My wife and I are planning our winter vacation. Probably a cruise to the Bahamas or the caymans. Anyway, a few of the packages are “all inclusive” meaning they include all meals and drinks. We’ve never gone on a package vacation before, so we’d like to know if it’s worth the extra money to get the all inclusive. Or is it better to get the regular package and pay for food & drinks as we go? If you’ve ever been on one, please gives us the dope.
AFAIK, cruises are “all inclusive” - the price includes “most meals”. If the ship is in a port all day they may not provide you with lunch or somwthing like that, but generally all meals are included - at least they were on the two cruises I’ve been on. Drinks are not - at least booze.
If you’re wondering about “all inclusve resorts”, what is better depends on what you’re going to be doing, and what you like. For instance, will you be around the resort most of the time sunning, swimming, golfing and the like? Do you not like the idea of having to find a good place to eat every night? Then all-inclusive may be a good way to go. My wife and I dive, and we usually get all-inclusive. We’re often wiped after a day of diving, and like just being able to wander down to the restaurant, eat, crash on a hammock. We’ve priced packages and did some figuring, and with our dive pkg and meals, it seemed to work out better, and certainly wasn’t much more than what we would have spent at a restaurant “in towm” every night. And we didn’t have to find and get to a place every night, worry that it would be ok, that sort of thing. It also depends on where you’re going. Grand Cayman has an ok sized town (Georgetown) (ok sized for the Carribbean)…Cayman Brac does not - about all there was were hotels to eat at. Are you going to have a car, or is there reliable and convenient taxi or bus service (and if so, factor the cost of that in - money and time)? But, you do miss out on “eating local” if that’s your bag. The food at hotels/resorts, while good, can be on the American side. That may be an attraction, or a detraction
On the other hand, if you’re the out all day, tour-every-inch types/adventerous, experience new cultures, try new things types, you may not want to be tied down to meals at and when the package says - after all, the all-inclusive is only worth it it you’re there to eat the meals. If you’re likely to miss even a few (and pay for eating elsewhere), it probably isn’t worth it.
So, figure what you’ll be doing and where you’ll be doing it, then decide if the convenience and loss of “eating local” is worth it. I’d also suggest pricing things “with” and “without”, and then figuring out if you’re getting overcharged. We’ve done well with our all-inclusives, but again they’re dive trips.
And if you like the water, snorkeling etc, take a “resort course” in diving: half a day and they take you down to 40-50 feet. It’s how I fell in love with diving - took one on a cruise. If I could dive all day, every day, I would.
Good luck…and you’re freakin’ me out making winter plans.
Jake
I didn’t know that cruises included drinks, (as you’re describing) but we stayed at two all-inclusive resorts for our honeymoon (drinks included), and we liked getting to lock away our billfolds in the room safe and never having to have them with us at the beach or anywhere else. I think it would have been a good deal if we were both keeping a buzz on the whole time. I caught a cold and didn’t drink at all, and didn’t even have a lot of appetite, so they made money off us, that’s for sure. But it’s nice not having to go off with budgetary unknowns. We took a little spending money and that was it!
My coworker recently honeymooned at a resort which gave a choice in pricing (all-inclusive or not) and they did the math and decided it was a better deal to not do it all-inclusive. They found that snacks and drinks were outrageously priced, so they found a small store not far away where they stocked up. They said they’d do the same thing next time, but they’d take snacks with them. If you’re on a cruise ship, you’ll be at the mercy of their prices, so I don’t know if you can count on savings (that is, if you even are given the option of doing it a la carte)
We found we could get a much better price by booking early. That’s why we’re looking into it now.
I’ve never done a cruise all -inclusive, but I did an all-inclusive resort package for my honeymoon in St. Thomas and felt it well worth it. Since it was our honeymoon, we had every intention to enjoy the island, but also wanted ample time to chill out, relax together, drink as much as we wanted, etc. The all-inclusive was a blessing, in that we didn’t have to carry cash/cards around, could eat and drink as much as we wanted, anytime we wanted to and didn’t have to tip a soul. The restaurants in St. Thomas were extremely expensive (for the most part) and the one night we ventured off the resort for dinner it was over $125 for two of us, and that’s with only 2 drinks for Mr. Winnie and one for me. Yikes.
I stayed at an all-inclusive resort in Jamaica (Negril). Not worrying about money helped make a really wonderful experience much more relaxing. Only expenses I incurred were souvenir purchases and a massage. Meals were at a set time, the bar was open back then 10am - 5am (now 24 hours), and snacks were available if you asked nicely enough (well, at least when I asked for anything, I got it).
I’m not a cruise person for several reasons, but I’d go back to the resort (or one of the sister resorts) in a heartbeat and a winning Lotto ticket).
Thanks a lot - I’m going to be in Jamaica mentally all day. So much for work.
I’m agreeing w/Shaky on this one.
I’m a diver, too. I’d do the all-inclusive resort, and not the cruise. Allows me to do two dives a day (deeper one first, of course!), and not have to worry about nighttime entertainment.
Usually, all-inclusive type resorts are kind of like summer camp for adults. At least, that’s my impression.
Have fun!
If you’re going to be on a cruise ship the whole time anyway, you might as well go all-inclusive. I have never heard of a package that includes ‘all-the-drink-you-want’, but there’s probably lots of things I’ve never heard of. Given the wide variety of capacity amongst individuals, I’d say it’s a crap shoot whether or not that would make money (or be cost effective for a given consumer).
It’s been my experience that package tours work well for inexperienced (1st time abroad, very young, etc), confined (like on a cruise ship), or lazy people; however, most of my travel has been away from the Carribbean, where that sort of package may make better sense. Also, I have a noted preference for being slightly uncomfortable, so I don’t require a “cushy” holiday; YMMV. My advice would be to learn about your destination, find out ahead of time what’s available to do, eat, sleep, etc, while you’re there, and chart your own course. Packages tend to rush around and be far more regimented than I like - I want to do my own thing and see what I want to see, not what a tour operator thinks I should want to see. Plus they’re way overpriced relative to making your own way; however, they eliminate the need for most planning and forethought, so the tradeoff may be worth it to some travelers (the aforementioned inexperienced, confined, and lazy).
Let me echo missdavis’ feelings. I am a very hands on type of traveler in that I plan my travel several years in advance, about 10 - 15 years in fact. I memorize entire maps and know virtually everything there is to know about my destination before I even decide to go there. I recently wanted to go sout to Cancun and found out that the only affordable way to get there was with a package trip, not even all-inclusive, just a package (airfare and hotel). Let me tell you this was frustrating as hell because packages are sold by 3, 5 or 7 day vacations and those are 3, 5 or 7 days IN A ROW. They wouldn’t even let me pick which three days I wanted, they had to be consecutive! The one day I went to Tulum on my own in a rented car (Everyone said, don’t rent a car in Cancun, bull, you need a car in Cancun, hell you need a car anywhere!) was great and then I had a sickening feeling that I had to return to the hotel because it was already paid for. Otherwise I would have kept on driving to Belize. This just ruined the whole trip for me because I didn’t feel like I could just take off without losing a bunch of money. There’s really nothing to do in Cancun so I stayed in the room with the curtains pulled, ate room service, watched Mexican cartoons and waited for the time to pass so I could leave.
My idea of a cool vacation is just to be dropped off somewhere and picked up a week or so later. I don’t need any help. In fact all I need is a parachute and I’ll do the rest. All-inclusives are more like minimum security prisons than vacations. Here’s a neat idea: Just bring money, that way to can do or eat whenever and wherever you want!
Don’t even get me started on cruises. What are they about? When I get in a taxi there’s no lobster dinner and a broadway show. What’s with it on a ship? Why can’t I just get a seat and go to an actual destination on a ship instead of going out to sea and turning back? Why leave in the first place?