New to ABD

[adctd2WDW]

I have been to WDW many, many times and want to do something different next year for our family vacation. I love Disney's attention to detail and am considering an Alaskan ABD vacation. If anyone here has done this, I would love to hear feedback. Also, if you have been to Alaska other than an ABD vacation I would also appreciate feedback. My family has only seen snow once or twice! Unless you count Texas slush- which I don't. We are wanting to see wildlife- both on land and marine. Also, lots of outdoorsy stuff and not much shopping. My kids are: DD (16), DD (13) and DS (9). Other than WDW I have not been out of Texas, so I am feeling overwhelmed. Hopefully I am planning far enough in advance. We want to visit June 2010.
Oh- my 16 year old REALLY wants to go dog sledding. I did not see this on the ABD website. Can it be added on?
I will be talking to a travel agent later this week, but I also trust others on the DISboards for information. Thank you very much in advance.

 

[sayhello]

I have been to WDW many, many times and want to do something different next year for our family vacation. I love Disney's attention to detail and am considering an Alaskan ABD vacation. If anyone here has done this, I would love to hear feedback. Also, if you have been to Alaska other than an ABD vacation I would also appreciate feedback. My family has only seen snow once or twice! Unless you count Texas slush- which I don't. We are wanting to see wildlife- both on land and marine. Also, lots of outdoorsy stuff and not much shopping. My kids are: DD (16), DD (13) and DS (9). Other than WDW I have not been out of Texas, so I am feeling overwhelmed. Hopefully I am planning far enough in advance. We want to visit June 2010.
Oh- my 16 year old REALLY wants to go dog sledding. I did not see this on the ABD website. Can it be added on?
I will be talking to a travel agent later this week, but I also trust others on the DISboards for information. Thank you very much in advance.

Hi there! The Alaska itinerary is new this year, so only a few people have been so far. Bobo912 posted some pictures & observations here:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2227093

Marcemch is going in mid-August, and I'm going the beginning of September. Rest assured I will do a detailed, photo-filled Trip Report when I get back!

Dog sledding is not offered as a part of the ABD trip. I imagine you could probably arrange it one of the free days (such as in Denali). You'd probably need to research that on your own if you want to set it up ahead of time (I'm sure your Travel Agent can help you with that). Or the guides are usually really helpful helping you set up things like that while you're on the tour. You may want to check with the Grande Denali Lodge or the Hotel Alyeska. A lot of times the Lodges can arrange things like that. Just be warned, dog sledding excursions can be VERY expensive (assuming you're talking about on the snow/ice).

I have been to Alaska before, on a cruisetour 3 years ago, but this is a very different type of tour from that, and has a few activities I've never seen offered for a cruisetour (like the glacier rafting trip).

Alaska is beautiful and vast and fascinating. This trip also includes the Kenai Fjords cruise which is well-known for excellent marine life viewing. I highly recommend Alaska!

Anyway, if you have any specific questions, let me know, I'll try to answer them. This looks to be a spectacular trip. I'll let you know for sure in 1 month and 6 days!!!!

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[Bobo912]

We took the trip earlier this month. It was fantastic! There are excursions offered to the glaciers where you can experience dog sledding. I'm not sure how much these are, but just the plane/helicopter flyovers were around $375 per person, so it can be quite expensive. There is a free afternoon in Denali and in Girdwood and these types of excursion are offered in both places. On our trip, the only people who did the glacier flyovers were the folks who stayed additional days. Our guides were very knowledgable about local companies and helped alot in making suggestions and even helping schedule free-time activities.

 

[sayhello]

Oh, thought I should add that the dates for the 2010 ABD's aren't out yet. Rumor is that they will be out on Aug 10th. So you are still early. In past years, ABD has offered a limited number of Early Booking Discounts, but there's been another rumor they won't be offered for next year. If they do offer them, it's usually a substantial discount, and worth booking early to get. There's only a certain number of EBD's per departure, so they have been known to sell out quickly on some trips.

But, as you can see, there's not much info out there yet for 2010, and won't be until the dates are announced. So there's only so much your Travel Agent will be able to do for you this week. She can certainly explain to you what & how ABD works, and what this year's trips were like, but she won't be able to give you any specifics, or book you yet.

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