Teen dies on a winter break cruise...

[manateesmom]

On the "booze culture" on cruise ships, obviously there's a lot of profit and tips for the servers in alcohol, so it's not surprising that it's pushed everywhere. My experience, I sailed while pregnant and just starting to show, although a belly doesn't necessarily scream pregnancy at that point. But I told pretty much every server on the ship, including our table servers, and STILL got repeatedly pestered. I was like, "nope, still pregnant," and they'd still come back around.

 

[DMMarla07860]

I will say if your teen looks young for their age, it will be hard to get a drink unless other teens get it. I'm 24 and look young and get carded( use to it so not a big deal)

 

[bats]

I was told that the young adults, ages 18-20, were only allowed to be given drinks by their parents on the Med cruises because of the lower legal age in Europe....so as not to alienate the European passengers. It won't be allowed on any other cruises, so that's at least one less worry. Unless they sneak it.

On the Med cruises, the parents had to sign a waiver to allow the 18-20 year olds to buy alcohol.
It will be the same on this years Med cruises too I imagine. A lot of the clientele was Spanish last year and they have their children drinking wine with dinner real young. My uncle is Spanish and I remember being given wine with my dinner aged about 10. It was no big deal .. I drank it or I didn't, nobody made a big deal about it. To this day, I can take it or leave it and I think that's because it wasn't made to be a big deal when I was younger.

 

[justmestace]

On the "booze culture" on cruise ships, obviously there's a lot of profit and tips for the servers in alcohol, so it's not surprising that it's pushed everywhere. My experience, I sailed while pregnant and just starting to show, although a belly doesn't necessarily scream pregnancy at that point. But I told pretty much every server on the ship, including our table servers, and STILL got repeatedly pestered. I was like, "nope, still pregnant," and they'd still come back around.

But at least when they would have to order a drink and pay for it with the key card, they'd get stopped because they aren't of age, and that's either printed on the card (Disney) or encoded.

It doesn't bother me to keep saying "No thanks".....I know it does some people, just like the vendors in some of the ports can get annoying, that doesn't bother me either, but it really irritates some people.

 

[Chelley00]

This is in RCCL FAQs:

ALCOHOL POLICY
Effective immediatly on all sailings, the minimum drinking age for all alcoholic beverages on all Royal Caribbean International is as follows.
The minimum age to consume alcohol on Royal Caribbean International ships on sailings originating in North America is twenty-one (21).
The minimum age to consume alcohol on Royal Caribbean International ships on sailings from South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand is eighteen (18). The minimum age to consume alcohol at all private destinations remains twenty-one (21) without regard to where the sailing originated. The Company retains the right, on rare occasions, to raise the minimum age of alcohol consumption on any sailing when local laws require or permit such a modification.

We sailed RCL with our 18 year old. One of the kids he met said that when they cruised out of Europe he could drink all he wanted and he was mad he couldn't drink at all going out of NYC.

So, his older brother bought him drinks and he offered to buy them for the other 18 year olds that hung around the basketball court.

It's not limited to cruising either. The same thing could happen at a party at home where you have older people supplying alcohol to minors.

On RCL, they use a special hole punch on your card if you are old enough to drink. No stamp, no drink.