Just got back From Caribbean Princess, see if you agree with me!

[LARGIN]

Remember the longer the cruise, the less number of drunk kids.. :D

[Coral]

I was on the Star Princess last December - I sat near the aft pool with a book many afternoons and was very surprised that as soon as kids got in the adult pool, Princess staff would ask the parents to remove the kids.

[D4]

If you're trying to avoid Spring Breaks....

be aware they are staggered all throughout March and April.

[Totally Addicted]

The older I get the younger everyone looks! I never thought that the kids I see on ship drinking might not be of age. To me some of the police don't look old enough to drive! :D

[Grumm]

It's almost impossible to prevent underage drinking. For example, a 21 year old male (or female) may hitch up with a load of younger kids and purchase the booze for them, thereby making the "minor" cards redundant. I am forced to agree with previous posters in that I believe that this is a parenting problem. If Mum and Dad are off enjoying themselves with a few drinks, will they even realise their kids have been drinking? I believe that the vast majority of parents who feel it necessary to take kids on a cruise are responsible and should not be branded along with the irresponsible few.................maybe it's up to us to let security know of our concerns. We don't want to be perceived as being spoilsports, but if I was sitting with a group of adult friends enjoying a few drinks and was subjected to the rantings of a table of drunk kids, I'd view it as an impingement and would not hesitate to attempt to rectify the problem. We don't have any kids, but we have plenty of neices and nephews and I would like to think that they would know how to behave on holiday.

[Lillykat]

Did you hear the kids running the halls in the middle of the night?

 

We had some kid running and screaming like trazan at 145am the first morning. Thanks to a passenger a few cabins down we found out the next day that she threatened to cause a man over board drill if he didn't shut up, because she promised to throw him overboard.

 

At the MUTS pool there were some parents taking their young kids with swim pull up diapers into the one hot tub without the adult only sign.

[basketsiam]

I was also on this sailing of the Caribbean Princess. Although I'm not condoning poor behavior, it amazes me the reputation that a cruiseline receives because of the actions of only a few people. I have cruised many times, and as a teacher, I'm forced to cruise when there are lots of minors onboard. Regardless, I've alway had a wonderful vacation. Whenever one puts 3000+ people together, whether it be at sea or on land, there will be some whose behavior is out of line. We could blame it on Carnival, Princess, or the inadequate parents, but it will most likely happen anyway. Call security if needed, then relax and enjoy your vacation!!!! :cool:

[RM]

OMG Knuklehead! I'd never read that before so thanks for the laugh.

 

Some kids are truly of age........my daughter is 18 and looks about 15. She hates it but I keep telling her that someday she'll love it!

[cruzinchris]

Remember the longer the cruise, the less number of drunk kids.. :D

 

I think the time of sailing comes into play, as well. DH and I vacation in mid-to-late January and rarely see children, teens, or college students on our cruises.

 

If there is underage drinking taking place on cruiseships - any cruiseline - it's likely attributable to indulgent parents/guardians/chaperones or unsuspecting 21-year-olds who get sucked into purchasing alcohol for the youth. jmho

Chris

[teflonjeff]

I'll post this on other boards too. Does anyone know if tea, water, punch and juice are available around the clock self serve? They were on out last curise, Carnival Destiny. Seems trivial, but it's really not. If there not available, we'll either bring soft drinks on board or buy the card.

 

Thanks,

Teflonjeff

[PreciousPetal]

New to Princess/Crown scheduled for next July. I see you mentioned 2 adult pools. What would those be? Do you think that will also be the same on the new Crown?

[wallygator]

I was also on this sailing of the Caribbean Princess. Although I'm not condoning poor behavior, it amazes me the reputation that a cruiseline receives because of the actions of only a few people. I have cruised many times, and as a teacher, I'm forced to cruise when there are lots of minors onboard. Regardless, I've alway had a wonderful vacation. Whenever one puts 3000+ people together, whether it be at sea or on land, there will be some whose behavior is out of line. We could blame it on Carnival, Princess, or the inadequate parents, but it will most likely happen anyway. Call security if needed, then relax and enjoy your vacation!!!! :cool:

 

Poor behavior is practiced by children and adults alike. The attitude that rules apply to you not me/us is certainly prevalent in all aspects of life. Many people have no idea of how to act in public. And remember we learn our values from our parents. My advise is this if you get a bug about the younger folks, do longer cruises like 15 days or more. Self serving parents you will never stop. Smile laugh and just chill as you smile and thank God you have good children.

[jerseygirl3]

We had problems a few times with kids using the adults only Lotus Spa pool. We were on the 9/17/05 sailing, so there weren't many kids. But it really irked me that the parents felt it was their "right" for their kids to use that pool. A couple of times when the kids were well behaved I let it slide. But one day this couple was in with 5 of their kids (ranging in age from about 7-14). The kids were out of control, yelling and screaming, holding up the "current" while a lady was trying to do her laps. As soon as I realized which one the parent was, I very nicely said to her "I'm not sure if you realize that this is an adults only pool, you probably just didn't notice the sign." To which she replied, very indignantly, "I don't see any sign." I pointed it out to her, and she proceeded to completely ignore me. Several minutes went by, and she was getting "death stares" from the other passengers. Finally she rounded up her kids and very loudly said, "C'mon kids, we have to leave, some people are just so anti-social."

 

After she left, several people came up to me and thanked me for having the guts to open my mouth.

 

But I do resent that I had to play pool monitor; Princess should be more on the ball with this.

[simsfla]

I've cruised on other ships and twice on Princess and I find that to be part of the norm on all cruises. I agree, but you know how touchy people are when it comes to their kids (they can do no wrong). However, I agree, there should be someway to monitor and keep things fairly under control. What I hate is when the kids get balcony rooms and want to party all night and get loud at 1:00/2:00 in the a.m.

:eek:

[bjcanady]

I will post a full report later, as I had an amazing time on the CB. I really only had 2 concerns, and I wanted to see if others agreed with me. Later on at night the amount of underage drinking on deck was absolutely shocking. Kids were just sitting at tables with full bottles of booze, and soda. I mean these kids were not even close to being anywhere hear 21 much less 18. My problem was these kids were acting like young drunk fools, no one(security) seemed to be around, and no parents to be found. I would think Princess would not want something like this going on, they would have someone on deck looking for this stuff, and the parents might want to check on there kids every once in a while. Wouldn't it make sense for Princess to put some sort of identification across their room card that says "Minor Under 21". I just thought it was pretty inappropriate when my girlfriend and I are eating pizza on deck and some drunk kid stumbles into my table.

 

My other concern was with the adults only pool. Several times I mentioned to parents that the aft and forward pool were adults only, and I got some crooked looks. Why should I get the crooked look. These pools say specifically "Adults Only" One of the reasons I chose Princess was I did not want to be around a lot of kids. Am I an a-hole for saying something? There are plenty of pools on the ship where children are allowed.

 

 

I believe this is the reason that Princess does not ALLOW bringing on board your own booze...........these children are not getting the booze from the ship but rather from their own/or someone else's family.

 

The minors do have underage code on their cards. Adults have an A on theirs, not sure of the code on the underage but i know it is there.

 

The parents are totally to blame for this, the same as they are at home.

[jerseygirl3]

BJ, I think the reason they don't want you to bring booze onboard is not to prevent the kids from underage drinking....it's because of the revenue they lose if you don't purchase alcohol from them.

 

As far as the kids not being able to purchase alcohol because their cards identify them as minors, while this is absolutely true, I witnessed (not on the Caribbean Princess, but a Carnival ship) adults buying the drinks for the kids, and the kids proceeding to sit at the tables in bars and drink and get totally sloshed. I'm talking these kids were in the 14-15 year age group. I'm not sure who the adult was buying the drinks, but I witnessed this several times. The kids were falling down drunk, knocking over chairs, stealing other people's drinks when they got up to dance, etc. We complained several times to the Purser's Desk, and we were told there is nothing they could do as long as adults are purchasing the alcohol. I thought this was totally ridiculous...underage drinking is not allowed...period. I wrote a letter to Carnival when I got home and they sent me a very nice letter (along with a discount on a future cruise) in return.

[imsulin2]

I was on the 9-17 CB, and didn't notice any kind of under-age drinking, and there were very few kids onboard (but a few of them made their presence known!) There was a large group of 20-somethings, though, who basically hogged the pool by sitting/standing right by the ladder, and on the ladder, so every time anyone tried to get in or out of the pool, they had to ask these guys to move. Lots of drinking and flirting going on, and by about the 5th time of trying to use the pool ladder, I finally just looked at the sweet young thing sitting on the ladder, and said, "MOVE!" I also "accidentally" stepped on some guy's foot because he and buddies were hogging the deck area. I think they got the message. Also, some Mommie Dearest was allowing Baby Dearest in the pool with diapers and a swim suit on....for about 45 minutes. I did see the Security Guard ask some mid-teens to leave the Adult-Only hot tub. They tried to argue with him, and got obnoxious, but the guy stood his ground. I never saw anyone in either buffet wearing just a swimsuit. I thought the cruise was great, though, and put down a deposit for a future cruise.

[Desert star]

On another of the other cruise sites, one of the teen cruising subjects is: How to sneak alcohol on board" The prefered method being an empty Listerine bottle. What's worst is that one kid said that that is was how is dad did it.

[CroozBlooz]

Someone else said it very well regarding rules applying to everyone else but not them, and my kids can do know wrong.

 

It's not just on ships...it's everywhere. Running and screaming children in restaurants. Crying babies in movie theaters. Beepers and cell phones going off during theatrical performances.

 

It's unfortunately the "me" society in which we live. To hell with everyone else.