alcohol

[noddie11]

I understand that alcohol is all inclusive on Regent. This is our first cruise with them.

What age do they allow young people to have alcohol? My daughter is over 18 and is used to drinking alcohol sensibly. I know the regulations in the UK( where we are from )and the USA are different. We sailed with Cunard last and although they are American owned they had an over 18 policy. Can any one enlighten me ?

[azgkrudi]

We've been told by the bartenders on the ship that they serve anyone 18 and over. I am not sure if this is Regent's "official" policy or not.

[MamaQuack]

I think it might depend on where the cruise is going. We sailed out of Venice in June and our almost 18 year old son was served freely while with us every evening. It was also the same when ashore in Italy. We, like you, have taught our child to drink sensibly and not regularly. He really enjoyed the wines on Regent. We have cruised many times with them and always loved it.

[WesW]

Suggest you send an email to information@rssc.com and ask the ?

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Sometimes it's 21. On some itineraries, permission of the parents for those over 18 is sufficient to allow them to have a drink, but sometimes not, especially if there are lots of teenagers on board. I heard on the Paul Gauguin in December that they had pegged it at 21 for their Christmas cruise, since they expected something like 40 kids and teenagers, and the possibilities for abuse were just too high. Apparently teenagers raid their parents' minibars sometimes and all kinds of problems ensue.

[Jim B]

What I have read is Regent's policy is 21 years of age to be served.

Now when you meet your cabin steward or stewardess ask them to see

the selection of bottles of liquor you can order for free in your cabin.

You are allowed one bottle each as long as it is not a premium on their list.

Then you are only allowed one bottle per cabin.

You can have your own cocktail hour before dinner in your cabin and it won't

be a problem.

Now I don't ever remember seeing anyone carded around the ship but does not mean they don't ask.

[noddie11]

thanks for your help. It looks as if she should be ok and we wont have to resort to subterfuge!

[MamaQuack]

Oh yes, forgot to mention the cabin. We do not drink whiskey but enjoy wine and beer. When we boarded our stewardess promptly asked our surprised son which type of beer he preferred for the minbar! We also asked and received a bottle daily of wine - most we did not even open because we had wine at dinner but still it was nice to have an occasional glass as we sat on our balcony and sailed by the volcano.

[RachelG]

OK, I have had personal experience with this one, so here is the true scoop.

The official policy is 21. On our Nice-Dover cruise in 2006, our son (who was then 16) had an occasional glass of wine with us with dinner, and it was never a problem.

Last year, on our Baltic cruise, the first night, we ate in Signatures, and he had a glass of wine with dinner. At the block party the next night, he did not drink alcohol, but I had stepped back in the room to finish putting on my makeup for dinner. I asked him to have the stewardess in the hall refill my wine glass. There is a stern knock on our door, and the hotel manager is there saying that they can't do that because he is underage. My son was very embarressed--he wasn't trying to pull anything, and I understand why they have rules, but since it was never enforced before and it was for me, I didn't think I was getting him in trouble.

After that incident, in all the restaurants, they took away the wineglass from his place setting as soon as we arrived. I thought it was a bit much of a big deal.

[noddie11]

so, do you have to ask for the wine you said you had daily or is it just supplied to replace what you have drunk? I like gin and tonic, is that allowed? My husband drinks beer mainly but also likes whiskey after dinner. Do we get both or a choice.?Sorry if all this info is in he brochure or whatever, but we only booked on Saturday and I have no brochure!

[OrpingtonT]

so, do you have to ask for the wine you said you had daily or is it just supplied to replace what you have drunk? I like gin and tonic, is that allowed? My husband drinks beer mainly but also likes whiskey after dinner. Do we get both or a choice.?Sorry if all this info is in he brochure or whatever, but we only booked on Saturday and I have no brochure!

 

If you are asking about alcohol for you as opposed to your son, G & T is freely available either at the bars, room service or asking your room stewardess to have a bottle of gin put in your suite. Ice is replenished regularly and tonic water and other soft drinks put in your fridge. Beer is also in the fridge, with a choice of brands and whisky is served on the same basis as the gin. Ample wine, red Aand white is served with meals as is champagne if you wish. There is brandy and liqueurs after the meal in the dining rooms and in the bars. In other words, you can have what you want, when you want it.

 

Stay sober and enjoy.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

On the aforementioned PG trip after ours last Christmas, they apparently were not going to stock the minibars of cabins with teenagers in them. I wonder how that worked out, and how they managed requests for alcohol from the adults in the party. Presumably they would be filled.

[Jim B]

I personally don't like foreign beer, (Never developed a taste), so always

ask the Stewardess to please change all the beer in the refrig to Bud Light.

I always ask for Canadian Club Blended whiskey and DW always asks for Grey Goose Vodka.

Never a problem. There is plenty of bottled water, and sodas replenished daily. If you don't like the types of sodas just ask.

[OrpingtonT]

From your first post, I see you are from the UK. Your OH may not have a taste for US light beers, other than Heinekan (which is a lager, anyway) I cannot remember other beers. You won't get a pint of Courage, I am sure!

[noddie11]

my oh travels to the states a lot so any american beers are fine.The thread makes me read like an alcoholic. Not the case but I do enjoy nice wine! This is my first all inclusive holiday and my first Regent holiday so I want to make sure I enjoy it to the full!!

OrpingtonT my daughter is in Canterbury as we speak!

[Jim B]

I always think that my posts sound like we are a bunch of drinking fools, but

really it is just nice to know your options to satisfy what you prefer and want to get out

of your cruise.

[MamaQuack]

Yes, sometimes I look at what I've typed and think my golly you need a Meeting. Seriously, one of the many reasons we chose Regent years ago when it was still Radisson, is the incredible food, service, wine and small ship size. Be forewarned, you will come home totally spoiled and ruined for other cruises. Meanwhile, that wine drinking, now 18 year old, is, as I type, taking an 80 year old neighbor out to dinner - just because he wanted to. A glass of wine with dinner has not ruined him.

[salefish]

Our son and friends have traveled with us on several cruises in the last few years and always shared wine with us at dinner each evening.

 

Something changed this year though during our Christmas cruise this year. Our son and his friend both currently 20 years of age were refused wine with dinner unless they provided proof of being 21. The wine steward went so far as to ask our suite number to verify their age.

 

Our butler did not have a problem with serving wine during dinner in our suite.

 

Apparently there was an issue with some persons under 21 becoming very unruly during a fall cruise and the policy was being strictly enforced as a result of that.

 

The boys, both college students at a major university and of good character, took it in stride and look forward to this year when they will both be of age.

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

Based upon ol' Ragnar's youthful experiences with alchohol, the drinking age should be 25.... maybe 30 :D

[Caroldoll]

one great grandchild. I believe that a glass of wine (some of it) with dinner is not a sin. We have always SHARED our wine with ADULT children who might NOT quite be 21. My gosh if they can enlist in the Military and get shot at, why not some wine. Be cool, watch them, and let them SHARE. But some people go crazy--that doesn't work. The obvious doesn't work. Go step by step.

[OrpingtonT]

Speaking generally, I have never personally seen anyone really drunk and incapable on a Regent cruise, in spite of their alcohol policy. Let's face it, even before the "all-inclusive" regime kicked in, alcohol flowed pretty freely after 6 pm at meals and official parties and receptions. I have read of one or two posters who had experienced some travellers worse for wear but usually the folk who cruise Regent are responsible people and the comments on sensible drinking for youngsters in this thread are tributes to that.

[count florida]

I'm not aware of any other country that tried to prohibit alcohol, then relented ±13 years later when that caused many more problems than it solved, and went back to "local option", so to say. Our hang-ups with sexual peccadilloes are another example of our sometimes-puritanical culture, as are our draconian approach to drug control. We have no trouble sending young men, and now women, to strange places to fight and die in war, but won’t allow them to have a legal drink. We allow them to vote and make contracts that bind them, but not have a drink. A sad state of affairs.

 

When I was growing up in upstate New York, 18 was the ‘legal’ drinking age, but hardly anyone strictly enforced it, except in bars, and then only if you really looked young. I distinctly recall being sent to the grocery store for “a few things”, including quarts of beer, when I was 11 or 12; no big deal. A neighboring Italian family served wine to their children with festive meals, watered down for the youngest. Even the 5 and 6 year olds got some of the watered stuff. My best friend’s parents drank beer with meals, and occasionally offered the kids, including me when I ate there, a glass, but at the time – early teens – none of us liked the taste and preferred milk. The family was of German decent, and soda was verboten – it rotted your teeth! When I joined the service at 17, seven or eight of us from New York were in a basic training flight with 30+ other young men, almost all under 21. The first time we got a “base pass” those from strict 21 drinking age limit states couldn’t wait to get to the Airman’s’ Club to legally drink the 3.2 swill they passed off as beer, and a lot of them got drunk doing it. Most of us from New York thought the 3.2 beer was awful, and couldn’t believe how dumb the others were, or how easy they seemed to get drunk. We eased into drinking, and were clearly able to handle it better than those ‘thrown in’, so to speak.

 

The current effort to lower the drinking age by a 400 of the country’s leading college presidents points up the problems the elevated drinking age cause or lead to. These men and women are smart, well educated, and have to deal with young people and their problems daily; they know what they are asking for. We should listen, discuss and act, rather than attack them for speaking out candidly, as has been done by too many.

 

The argument against drinking is that young people haven’t yet developed the judgment to handle the stuff, and that may be true; even back in the fifties and sixties there were drunk kids hurt or killed in auto accidents. I always thought a good compromise was to allow anyone with an active duty military id card to drink as if he or she were 21, but that idea never got much traction, although it was debated at one time. Maybe Wisconsin’s old law: beer (and wine?) at 18, all legal drinks at 21, is a better approach. The current system is clearly unfair to the majority who are able to handle themselves responsively, makes many problems of youthful drinking worse and less controlled as the college CEOs have noted, and just criminalizes behavior that isn’t really bad, except to the extent that the law defines it as illegal.

 

It’s a shame this is an issue for cruise lines, and I suspect it’s better handled quietly as many have described here. There is one (shall remain nameless) hotel director with Regent who seems to go out of his way to say no, and to have a generally negative outlook on things, but the rest are usually pretty reasonable if not publicly confronted with an issue.

[count florida]

In the message above, instead of "400 of the country’s leading college presidents", it should read "more than 100 of the country’s leading college and university presidents".

 

Even when I've gotten an edit symbol on my recently posted message, I can't change it. In this case, I waited too long as well. Sorry.

 

In this message I had misspelled a word. Lets see if this takes. Yup, it did.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Count, you're spot on. I guess lots of us saw the 60 minutes piece on college drinking last Sunday. Binge drinking of extraordinary magnitude, deaths by alcohol poisoning, etc.

 

Funny, when I was in university back in the 60's, our age here in Canada was 21. Lots of parents gave their kids glasses of wine on special occasions. Bars in the city would accept fake ID without much challenge, if you could find it. (I always looked young, so I never availed myself.) Frat houses had keggers, and got raided sometimes by the cops, but it was just beer they were drinking. On football weekends there was hard liquor, and disgusting hangovers that taught a stern lesson. And there were always teen traffic deaths attributed to alcohol, very sad.

 

But...we didn't have the money in those days to chug tequila or vodka routinely until we were senseless. Liquor was just not as ubiquitous then as it is now, including at home, nor were we as affluent.

 

Ironically, we used to go to Buffalo to bars to have a beer. Now our drinking age is 19, and New York's is 21. Not sure if the situation in our colleges is better or just the same.

[Bearnaise]

I'd guess that the insurers also have a bit of a say in who gets to drink on board since they're the ones who have to defend the potential lawsuits from the parents of teens involved in alcohol-related accidents.

 

Colleges are simply more full than ever. Instead of being selective institutes of higher learning that almost guaranteed their graduates success, today they're merely holding stations for many, a place to stash those between 18-22+ who are too numerous to employ and/or overqualified for fast food jobs. Unfortunately video games, internet chatrooms, and sports don't keep all of them busy enough. The ones who are still bored then turn to alcohol and drugs. The cost to society to hold these kid/adults for four years is astronomic when you figure in the tuition and boarding expenses and all those liquor bills. Surely it would be cheaper and more effective if we could just find a way to freeze the kid/adults in suspended animation for the four years?