Adventures by Disney – Costa Rica

By Erin Foster
March 2009

COSTA RICA TRIP PLANNING

As Disney fans, my family became aware of the Adventures by Disney tours almost immediately after they became available. Exploring the world with our family while being treated to the same great attention to detail and quality of service that we had come to expect from our many visits to Walt Disney World was an opportunity that was just too good to pass up. So for us, it wasn’t really a question of if we would eventually taken an Adventures by Disney trip, but rather where and when.

Many of the European trips appealed to me (I love the charm and sophistication of European travel), but after spending many hours reviewing the various tour options, everyone else in my family chose the Costa Rica Path to Pura Vida as their destination of choice. Zip lines! Wild monkeys! I was roundly outvoted, so Costa Rica it was.

There are minimum age limits for all the AbD trips. The minimum for Costa Rica is age four. However, one of headliner activities on the trip, the zip line excursion, has a minimum age of eight, so we knew we wanted to wait until our younger children (twin girls) were at least that old. This was a great decision for us, as you’ll see later on. Because of scheduling issues with family commitments, we ended up going on the trip when our twins were nine and our older daughter was 12.

Once we decided we were ready to go, my husband called Adventures by Disney and spoke at length with a representative who answered several questions we had about the accommodations and described all the costs associated with the trip. We were informed that there was an early-booking discount available that would give us substantial savings. AbD also told us that they could arrange to book our air transportation for us, but because we had some frequent flyer miles available, we decided to get our flights on our own. We were lucky enough to secure seats on one of the few non-stop flights from the New York area to Costa Rica.

Our biggest decision about our trip was how to pay for it. We are Disney Vacation Club members and could have used our DVC points to cover some or all of the trip. However, in doing the math we figured out that because we still wanted to spend good deal of vacation time at Walt Disney World, our points would work harder for us if we used them at WDW rather than with Adventures by Disney. We decided to pay for the trip with cash. We would later learn that three of the other families on our trip were also DVC members. They all chose to use points for the trip, so this is something for DVC members consider carefully based on their unique travel patterns and financial situation.

Once the trip was booked and we made our deposit, an Adventures by Disney agent called us to confirm our flight information and to make sure that our passports were in order. One aspect of travel to Costa Rica that AbD does not discuss is the medical aspect of travel to Central America. We mentioned our trip to our personal physician who recommend several preventative vaccinations. However, many other members of our tour group did not take any medical precautions and all were absolutely fine. This is something you may want to discuss with your own doctor.

A few months before the trip, we received an update call about the trip from AbD. There had been an earthquake in Costa Rica that impacted one of the advertised activities for the trip. The La Paz Waterfall Gardens that were described in the AbD literature had become inaccessible. The representative explained that an alternative activity, a tour of the Espiritu Santo coffee farm, was being arranged. The rep spent a good deal of time on the phone answering our questions. I have to say that as a serious coffee addict, I was actually quite excited about the change in the itinerary.

The next time we heard from AbD was about a month before the trip. Two large boxes arrived from UPS. They contained welcome packets with luggage tags, some travel instructions, a suggested packing list, and some gifts: sturdy AbD messenger bags for myself, my husband, and my older daughter and colorful shoulder packs for the twins. The bags were a great surprise and ended up working well as personal carry-ons for the plane ride.

I spent the week before the trip packing a big suitcase for each of us. As it turns out I, as usual, over packed. I brought lots of jeans and sweatshirts, thinking they would be needed in the evenings. I also brought a few dressy outfits for each of us. None of this was necessary as the entire trip was warm and casual. The only thing I under packed was sunscreen. I had brought two large bottles with us, but these were gone by the 4th day of the trip. We were able to buy more at our last hotel, but I would certainly recommend that you bring gobs of sunscreen with you.

Then after many months of waiting for trip to finally arrive, we were off “¦

To be continued …

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Erin Foster lives with her husband and three daughters just outside New York City. She has been to Walt Disney World at least 30 times. In late 2007, Erin was selected to be part of the first ever Walt Disney World Moms Panel. Since then she has answered nearly 4,000 questions from guests about every aspect of Disney World travel at disneyworldmoms.com. She is not a Disney employee and her postings here, there, and everywhere are her own and do not represent the positions or opinions of the Disney Company. Costa Rica, the Path to Pura Vida, is her first Adventures by Disney trip.