AI on Thomson Spirit

[firefly3050]

Hi,

 

We're looking to book a B2B cruise on the Spirit next June but the price of the AI is nearly £700 :eek:

 

I like a drink :D and would probably spend my half of that over the fortnight, but my OH isn't a big drinker so I'm loathed to pay that kind of money.

 

When we were on the Destiny last month, two couples we spoke to only paid £40 for the AI package.

 

Has anyone managed to get a cheap AI on the Spirit and, if so, was the cruise booked well in advance or last minute?

 

Thanx,

 

Jayne xxx

[jenny wren]

In our experience the free/cheap AI offers are on early bookings, and I think I read that they have an allocation of so many and once those are 'sold' that's it! :)

 

I do know that its generally thought that it is not really worth paying the full price as the drinks are very reasonably priced anyway....and you probably won't be on board during the day when in port so wouldn't be using it then......so you would be hard pushed to drink what you had paid for!!:)

[smiffy1951]

Hi firefly3050

 

We have recently returned from the Island Escape and were lucky enough to get a free AI upgrade as we booked a year in advance.

 

However, unlike all the other Thomson ships, the IE still has the price of the drinks on your receipt when you sign for it (although it never goes on your account if you are on AI). So out of curiousity I kept all the receipts for the week and added them up at the end just to see how much we had spent.

 

Now my OH likes a drink and although I like the cocktails, I don't drink as much as he does, and I was very surprised to see that had we paid for the AI upgrade (£169 each - total £338) we would have been worse off by £70 as we only spent arount £270 in the week between us.

 

We have therefore decided that unless we get a freebie or a reduced package (as we have on Destiny for 2 weeks in the Caribbean in March 2011 - £98 each:eek:) then we wouldn't bother paying full price for it.

 

I must admit this is a complete U turn for me as I have always previously thought they were worth buying as it generally worked out at £20 per day, but Thomson have gradually increased the price of the packages so now it's around £25 per day.

 

Hope this helps a bit.

 

Janet

[capasamari]

We've paid £98 each for a week AI on Destiny for New Year. On P&O last Christmas and New Year our drinks bill for the fortnight was £500 between us (although we had our pre-dinner drinks in the cabin rather than a bar as we had a fridge) so I wouldn't pay much more than £100 a week each. We both like a drink and enjoy the cocktails, I drink wine and Paul likes beer at dinner, we both like a liqueur so we don't stint ourselves. Even though your OH doesn't drink much it still covers all your soft drinks which can add up if it's hot weather.

 

£700 for a two-week cruise is £25 per person per day so it depends if you're going to get that much out of it between you. On the other hand if it's pre-paid you don't get such a large on-board account at the end, and we found we tried new cocktails as we didn't have to worry about wasting money if we didn't like them!

 

Carol x

[judybo57]

Booked for July next year at beginning of May and got Free AI. Would not be worth paying for us, as our drinks bill when we went in April this year was only

£160.

[Jim The Scot]

3 pints in the afternoon at £3-10 a pint and 5 at night,fa few glasses of wine at dinner,throw in a few cups of coffee and cocktails for the wife,AI covered

 

Plus,I`d expect drink prices like everything else to rise next year

[mtt]

I got free ai on the spirt for next oct, the offer ended 31/05, and we've paid £69pp for an 8 night cruise next feb, got it free on our jan cruise

[kercruiser]

Are you able to get water free of charge... or should we smuggle some on-board!!??

 

I've also heard that you get soft drinks/tea/ coffee with meals free of charge on some cruises - is this relevant on the Spirit.... or are they charged???

[capasamari]

On Destiny and Celebration, jugs of water are freely poured at lunch and dinner in the main dining room, and tea or coffee is served afterwards and also at breakfast. At the buffet there is serve-yourself tea and coffee and water available.

 

Bottled water is chargeable, either via your cabin steward or in the bars.

 

I would expect Spirit to be the same.

 

Carol x

[Len Baker]

Hi, Mr & Mrs B received free AI for one week on the Destiny from 12 June 2010. The 'notional' value of this package was £169 x 2 + £338 (this became £189). We got this package because when we booked in July 2009 we wanted to guarantee ourselves our weeks stay hotel, flights from Birmingham & cabin in a certain part of the ship.

 

Had we have waited until 2010 it would have been difficult to secure this combintion. Mr B likes plenty of drink on holiday & Mrs B a little less. To our surprise we would have paid over £430 for what we consumed & to be honest we never 'overindulged'. As has been mentioned with soft drinks, coffees, drinks during the day, wine with meals, evening drinks etc we enjoyed trying cocktails etc. & for us was a nice change. We went ashore on all 5 ports either on trips or diy trips. At home we dont drink any more than one bottle of wine & eight pints of beer each week.

 

Therefore it was well worth having AI. If we were teetotal then for financial reasons I'd wait until quite late but be prepared that the exact holiday we want may not be available. Also, we like to go to the bars etc. You can take alcohol on board as we did for a present in Gibraltar but we prefer to drink in more sociable places than the cabin.

 

The bottom line is that the AI package is one form of discount Thomsons can entice customers with. What we do to price out cruises with no AI package is to add onto the price quoted by the travel people a mimimum drinks spend plus anything else (like tips for example) to compare different cruise lines.

 

Cheers mines a double

Len