeLoveABD]

It was long--we were pretty worn out! But we figured as long as we were going to fly all that way...! As for things in Rome--first are you booking through Disney for the pre-stay? If so you'll be right in the heart of Rome and have access to the subway, as well as great walking trips around. We did the preday on our own, and stayed near the airport with a free shuttle into Rome--so we roamed around Rome not really knowing what we were doing, but decided just to go for a feel of the place. I know the guides are around getting ready for the trip--but not sure if they are accessible for questions/suggestions on the pre-day stays that are booked through Disney. Anyone out there know?