drinking age and gambling age

[TrvlPro]

Originally posted by gpeters:
Honestly, what is the big deal about a 19 year old young man having wine at a dinner that includes his parents? It is hardly about violating some taboo - certainly nothing he would brag about to his friends.

It's not a big deal at all when the 19 year old and his parents are at the dinner table of their home. Persanally, anybody old enough to go and serve their country in the military is old enough by my standards to have a glass of wine and a beer. The only factor is the cruiselines rules for drinking age. I'll list for you the gambling and drinking age requirements for lines below.

Consumption of Alcohol

Once you've left port, the minimum age for the consumption of alcohol varies by cruise line.

Cruise lines that require passengers to be 18 and older to consume any type of alcoholic beverage:

Fred. Olsen Cruise Line
GAP Adventures
Oceania
Regent (Radisson)


Cruise lines that require passengers to be 21 and older to consume any type of alcohol, except for cruises departing from European and South American countries (a parent who is sailing with a passenger who is between the ages of 18 to 20 may sign a waiver allowing him/her to consume alcohol onboard):

Celebrity
Royal Caribbean


Cruise lines that require passengers to be 21 and older to consume any type of alcohol:

Carnival
Clipper
Costa
Cruise West
Crystal
Cunard
Delta Queen
Voyages of Discovery
Disney
Great American River Journeys
Holland America
Majestic America Line
MSC Cruises
Norwegian
Orient
Peter Deilmann
Princess
Seabourn
SeaDream
Silversea
Star Clippers
Uniworld
Viking River Cruises
Windstar


Gambling Onboard

Gambling, a popular form of entertainment on cruise ships, also has age restrictions which differ between cruise lines.

Cruise lines that require passengers to be 18 and older to gamble:

Carnival
Fred. Olsen Cruise Line
Holland America
Norwegian
Oceania
Orient
Regent (Radisson)
SeaDream


Cruise lines that require passengers to be 21 and older to gamble on Alaska cruises and 18 and older to gamble on all other cruises:

Celebrity
Royal Caribbean


Cruise lines that require passengers to be 21 and older to gamble:

Crystal
Cunard
Voyages of Discovery
MSC Cruises
Princess
Seabourn
Silversea
Windstar


Cruise line that requires passengers to be 25 and older to gamble:

Costa

[gpeters]

Originally posted by Dave Beers:

quote:

It is hardly about violating some taboo

No, it is in most cases violating the cruise line rules and local law, taboos notwithstanding.

[Dave]

Discretion is not something you exercise when it comes to an absolute such as the legal age to drink or gamble. Cruise ship employees shouldn't be expected to make case-by-case decisions on who gets served and who doesn't. A lack of consistency would ensue, which would lead to a collapse of the rules.

So say Mom and Dad are allowed to let Junior drink wine with them at dinner, and later that night Junior falls down a flight of stairs and is injured because he was feeling the effects of the alcohol. Any bets as to who Mom and Dad will be holding responsible in their lawsuit? Do you think the jury will buy the cruise line explanation of "well, we were using discretion"?

Up until last summer Royal Caribbean allowed 18 year old passengers to drink beer with parental approval (provided they were at sea or in a port that allowed 18 year olds to drink). However after too many incidents they stopped this practice.

As an administrator of this forum I will not endorse any behaviors that do not comply with the rules and laws. To me it is unethical to do so, and I also don't want people running around saying "well, the guy on cruise-chat said it was okay to ignore yada yada yada...".