All inclusive holiday irritations....

[CupoTeap]

On holiday and in the restaurant......there is a huge block of butter put out each session with a knife to help yourself with.

I am getting more and more irritated by the people who insist on scraping a bit of butter off with this knife and then back to the butter to repeat before putting the knife down.

JUST PUT SOME ON YOUR PLATE.

Anything else I should be looking out for to annoy me

(I'm actually having a fab time and am very relaxed 😎)

@OhtheHillsareAlive
I imagine that their butter at home is full of toast crumbs and jam smears

Boak

Wasn't trying to put anyone off was just a bit annoyed- in fact reading this seems to have made me a bit grumpy this morning and I defo snapped at someone when I didn't mean it to come out so sour!

at all the posters that joined the thread just to declare that they have never been on an AL holiday because it is beneath them.

I love Mumsnet.

There were Russians. They took ALL the strawberries. Every night. Plates piled high. Didn't eat them mind. Just left them on the plate. Made sure nobody else got any though.

@CollaterlyS1sters I've only mainly done AI across North Africa.

If you book your excursions with their Rep, your lunch out is included.

So when going to Waterfalls etc your lunch is paid for in advance, from the same place 'independent travellers' are paying for.

A trip out for a camel ride, glass bottom boat etc, you get a packed lunch. The food on offer (in the desert etc) is no better.

A bus ran from the hotels i stayed in to the Souks and points of interest, so often you'd fill up on a big breakfast and be back for a late lunch.

The beach is often owned by the hotel and you get service on the beach included. It's a grill menu. I like snorkeling, so quite happily spend a few days doing that.

I like a drink so even if i do buy food out, I'm still getting good value.

I did AI in Cyprus once and we'd got our deal cheaper than those who had gone B&B, but that depends on where you are flying from as well.

How well people behave is down to the restaurant manager and we've been lucjy that they've been strict on behaviour.

The environmental issues do bother me but I've heard tjat a lot of places are using the ticket and glass swap system again, instead of plastic.

We used to take our own glasses/mugs (can't be doing with tiny tea cups) though and never got pulled up.

This is probably a silly question, coming from someone who always goes on self catering holidays, but why not just remove other people's towels off sun loungers? Especially if they put them on in the morning and bugger off til lunchtime - you shouldn't be able to informally "reserve" a bit of well-placed plastic, imo. Maybe I'm just a rude bitch but I'd just remove the towels and use the lounger myself regardless

Much prefer self catering during the day & eating out in different restaurants in the evenings.
We are not big daytime eaters & we don't eat breakfast
I don't like the idea of everyone getting up & down all the time. I also like nice wine.

It would be easy to get towels removed on loungers by the manager I suppose but it does become about confronting these people and some just can't do it.
Plus a lot wouldn't listen and just carry on doing it!
It's a shame there isn't enough loungers for everyone; seems to be plenty on the beach that you pay for!

When breakfast ends at 9.30. LET ME SLEEP IN

Go self catering and end up shopping a few times a week / washing up and clearing up etc or go with regimented with the meal times on a normal AI holiday.

Sleep in and miss out on the wonder of the toast machine with millions trying to locate their bit of toast. In a queue! Or running out of boiling water in the urn just as I got there.
Nothing makes holiday makers more bewildered than running out of things!

@M0RVEN would you mi d sharing the name of the AI you went to? Sounds perfect for me.

Re All Inclusives:
Some posters may be objecting to the concept of having everything laid on, as it were, under one roof. We get that those setups are not all the same - we really do🙄 - but relying on this sort of thing is lazy and suggests a lack of imagination.

grin at all the posters that joined the thread just to declare that they have never been on an AL holiday because it is beneath them

I confess I hated it. But not because it was AI, more because lying around a pool for a week just wasn't the holiday for me. I only went as it was something inlaws wanted to do with us and DCs so made the best of it.
We did have a laugh, clearly 5 star hotels are not all created equal and as well as contending with the Russians at meal times you had the tureens of something we affectionately called "mystery meat"

Of course a much more expensive AI would have been completely different again food wise, though the pace of the holiday would remain the same and thats why I wouldn't do it again at any cost. It's just not for me.

@Foslady this is my situation!

Honestly that's one of the funniest things I've ever read on here.

How do you have the energy to form that kind of judgement on someone else's holiday?

Why are you 'objecting' to anything that makes no difference to your life?

I've never come across such painful superiority until I joined MN. Do people actually think they are better than others because they go on a different type of holiday?

And yeah... laziness... how outrageous on a holiday.

Some posters are completely confusing AI with cheap package holidays!

TheStarChild I didn't go all inclusive for the lounging about doing nothing, I went on trips out all day or half day most days. I think I only had 1 day sitting in the shade by the pool reading, and that was because I knew my body wouldn't stand up to being active with walking every day for a week.

the previous times I've been AI has been before health issues and in company with another person, so we've gone out & done something every single day. Nice to get in all hot & sweaty, have a cool shower then not have to worry about preparing food

The think about not knowing (or bothering to work out) how butter knives work is not confined to AI resorts. --

Looking at you, one member of our Bookgroup --

Nothing like a queue of 20 people at the buffet behind that one person searching for that perfect carrot. Oh well this one's good but not great better put it back and spend another 30 seconds picking up another carrot with the tongs like I'm operating a claw game at the fairground.

Just take something and go for the love of god.

why not just remove other people's towels off sun loungers? Especially if they put them on in the morning and bugger off til lunchtime

Ah, but by lunchtime its too late - they are using them, having left them empty all morning. Nobody is psychic. How are we to know when they are going to arrive? I could hoik the towels off only for them to arrive and catch me in the act.

I will happily admit to moving towels.
If there are personal belongings then obviously not. But I will be damned if I cant sit down because 20 people are having a lie in.

(I then move the loungers we have a bit. It's quite funny watching people turn up and try to work out which one was there bagsied lounger).

*their. Sorry.

Just gather up any personal belongings and leave them at Reception.

why not just remove other people's towels off sun loungers

Because sod's law is that as soon as you get settled down on the lounger that has been empty for hours, the towel baggers will show up expecting to use 'their' loungers.

I do think that hotels chaining up the chairs and brollies overnight then opening them up after breakfast about 9.30 am is a very good idea at any kind of resort.
It's much fairer and only one from each family really needs to sort it out usually. It would cut out all this getting up at 6am and people putting 8 in a row with stuff on it in desirable locations , which is really unfair to those that prefer a lie in.