millercat

I personally think that there are two different issues here, people that are rude and people that have bad or no manners. I honestly don't think that either of these are always connected to a persons age but....

I unfortunately have run into both.

In my experience I have had the displeasure of dealing with more "older" people (I am not saying all) that have been extremely rude. These are two of our experiences..... one where I was told "you need to keep quiet" (we were on a open air taxi) "just in case the driver has something to say, I might miss it" and the other when my husband used the word "screwed" during a conversation, not with any sexual content and was told to "watch your mouth, my wife is not used to hearing that kind language" Give me a break! I had to practically sit on my DH to keep him from going off in both cases. There have actually been a few others.

Now for manners. I have to say from personal observations that more "younger" people (not all) seem to be guilty of lacking good manners. I often wonder if they have not been taught good manners or if they just forget to use them.

I will add that these issues are not specific to cruisers, but that's another story.

We always just give money. If we are getting off the ship we do ask if there is anything they would like us to pick up if they are not able to get off. Strangest request was flavored potato chips, so we brought back tons of different flavored chips and they were thrilled. The only other thing I had brought was tiny LED candles which I use in the room and on the balcony and after giving one to one of the bartenders as a joke I had other bartenders ask if we had anymore, (they were very polite about it) so I gave them all that I had and I usually take them with us every cruise now.