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 😎)

@thentherewascakes Yes, I think you're right. I did google tripadvisor reviews which said the hotel was good for coeliacs. But hard to find reviews for gluten free and vegi! It was our first time away since diagnosis......not sure if we should just stick to europe in the future as at least I would trust the salad more. We went to Egypt before her diagnosis and we both got an upset stomach there as well.

In fairness to the hotel they did have gf pasta and cooked her a special gf and vegi pasta dish one night but she didn't like it. Fussy as well I guess!

Sorry that was for @goodfornothinggnome not just a random story.

There is a huge difference between say AI in a 5 in the Maldives, where the food is served at your table, beautifully presented, gorgeous cocktails are available using high quality spirits, there is no limit on anything but oddly people know how to behave and not get blind drunk or order enough food to feed 10 people... compared with an all you eat can buffet in some grotty hotel, flies all over the food, where lunch is last night's leftovers and the alcohol is the cheapest available and people don't seem to be physically able to stop gorging and imbibing themselves all day long.*
This.

Mainly buffet irritations: poor hygiene standards from other guests, e.g. tasting/sniffing food and putting it back, picking one's butt and then picking up food and spoons etc 🤢
Also rude, selfish guests who lean over you to get their food, guests who queue jump or suddenly stop, guests who have no clue who's around them, guests who stare at you.
Food left uncovered so birds and flies get at it.
Tacky wristbands.
Buffets in general and the behaviour of fellow guests at them.

Not a fan of AI and probably won't do one again.

One family decided to put towels down on sun loungers by the pool and also separate sun loungers under the shade. Cheeky fecks!!!

I unashamedly love nothing more than an all inclusive! There are of course some hotels with good food and some with bad, just as you'll get with restaurants in the UK. I just love the ease of it too, the thought of having to trawl round looking for a decent restaurant to eat at 3x a day sounds hellish to me.

reading some of these stories I don't think I could cope with AI! Not unless t was like the breakfast buffet at the Hilton in Delhi where I could have happily grazed all day, and possibly all night.......

The Russian guests eating all the profiteroles. And I mean all

I've seen Russian guests pick up the entire cold meat platter, and take it to their table for a family of 5. And what little was left over, they produced small bags from their pockets to take the rest away with them.

I have been to the good (Mexico) the bad (Dominican republic) and the satisfactory (Spain).

One of the benefits of AI is if you have younger children you don’t have to wait for table service which can be trying if they are tired or the food is delayed. I don’t imagine we will continue to go when the kids are older but I love the ease of getting their evening meal after a long day.

Also we only go for a week because the food can be repetitive.

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

That's because people haven't been taught good manners - and by "good manners" I mean consideration for others. They obviously have never been introduced to the concept of a butter knife.

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

YANBU OP it's very annoying as it causes a queue, and is pretty manky behaviour, really.

I love an all inclusive holiday. You really have to pick one that has lots of different restaurants as some just have a main buffet.
I hate seeing some of the breakfast stuff at lunch, and unpopular dishes being a retread.
WRT the butter situation they should provide a ramekin for numpties to put the butter in.

It’s not the All Inclusive that’s the problem, it’s some of the customers
I agree
I like AI but it has to be somewhere that has table service too .
Buffet for breakfast or lunch is fine but not evening.
I also hate people filling their plates with huge portions of food that don't go together drives me mad . I do sometimes like to choose different things so it's fine but I don't overindulged. I don't get that people put tons of weight on .
I usually have omelette for breakfast
Lunch fish / salad or sometimes a burger / pizza
Dinner is usually fish again but I love fish so could live off it .
I'll enjoy a couple of cocktails in the afternoon and the evening without worrying about the cost so it has its plus points .
I hate saving sun beds but that's not just AI but it's not on people reserving sun beds at 7am but not using till after lunch .

I'm going AI next week. You can help yourself to a bottle of Cava apparently. I think if there is self service and the hotel don't tightly control the food and drink people are less likely to go mad on it. Our hotel also has 4 a la carte restaurants as well as the buffet. Buffet great for kids though, can guarantee they will get something they enjoy, and our youngest can have lots of fruit (he's got a bit of a fruit obsession!).
Last AI we went on both our kids were asleep by 9 and hotel were funny about us taking drinks to our room. I did a covert operation one night ordering a bottle of wine, the barman was really sceptical about handing it over. I had to pretend I was waiting for someone then sneak into the lift! When I got back to the room dh had fallen asleep so it was all for nothing. Hoping this year either kids are up a bit later or we can manage a few drinks on the balcony when they're asleep.

Only recently experienced this - not AI but half board with 'buffet style'. The only thing that really annoyed me was the people who insisted on refusing to use the copious napkins & just grabbed bread in their bare hands, hacked off a slice or 2 then put it back - in the end I selected a new loaf every time!! Best thing was helping self to Bloody Mary & cava for breakfast (you can see where my priorities are!!)

I remember going on my first AI holiday several years ago and it was a culture shock. The restaurant was just like a school canteen, no table cloths or anything. To be honest the food turned out to be quite good, it just took some getting used to the noise and routine. Suited me at the time as I was a single mum with 2 boys, their snacks and drinks etc worked out well.
I tried it again a couple of years later, restaurant was nicer but my god the food was awful and tasteless, we ended up eating out quite a lot.

Isn't eating locally one of the best parts of a holiday abroad?

I totally agree but can see that sometimes it is better in some situations to go AI i.e. picky kids. I did once go AI and didn't like it, food was so so but no local dishes, just tourist aimed food.

Oh the good old all inc! Where do I start, great for those that love queues, queue at the bar, the restaurant, buffet recycled dishes from lunch to dinner. Never a good selection of quality food, very fatty meat. Queue again for sunbeds., or lack of them as people are up before you. watered down drinks, undrinkable wine and spirits brands you have never heard of. Having to wear a scratchy wristband. Unable to relax by the pool as lots of parents drunk or asleep or reading a mag on their sunloungers not watching their little ones around the pool, I kid you not one year, I saw a little tot take of her nappy and go to the toilet in the hotels fountain, her parents or grandparents no where to be seen, absolutely disgusting. I spent that week of hell, watching my children and whilst keeping an eye out for others! So no not a fan of the all inc. concept, can you tell! S/c villa holidays are the ones for me.

People who leave their shit all over the beach

@EatenByDinosaurs That would be me. I have coeliac disease and numerous other severe food allergies, including pineapple, which makes any kind of fruit salad difficult. . am the one eating plain boiled rice for breakfast grin No way would I risk anything and missing out on any of my holiday. All that said, I've only been to one AI which had a buffet, all the rest have had table service.

With coeliac disease and other severe allergies, you would be INSANE to think about eating from a buffet.

@MadamePompadour I'm away AI this week and our place has those green jelly cubes!!

@CollaterlyS1sters well yes, quite. That's why I avoid buffets if at all possible

When we had two small boys always went self catering used to enjoy going to the fish market, dutch butcher, veg. market, buying from the deli. it was part of the experience. Those boys grew up and went to uni. surprise no 3 son arrived. Now we are talking only child here really so went all inclusive so that he was guaranteed company on a complex. But we went out of the complex would eat lunch out and dinner some nights. If we were there it was nice that he and other children could get a drink. He was such a fussy child food wise but with a free choice at the buffet he would eat all sorts of foods which broadened his taste buds no end. He discovered spanish omelette, paella, indian, mexican, chinese food which he loved. He also had lots of little friends to play with. The wine was vile but you can buy your own booze if you wish.

It worked for us at the time, but we did miss the independence and fun of self catering.

I'm went for two in my time, with the kids. One is October,having said I never would go, was amazing. We all loved it. The other, a few years later in the summer, was utterly shit. Piles of people not looking after their kids, and a few who slapped them. Ugh.

@EatenByDinosaurs I don't have coeliac but I do have IBS and a lot of food problems, and if a buffet is the only option, I'll just go to a newsagent/kiosk/supermarket and buy something in a packet. Rather than risk the consequences.

AI is really good if you have autistic children. They can see what the food is and if they don't like it they can get something else. It can get abit repetitive. But it's worth it for not having to research restaurants on trip advisor and look at the menu online before you go. And even though all the preparation has been done two dcs nearing meltdown as they don't know what their food will be like, really spoils a meal out. Also both my dcs have adhd, so they're not able to wait for a drink and wouldn't be able to drink less because it's expensive.
I do think it makes a difference going for as high a star as you can afford. We go 4⭐️ and the food has been good quality.