All Inclusive all the way?

Is All Inclusive the way forward on a Cruise? Some cruise lines for example NCL are now All inclusive. Included is their Ultimate Beverage Package along with Gratuities. Now, to families this must be really appealing as it has to be the complete package. You’re booking a family holiday and taking the kids and you want to know that you have everything and that the kids can get drinks too when ever they want to. Everything budgeted for is taken care of before you travel, not a bad thing for families. You go to a land-base holiday booked with a High St Tour Operator and you sit by the pool and on the beach and it’s All inclusive. Cruise lines seem to be jumping on this and more and more are offering a drinks package. Even P&O recently tried it for this month. We’ll wait and see how the feedback comes back on that one.  20 years ago, cruises were’t so popular with children and apart from some of the luxury brands there wasn’t many all inclusive deals.

More and more people are going on cruises and they’re becoming very popular with all age ranges and more so towards families too. Is this the way forward though? Are we spoiling cruises by having these drinks packages? We often think of cruises as a hotel at seas but do we really want to attract the wrong crowds, like hens and stag do’s to treat it like a booze cruise with free drinks? I’m of the opinion that cruises should cater for everyone and everyone prepared to pay their fare should be entitled to go n a cruise.

I’m just not sure i’m a fan of the All inclusive. This is my own opinion of course and personally I just don’t think that the level of service is there when you have a drinks promotion. I went on a Royal Caribbean ship with the majority on board being on the All inclusive and I just felt the atmosphere wasn’t the same. The bar staff weren’t in a rush to serve you. They know it’s free drinks free refills and perhaps they have to work harder and may be feel they won’t get tips like they did when you bought drinks individually.  When i went on a P&O ship I thought the service was more relaxed and you sat down and often the waiters and waitresses would approach you and ask if you’d like a drinks, then go to the bar and bring it back to you. Personally I much preferred this. There wasn’t a long Que at the bar with everyone wanting their moneys worth. Then, that said I also went on an Azamara ship where the drinks are included and this was different perhaps because of the size of the ship. Holding like some 600 guests you still didn’t need to approach the bar as you always had excellent staff who approached you. So, does the size of the ship make a difference too? I’m not a big drinker and I’m not saying I don’t like the drinks package because of this but I just think I can tell the difference in the service levels and the atmosphere on board. I am a big fan of Royal Caribbean but my own opinion I wish the cruise lines made the fares cheaper for people to board and not have the drinks included. I see sometimes they have a promotion for a drinks package and if you were to remove the drinks they’re not really free. They often do a cabin on a guarantee basis that doesn’t include the drinks but is this fair that the non drinkers can’t select a cabin of their choice unless they take the drinks promotion? I don’t think so. If it were up to me I would always advertise the cruise at the fare that it is and you can choose to add the drinks or not to make it fair on everyone. Then some can look and see the price of the drinks and judge to weather it’s good value for money or if like me simply wouldn’t drink that much. MSC are often good at this as they have a set price and you can always add it when booking the cruise. They make this simple enough. May be other cruise lines should look at this too.

What do you think? Are you a fan of the drinks being included and do you notice a service level difference from cruises that have the drinks included to those that don’t?