Do all-inclusive drinks mean a reduction in luxury?

I recently read a review posted on our website, read comments about it and found it quite an interesting subject. The review was on the Celebrity Refection and the fact that the reviewer thought that Celebrity Cruises were no longer “Modern Luxury”.

On of the main points of the review was the fact that many people had an all-inclusive drinks package and the the reviewer thought that the cruise line had downgraded their product to compete with ‘drink as much as you like’ brands.

I saw that many comments on this review said that they were unhappy with the binge drinking of guests on their cruises but I think it should be up to guests themselves how much they decide to drink and as long as they aren’t causing any danger or upsetting other guests then I think people should be allowed to make their own decisions about how much they drink.

If some guests behaved in a way that was unreasonable whether it was drink related or not then I would expect the cruise line to deal with those guests in a suitable fashion. Most of the top ultra-luxury brands such as Regent, Crystal, Silversea and Seabourn have drinks included so I wouldn’t say including drinks within the price of the cruise is going to reduce the overall quality of the brand.

Something like smoking is different I think. I completely understand how people wouldn’t want to passively smoke tobacco fumes of others and let it damage their own health, but surely if some guests want to drink quite a lot and that is what they enjoy doing, are not harming others and having a good holiday that they have paid for, shouldn’t it just be their personal business and each to their own?