All Or Nothing

Is the all-inclusive running out of low-grade beer-fuelled steam? If it is, they will be celebrating with a special fiesta. Take soundings around Alcúdia, and word is that the exclusive all-inclusives (which can sound like a contradiction but refers to those hotels which are AI only) are having a particularly hard time of it. Lagomonte's occupancy travails are well aired, the Delfin Verde may close its doors on barely a score percentage in October and talk has been of the Marte having been empty for a while with the Club Macsters being penned into Jupiter and Saturn.

It is worth asking why the likes of the Lagomonte and the Verde seem to be suffering when others, such as the half board Delfin Azul and the self-catering Alcúdia Beach, are full. It's not simply a question of size; the Delfin Azul and Lagomonte, for instance, are roughly similar in terms of beds, and the Verde is comparatively small. The Marte situation may have occurred, but it at least seems to be operating at reasonable capacity. I took a stroll around the Club Mac site yesterday. Stroll is not the right word; elbowing your way along Oxford Street on the last Saturday before Christmas comes to mind. It was its normal impersonation of a Dante-esque vision.

One wonders if those reviews that hurl around cyberspace have any effect. The Macs have copped more than their fair share of flak, the Verde has not been immune but Lagomonte has generally escaped the worst of the comments. There again, for every review that talks of vomit and crap in the pool there is one that could have been written about the Ritz. Maybe punters have rumbled the fact that all-inclusive often stands for inferior quality - in mostly all services and facilities. But there still are plenty who don't mind iffy lager served in a plastic glass and feeding times at zoos.

Perhaps it is just a case of economics. Despite the cost attractions of the all-inclusive, they still cost. They cater, in general, for less well-off families whose budgets are as affected as any others by the economic climate. Nevertheless, the word going round that the Verde may switch to half board could be an indication that the AI beast is being tamed. If the Azul can do well on such a basis, why not others?


And just returning to the Alcúdia Beach. There I was walking from the back of the hotel on my normal going-around hotels routine, when ... what was that? A voice in the air. Something disembodied like the PA system in "The Prisoner". "Good morning, Andrew, of the Alcudia Guide. Nice yellow t-shirt." I couldn't see him but I knew he was somewhere. How had he seen me that was the question. Grizz, aka Minty.


Further to yesterday's note about things going on in the port, the town hall sent me a poster which I've put on the WHAT'S ON BLOG. It implies that what the press report called craft workshops are in fact kids' workshops and that the events are "Shopping". Which makes one ask, well what about the shops that are already there? Also, rather than just Wednesdays and Saturdays, they are taking place on more occasions. Wish they'd make their minds up.


There has been a comment to the WHAT'S ON BLOG. It was in Spanish, a chap moaning about the Playa de Muro fiesta this weekend serving up little more than a local music band when other fiestas have all sorts of groups and DJs etc. It's a point. Alcúdia and Pollensa can have big events in both the towns and the resorts, why does Muro reserve the special stuff for the town only? So I tend to agree with whoever it was. Anyway, there are times when I take a certain perverse delight in putting Spanish stuff into a machine translator. And I have done so with this comment. This is how Babelfish mangled it. Brilliant stuff:

"Because it fence wall beach celebrations those. Whereas in other municipalities they bring to well-known people for the concerts we dedicated ourselves here to the band because? you will say it to us. Then he will be that Beaches of Wall do not give money enough to the city council not to deserve celebrations in conditions. Then already it is saying, goes celebrations that organize to us."


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Eric Clapton (with some mates at the Albert Hall) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64dUqMxxyjQ. Today's title - who?

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