Alpine Magic for adults

[ADVMOM]

It looks like the Alpine Magic trip doesn't have an adults only option. My husband and I are leaving 3 kids behind to possibly do this trip. Has anyone done this trip without kids? Don't get me wrong, we love children but I don't want to be surrounded by them and wishing to experience it with my own. (We haven't gone away without kids for 6 years!.. and we've never been to Europe.) It sounds like a perfect trip for us so I wouldn't want to switch to another destination just for an Adult Only destination. For those who've gone, is it centered around kids or were there mostly adults? Is it a fun, active trip but time set aside for romantic adult time also? We are torn between this, Ireland or Alaska. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[sayhello]

Alaska doesn't have any Adults-Only trips for 2010, either. I looked at the dates for Alpine Magic, and I'd suggest you take the Sept 2 departure, as I would think it would be less likely to have children since school will have started by then.

Ireland seems to be the only one of your options that has an actual Adults-Only trip for 2010.

I'm leaving on the Alaska trip in a little over a week; I can let you know then what that trip is like as an Adults-Only trip, as they *did* offer one this year.

Sayhello

 

[ADVMOM]

Thanks for your input Sayhello. I can't wait to hear about your Alaska trip. My husband and I went 9 years ago with Cruise West and loved it.

I haven't read much feedback about the Alpine Trip in the discussion group. It doesn't seem to be very popular. It still sounds like a wonderful trip to me though.

It seems like they are trying to focus on family vacations with kids versus adults only. If that were the case you would think they would lower the prices not increase them since most of these trips would cost a fortune for us (family of 5). Unfortunately a vacation in Sept is out of the question given three busy kids in a million of activities, besides homework.

Have a great Alaskan vacation. I'm envious.

 

[Bobo912]

There is a link to an Alpine Magic trip report somewhere on the board and it looks awesome. After seeing the trip report, I added it to our list trips we want to take. It was one of the new itineraries added for 2009 and that is probably why you haven't seen much feedback.

 

[sayhello]

Thanks for your input Sayhello. I can't wait to hear about your Alaska trip. My husband and I went 9 years ago with Cruise West and loved it.

I haven't read much feedback about the Alpine Trip in the discussion group. It doesn't seem to be very popular. It still sounds like a wonderful trip to me though.

It seems like they are trying to focus on family vacations with kids versus adults only. If that were the case you would think they would lower the prices not increase them since most of these trips would cost a fortune for us (family of 5). Unfortunately a vacation in Sept is out of the question given three busy kids in a million of activities, besides homework.

Have a great Alaskan vacation. I'm envious.

You went to Alaska with Cruise West? I'm envious of that! I've heard wonderful things about small ship cruising in Alaska, and they are supposed to be one of the best. The big problem for me with cruising is that I generally travel solo, and I almost always end up paying 200% for cruises (very few cruise lines have decent single supplements). So Cruise West was out of my price range!

Thanks for the good wishes! A great vacation is DEFINITELY on the itinerary!

Sayhello

PS, I was looking over the Alpine Magic itinerary recently, and it *DOES* look like a fabulous trip. It's definitely on my list of "would like to do" trips.

 

[Tozzie]

It looks like the Alpine Magic trip doesn't have an adults only option. My husband and I are leaving 3 kids behind to possibly do this trip. Has anyone done this trip without kids? Don't get me wrong, we love children but I don't want to be surrounded by them and wishing to experience it with my own. (We haven't gone away without kids for 6 years!.. and we've never been to Europe.) It sounds like a perfect trip for us so I wouldn't want to switch to another destination just for an Adult Only destination. For those who've gone, is it centered around kids or were there mostly adults? Is it a fun, active trip but time set aside for romantic adult time also? We are torn between this, Ireland or Alaska. Any advice would be appreciated.

I decided despite my annoyances with the way ABD did the trips for next year (my issues are the lack of adult only itineraries and the lack of trips outside of summer months, surprisingly the EBD didn't bother me that much) that this is the trip I want to go on and I am going, even though there are no adult only trips. I have read many trip reports for various locations while I was deciding where I wanted to go as well as reading all the itineraries for the trips. I can tell you the itineraries don't change there may be a few added things for "Junior Adventurers" but it isn't at the expense of other things on the trip. Also from the trip reports that I have read, there being two guides is a major advantage as one can give there time and attention to adults and one to the kids, and with the exception of two reports of misbehaving children (1 of those it was actually the parents who thought everyone on the tour was responsible for their children) all kid have been described as very well behaved and not disruptive or attention seeking at all. I can't book the Sept 2 trip as that is when my boss always takes off and I can't take off when he is on vacation so I am going to book the earliest tour date possible which is June 6, as some schools are out or just getting out, there are a bunch that will still be in session. I saw the trip report of someone who took this trip this year with pictures and this trip was high on my list but after seeing the pictures I knew I wanted to do this trip. As it is a new trip for 2009, you won't see as many reports on it as you will see about Southwest Splendors or other trips which have been around for a few years.

 

[Carol]

My DH and I took this trip in June. Just the two of us, no children or grandchildren. We LOVED it! We had 22 people on tour. 6 were 12 years and under and 3 were in their late teens. The rest were their parents and grandparents. We had no problems with any of them. With there being 2 guides, there was always one for each group when there were children's activities. We had lots of time on our own for "just us" time. We sat with different families each meal and enjoyed everyone. Even with children there, we felt like it was OUR trip. The guides also contributed to making us feel special as a couple without kids. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this trip to anyone, with kids or without.

 

[ADVMOM]

Thanks for all the input! I'm now pretty sure this is the trip for us. I appreciate the recommendation of booking early in June versus the height of summer vacation for kids. June 6th is sounding really good. After checking prices on discount trips in 2009 and discount airfare to Zurich, I'm tempted to tempt fate and wait to cash in on any 2010 discounts early next year. We may lose our specific date but we'd gain in affordability. It sounds like such a unique and fabulous vacation!

By the way, I'm a newbie and have no idea how you are able to add all your personal touches to your name and messages. For instance I'm counting down Disneyland in 1 month and love to see everybody else's countdown. How do you add these fun things to the messages?

Also Cruise West in Alaska was fabulous! Only thing was that we were the youngest couple by at least 20 years. That's one reason why I'm so drawn to ABD.