AIBU to be a bit peed off about the new all inclusive drinking rule in Spain?

[Pinkycloud]

Don’t want to come across a raging alcoholic but we’ve booked an all inclusive holiday (costing about £7.5k) for me DH and 4 DC and am peed off to see you can now only have 3 alcoholic drinks with lunch and three with dinner. I know six seems a lot but it’s more about being told when you can have them and how many you can have at a given time. We’ve been to this place before (Majorca) and used to enjoy lazy afternoons sipping a beer or three by the pool. Doesn’t seem like ‘all inclusive’ anymore and we’re paying thousands for the bloody thing!

I'm not the sort of person who becomes drunk and disorderly full stop, I had to clean enough sick up from my mother as a child to know that adults can drink irresponsibly & within what may be seen as a "social norm" without being alcoholics. The point is that they are LIMITING it to 6 drinks a day because of people who drink significantly more than that ....and having done a number of AI holidays I don't find that the drinks are significantly weaker either which also suggests to me that people are a. either going to very different resorts to me (perfectly possible) or b. they are likewise used to rather stronger drinking/self-measures at home.

They're usually smalller. Plastic cups of drink, ice and watered down. I don't disagree on the self measures though.

Sorry about our mother however - you would know yourself that limiting wouldnt't stop it.

Good question. I usually like half a glass of cava with my breakfast purely for the novelty factor because it's there on the breakfast buffet, but I'd certainly think twice if that was going to count as one of my 6 drinks.

Predictably this thread has brought out the 'if you drink more than a thimbleful of sherry on Christmas Day you're an alcoholic and neglectful parent because I stayed sober from the day I got pregnant with my first to the day the youngest graduated from university' brigade but the reality is that many people will drink more than 6 drinks on holiday and want some of them between meals and they won't be getting loud or drunk if it's 6 or more well spaced small drinks.

Also that this alone won't tackle the problem of drunkenness in Magaluf, because most of the people who go there on drinking holidays will be buying alcohol in supermarkets to drink in their air BnB or when they go to the clubs and bars.

Huge lol. No it’s not, but happy to be proven wrong. Link us to these mythical deals where you get lunch and unlimited booze for 25 quid. What a bargain that is.

and if that was the case you’d be nuts not to book it, and go for half board at the same hotel,, even if you just drunk coffee water and soft drinks. 25 quid for a full lunch and as many drinks as you want, coffee, tea, water soft drinks. Who would be knocking that back. It would be the bargain of the century.

😂😂😂

Because that doesn't suit their lifestyle? Because they don't have to be boring and insist one is stone cold sober?

Yep
its their money. What do you think they should be spending it on? Cos I can think of anything better to spend your money on then holidays and travel- you only live once so May as well enjoy yourself and see the world

@LowlandLucky

why would you insist that one of you were stone cold sober? What was your reasoning for that?

If I were married to you, I’d tell you to do what you looked but if I wanted to drink on holiday then I would. And probs call you a killjoy

no need to not drink alcohol around the kids, why wouldn’t you?

I'm bemused by how this is in the press so often at the moment. This was announced 2.5 years ago and come into force in 2020. It affects Magalluf, El Arenal, Playa de Palma in Mallorca and Sant Antoni in Ibiza. If you are going to other resorts in Mallorca (Majorca) or Ibiza there is no restriction. Of you are going to Menorca or mainland Spain there is no restriction.

That’s really not the flex you think it is…

Lol. Six drinks over the course of a full day really isn’t that much. Very few people would be falling over. Don’t be ridiculous

@YouAreNotBatman
i can drink six drinks and not get drunk. Don’t see it as a particular flex, just a fact. What’s your problem?

I posted about this a few weeks ago, just to let people know. It wasn’t well publicised, and only became highlighted in the press yesterday. I didn’t get a single reply, so I can only assume people thought I was making it up.

@Neverendingdust · 29/04/2022 22:04
To be fair I really don’t blame them, it must be horrific Having to put up with drunken Brits. This should have happened years ago.

They 'didn't put up with' drunken Brits, they built their business model on encouraging drunkenness and sold the resorts on that basis. You (or rather 18-35 singles) wouldn't visit a lot of these places if it wasn't a party place. The booze was deliberately cheap and offers of free shots to groups. Ibiza moved away from what it was originally and went down the music route. Malia and Magaluf took over. Then there's Benidorm. That was a business decision. Tallinn is cheap and full of prostitutes, as Magaluf was (if you aren't the pulling type). People will find alternatives. Spain will have to redistribute the tourist wealth to places they are bringing in rules. I've watched the reality programmes and they asked a doctor if he was frustrated by the stupid injuries he saw. His answer was that they pay well either via insurance or cash. If it wasn't for tanked up tourists he wouldn't have a clinic.

But ultimately it is about misselling. There should have been a statement on the websites and in the travel agents.

@Frogslegsbigfeet You want my receipts for it? I work for a Tour Operator that specialises in Spain. Part of my job is hotel contracting. Is that proof enough that I know what I'm talking about?

Of course in some the difference is closer to £50/£60 per adult per day. But in others it's closer to £15. Across the board £20-£30 per adult per day to step up from half-board to all-inclusive is about average.

I am genuinely gobsmacked that people need more than six (!!!) drinks a day. I drink as much as the next person but there is no way I could drink 6 drinks in one day.

There have been times I've had more than 6 drinks a day in an AI but not often.

I will say I find the idea of less drunk Brits appealing. Last time I went to Minorca, there was a wedding party over the weekend and the (drink induced) behaviour was awful. I do think that in this particular case, they would have just paid.

What hotels should do is refuse to serve more drinks when someone is obviously drunk.

Nope. You're still missing the point spectacularly.

Can you have soft drinks without paying the extra? I just read an article and it says you can have more 'if you pay for it'. Doesn't sound like they're cracking down, it sounds like money saving. We're going AI to the Canaries in June, how annoying.

It only applies in certain resorts, I’d see if I could swap to another resort where they don’t have this rule.

And to the posters saying six drinks is plenty. It probably is, but the point is you have to have them with meals, so afternoon cocktail by the pool? Nope, G&T watching the entertainment, sorry, not allowed. I think it’s a terrible idea, and people will vote with their feet.

It'll backfire on them because the people that used to go to the Balearics to get hammered will go to the Canaries and do the same. They'll then bring it in over there. How annoying.

@Frogslegsbigfeet. Real receipts for you. Quick search for a week in July with a competitor.

Majorca. 4* Hotels. 2 people sharing a room for 7 nights.

The upgrade price is in total, so covers 2 people for 7 nights and the difference (lunch, snacks, drinks) between HB and AI.

It won’t affect you in the canaries.

What are people imagining as 'six drinks'?

A single bottle of cava is six drinks, six really quite small glasses of wine.

You could quite easily have a splash with breakfast, because it's on most breakfast buffets, a couple of glasses with lunch, one in the afternoon, a couple with dinner and the last mouthful afterwards and you'd probably not even fail a breath test for most of the day.

Most people who have a few drinks on holiday and might have more than six are not the same people running around with their pants on their heads, falling off balconies, getting tattoos on their faces or stabbing each other at 2 am. They've had way more than a bottle of wine in a day.

Well it’s the resorts that will lose out as people will just go elsewhere where these rules don’t apply

AI is whatever they say in the T&C when you booked. If it said all drinks between 9am and 9pm are included then you should get that - but if it said 3 drinks with meals are included, then you get that.
What is included with AI can vary hugely, but it will always say what the inclusions are and are not e.g. sailing is available but not included, laundry is available but not included, branded drinks are available but not included, ice-cream is available but only included from 3-6pm etc

If there was nothing in the conditions regarding time limits for drinks, take it up with the company and see if you can be moved.