Germany trip cancelled

[Rapunzellover]

Got word my July 15th trip to Germany was cancelled. Ugh.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

So sorry to hear this news. Did they give you an explanation?

Are they willing to honor "release" date prices if you book another adventure this summer?

 

[Woodview]

Hello Rapunzellover,

Sorry to hear about the cancellation

But ........ Why not keep your flight bookings & do the trip yourselves .....

Provided you get a refund .

You have The Itinerary & the names of the hotels ..... Hotels can be booked on line ... pay when you check out ( Card Details are held in case of No Show ). Hire a car ...... Pre Pay before you arrive in Germany so you have your Voucher & no extra hard sell .

Buy a good Road map or get one from AAA & away you go .

Do you really need Guides ........ no ....... Sometimes join in with another tour group.

Book Hotels Half Board ( Dinner .. Bed & Breakfast )
.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Got word my July 15th trip to Germany was cancelled. Ugh.

Wow, what a bummer! I'll ditto WDW Groupie's question about whether they gave you any explanation?

 

[tgeorge]

Boo. Is that the one you were doing in conjunction with the Spain trip? If I remember correctly, you were going to do a B2B trip, but I am getting old and my memory may be slipping.

So sorry to hear about that. What a bummer

 

[Rapunzellover]

Yes. It was supposed to be back 2 back. They cancelled cause only 5 people were signed up. I had thought it was 15. But..... I guess not. Still checking to see what can be done.

 

[Rapunzellover]

And yes, they'll honor release date pricing.

 

[Cousin Orville]

We're on the 29th Germany. It's still on as far as I know. Sorry to hear this messes up your B2B plans. I'll be very interested to hear how ABD handles this for you.

 

[AdamEfimoff]

you can always use a another tour provider?

 

[bamagoofy]

I had my Greece trip cancelled so I understand your frustration. Luckily I was able to shift my vacation to accommodate the trip after. I was using Kevin at dreams unlimited as a travel agent and he did most of the heavy lifting which was nice. There was no problem changing dates.

I hope everything works out for you as you scramble.

 

[Rapunzellover]

We're on the 29th Germany. It's still on as far as I know. Sorry to hear this messes up your B2B plans. I'll be very interested to hear how
ABD handles this for you.

I may end up on that tour with you. But, to warn you, she told me that date and the May 27th (the ones I'm looking into) only have 15 people each.

 

[sayhello]

I may end up on that tour with you. But, to warn you, she told me that date and the May 27th (the ones I'm looking into) only have 15 people each.

Ack!!! So sorry to hear this. On a positive note, I've had trips go with 14 & 15 people.

Sayhello

 

[tgeorge]

Does anyone else find it crazy that they would cancel a trip for July in February? I guess maybe it is better so people don't buy plane tickets, etc.,however, that is still 5 months away. I'm sure they've done their due diligence by determining the number of people at a certain time out and statistically the likelihood of getting more guests, but it still just seems very early to make that determination.

Good luck with your plans. I hope that it all works out and you're able to go and have a fantastic trip!

 

[Rapunzellover]

Tgeorge-- I asked why they cancelled so early--vacationista said they normally have more by this time, so they wan to give folks time to make other plans. I'm glad I have the time to make changes.
But this still sucks.
‎
I booked early to get nonstop when possible and do both trips back to back and I saved bank. $2126 total, which was way cheaper than separate...that was about 3200 when I booked. ‎
‎
I will get the airfare back. That's certain. And no added cost to the land packages. But to rebook air is gonna be ridiculous. Even I say screw Germany and just do Spain, it's gonna be around 1650 to book similar air for just Spain. That's almost as much at the back to back fare. And if I decide to do Germany separately, they wanted 1900 and change for comparable Germany air. Amazing!!!

 

[TXTransplant]

I'm a little surprised they cancelled this soon, too. I was on the mid-June Germany trip last year. The number on our trip nearly doubled within the 90-day window. It went from something like 12 or 14 guests to 24 well after I made my final payment.

 

[Cinderella's Slipper 2015]

I think the Paris attacks and current migrant crisis in Europe is deterring a lot of people from travelling to Europe, especially Germany as that's where the bulk of the migrants were heading.

I know that if our Central Europe trip were to be cancelled we would do 1 of 2 things. We would either do it ourselves, just book into the same hotel in Prague and an equivalent hotel in Vienna (maybe not the Ritz Carleton) and plan out our own trip since these two cities are very "walkable" and tourist friendly. Or we would get in touch with National Geographic Expeditions and see if they could create a custom trip for us that was similar to what ABD was offering.

 

[TXTransplant]

I'm not saying you couldn't do it, but the Germany ABD has some very unique/ABD exclusive activities that would be difficult to replicate. I believe the stuffed-animal activity at the Steiff Museum and the pretzel making in Rothenburg are exclusive to ABD. The guides you have at the different castles and in Alsfeld are very unique, too, and I didn't see any other tourists at the locations we visited being led around by costumed tour guides. Tauck doesn't offer an itinerary anywhere close to the ABD. The Germany trip is also very travel-intensive...you don't stay at any one hotel for more than two nights. It works on the ABD because you are taken everywhere on a private motor coach. Traveling by train in Europe is great, but changing locations every two days can be exhausting. I did it (and loved it) when I was in college, but 16 years later (and with a kid in tow), I'm not sure I'd feel the same.

If I were to go it alone, I think I'd base myself out of Munich and then take day trips (via train) to places like Neuschwanstein, Garmisch, Rothenburg, Chiemsee, and probably at least one concentration camp. Heidelberg was great, but if not on an ABD, I think I'd skip it in favor of other more interesting locales. Kassel and the Hercules monument were also wonderful, but getting there would be inconvenient if you were doing a trip based out of Munich.

 

[Cousin Orville]

I'm not saying you couldn't do it, but the Germany ABD has some very unique/ABD exclusive activities that would be difficult to replicate. I believe the stuffed-animal activity at the Steiff Museum and the pretzel making in Rothenburg are exclusive to ABD. The guides you have at the different castles and in Alsfeld are very unique, too, and I didn't see any other tourists at the locations we visited being led around by costumed tour guides. Tauck doesn't offer an itinerary anywhere close to the ABD. The Germany trip is also very travel-intensive...you don't stay at any one hotel for more than two nights. It works on the ABD because you are taken everywhere on a private motor coach. Traveling by train in Europe is great, but changing locations every two days can be exhausting. I did it (and loved it) when I was in college, but 16 years later (and with a kid in tow), I'm not sure I'd feel the same.

If I were to go it alone, I think I'd base myself out of Munich and then take day trips (via train) to places like Neuschwanstein, Garmisch, Rothenburg, Chiemsee, and probably at least one concentration camp. Heidelberg was great, but if not on an ABD, I think I'd skip it in favor of other more interesting locales. Kassel and the Hercules monument were also wonderful, but getting there would be inconvenient if you were doing a trip based out of Munich.

I agree with this. I picked ABD to see specific things, scattered across the country in a reasonably short amount of time (~1 wk) with fun guides, no stress, and preferably other kids for my son to hang out with. There's no great way to duplicate that on your own. We take non-ABD trips to Europe as well, and it's a very different experience. (A good experience, but very different.) If my Germany ABD was cancelled, realistically I'd probably look for another ABD. If I wanted to do the trip myself, I would have booked it that way.

 

[Cousin Orville]

I think the Paris attacks and current migrant crisis in Europe is deterring a lot of people from travelling to Europe, especially Germany as that's where the bulk of the migrants were heading.

Yep. I've been silently thinking about this as well. When I had heard my ABD had 15 guests (and hopefully still has 15 or more), that sounded very low for a summer Germany trip. I would imagine many of the European ABD's have been affected.

 

[Cinderella's Slipper 2015]

Yep. I've been silently thinking about this as well. When I had heard my ABD had 15 guests (and hopefully still has 15 or more), that sounded very low for a summer Germany trip. I would imagine many of the European ABD's have been affected.

Believe it or not, I don't think my actual trip has. When I asked ABD last month we had 22 on my September Central Europe departure. But I think this has a LOT to do with people not booking these trips as many of these same trips last year were already booked up at this point. I think it's also why the most recent trip releases were domestic.