I’ve asked the question before if you think that cruising will become All-Inclusive with Gratuities and Drinks packages included as standard. The answer at that time seemed to be no and a lot said they would not want it to be and it is just right at the moment although I do get asked for it by some customers every single day.
As we as cruise customers don’t seem to know what we want the cruise lines seem a little confused with what to offer us too. Norwegian Cruise Lines made the brave decision to go All Inclusive in the past which is what they said customers wanted but then as the prices increased to include drinks and tips it did stop a lot of people booking as costs increased and if you don’t drink then why would you pay a higher fare to include something you don’t need. After they did this for a while they have now gone back on themselves and come up with a more traditional cruise fare but you can add on your tips and they have great add on for drinks packages and dining under the free at sea promotion where you can choose to add a drinks and specialty dining package from as little as £99 per person. There are other options as well that can be added for none drinkers so it seems to be a happy medium at the minute and the cruise fares have become better value since they started doing this.
Two of the other big boys seem to be toying with the idea of All-Inclusive at the minute as first MSC Cruises have announced that from the 25th June 2019 that all new bookings will have the Gratuities included in the cost of the cruise. This means no need to pre-pay or nothing added to your onboard account as they are free. At certain times MSC has offers on where they include drink packages too so if you book at that time you would effectively be All-Inclusive. You can add drinks packages on anyway with MSC so it would seem that at some point they might well go down that route.
Rather surprisingly Princess cruises have also got an offer at the moment on Caribbean sailings called Sip and Sail and it includes Free Drinks and up to $1000 spending money too. Now this may just be to give the Caribbean a massive push but Princess are not one of the cruise lines you would normally expect to give away free drinks and certainly not using a strapline of this is what all-inclusive looks like. If it is a success which you would expect it to be we could well see it for Europe.
The fact that P&O now include gratuities too and are finally are starting to offer drink packages this all still suggests to me that we are getting closer towards All inclusive. Would it be a good idea if all the cruise where All-Inclusive and maybe the offered a reduction for none drinkers if you want to take the drinks packages off. That could be a unique selling point if somebody was brave enough to try it!
So what do we think would you like to see every cruise All-Inclusive or should things stay more traditional as they have been? I would love to hear your views…………