Just got back I didn't ask but I think someone did and they don't do a AI package.
Full review to come - but heads up drinks were a little more expensive than I would have liked - Boddingtons £2.40, Stella £2.55? cheapest wine 10.50. I will have to look at the tickets for the others didn't bother to borrow a drinks card.

Thanks for that Windjammer, It's a bit disappointing but I'm sure we'll cope. Looking forward to reading your review.

Jac

i am waiting for your comment a i will give you my side !!!!

I personaly dont like it.
I have done both types of crusie and the cost isnt that much different on pay as you go and you get to choose what drinks you what and what brands without getting a penalty charge if you like a premium brand.
I also think it encourages drunks on board.
I like a drink but I dont like to get too oiled up (unless im drinking wine )

Mandy

Hi

I was on the Spirit last week and did not take up the offer of going AI as i dont drink too much especially if its hot weather! I found the drinks on board good value.

Personally i wouldnt want to go AI, however would do so if there was a soft drinks and water option as thats what i drink tons of!

I didnt see anyone drinking too much and did not see anyone drunk.

The waiters were great on the Spirit - remembered my fave drink each time i went to the bar!

Alison

Our first cruise was on the Topaz which was fully AI. We preferred this at the time as we didn't know how much drinks would be onboard and were worried about them being very expensive with it being a "captive" audience so to speak.

We have never taken the AI option since as we don't drink much. Worked out that you'd need to drink £18-20 every single day to break even so decided to drink as much as we wanted and only managed to spend about £50/week for both of us so AI definitely wouldn't pay us. That said, we got a good deal for the Spirit in November which included the AI option. As there are now seven of us going, we are more than happy with this for the convenience alone rather than everyone battling to get their round in and drinking more than we'd like to.

luci

I personally prefer it as I like the fact that its already in the budget and I can drink as many cocktails I wish!! Don't forget that it can often be a free add on if you book early enough, which means that its DEFINATELY worth it, no matter how much or little you drink.

Also, my parents in law have just brought the drinks list back off the Spirit (I'm going this Thurs) and Sambucca is included in the AI - yippee!!

Gill

We where AI on Spirit the week 8th July this year , last year we where not.

So what did we think......
Certainly this year we where more relaxed regarding ordering drinks as we knew it had all been paid for ages ago. Last year we where far more careful and dare I say it penny pinching

Yes we abused the fact this year we where AI
Yes we had a sore head on more than one occasion in the morning

Did we get value for money.......Tricky......it was a close thing, but certainly after adding up the pink slips we got back!!!! ( yes we are that sad )it added up to just below the AI price, but the number of times we didnt certainly must have pushed it well over. ( cheers george)

Things we didnt like,
Some people did abuse the system and didnt seem to appreciate it, eg would order drinks and then leave them, also after a good night on the AI did not take other passengers into consideration when returning to there cabins

A idea we would like is that you could paid for your drinks up front say to £120 and once you used that up you would have to top that up on board with your credit card etc, this would possible stop the people who feel they have to max the AI out at all costs, and cut down on the waste.

Well thats our take on it , good subject George , I will be interested on your take on it, as someone from the otherside of the bar.

Chris

For all of you who answer!there are two types of cruising:
first:
people who come on a cruise to enjoy the ship only and to stay all the time on board.if you are that kind and you don't want to see any of the countries around the AI is highly recommended!!!
second:
people who come on board to enjoy the tours and the lovely places the ship sails to,then the option AI is not a worth!!!!
Mandy you are right but if you check the bar list you will never get a charge but even if you like to try something premium it is not so much 75p

Alison from the side of the passenger almost all the waiters are very good
but if they chat with one customer for long time they can not attend on time all the rest .About the prices they are realy very cheap comparing to outside the ship even to England or etc.

Luci
you did right if you are not AI and you dont dring much you can enjoy the primium brands in small amounts!

Gill
the right way of drinking Sambuca is with three coffee beans over fire after a minute you can extinguish and drunk it CHEERS

Chris
Well done indeed you find your way of geting dring out of the list for free
it is true the sistem has failure if you order two drings in AI you can make one which is out but you need the help of the Barkeeper to do this!

i am waitng for more coments!

Well I have been on both and on the same ship.

readers of my posts will know my thoughts already.

I usually go on the Thomson Emerald, and go as a normal drinking passenger paying for drinks.

This year they have gone AI.

Well, I found I actually drunk less but witnessed more drunks on board the ship, with the poor serving girls being run off their feet by rude beer monkeys.

I always book early and am now being offered the AI as a freebie, but would never pay for it

Hi there George

For myself and my twin, AI works great. It is not so much the quantity you drink, as what you drink. If you are a beer drinker it would mean drinking at least ten pints of Stella( 5.5%) a day to break even, a lot more than I could handle. We tend to drink more of the ship cocktails at £2.75, Cafe Latte at £1.55, Cans of Fanta Orange at £0.95 or a glass of wine at£2.0 and of course our favorite Red wine and Lemonade (RW + Lem) at £2.0.
So in an average day for one, 2 Cafe Latte, nice and warm so a can of Orange is called for. We have done most of the trips before, so a nice gentle stroll into the Town, back for the Quiz at 2.0 pm. and a couple of cocktails and more Orange. 3.30 ish fresh scones and little savorie things plus another Cafe Latte followed by a Mini siesta until it is time to get ready for Dinner. A couple of glasses of wine with dinner and then out to the bars etc for entertainment plus five or six RW + Lems finishing at Raffles Bar at 0130hrs for a nightcap of Americano and Brandy. That works out at £31.
But by far the most useful point of AI for us is the fact that as brothers we each pay our own way, and as the bill is paid by the lead on the booking form, by going AI all the checking of who has had what and how much is of no concern. Great, no arguments. For married couples or partners it is one family melting pot, but not in our case.
However on the Topaz the whole ship was AI it was included in the price. There was no signing for any thing except ciggies and specialist drinks. If say you were going past some friends you had just met and saw their drinks were nearly finished, you would go to the bar and get yours and a top up for them, in other words bar service, it made for a very friendly ship but there was a lot of wasted drinks, people just geting drinks in, friends arrive who are going somewhere else, "oh that's OK we will join you" and the drinks are left.
I think the way they have it at the moment is best, for the whole ship to be AI it means that those who are off ship most of the time are losing out to those who stay. When we had AI in Aug2003 every thing was included except special old whiskies and brandies and bottles of wine. Bailies,bottles and cans of beer, alco-pops and special coffees(Brandy/Whiskey etc ) were all AI now there is a suplement of about £0.75. But the biggest improvement, at one time you could only have one drink per card at a time, now it is two, half the paperwork, half the bother.

Cheers

John and Dave ( The Twins )

Hi John and Dave

I noticed you said that the onboard account is payable by the lead name. On the Airtours ships each passenger could open a separate account by completing the relevant form which came along with the tickets. Is this not offered on the Spirit?

I am a little concerned as I am the lead name on a booking for five people and we would ideally like to have four separate accounts.

luci

Hi all,

We were on the Spirit for week beginning 10th June. As we booked the year before hand the AI package was included free of charge. With 2 young kids (aged 8 & 4) this turned out be be quite good but I certainly wouldn't have paid £130 per adult and £65 per child for the pleasure.

The one thing that I wish had have been included was bottles of water (even just the small ones). My kids don't drink lots of fizzy drinks - prefer cordials which you don't normally get abroad - so I ended up buying a few bottles of water to dilute the pure orange and apple juices.

Don't worry if you are the main name on the booking - just take a calculator - all the bills show which card was used to purchase any items or drinks.

We have once again got the AI package for next year on the Thomson Destiny - good deal for booking early which we have to do in order to get a 4 berth cabin.

Bye,

Tracey

Hi Tracey

So didn't you get the option of separate bills at all? With Airtours I completed a form with my credit card details and you had the option to add the names of people you wanted to share the same account. The statement still showed which of us had made each purchase. There was a separate form which hubby could have completed with his details if we had wanted separate accounts.

I really hope that Thomson's do something similar as I would just feel uncomfortable having to say to the other three people, "You owe me X amount". I felt bad enough asking for their share of the holiday! Much easier if each person had their own itemised statement showing where they spent all that money!

If they don't offer this as standard, I'll see if the Pursers Desk can split it.

luci

hi all. we were on spirit recently and we went to reception regestered switch card with both our names on or credit card if you so wish hey presto when hubby was nearest the waiter he signed and visce versa i also had my mum with us who was in a different cabin ... quick word at reception and hers went onto my account too. showed on the statement who had spent what

Hi Laine

So your mum had a separate account to start with? This is what I'm after! I take it you were all on the same booking form?

luci

hi luci, no not at all, we booked at seperate times(mums passport hadnt arrived when we booked) so if you want seperate accounts you will go register at reception your own cards but then will have to sign for your own drinks or the way did it, where you can see from statement whos card was used

Hi there Lici5

I thought about this, and brought it up at reception. They said that each ID/card was charged individually. Great I thought, but we would still have to check all our reciepts (not difficult but a bit of a pain). But we were not given the opportunity to lodge separate credit cards. However because of the pressure the staff are under to serve, sometimes they just enter the cabin number into the computer which comes back to the lead account. Also by mistake or pressure, sometimes two ID/ cards go in all signed for etc, but the two pink slips have the same name even though two separate people signed them. For a Multi group I would recomend AI.

Re my former post, the alcohol I consider aceptable on holiday but not not one's average hometime intake. So for those that rarely drink I replaced all alcoholic drinks to " Virgin Cocktails " and the result was £27 ish.

This just goes to show that if you cruise and have done all the sights etc before AI is the thing, no problems who drank what, BUT you must all do it. If you book early enough this will be included, and your end bill will be many,many sheets, all ending in ZERO owing.

The staff and everyone do their very best, but it is not fool proof. Fortunately we had AI included, but a number of times a pink recipt was shown as signed by my brother John, but it went down as my account, allbeit the figure was zero so in the end it didn't make any diference.

The handling of non AI may be completely different, especially if your group have different Sir names and cabin numbers.

If you want more info perhaps Georgi Kirov may be able to help.

I informed the Thomson manager on the Spirit about this site and it's URL. Let us hope he reads this and can clarify things.

Cheers,

John and Dave ( The Twins )

Every ship we have been on I have had to explicitly INCLUDE the other persons to allow there ship card to be assigned to my account by putting name and cabin number on the credit card slip.

If you want to seperate accounts make it clear and say you will refuse to accept any charge not signed by yourself or anyone not previously authorised by yourself. There is no way they can insist on a group booking all going on one Account.
As it happpens we find it convenient to have both of us on one card since we can both sign whichever onboard card has been used handy if your order arrives and you have nipped tot he loo.

Although AI will be insisted on all members of a booking if got on board you should be able to get it by the cabin. I do not however condone abuse of the system by getting drinks for non AI passengers(well maby a few if you are off due to hangover).