# RCI Extra Vacations - High All Inclusive Fees



## fryguy (Mar 1, 2013)

I was thinking of doing an extra vacation with RCI to Mexico.

Some of the resorts have very high "All Inclusive" fees.

$150-$300 night - per person.  Man, we don't eat that much food per day or even would consume adult drinks.

Would like to do an "All Inclusive", but not at those prices.

Hard Rock was $2k I think for the week.


Any ideas?


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## thebreards (Mar 1, 2013)

My thoughts on an All Inclusive is that it really is only worth it if you are just going to lounge around your complex for the week.  If you do much venturing out, you end up buying food and drinks elsewhere anyway.  

That said- We have done 3 AIs- 2 in Mexico and 1 in the Dominican Republic.  I would definately do an AI again in the DR.  The country itself seemed very much like it was 3rd world, but the resort was amazing.  We only did 1 excursion off of the property over our week there.

We next did an AI to the Puerto Vallarta Regioin.  It was an insanely cheap last minute deal- as in there were non AIs for the same time that were more expensive.  I would not do an AI again to that area.  The town is so charming and I liked spending time in it exploring.  That week we went into town for two full days and went on one excusion for  about 1/2 of the day to go ziplining. Had it not been so cheap, we wouldn't have gotten very good "value" for our AI- but like I said it was really cheap so it didn't matter much.

Our last AI was to the Occidental Grand Flamenco Xcaret (RCI #5543) in the spring of 2011.  Depending on the "value" of your points, this wouldn't be too bad with an AI fee.  I did the math for my trip and it came out to be about the same if I booked through Delta with flight or if I booked the flight separate and used my RCI account.  We did not do an exchange with RCI.  We booked a vacation package through Delta Vacations about 3 weeks before we departed so again a last minute discount.  It was a very nice place, but the beach was different.  It is really more of a lagoon, but there is excellent fish to be seen and you can get snorkle gear free from the resort.  I have a detailed trip report on trip advisor on this place; if you decide you are interested let me know.  

We are currently looking at another late April/ early May potential AI and thinking maybe Secrets Maroma wouldn't be so bad.


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## jc92869 (Mar 1, 2013)

*same boat.*

I ran into the same situation. The prices for the actual week are super low, but then when you factor in the AI it becomes so expensive that it defeats the purpose of doing last minute exchanges. 

I don't have an answer to your question. It seems that there is simply no way around it. either you pay the AI or you don't go there. 

other alternatives we found were to look  for an NON   mandatory Ai (you can filter the results) or rent from  an owner there and get their Ai rate.


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## deannak (Mar 3, 2013)

fryguy said:


> I was thinking of doing an extra vacation with RCI to Mexico.
> 
> Some of the resorts have very high "All Inclusive" fees.
> 
> ...



It does seem borderline deceptive when they have a list price of something low like $250 and then add on another $2100 (or even more) for AI fees.  The bulk of the total cost is hidden away in the fine print, and the list price that's in big numbers is pretty much meaningless.

I don't know how flexible you are with travel seasons, but one thing you might look at is that a lot of times the AI fees vary by month.  If you book one month it's $160/pp/night, while other months might be $90 or even $60.  I know I'm a lot more likely to consume $60 worth of F&B than I am $160!


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