We moved the deposit from our October Egypt to the March 14th NZ ABD. My first 2 choices of departure dates were sold out and I didn't want to wait much longer to book. Hard to get too excited this far in advance, but I am planning on reading the LOTR trilogy because we will definitely visit Hobbiton before the ABD. Also Milford Sound after.
As long as you stay at the same hotel ABD
If you book the extra night through ABD (at the ABD hotel) then you still get transfers. If you book an extra night yourself at the ABD hotel, then sometimes they'll still transport you. It really seems to change from trip to trip and location to location. If you leave the ABD hotel, you're pretty much on your own.
It really, really depends on the trip, the location, etc. Sometimes they are better than others. For our Rhone river cruise, I booked the ABD hotel myself for the pre-day before the cruise, and they would not pick me up at the train station (which was an option for this trip) and would not let me take the bus from the ABD hotel to the ship. So it really, REALLY depends.
Not sure if this is a factor - it may also depend on how many pre & post nights AbD has included in their contracts with the hotels. the CM told me that can vary from adventure to adventure, anywhere between 1-3 pre-nights available.
I have found it to be pretty much the *most* variable of all of ABD's policies.
Funny, we also ended up with 3/14/22 because our first two choices (the February departures) were full.
We are booked for 3/14/22 as well-- hope it all works out, and we'll meet you then!
I went with the AbD insurance.
We were really lucky and got our travel insurer to make an exception to the one year rule and transfer the insurance we had purchased for Greece this year to New Zealand 2022. They originally denied our request but we appealed and they approved it, but it was largely because they denied our request after it was too late for us to get the pre-existing condition waiver on a new policy (I had emphasized when I called to make the request that a pre-existing condition waiver was important for us). We had to make an additional payment, but it was a better deal for us overall.
I have 2 OYO insurance credits, I'd use them only for OYO trips. If ABD, I want to use ABD Insurance because it's fully refundable if it cancels if COVID is still an issue.
Good point about AbD insurance being refundable on their cancellation- I‘d forgotten I got that refunded with an August trip that is not happening.
we just used abd
-
While this is very cool, somehow I don't think three 3.5 plus hour-long movies is a good choice for a first trip back to the movie theater!All in the name of trip research
For those who would be comfortable going to the movie theatres and have a Regal/Edwards theatre not too far away, Regal theatres are reopening August 21. Regal will be showing various classic films for $5 per movie the first two weeks theatres are open, one group the first week and another group the second week. During week 2, The films include the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
It’s not clear on their website if all theatres will show all movies, so check your local theatres for LOTR screenings.
https://www.regmovies.com/static/en/us/regal-reopening-movies
Yeah maybe not - would depend on how limited their seating Really is and the show times. Maybe only see one of them, as the big screen experience is so much better. Though I don’t think I will have the option of deciding whether to go or not as movie theatres are not yet open here and I don’t think they will be in a couple of weeks.While this is very cool, somehow I don't think three 3.5 plus hour-long movies is a good choice for a first trip back to the movie theater!
Sayhello
Same here. Our Governor just tested positive for COVID-19, so heaven knows what that will do to policy here, but our cases are on the rise, so I don't really expect movie theatres to be open here, either. 
