Celebrity Cruises Drinking Age

[BobbyL262]

Hello,

Im going on my first Celebrity Cruise in July, I've usually traveled with Carnival. Im going on this cruise with a couple friends, all of which are above 18 years of age. Here's my question, what's the drinking age on this cruise line? Carnival it was 18, this one, I haven't been able to find any information stating such.

 

We'll be traveling to Bermuda for 7 days, if that helps anything, leaving out of Philadelphia.

 

Thanks!

[johnrhodes54]

I don't know about all Celebrity ships but on the Horizon (just got off 2 weeks ago) it was 21 years old for alcoholic beverages--I'm sure it's the same for the whole line.

[Guest]

On all Celebrity ships the drinking and gambling age is 18. They will serve you beer and wine from 18 to 21 and hard liquor in that age range with parents permission although they don't really push it. Age will be dependent upon local laws but this is once at sea. I have an 18 and 20 year old son and daughter who traveled with me on my last cruise.

[BobbyL262]

Thanks so much for the reply, that's the funny thing, on Carnival, Drinking age was 18 (all kinds) gambling age was 20, which I didnt understand.

 

thanks again! Im sure they'll be happy to hear that!

[wieslaw]

Hello BobbyL,

 

I am looking at the information provided by Celebrity's Millennium in the first day's daily paper the "Celebrity Today!" that was printed on our Panama Canal transit about 4 weeks ago. It states:

 

"Beverage Waiver Form

 

It is Celebrity Cruises' policy to serve alcoholic beverages to those guests who are 21 years of age or older. However, while in the international waters persons 18-20 years of age May consume beer and wine only provided they are authorized by a parent, guardian or person 25 years or older who will assume responsibility. Persons 21 years of age or older May consume any alcoholic beverages."

 

I am not sure if that is also true for cruises in Europe.

 

Wes

[wieslaw]

Hello again BobbyL,

 

I am looking at the documents that were sent to us from Celebrity for the last cruise and I found this statement:

 

"Alcoholic beverages

 

Celebrity will not serve alcoholic beverages to guests under 18 years of age while a vessel is at sea. In port, the minimum drinking age is 18 or 21 in accordance with local legal age limitations. No alcoholic beverages may be brought on board for consumption."

 

I guess, I am confused.....somewhat conflicting statements.

 

Wes

[45014]

If you can't prove you're legal, then you shouldn't be drinking. Also I thought that there had to be at least one person over 25 in the cabin?

[johnrhodes54]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by 45014:

If you can't prove you're legal, then you shouldn't be drinking. Also I thought that there had to be at least one person over 25 in the cabin?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

True--but the question here is at what age are you legal either in port or in international waters? I know for a fact the Horizon repo on 4/12 never took down their "No Alcohol Served to Anyone Under 21" sign the entire time I was on board. But this confusion doesn't shock me as there is always discrepencies on these boards about Celebrity's policies--guess you just to to get on board and see what happens.

[Guest]

John:

 

Your absolutely right about the inconsistencies. Last year on our Galaxy cruise they never asked our permission for the kids to have the beer or wine, we never signed anything and they certainly did not ask about the hard liquor. The kids were really good, they tried fruit drinks at dinner and handled themselves well. Others on our cruise had to sign waivers. Celebrity has had an 18 year old drinking age for many years, it was ironic that right after the RCCL takeover, Celebrity was supposed to be the "refined" cruise line. They had an 18 year old drinking age and Royal Caribbean at the time was 21. Go figure.

 

Don

[rwb]

RCL and Celebrity have the same rules at this time. (18 for beer and wine, 21 for alcohol.) There is no "legal age" at sea, since the applicable laws of the sea do not address alcohol consumption and one becomes "legal" at various ages for for different purposes. But the industry association and essentially all cruise lines use 21 as the minimum age. RCL and Celebrity adopted the age 18 rule (beer and wine) primarily for their European customers.

[johnrhodes54]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by rwb:

RCL and Celebrity have the same rules at this time. (18 for beer and wine, 21 for alcohol.) There is no "legal age" at sea, since the applicable laws of the sea do not address alcohol consumption and one becomes "legal" at various ages for for different purposes. But the industry association and essentially all cruise lines use 21 as the minimum age. RCL and Celebrity adopted the age 18 rule (beer and wine) primarily for their European customers.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

RWB-Thanks for the clarification. As I stated earlier the Horizon's signs said "No alcohol served to anyone under 21"--maybe they meant "hard liquor only"--who knows? I would have thought for beer/wine sales to 18-20 yr olds they might have put up a seperate sign. However, alcohol is alcohol as far as I'm concerned--you can get just as loaded on beer/wine as hard liquor. Most states that have tried the 18 yr old "beer/wine only" sales pitch didn't keep it long--I wonder why?--

[Lou33]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by johnrhodes54:

Most states that have tried the 18 yr old "beer/wine only" sales pitch didn't keep it long--I wonder why?-- <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

In many states it was always legal to drink beer, wine, alcohol at age 18. Only recently has this changed. In the mid 80's states could not receive federal funding for highway projects if they did not change the law to make it illegal to consume any alcoholic beverage until age 21.

 

I cut and pasted the following information directly from the Celebrity website:

 

Celebrity Cruises will not serve alcoholic beverages while a vessel is at sea to guests under 18 years of age. In port, the minimum drinking age is 18 or 21, in accordance with local legal age limits.

 

Splendour of the Seas, 11/17/00

Summit, 10/28/02

Mercury, 5/05/04

[nealberk]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by BobbyL262:

Hello,

Here's my question, what's the drinking age on this cruise line? Carnival it was 18, this one, I haven't been able to find any information stating such.

 

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

I thought Carnival raised its drinking age to try to remove its stigma of being party ships.

[BB5953]

I have 2 younger siblings now 19 and 22 but they have been served on Celebrity (Galaxy, Horizon and Summit) since they were 17 and 20 with no questions asked at all -- to the dismay of my parents of course.

 

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[johnrhodes54]

Originally posted by Lou33:

In many states it was always legal to drink beer, wine, alcohol at age 18. Only recently has this changed. In the mid 80's states could not receive federal funding for highway projects if they did not change the law to make it illegal to consume any alcoholic beverage until age 21.

 

Lou33--thanks for the input. I was not aware alot of states in the past had 18 yr old drinking laws. I was a senior in HS in Upper Michigan in the fall of 1972 when on October 1st (my 18th BD) Michigan changed their drinking age to 18 (it was 21 prior to 10/1/72)--so I was legal for 3 weeks until we got transferred to Spokane. In the early 80's I went to Hawaii for 7 winters in a row and remember one year the drinking age there dropped to 18 also. In both cases it didn't last long--I believe for the reason you stated.

I remember when moving to Spokane in the fall of 72 we had to go to Idaho (30 miles away) because the drinking age there at the time was 19. Had I known at that time that alot of states had 18 yr old drinking laws I probably would've turned into an alcoholic alot sooner than I did--

[rwb]

In defense of Celebrity, we must remember that it cruises Europe and South America and heavily markets its cruises to citizens of other countries. The legal drinking age in most of Europe is 16, and is 18 virtually everywhere else. Heck, even in Canada it is 18 or 19 depending on the province. Many countries have no laws regarding consumption, only laws regarding purchase. The USA, Belarus, and Russia are the only countries of consequence that have legislated a drinking age as high as 21.

 

Parents who are concerned about their 18 year-olds should simply request they be issued a minor's charge card.

[Guest]

John:

 

I'll give you a little history lesson, remember it well as I was working as a Juvenile Detective at the time. Late 60s. most places were 21 with some 18, during Vietnam era a movement started that if you were old enough to fight you should be old enough to drink. This along with the changing the voting age to 18 from 21 gave the impetus to changing drinking age from 21 also. After a few years and an increase in accidents and general DWI awareness, federal govt. said to all states change drinking age back to 21 or lose your federal funding. The states then changed back as this is a very genuine threat. Recently done again in changing DWI blood alchohol levels.

 

Also, there are quite a few cruise lines with drinking age 18, not just Celebrity and RCI.

 

Don

[johnrhodes54]

Don--thanks for the HL--it's starting to come back to me now a bit. I do remember some states changing from 18 back to 21 in the early to mid 80's (for exactly the reasons you mentioned). Funny, as I was born and raised a bit in Germany we started having beer real early in life. Drinking age there now is 16 (up to a certain time during the week and longer on the weekends). They don't have anywhere near the DWI and other problems associated with "under-age" drinking there as we do here. Different culture I guess. I did feel a bit funny though, when in my early 30's I was chugging beers with 16 year olds in a local tavern--

I personally don't care what they do on ships as long as whomever is drinking is handling it responsibly. But at the cost of the drinks onboard I can't see many 18 year olds getting gassed because it would cost a fortune. John