About a month ago, my husband and oldest daughter embarked on an incredible trip through Arizona and Utah with Adventures by Disney. They had an amazing time and I can’t wait to share their adventures with you! Since I wasn’t there, this trip report will not include as many details as my cruise trip reports. But, they did take some notes and have good memories so it should still be informative for those thinking of doing this trip.
First, a little background. A couple of years ago, we had the idea for my husband to take each of the girls on a solo trip of their choice when they turned 13. I’d heard of other people doing this and thought it was a great idea. Since I homeschool my girls, I spend WAY more time with them than their Dad does, and we want to try and do everything we can to make sure that the dad/daughter bonds do not weaken during the teenage years. Also, due to logistics and other trips already planned, we had to push this trip out a year so our daughter was actually 14 for this trip.
Day one started out with them meeting their ABD group at the Phoenix airport at 12:30 PM. They had flown in the night before and spent the night at a nearby hotel, and then taken the hotel shuttle back to the airport that day. Once at the airport, they grabbed a quick lunch in the food court and then found the ABD group at the designated location, in front of the Starbucks at baggage claim in terminal 4. Their adventure guides were Tiffany and Mark, and there were 24 people total in their group, with 5 – 10 of those being kids. There were also 3 adventure guides in training joining them, as well as an Adventures by Disney executive overseeing the trainees. It turns out that 10 of the guests were meeting up with the group later that day in Sedona due to either prior plans or travel delays.
They got all checked in and were given luggage tags to put on their suitcases. One of the great things about ABD trips is that the guides move your luggage from hotel room to hotel room during the trip.
Then they loaded onto the motor coach that they would use throughout the trip.
On this afternoon they drove from Phoenix to Sedona (2 hours), with a couple of stops along the way. If you are planning to do this ABD trip yourself, keep in mind that the guides don’t always choose the same small activities/stops for every trip – they try to tailor them to the group and also have to work around varying time constraints. If the group is not able to leave the airport on time, for example, these stops will not happen. However, all of the main activities described online will stay the same.
The drive to Sedona took them through the Sonoran desert, and the guides gave facts about the desert along the way. Their first stop was a spot to check out a huge saguaro cactus, and just took about 10 minutes.
Fun fact: it takes about 10 years to grow 1 inch and the first arm doesn’t start to grow until after about 100 years. Also, this type of cactus only grows in Arizona.
Their second stop, at Montezuma Castle National Monument, was a little bit longer. This was an unplanned stop that they were able to do because they were ahead of schedule. They stayed about 1 hour for a bathroom break, historical presentation, and time to explore on their own.
Montezuma Castle is one of the best-preserved cliff dwellings in North America. It was built and used by the Sinagua Indians (and thus despite it’s name has nothing to do with Montezuma, the Aztec ruler) from approximately 1100 to 1425 AD. It has 20 rooms and sits about 100 feet above the ground. Until 1951, visitors were allows to climb ladders into the structure. Today, they can just walk along the trail below.
At this stop, they purchased a National Parks passport book which they had stamped at every national park they visited.
After this stop they ended they day’s journey at the Enchantment Resort in Sedona, where they stayed for 2 nights. To say this resort is stunning is an understatement. The 5 star resort covers 70 acres and is designed to blend in with the surrounding red rocks. They said that their first view of the resort was breathtaking!
The hotel rooms are actually in individual buildings housing 1-2 rooms each, which you can see in this picture:
Instead of doing check-in in the lobby, there was a separate room set up for the ABD guests.
After checking in, they were driven to their room on a cart.
This was their building:
A look inside the room:
The view from the patio:
On the bed they found an ABD gift:
The blue thing above is a collapsible duffle bag. Here it is opened:
The also found a welcome letter with important information, as well as their gratuity envelopes:
They had a little bit of time before the group welcome dinner, so they checked out the resort and tried to call me. I want to note that cell phone service is spotty at this resort. They had no service much of their time there, but we were able to FaceTime using the resort’s wifi although the video quality was not great.
These were taken in the main lobby area:
They walked over to the area where the group dinner would take place.
This is the space right outside of the room where the welcome dinner took place:
Here is the room set up for the dinner, with a buffet against the wall. They mingled with the other guests before dinner and started to get to know them a bit. The guides also played a game where everyone put on a name tag that belonged to someone else. Then, you had to find the person who had your name tag and introduce yourself. They said it was a fun way to break the ice.
The buffet had a southwest theme and included things like fajitas, rice, and beans. On the bus ride earlier that day, the guides asked which of the kids would prefer chicken tenders and had those available as well.
At one point they introduced all of the “junior adventurers” (those under 12):
Also during dinner, the guides explained to the group the plans for the following day, like the optional sunrise hike, breakfast arrangements, and the jeep tour they would be taking.
During dinner, they were joined by Derek Davis, a member of the Hopi Indian tribe. He played music while they were eating, and then after dinner, he shared with the group the history of his tribe.
After dinner, they rode the cart back to their casita and went to bed.
That wraps up day 1!
Up next: Day 2 – Sedona
I’m looking forward to hearing about the rest of their trip! Thank you for providing this review about an ABD vacation!
Can’t wait until my twin sis/travel buddy finally retires from teaching this coming school year so we can take advantage of the many excellent trips in the Adventure s by Disney portfolio. Looks like this would be one for our bucket list.
I love the idea of a father/daughter trip! Did you let your daughter pick where she wanted to go?
Hi Leslie! Yes, for the most part. She actually didn’t have many ideas/suggestions so we kind of suggested things to her that we knew she would like and then she picked one of those.
I wonder if your middle daughter is already thinking of her 13yo trip destination.
She has already decided – New York City!
Nice! She’ll love it. Went there a few years back for just one day and it wasn’t even close to enough.
Since she loves singing I hope she goes to one of the shows on Broadway. If she wants to do the ABD New York Escape they include a showing of Frozen and a backstage tour of the New Amsterdam Theatre along with a Broadway Theater Workshop.
Let’s hope the youngest doesn’t try going out there and say “African Safari!” ?
Ha ha ha! Knowing our youngest, she might try! But that would be a hard no. We’ve told them they cannot be international trips, both for logistics and our bank account. They do plan to do the New York ABD (with a few days on their own as well) and she cannot wait to tour the New Amsterdam! And they will make it to more than one show, no doubt!
I sure hope the youngest doesn’t break the precedent of her sisters and does a ABD trip as well. Wonder if when they were first told of the trips they started thinking of London and Paris before you two got to the no international trips part.
Can’t wait to see their trip when that happens. At least they know what sites to avoid since they’ll see them on the ABD. Wonder if she’s already got a list of what shows she’d want to see and discussed with her father which he’d want to see as well since it would suck if she wanted to see Phantom of the Opera and he wasn’t that interested unless they do a “I’ll see this show with you if you see this one with me” agreement.