New all inc prices for 2009

[tinnyboy_1]

Just been on thomsons site and the AI package has gone up to £169.

Does this mean I will have to drink even more than I do now.

[middy]

No way could I drink £169 worth of alcohol in a week and still be stood up,especially as you get off the ship during the day.

I only drink on high days and holidays so that much would surely go right to my head. :p

Maybe they are trying to get people to book early so they get it free.

[sobral]

Lol! Guess you will have to drink more! Well you could go for more soft drinks aswell or maybe refreshing non alcoholic cocktails and then maybe you could be still standing up at the end of the night! I manged to get a free AI upgrade because I booked early- enjoy

[cruiseanywhere2]

What cruise was it for?

 

I've just looked on Calypso in September and it was still £149.

 

Just got back of the Spirit and even if we had to pay would still have been worth it.

 

We had a couple of non alcoholic cocktails in the morning before we got our flight home.

 

It is a lot of money though not sure if we would bokk it at this price but it is nice to know that you wont get a bill at the end of the week.:p

[tinnyboy_1]

Just looking at Thomson website and 2 that spring to mind are RED SEA MAGIC march 2009 and CORAL ISLANDS Jan 2009,

 

Regards

 

Tinnyboy_1

[tinnyboy_1]

Lol! Guess you will have to drink more! Well you could go for more soft drinks aswell or maybe refreshing non alcoholic cocktails and then maybe you could be still standing up at the end of the night! I manged to get a free AI upgrade because I booked early- enjoy

 

 

Sobral.

Have checked out the hols for next year on thomsons web site and when the drinks package is included it is, give or take a few quid, the same as taking a late last minute offer now and paying for the AI. So either way you pay for it.

 

Regards

 

 

Tinnyboy_1

[sobral]

Maybe but I like the fact that I dont have to worry about our drinks bill at the end, we worked out that even if we had to pay for upgrade it would still work out cheaper for us, not that we are particulalry big drinkers but like to indulge when on holiday - lol! and we drink alot of soft drinks too so for us it is worth. I dont like to leave it till last minute because you cant always get cabin you want etc

[smiffy1951]

Hi Sobral :confused:

 

I agree with you. We always book the AI (if we can't get it free) so we don't have to worry about the bill at the end. We have just booked the 2 week Caribbean and the AI is £298 each (that's just over £20 per day). Although there is no way you think you can drink that much, taking into account that the alcoholic cocktails are £2.95, it means that having just a few of those and then several soft drinks and coffees during the day means that the £20 will soon be spent.

 

It sounds a lot but we always think its worth it and although my husband drinks more than me we still get our money's worth.

 

Smiffy 1951

Janet

[taylaboo]

Hi just back from the Emerald. We decided against the AI package and although we drank plenty were quids in. Being off the ship in the day time means we would have had to drink lots to make the AI worthwhile. Have a great time

Taylaboo

[web1948]

Hi, I agree with taylaboo, we bought the AI package but it wasn't worth it at the end of the day. I kept all our receipts and it worked out that we had paid over £100 more than if we'd paid at the end of our holidays - although saying that it was nice not to have a bill to pay when we left the ship.

Wendy

[smiffy1951]

Hi Web1948:)

 

How did you manage to find out how much you had spent as when you have the AI package all the receipts come up with ZERO on. I've often thought about trying to keep track but couldn't come up with an easy solution.

 

Also from a previous note I have noticed that the Caribbean AI has increased to £338 each now when you look on the website to book. We paid £298 when we booked a few months ago, so how can they keep changing it???

 

Smiffy1951

Janet

[web1948]

Hi Janet,

The way I worked it out was that most of the drinks we had on the Emerald were £2.85, so I doubled that and times it by the amount of receipts we ended up with.

Wendy

[eaststandbaggie]

Hi all,

My wife,son and I cruised on Destiny at easter. Thomsons wanted £149 AI for each of us although our son was only 17 and could only drink pop. We decided not to go with AI and were glad that we didnt. Both my wife and I like a drink and we had as much as we wanted and it only cost us £200 for the week, saving us £250 on the cost of AI.

 

Cheers

Eaststandbaggie

[vwgolf]

We paid for the AI upgrade a couple of years ago and think we well overspent. I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't drink half of what the upgrade cost. This year, on the Baltic Capitals cruise, there is no AI upgrade, either free or payable.

[kruzseeka]

Hi, don't think they ever offer AI on Baltic/Fjord cruises - or Adriatic/Aegean as far as I can see. They must have some economic rationale for it though I suppose. I think it's great if you can get it as a freebie (we always deduct what we think we'd spend on drinks to give a revised figure of the cost of the cruise when we're trying to assess whether we think the cruise is a good price or not) but for us, buying the AI package would not be worthwhile. I love it when we do get it thrown in though - cocktails, smoothies, virgin cocktails, cappuccinos....... it's great just sitting down ordering a drink of whatever type and know it's not going to make any difference to your account at the end of the holiday.

[Luckeebe]

We would always purchase the AI option if available.

 

Being presented with a bill consisting of 4 or 5 pages of zeros at the end of the holiday is so much easier & relaxing than having to check off all the yellow slips accumulated during the fortnight against each item.

 

It also gives our teenager the freedom to get a drink whenever she wishes without checking with us first.