Balmoral All Inclusive

[Stephen W]

Dear Balmoralites

 

Have an All Inclusive short break coming up so a couple of questions:

 

1. Are the staff keen to serve you given that they do not benefit from a percentage cut of all drinks served?

 

2. How does it work during meals? Can you request a bottle of wine or is it by the glass?

 

Look forward to a reply.

 

Fellow Balmoralite

[reilly1]

I have never had an inclusive package on Balmoral, but have purchased one for a 3 night mini cruise in April 2014 for £6.99 per night!

 

As far as I know, you will be limited to one glass/drink at a time, but our experience on Celebrity has been that, service is just as good, glasses are refilled quickly. At dinner, we spoke to the wine waiter at the start, told him our meal choices, let him know the package we had, and he brought a different glass of wine for each course. It worked really well and we tried some wines that we maybe would not have ordered a full bottle of. It should work just fine.

 

Enjoy Balmoral!

[Stephen W]

Thanks for your reply, very useful.

[soccerref]

Dear Balmoralites

 

Have an All Inclusive short break coming up so a couple of questions:

 

1. Are the staff keen to serve you given that they do not benefit from a percentage cut of all drinks served?

 

2. How does it work during meals? Can you request a bottle of wine or is it by the glass?

 

Look forward to a reply.

 

Fellow Balmoralite

 

Hi, just returned from the Balmoral cruise to the Azores and Canaries (loved it but more of that later when I do a review) and we had AI as part of our cruise booking incentive so I’m not sure whether this information is completely true if you purchase the AI option but this was our experience:

· The drinks were the ‘house brand’. If you wanted name brands then you paid half price.

· There was a letter in the cabin with a list of the AI options.

· Your cruise card has the words ‘All inclusive’ printed on it and an orange spot sticker to make it more easily recognised in low lighting conditions e.g. during the shows.

· You could only order 1 drink per person at a time and had to show your card immediately.

· There was red and white wine available at meals (only 1 sort of each but my husband found the white wine perfectly drinkable and our tablemates seemed to enjoy the red wine...I don’t drink alcohol so can’t comment) and it was served as often as requested.

· You had to sign the drink receipt at the end of the meal (your waiter kept a record of the number of glasses drunk) or after receiving your drink in the bar areas.

· The cost of all your drinks is recorded on your ‘on board account’ (visible on your cabin TV screen) and then the cost of the AI drinks final total is removed at the end of the cruise.

· We never found any of the servers reluctant to serve us. In fact the service was excellent as usual.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your cruise.

[Rosebery]

We have the AI package as a freebie for booking early on Balmoral to the Baltic in July. Do you know which beers are included in it please? We are travelling with a group that includes several beer drinkers, and also one person (not me!) who often drinks non alcoholic beer.

[highlandlassie]

Think I got conned with the AI - I am on mini cruise in 2 weeks and I paid £39.99 per person for AI we will never be able to drink that - to cancel it would cost me £100

[soccerref]

We have the AI package as a freebie for booking early on Balmoral to the Baltic in July. Do you know which beers are included in it please? We are travelling with a group that includes several beer drinkers, and also one person (not me!) who often drinks non alcoholic beer.

 

Hi Rosebery, I've finally found the AI list which we received in our cabin and it gives these beers as part of the deal:

 

Boddingtons Draught - bars only

Stella Artois Draught -Bars only

Spitfire 440mm can

Carlsberg Export 330mm can

Heineken 330mm can

All cans are served open and with a glass

 

There doesn't appear to be a non-alcoholic option

 

I hope this helps

Regards SR

[highlandlassie]

Hi Rosebery, I've finally found the AI list which we received in our cabin and it gives these beers as part of the deal:

 

Boddingtons Draught - bars only

Stella Artois Draught -Bars only

Spitfire 440mm can

Carlsberg Export 330mm can

Heineken 330mm can

All cans are served open and with a glass

 

There doesn't appear to be a non-alcoholic option

 

I hope this helps

Regards SR

 

 

strongbow cider is also included in the AI

[ovccruiser]

How about the tins of Bass? Rather nice daytime drink and not as strong as Spitfire

[Mark_T]

Think I got conned with the AI - I am on mini cruise in 2 weeks and I paid £39.99 per person for AI we will never be able to drink that - to cancel it would cost me £100

 

I do tend to agree with you at that price, we usually budget on £50 a day total for two of us and that will go on a bottle of wine in the evening along with probably two other drinks each, after dinner.

 

If people like to drink more at lunch then I dare say you could get closer to £39.99 each but it is going to take some effort.

 

Although I do note that some on board would probably have no problem at all reaching and exceeding that amount each day :)

 

For us though, the quality of what is being served, just doesn't justify the price as we are wine/spirit drinkers so what is served is all essentially cheap unbranded products, unlike the listed beers/cider available.

[Rosebery]

Hi Rosebery, I've finally found the AI list which we received in our cabin and it gives these beers as part of the deal:

 

Boddingtons Draught - bars only

Stella Artois Draught -Bars only

Spitfire 440mm can

Carlsberg Export 330mm can

Heineken 330mm can

All cans are served open and with a glass

 

There doesn't appear to be a non-alcoholic option

 

I hope this helps

Regards SR

 

Thank you so much for the response and to those who have added to it, I will pass it on to the beer drinkers in the party.

[marylizcat]

I have just read elsewhere that the all inclusive includes tonic for your gin but not slimline tonic!!! That seems very weird to me! Disappointing too as that is what I drink. Why can Fred Olsen not include it? Surely it is not going to cost them any more?

[Mark_T]

I have just read elsewhere that the all inclusive includes tonic for your gin but not slimline tonic!!! That seems very weird to me! Disappointing too as that is what I drink. Why can Fred Olsen not include it? Surely it is not going to cost them any more?

 

A similar strange omission is lime juice, also not included for no apparent reason.