My family just got off of Dream 4 day. It was a great cruise, but we did have an odd incident at Palo.
We went for the brunch. It was me, my wife, our 21 year old son, his 21 year old girlfriend, and our 19 year old daughter.
Each of us over 21 was offered the "complimentary" champagne or mimosa. Then, the waiter asked both my son and his girlfriend for ID above and beyond their room keys. The girlfriend did not have her ID with her at Palo, and we didn't want to have to go back to the room to get it. Neither she, not my son, had been asked to produce age verification at any other time, or at any other place on the cruise.
The room keys have a picture on file, so the request seemed idiotic. I told the waiter that the request was unnecessary and that he could use the room key. He was kind of salty, but begrudgingly took the girlfriend's room key and went to look up her picture.
I called Palo later and mentioned the incident. The woman on the phone said that what I described was very unusual.
Later that night, when we went to the MDR for dinner, we were greeted by the manager of Palo. He was gracious and apologized and treated us to an unsolicited bottle of champagne. However, his explanation of why the ID incident had happened still didn't make any sense. He said something about abundance of caution with people near 21. This rang hollow, as there is no such abundance of caution anywhere else on board.
I suggested to him that the reminder cards that they send to your stateroom should ask you to bring IDs, if they were going to ask to see them.
If Disney is going to start requesting ID in additon to room keys under any circumstances, they should let people know. After all, documents that verify birthdate are absolutely required to even board the ship.
We went for the brunch. It was me, my wife, our 21 year old son, his 21 year old girlfriend, and our 19 year old daughter.
Each of us over 21 was offered the "complimentary" champagne or mimosa. Then, the waiter asked both my son and his girlfriend for ID above and beyond their room keys. The girlfriend did not have her ID with her at Palo, and we didn't want to have to go back to the room to get it. Neither she, not my son, had been asked to produce age verification at any other time, or at any other place on the cruise.
The room keys have a picture on file, so the request seemed idiotic. I told the waiter that the request was unnecessary and that he could use the room key. He was kind of salty, but begrudgingly took the girlfriend's room key and went to look up her picture.
I called Palo later and mentioned the incident. The woman on the phone said that what I described was very unusual.
Later that night, when we went to the MDR for dinner, we were greeted by the manager of Palo. He was gracious and apologized and treated us to an unsolicited bottle of champagne. However, his explanation of why the ID incident had happened still didn't make any sense. He said something about abundance of caution with people near 21. This rang hollow, as there is no such abundance of caution anywhere else on board.
I suggested to him that the reminder cards that they send to your stateroom should ask you to bring IDs, if they were going to ask to see them.
If Disney is going to start requesting ID in additon to room keys under any circumstances, they should let people know. After all, documents that verify birthdate are absolutely required to even board the ship.
.
