Bacardi Distillery Tour

[E&B]

I tried looking in the Ports of Call board, but I think this is more of a Carnival tour specific question. We're looking at the San Juan City Tour and Bacardi Distillery. Our son will be 18, but the Carnival description of the tour says he must be 21 to sample. I saw something about how easy this is to get to on your own and did a little research and Bacardi's own site says you must be 18 (the legal drinking age in PR) to sample. My husband and I prefer to do ship excursions since we're not risk takers and don't want to chance missing the ship, no matter how small the chance. My son however is disappointed he'll be the only one of the five of us not allowed to sample.

 

Has anyone done this tour through Carnival? Do they advertise 21 just because that's the minimum drinking age on board? Will Bacardi let an 18 year old sample if we go with the Carnival excursion?

[Sixtytwo]

The Barcardi tour is easy to do on your own and you will have lots of time to do it and get back long before the ship sails. The ferry over is about $1.00 and a cab from there to the distillery is about $10.00/person (+/- a buck or two). Now, having said that, I honestly thought private tours were no longer being offered. I would double check this before getting there and finding out you can't do it. It is a fun and interesting tour. We did it last October on our own and really enjoyed it. Good luck!

[johnbear1]

We did like previous poster said. Get off the ship, walk down the pier, turn left and go to the water taxi building (yellow, I think) $1 pp across the bay, when you get off go out the building and turn right and go to the parking garage about a block away, van taxis are there....it was $10 for all of us (4). They take you right to the plant a few miles away. The tour is FREE and you get drink coupons for 2 drinks pp. If it is that big of a deal have someone get your son his drink at the bar....its an open area. They didnt check ID on us, we had 4 people they gave us 8 coupons.

 

For the tour you dont actually go in the plant. you go on a short tram ride, take a walking tour in a building built just for the tour, its a timeline history of bacardi and the history of the bacardi family. It ends in a old style bar with a cuban bar tender, very cool dude...he talks for 5-10 minutes. You end up in a Bacardi gift shop....just like Disney does it!!!:D We bought some pretty cook Bacardi stuff.

 

DONT PAY CARNIVAL $45pp for that.....why ride a bus all the way around the bay.....you can shop by the cruise port, unless you want something unique they have all the typical souvenirs by the ship docks with a little walking. For the four of us the tour was approx. $28 total, or pay Carnival $180 for 4....it was a no brainer for us.....we were gone about 3 hours total for water taxis and tour.....we ended up walking to the forts as well.....

[E&B]

Not really the questions I asked. The tour isn't free anymore, it's $12 per person and the Carnival tour includes a city tour. What I asked was, will Bacardi give a sample to an 18 year old (like they advertise) even though Carnival says you must be 21.

[love my grandkids]

Suggest you google bacardi.

[E&B]

I did. They allow samples if you're 18 since that's the legal drinking age in PR. Carnival's description of the tour says 21. My question is has anyone taken an 18-20 year old on the Carnival tour and had them be allowed to sample, or it the 21 age in the Carnival description strictly enforced?

[loubetti]

I did the Bacardi tour, but not off a cruise ship. If what you want is some free rum, knock yourself out. Otherwise you don't see the distillery or any behind the scenes areas. They have a nice museum, but if you want to see the behind the scenes action, nope!

 

Well, at least I learned why they have a Bat as a logo!

[jamesr3939]

We did it a few years ago and I don't recall anybody policing the group. There was a mix of types doing the tour some from the ship some walk ups so I don't know how they could reasonably keep track or single out an 18 year old from the ship and not from the ship. I am guessing it's more of a Carnival CYA issue.