Cruise vs. AI

Cruising and AI are two different experiences. For some both will work well and for others one works better and you will never know until you try it out for yourself.

Keith

We must "cruise" different than you do...The cost for the two of us is much cheaper than it would be for AI...at least compared to what our friends paid for there last AI vacation...I would say it was twice what we spend on cruise...but again, we are pretty "basic" cruisers.

Well it comes down to drinking probably. Prior to the packages to drink on a cruise could dd up to $1,000+. Now you probably have to upgrade to a premium package so you aren't bothered with the surcharges.

I hate be nickled and dimed on cruises. Our first ones I was happy to bring a couple of bottles of wine and pay corkage. I too am happy to tip (and do extra) for great service. I don't mind them selling at the port a case of evian..... I like happy hours and specials. The specialty restaurants surcharges are starting (or have) pushed the boundary......

But then to charge for a yoga or an aerobics class and every little frill does get tiresome.

Now there is the class structure that is pronounced (Aqua, Suite.....) that is significant.

So I finally got a veranda (we're happy with inside cabins usually) to see what that would be like, though spouse scared of falling overboard;). As said a bargain 5 day, port charges, tips we are @ the same price as a top end AI from my calculations.....

On a like for like bases we have found that the cost of an all inclusive vacation is similar to a cruise.

The door to door cost of our upcoming 10 day December cruise on Equinox is very similar to the current cost of a 10 day AI stay at Windjammer Landing in St. Lucia (we have stayed there on a number of occassions, the last time being December of last year).

Even though they are different we enjoy both and mix and match as the mood takes us - different port, or at sea, every day versus getting to know the island you are staying on, similar amenities, dining, liquid refreshments and excursions.

NAGooner

[quote name=readyforacruiseagain;48388434

Now there is the class structure that is pronounced (Aqua' date=' Suite.....) that is significant.

[/quote]

Absolute nonsense.:cool:

[quote name=readyforacruiseagain;48388434

Now there is the class structure that is pronounced (Aqua' date=' Suite.....) that is significant.

[/quote]

Absolute nonsense.:cool:

Ready .... is not ready....

Absolute nonsense.:cool:

 

Ready .... is not ready....

Look I always understood the suites and when I first cruised I guess there was the Normandie.

Regardless as opposed to an AI there certainly are different classes that I never realized before......

Yes pay more get treated better...... Just pronounced now it seems....

A lot of AI resorts also have class systems where you get better service, room, etc if you pay more. Sandals is a huge one in this regard, most of their resorts have at least 30 or more different room categories that entitle you to different services and things, some of which cost as much as a PH suite with Celebrity.

 

I don't look at the low end AI's, but only 5 Star resorts that are highly rated on sites and reviews.

 

Now when I add up the price the cost is almost the same as the top end AI's like Sandals.

 

We've stayed at 4 different all inclusive resorts (3 were vendor award trips, 1 was an extended family trip involving time share points). Two of the resorts were Sandals in the Bahamas, 1 was a Palace resort in Cancun, and was in the Dominican Republic.

The settings were attractive, and the accommodations were nice enough although certainly not what I would consider 5 star (5 star = Four Seasons or something of that level), but the food at all four was barely cafeteria quality. We consistently have much better food on cruises. There were occasional exceptions, but for the most part I was very disappointed with the food and actually walked out of one or two restaurants after deeming the food inedible. I admit to being a bit of a foodie, but based on these 4 AI resorts, I wouldn't return to any of them unless the trip was free or nearly so. AI resorts win a lot of people over by promoting that fact that food and alcohol are included but in order to offer that they have to keep costs as low as possible and it shows in the food offerings, not to mention the watered down drink mixes. Just my .02. If you are used to average hotels and average food, you likely won't be as disappointed. :)

We've stayed at 4 different all inclusive resorts (3 were vendor award trips, 1 was an extended family trip involving time share points). Two of the resorts were Sandals in the Bahamas, 1 was a Palace resort in Cancun, and was in the Dominican Republic.

 

The settings were attractive, and the accommodations were nice enough although certainly not what I would consider 5 star (5 star = Four Seasons or something of that level), but the food at all four was barely cafeteria quality. We consistently have much better food on cruises. There were occasional exceptions, but for the most part I was very disappointed with the food and actually walked out of one or two restaurants after deeming the food inedible. I admit to being a bit of a foodie, but based on these 4 AI resorts, I wouldn't return to any of them unless the trip was free or nearly so. AI resorts win a lot of people over by promoting that fact that food and alcohol are included but in order to offer that they have to keep costs as low as possible and it shows in the food offerings, not to mention the watered down drink mixes. Just my .02. If you are used to average hotels and average food, you likely won't be as disappointed. :)

I was at a Palace too in Cancun (Dec '14) and yes the food is very important. Thought it was fine, but that is what makes or breaks a vacation (after weather)..... Great food and the boards are continually griping about the diminishing quality.

Sandals resorts are about 40% more and am surprised that there wasn't a huge difference.

Watered down drinks are an old wive's tale. If they are at AI's, they probably are on cruises too.....

 

Watered down drinks are an old wive's tale. If they are at AI's, they probably are on cruises too.....

I'll continue to argue that one. Standard highballs are not a problem; I watched them open new, sealed liquor bottles and start pouring, so if you are drinking gin and tonics or rum and cokes etc. you're right- they likely aren't watered down. The issue I had was with fruity island drinks in which they used a pre-made mix....and I never saw them mix it up. Can't tell you how many I had and never had the slightest hint of a buzz. That's not going to happen if you are getting the equivalent of a standard pour in the drink. ;)

I'll continue to argue that one. Standard highballs are not a problem; I watched them open new, sealed liquor bottles and start pouring, so if you are drinking gin and tonics or rum and cokes etc. you're right- they likely aren't watered down. The issue I had was with fruity island drinks in which they used a pre-made mix....and I never saw them mix it up. Can't tell you how many I had and never had the slightest hint of a buzz. That's not going to happen if you are getting the equivalent of a standard pour in the drink. ;)

Maybe (and yes never seem to get one from a frozen drink either;)), but the one's I've ordered and if made by a competent bartender are much better. Mixes usually taste lousy and I stay away.

We like both and I think they offer different things, this past year we were at Sandals and this winter we will be on the Summit but have already booked our Sandals stay for 2017. If you watch the prices, you can get deals on both. Our last stay at Sandals Ochi Rios in a butler level room was just about the same price as our Sky Suite on the Summit with the 123 Go Promotion. When you add in the excursions the cruise is actually more expensive. But the excursions is part of the reason why we cruise. It really depends on what is important to you.

The Excellence Resorts are fantastic as are the Secrets Resorts! We've been to both and would go back in a heart beat!

 

Mo

We took a break from cruising this year and tried our first all-inclusive, Excellence Cancun. Everything I read and researched ahead of time said it would be wonderful. To be honest, we were disappointed. We tried several restaurants, the food was almost inedible and we are not picky. I have to say the breakfast buffet was the only food that was ok. We have always been able to find good meals on Celebrity and really don't remember a bad one. I thought we could always "fall back" on the pizza before we left, but even that was terrible. I honestly didn't know if the crust was a tortilla or an attempt at traditional pizza crust.

The room was beautiful and very big. Service was hit and miss and we had paid extra for the "club level". Not one day was there a seat at the club pool and the ocean had a problem with seaweed and was totally brown. I didn't see one person in it all week. The entertainment at night was very amateur. I could go on, but there was no comparison to us. This was our experience and as they say, "different strokes for different folks". They did have top shelf premium alcohol but we are beer and wine drinkers that wasn't a big deal to us as it would be for others.

We may one day try Sandals, but I've read several posts saying Excellence is just as good if not better, so I really don't know. We love cruising so I guess we will stick with that and if we do a land vacation not go all-inclusive for now.

I've enjoyed reading folks' experiences with AI's vs. cruises. We have thought about trying an AI but have been firmly bitten by the cruise bug! I'm curious, does anyone know of an equivalent forum to CC for AI reviews, comments, questions, etc.??

Happy travels!

Excellence Cancun.... To be honest, we were disappointed. We tried several restaurants, the food was almost inedible and we are not picky. I have to say the breakfast buffet was the only food that was ok.... Service was hit and miss and we had paid extra for the "club level". Not one day was there a seat at the club pool... They did have top shelf premium alcohol

 

We may one day try Sandals

Your assessment of Excellence sounds almost exactly like our assessment of Sandals. Breakfast buffet was fine. Nothing spectacular, but there's only so much you can do to mess up bacon, cereal, juice, fruit, omelettes, etc. Dinner was another story. Went to the Italian restaurant one night and the food was absolutely inedible. I've had food that wasn't very good before, but I have never actually walked out of a restaurant due to food quality before, but we left our food that night. Prior to leaving we asked about wine and were told "we have red and white." Server couldn't even tell us if it was cab, chianti or what. We were actually interested in paying for a bottle of nicer wine rather than sticking with whatever wine by the glass was included but the server told us there wasn't any other wine. Of course, we later asked a manager and lo and behold there was a premium wine list we could have selected from. :rolleyes: But I guess they don't really train the servers on that because it's probably rare that someone with an AI package actually chooses to PAY for something additional.

On the 2nd trip we went one night to what was supposed to be the "best" restaurant on the property, French cuisine if I recall correctly. It was in what appeared to be a converted banquet hall with very high ceilings so rather than having a nice, romantic atmosphere it felt like a cafeteria and the food was Holiday Inn banquet quality. Great server that night, but 2 star food and atmosphere at best. I could go on but you get the picture.

Service was equally hit and miss. On the first Sandals trip, we saw nicer, cabana-style pool seating and inquired. Were told that was for those with butler service... butlers supposedly reserve seating for you each day. So on the 2nd trip, even though it was a trip paid for by a vendor, we paid to upgrade to a room with butler service. Oops! "That's not how we do it anymore, the good chairs/cabanas are all first come, first served now. Butlers can't reserve them for you. The result? People would put stuff in cabanas after dinner to "save" them for themselves til the next day and the staff actually allowed this. Totally ridiculous!

We sat in the hot tub one day and got chatting with some other people and it was amazing to hear them talk about how blown away they were with the fantastic-ness of the resort. They were particularly enamored with the number of restaurants, and the food selection. Obviously, one's satisfaction has a lot to do with one's expectations, and whatever your past experience is. As I said before, if one has never experienced 5 star (or heck even 4 stars or 3+ stars) one will probably think Sandals is great. Same for food; if you think Red Lobster is the best restaurant in town, you probably won't be disappointed. ;)

In general we seldom find the food at AI's to be as good as some of the better food that we have had on cruises.

But, we do not cruise for the food nor do we go to AI's for the food alone. If food were the determining factor we probably would not do either-at least non on the mass market cruise lines such as HAL, Celebrity, etc.

There are a number of reasons why we would choose one over the other. Sometimes it is just to get away for a week.

So at the moment we are looking for last minute AI deals. We can leave tomorrow. Sure, the food may not be as good as a cruise ship. But if we buy an AI today, we can leave tomorrow since it will include return air. We cannot always get good return air on such short notice trips.

Although the food may not be is good, if you want a warm beach holiday we would much prefer an AI in Cuba or DR to a cruise. We like the ocean over a pool any day. And with an AI we can go for an early AM swim, pre sunset swim without worrying about getting back to the ship or heaven forbid finding a sun bed at an overcrowded pool where everyone is hugger mugger.

So for us, one is not better than the other. It is a matter of what we feel like doing. Cannot imagine why anyone would claim one is better than the other. Does it not depend on personal preferences?

Cruising and AI are two different experiences. For some both will work well and for others one works better and you will never know until you try it out for yourself.

 

Keith

Agree! Each is a different experience.

One BIG difference is that with a fixed location you only visit that area, while on a cruise you may go to several locations.

This.

A week, static in the one location, is a lot different than getting to see many places in one trip. I won't try and counter the expense comparison, because I think it depends on a lot of variables; but, I will state that you are traveling a lot of miles (that have some cost associated with them as they are getting you from place to place along the way) when you cruise. I have done both AE and cruises and I don't think you can make an apples to apples comparison in terms of the experience they each provide.

Agree, no comparison.

We are doing 8 weeks of independent travel in Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam this winter. We looked at the cruise offerings. They were fine but there were two issues for us. The biggest issue was actual sightseeing. Not enough time in any port(s) especially if you looked at how many waking hours in the cruise and how many of those hours can really be spent touring. And a day is never enough for us...we need several days. The cost was a secondary issue but we can do two or three times the amount of vacation time that we can do for the price of a cruise.

We still like to cruise. But for us it is simply one of several vacation options with it's own unique set of attributes.

We must "cruise" different than you do...The cost for the two of us is much cheaper than it would be for AI...at least compared to what our friends paid for there last AI vacation...I would say it was twice what we spend on cruise...but again, we are pretty "basic" cruisers.

You probably don't fly from Canada :p . I paid $2100.00 for 3 tickets from Toronto to Ft. Lauderdale in FEb.:mad::mad:

Seven days on a cruise will probably cost us $1200. each after tips, drinks, etc.

Add to that a night in FLL because we cannot fly there in time from where we live. So add another $200 for hotel, food, taxi. Now the total is $2600 USD. That is $3500 CAD. Then add airfare. Lets say $600. CAD for a total of $4700. It all adds up.

We can get a week at a very nice AI for that money, probably less. It would include air, resort, and all food and drink. And for last minutes, we can do about $1000-1300 CAD for a reasonably nice AI from our city.

Now, we can and have picked up great last minute cruise in FLL and MIA but we were already in the area...did not have to spring for additional air. Plus the CAD was at par. Exchange makes a big difference to us. It is one of the reasons we are spending part of our winter in Asia vs other vacation options that bill out in USD.

I'll chime in about Excellence as well; we were at Excellence Playa Mujeres a few years ago. After reading one five-star review after another, we were beyond excited to finally experience it. Well, suffice it to say that it was one of the biggest letdowns I've experienced to date! My feelings pretty much mirror what others have said. The room was very nice...and that's where it ends. After a few meals, I looked at my boyfriend almost with tears in my eyes and said, "I would actually pay for cruise food right now" (and I've been pretty critical of cruise food!).

The saving grace? A hurricane was coming and we were able to get out of dodge about 3 days into the trip and got a refund for the unused portion of the stay b/c of the hurricane. I think I kissed the ground when I landed in Newark. You don't hear that statement often, do you??? :D

The $'s on the cruise do add up and now is more expensive then AI's. I travel and expect great weather (fingers crossed), know the rooms on a cruise will be very functional but small, however do expect since I've always been on Celebrity that the food will be quite good (and I'm just one step below a foodie;)).

Reading what I have about Celebrity does worry me.

Seems here that "cruisers" are quite biased when comparing AI's :rolleyes:

Celebrity is currently our favourite cruise line however we are by no means married to Celebrity. Last two cruises this past Feb and March were Princess and RCI.

We like cruises, AI's, and independent land tours. We often combine a cruise with an independent land tour. We keep our schedules flexible so that we can jump on a late booking cruise offer. This Sept/Oct a Med cruise simply did not add up in terms of dollars or in terms of what we wanted to see. We quickly moved to the land tour option. Did five weeks for the price of a twelve day cruise.

I'll chime in about Excellence as well; we were at Excellence Playa Mujeres a few years ago. After reading one five-star review after another, we were beyond excited to finally experience it. Well, suffice it to say that it was one of the biggest letdowns I've experienced to date! My feelings pretty much mirror what others have said. The room was very nice...and that's where it ends. After a few meals, I looked at my boyfriend almost with tears in my eyes and said, "I would actually pay for cruise food right now" (and I've been pretty critical of cruise food!).

 

The saving grace? A hurricane was coming and we were able to get out of dodge about 3 days into the trip and got a refund for the unused portion of the stay b/c of the hurricane. I think I kissed the ground when I landed in Newark. You don't hear that statement often, do you??? :D

I read all those 5 star reviews on TripAdvisor as well and I just don't get it. The kiss the ground when you landed I can relate to because it was the first vacation that I was actually ready to be home early. It became a joke when we would see a cruise ship, I would say, "we're over here". When we got to the Atlanta airport we ate at Five guys burgers and fries like it was the best meal we had ever ate in our lives if that tells you anything.