Question regarding legal drinking age on RCL shore excursions

[Ian T 177]

Sorry, but I am full of questions today...

We are looking at booking a RCL shore excursion during our December 2021 sailing and two of the group will be in their late teens (18 and 19).

One of the excursion notes states that guests must be of legal drinking age in order to consume alcohol. This in itself is of course no surprise; however is this the legal drinking age in Antigua (16) or, given that the excursion is arranged through RCL, does the US legal drinking age apply as it does on board?

Given that they can legally consume alcohol here in the UK and know they will need to abstain whilst on board they are, unsurprisingly, hoping that as RCL is effectively merely acting as the booking agent for an excursion with a local provider, the law of the land in Antigua applies; however I would love to be able put their minds at rest (or alternatively give them fair warning!)

 

[gabeb848 19]

I believe it depends on which country/countries waters you are in. @WAAAYTOOO @twangster, correct me if I'm wrong.

[twangster 26,310]

In my experience if the price of the Royal excursion includes alcohol while on the excursion they implement their standard ship policy.  My guess is they don't want hyper overreacting parents outraged at them for getting their kid drunk and falling down.    Meanwhile if the same kids walk into a bar on the same island and gets drunk that's okay.  

I know it seems a double standard but you can thank all the social justice warriors for attacking the cruise line.  

If you pull out your wallet and buy them drinks, or they purchase their own drinks that's another matter.  Royal didn't participate in the transaction that put alcohol into them so that tends to be okay.  It's not like the local tour guide is going to run into the frame and stop the bartender from accepting your money.  

Excursions on sailing catamarans sometimes include beer or wine.  On these excursions I am confident the tour operators were told not to allow under ship age drinking but it's possible the local tour operators may not enforce that with the same zeal that Royal does on the ship.  YMMV.    

[twangster 26,310]

Royal ship policy tends to be derived from where the ship departs and they use the age on day 1 of the cruise for the whole cruise even if someone turns drinking age mid-cruise.  Any ship departing from the US will use 21 as the drinking age.  A ship departing Southampton will use UK laws.  I should have asked when I last sailed from Quebec or Vancouver in Canada but never thought to.  

[Ian T 177]

22 minutes ago, gabeb848 said:

I believe it depends on which country/countries waters you are in. @WAAAYTOOO @twangster, correct me if I'm wrong.

I thought the same; however as this does not apply to the ship itself whilst docked it got me wondering.

8 minutes ago, twangster said:

In my experience if the price of the Royal excursion includes alcohol while on the excursion they implement their standard ship policy.  My guess is they don't want hyper overreacting parents outraged at them for getting their kid drunk and falling down.    Meanwhile if the same kids walk into a bar on the same island and gets drunk that's okay.  

I know it seems a double standard but you can thank all the social justice warriors for attacking the cruise line.  

If you pull out your wallet and buy them drinks, or they purchase their own drinks that's another matter.  Royal didn't participate in the transaction that put alcohol into them so that tends to be okay.  It's not like the local tour guide is going to run into the frame and stop the bartender from accepting your money.  

Excursions on sailing catamarans sometimes include beer or wine.  On these excursions I am confident the tour operators were told not to allow under ship age drinking but it's possible the local tour operators may not enforce that with the same zeal that Royal does on the ship.  YMMV.    

Many thanks... not what they will want to hear of course, but certainly makes sense.

[twangster 26,310]

5 minutes ago, Ian T said:

Many thanks... not what they will want to hear of course, but certainly makes sense.

The good news is ... if they are in your cabin and you buy the drink package they are not required to also buy the drink package since they are not of ship drinking age.  

Normally everyone of drinking age in the same cabin must buy the drink package if anyone in the cabin does.  

That worked out well for me sailing with a 20 year old.  Now that she is over 21 it's gotten more expensive every time we go to dinner at home.

[Ian T 177]

3 hours ago, twangster said:

Royal ship policy tends to be derived from where the ship departs and they use the age on day 1 of the cruise for the whole cruise even if someone turns drinking age mid-cruise.  Any ship departing from the US will use 21 as the drinking age.  A ship departing Southampton will use UK laws.  I should have asked when I last sailed from Quebec or Vancouver in Canada but never thought to.  

No doubt it's only a matter of time before they point out that had I done my homework I could have booked Grandeur out of Barbados instead!

[HeWhoWaits 1,234]

17 hours ago, twangster said:

Royal ship policy tends to be derived from where the ship departs and they use the age on day 1 of the cruise for the whole cruise even if someone turns drinking age mid-cruise.  

Which is why we planned a family cruise to depart a few days AFTER our son turned 21 rather than the week that included both his birthday and our anniversary (he was born on our 4th anniversary).

[JLMoran 6,938]

17 hours ago, twangster said:

Royal ship policy tends to be derived from where the ship departs and they use the age on day 1 of the cruise for the whole cruise even if someone turns drinking age mid-cruise.  Any ship departing from the US will use 21 as the drinking age.  A ship departing Southampton will use UK laws.  I should have asked when I last sailed from Quebec or Vancouver in Canada but never thought to.  

Not just Royal. Carnival / Princess does the same. For European sailings, their documentation says passengers 18+ are of legal age.

Both of my girls will be 18+ by the time we do our Mediterranean sailing on the Love Boat line. And our booking includes the drink package in the price. And the kids' cabin is 2 decks above ours, because we agreed they're adults and can make their own decisions.

But my God are my wife and I going to be hoping we don't get a call from ship security one night because they ended up overindulging at the pool bar.

[Kelslovestocruise 92]

For excursions I have booked when I was 18-20 and my sister was the same age we were able to drink on royal excursions. I remember doing this in Cozumel and roatan specifically. We are Canadian and from a province where the legal drinking age is 18 so it was weird going on cruises when you were used to drinking where you are from.  

[Kelslovestocruise 92]

I should add that I am 24 now so its been a couple years since I was 18-20 and my sister is 21 but on our last cruise we did not book any royal excursions when she was 20, so for reference its been 3 years since we have used this.

[teddy 709]

Our youngest and I were in Cozumel in Jan 2020 when he was 19.  We did the atv/cenote swim excursion through Royal, and after we got back from riding, he had a couple shots of the tequila they sample.  It wasn't an issue......actually, no one seemed to care one way or the other that he was over 18.

I wasn't with him when he went up either, so it wasn't like they saw he was with a parent.  I don't drink anymore and have no interest in learning about the different types of tequila available in Mexico.....Jose Cuervo and I stopped talking a couple decades ago.