Does everybody want an All Inclusive Cruise?????

As most things in life I believe everything comes and goes in fads. Eleven years ago when I first started selling cruises, I can’t remember an All Inclusive drinks package on board a ship ever really existing. Nowadays it’s becoming harder to find a ship that does not offer this wonderful option!!!!

Am I a fan of All Inclusive cruises and drinks packages? I’m happy to say not for me. After queuing for nearly an hour in May to get served at the bar on Royal Caribbean we ended up retreating back to our cabins fed up with the boredom and frustration just trying to get served. I’m a bit old fashioned I suppose and not a big drinker, I still like the thought that cruising’s main focus is to travel and see fantastic places in a short space of time, not to see how bladdered you can get and begrudgingly not wanting to leave the ship and pay for a glass of the local tipple when you’ve already paid £50 per day to drink till you drop on board.

As a nation I don’t think we’re ever really going to learn, everything should be done in moderation, it’s not quantity it’s quality. We’re certainly not helping with the obesity levels in the UK either, and as cruising is becoming a far more popular way to holiday, excessive eating and drinking seem’s to be the way the mass market lines are trying to entice their customers.

I do think though this will all go full circle. I’ve had quite a few customers recently who have had All Inclusive cruises however now they have sampled them and worked out just how much they are costing them, they are happy to revert back to paying as they go as they cannot justify spending that much money on alcohol.

Do I think I got my money’s worth paying £53 per day on my 3 night mini cruise, not really I came home feeling like I’d been pulled through a hedge backwards and had also eaten my bodies weight in Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, all because myself like the rest of the nation had no idea when enough was enough.

What’s your thoughts on All Inclusive cruises, are you a fan?????