UPDATE: Interesting factoid reported on ABD's handling of people testing positive for COVID-19 during their ABD.

[sayhello]

UPDATE: So as @ErinF noted below, the post on fb that I quoted below has been deleted with no explanation. So take from that what you will!

So a discussion was going on in a fb group about the ABD COVID-19 agreement that you have to sign now. And as a part of that conversation, it was mentioned that ABD's policy is "Nowadays if someone is Covid positive during the trip and the guides learn about it, the traveler and family will not be able to continue with the trip and will need to work with their insurance for reimbursement for trip interruptions." Then someone who just returned from the Portugal ABD said this (bolding mine): "That is exactly what happened to our group last week. We had two people get Covid at two different times during our trip and they and their families were forced to go into quarantine. What I learned from this is if you booked your flights through Disney it was a mandatory 10 day quarantine. Otherwise, if you booked flights on your own you followed the local country rules which was a 5 day quarantine. (All ABD adventurers are vaccinated) ABD turns you over [to] Anvil in both situations and at that point they take over. If you say you want tested because you were in close proximity you will join them in quarantine. If it makes anyone feel better there were 23 in our group and we lost 6 and the rest of us tested negative at the end of our trip."

This puts the whole "is it better to book your airfare through ABD or on your own" into a whole new light. I'm pretty sure this pushes me solidly into the "NOT booking my airfare through ABD" side.

Sayhello

 

[Clevelandbruce]

We leave next week and this is fairly frightening. How common are pos tests and folks getting Covid while on ABD trips? We asked a vacationista and they told us that "it hadn't been much of a concern" as of a couple of weeks ago. Also, just received the 'waiver' yesterday. This is all a bit foreboding. The Covid stats stats for France recently look pretty good but then you read that 6 of 23 are positive in a group. Yikes!!

 

[sayhello]

We leave next week and this is fairly frightening. How common are pos tests and folks getting Covid while on ABD trips? We asked a vacationista and they told us that "it hadn't been much of a concern" as of a couple of weeks ago. Also, just received the 'waiver' yesterday. This is all a bit foreboding. The Covid stats stats for France recently look pretty good but then you read that 6 of 23 are positive in a group. Yikes!!

Well, and not to be a Debbie Downer, but the European trips are just starting to ramp up. I don't know that they've had that great of a volume of trips so far to really have a pattern of what's concerning yet or not. I'm just going to recommend some caution. If it's crowded, wear a mask. If you're indoors, wear a mask. Just because others have gotten more careless doesn't mean you have to. Just my opinion.

Sayhello

 

[Distriv]

Interesting. We had 2 out of 5 members of a family test positive on our trip and only the 2 had to quarantine. The other 3 missed some (maybe all?) of one day dealing with it but they continued to test negative and continued on the trip. They were all adults so maybe they were considered their own party because they had separate rooms?

 

[ErinF]

So a discussion was going on in a fb group about the ABD COVID-19 agreement that you have to sign now. And as a part of that conversation, it was mentioned that ABD's policy is "Nowadays if someone is Covid positive during the trip and the guides learn about it, the traveler and family will not be able to continue with the trip and will need to work with their insurance for reimbursement for trip interruptions." Then someone who just returned from the Portugal ABD said this (bolding mine): "That is exactly what happened to our group last week. We had two people get Covid at two different times during our trip and they and their families were forced to go into quarantine. What I learned from this is if you booked your flights through Disney it was a mandatory 10 day quarantine. Otherwise, if you booked flights on your own you followed the local country rules which was a 5 day quarantine. (All ABD adventurers are vaccinated) ABD turns you over [to] Anvil in both situations and at that point they take over. If you say you want tested because you were in close proximity you will join them in quarantine. If it makes anyone feel better there were 23 in our group and we lost 6 and the rest of us tested negative at the end of our trip."

This puts the whole "is it better to book your airfare through ABD or on your own" into a whole new light. I'm pretty sure this pushes me solidly into the "NOT booking my airfare through ABD" side.

Sayhello

I read that same thread on FB yesterday, but when I went back to it just a little while ago I noticed that comment about quarantining 10 days if you booked airfare with ABD has now been deleted. So take from that what you will.

 

[sayhello]

I read that same thread on FB yesterday, but when I went back to it just a little while ago I noticed that comment about quarantining 10 days if you booked airfare with ABD has now been deleted. So take from that what you will.

Oh, thanks for noting that! I haven't been back to that thread since this morning. I've updated the original post.

Sayhello

 

[aggiedog]

It's not Europe, but a family friend was in Israel last month. In their tour group of 23, 16 tested positive and spent 10 days quarantined. Seven before they could try to leave, and another 3 before they found a flight out. I supposed the last 3 days weren't technically quarantine, but at that point they were so over being in Israel.

 

[MeDisney]

Does ABD test guests mid trip? According to the policy it says: Pre- and mid-departure COVID-19 testing may be required depending on the destination and type of trip.

 

[PurplePencil]

It's not Europe, but a family friend was in Israel last month. In their tour group of 23, 16 tested positive and spent 10 days quarantined. Seven before they could try to leave, and another 3 before they found a flight out. I supposed the last 3 days weren't technically quarantine, but at that point they were so over being in Israel.

I visited Israel last summer when they were requiring PCR and serological tests for entry. In my group of 42, nobody tested positive during the trip. There were 2 other groups of 45 each associated with the same organization, and there were 2 positive tests that were only detected because some people were going home early and needed re-entry testing.

 

[lpm23]

Does ABD test guests mid trip? According to the policy it says: Pre- and mid-departure COVID-19 testing may be required depending on the destination and type of trip.

No they dont

 

[jimmymc]

Does ABD test guests mid trip? According to the policy it says: Pre- and mid-departure COVID-19 testing may be required depending on the destination and type of trip.

Not unless the government of a new country requires it, if your trip spans multiple countries.

 

[gatordoc]

We were pretty unhappy when the Galapagos trip added a requirement for testing at the hotel in Quito on arrival. This was not disclosed until less than two weeks before the trip. I know things change, and am not opposed to testing requirements, but the last minute notification added a terrific amount of stress to a trip that could not be cancelled at that point (had we known about this requirement, we wouldn’t have booked the trip). And we were told that if anyone tested positive, they would have to isolate in Quito and could not proceed on the trip (which very sadly happened to one family), and that refunds would only be provided through insurance.