Dining as a Large Group at an All Inclusive Resort

Traveling as a group of friends is wonderful fun.  Spending time at an all inclusive where you can spend the days not worrying about who is doing the cooking, the cleaning, the picking up of the check, that is pure paradise.

Of course, you will want to gather at the end of every fun filled day and dine together and share the stories of each of your adventures.

If there are more than 6 or 8 of you together that may be harder than it sounds.

All inclusive resorts usually have several specialty alacarte restaurants.  Some resorts require reservations to dine in those restaurants, some allow you to just walk up and take an available table.  Usually they will only seat up to 6 people at a time at a single table.

If you and your 25 friends want to eat together, it’s going to take some work and planning.

Many resorts will work with you in advance to have one dinner together without additional charge.  Another idea would be to break up into smaller groups and make reservations together that way.  The sure fire way to dine together is to arrange and pay for a private event.  Why would this cost extra at an all inclusive?  Because of the staffing.  When you have a private event, the resort has to have extra staff on duty to see to the needs of the group.  The cost won’t be as much as if you were at a normal hotel, but it won’t be free either.

The time of year you’re traveling makes a difference too.  The resort is able to be much more flexible if you’re traveling during a time of year when they’re only expecting to be half full.  If you’re traveling during high season, though, they won’t have quite so many options open to them.

If the resort will do one group dinner for you free of charge, perhaps have blocks of reservations for small groups within your group, then have your group dinner on the last night.

Have you traveled as part of a big group?  What did you do about the dining reservations?