My daughter and I experienced a weekend Adventures by Disney vacation to New York City. We loved this quick getaway! The trip started on Thursday and ended on Sunday. From booking to heading home, the whole experience was stress free! Here is a quick guide to an Adventures by Disney experience.
When booking my trip, I included airfare into my package. This way I had some support of Adventures by Disney, if anything went wrong with my flight. The flight was an easy direct flight and all went well on my flight into New York City. As a travel expert, I normally book my own flights, but I do recommend including your flights into your Adventure by Disney (ABD) package.
Once we landed in NYC, we walked down to Baggage Claim to find our town car driver holding a sign with our name on it. I was traveling alone with my 9 year old daughter, so this made me feel safe and again stress free. In addition, our driver was a careful driver! If you have ever taken a taxi in NYC, you know exactly what I am talking about. Our driver was careful maneuvering around the traffic to our hotel.
Adventures by Disney is a luxury tour company. You enjoy exclusive experiences and top rated hotels. Our hotel was near Times Square, just a few minutes walk. It was a quaint hotel. The highlight was the size of the rooms. They were suites, not just typical smaller NYC rooms. We had a mini kitchenette, two bathrooms, a huge living room, and a separate bedroom. For NYC, these suites were HUGE. That is one of the benefits of booking an Adventures by Disney vacation. You stay is more exclusive hotels.
Most of your meals are included with an Adventures by Disney tour. These meals are little hidden gems around the city. On the first day of our NYC tour, we dined in a private area of the old church renovated into a pizzeria called John’s Pizza. This restaurant is always a “must do” on our New York City vacations. The entire meal was planned for us with appetizers ready to go, once we arrived to the restaurant to a selection of pizzas and desserts. We left the restaurant stuffed!
This is just one of our experiences. Several of the restaurants were in private areas, just for our group. Many of the Chefs would come out and give us the history of the restaurants and NYC. It was not just dining, but an experience!
The experiences is why I book and Adventures by Disney! You will enjoy once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that you would not get to see or do on your own or with any other tour company. During our Adventures by Disney, we had so many highlights. Here are just a few of the behind the scenes opportunities we got to experience.
As a female travelers with a child traveling alone in New York City, it was such a relief to have (2) NYC local guides (that were Disney Cast Members) there to assist us every step of the way. We literally woke up and arrived on time. The guides would take us everywhere. They would tip the town car driver. They would pay for the meals and tip the servers and singers. Everything was included. I did not have to take out my wallet once. I did not have to worry about any lines or tickets. It was truly a stress free vacation.
For some of the visitors in our group, our guides did a little bit more. There was a family in our group that had a sick child. Our guides helped them with doctors, a pharmacy, arranged transportation once they felt better to join our group, and was there for support. When traveling to a new city, it is incredible to have a local there for guidance along with a concierge to make sure you have the best experience possible. That is exactly what happened to this family during our trip.
It is Disney, so there is always extra magic! The guides are always taking pictures. Of course, you still want to bring your camera, but they will be taking a lot of pictures for you during your vacation. At the end of the vacation, they will email you all of the pictures to download from home.
Disney loves pins! With the Adventures by Disney tours, you get a new pin each night (commemorating your experience that day). You can add all of these pins to your lanyard to wear during your adventure and it is a great souvenir after your vacation.
Lots of swag! Before you even leave for your Adventures by Disney, you will receive goodies. For our trip, we received a nice documents/passport holder and bag. These were fantastic for our Adventures by Disney getaway.
Our Adventures by Disney experience to New York City was a once-in-a-lifetime vacation. We had such a great time and we cannot wait to take another Adventures by Disney vacation with the whole family.
The Adventures by Disney vacations are a luxury tour with truly exclusive experiences. With that, comes a higher price tag! I suggest starting your Adventures by Disney experience with a weekend trip like San Francisco, Nashville, or New York City. These trips are shorter weekend trips and are much more affordable. There is a reason Adventures by Disney has a huge repeat guest ratio. Once you take one ABD, you will take more. Try a shorter weekend to test it out. It is less expensive and it is a good jumping point for Adventures by Disney.
Another tip is plan early. As soon as Disney releases the Adventures by Disney trips for the next year; go ahead and book your trip. You can pay the deposit and then make small monthly payments until the final payment. It is like a travel layaway plan.