This is the first cruise (and vacation) that my family will be taking together; EVER. To celebrate, and to thank my Father for the gift, I am bringing down a 250 dollar bottle of Cristal to be presented at the first formal dinner of the cruise. The only thing I didn't take into consideration before purchasing the bottle is that my two younger brothers are 19 and 17. Usually, I would have thought about it, but since they are with my Father, and since it is so expensive, do you think the staff would "overlook" the rules on this one?

quote:

Originally posted by hephastus4:
Usually, I would have thought about it, but since they are with my Father, and since it is so expensive, do you think the staff would "overlook" the rules on this one?

hephastus4,

from my experience with Carnival, no. They enforce the rules very strictly.

While Raoul is correct that Carnival's policy states they strictly enforce the rules for serving alcohol to minors, I have found on my Carnival cruises that the staff on board is much less stringent about following through. It has been my experience that when dining with parents, minors are often served when a bottle of wine or champagne has been purchased for the table. When I have had wine delivered, I am asked how many glasses are needed and the wine is served accordingly - not even a raised eyebrow.
Nancy

Nancy,

interesting. I've found the dining room staff and bar waiters to enforce the rules very strictly. It probably depends on the ship one is sailing on, I don't know.

Of course, you could also simply ask them to leave the bottle on the table and then pour glasses for the others yourself.

Thanks for all the input. Being in the restaraunt industry, I'm going to cross my fingers and hope for the best. If they won't let me, then we'll just get dinner one night in Mexico and have it there. Not a big deal I suppose, right?

Heph, I'm not sure what ship and itinerary you'll be on, but chances are the ship will not be in any port long enough for dinner in Mexico. You usually have to be back onboard the ship in late afternoon. Maybe you could do lunch in a restaurant instead?

By the way, what is Cristal?

Sandy

We were supposed to be in Cozumel from 7 AM to midnight. There are other threads that explain why the Victory will not be there Jan 1st-7th, though.

Hello~~~

Just some additional thoughts:

Your formal night will not be your first night--you would have time to ask your waiter about this in advance. Because this is important enough to you that you are having a bottle of Cristal, I would suggest that you do more than cross your fingers and hope for the best. Find out whether or not your waiter will/is allowed to serve this, whether he would be ok with the gray area of putting glasses on the table and having you do it (unlikely?). If he must enforce rules, this situation will put him and you in an uncomfortable position.

If you find that it will not be possible to have this in the dining room at dinner, why not plan on having it in your stateroom before dinner? In advance ask room service to bring 5 champagne glasses to the room, then put them along with the champagne in the refrigerator to chill the day before.

I don't think you will need a champagne/ice bucket because there are five glasses of champagne in a bottle. Beware of asking room service for an ice bucket---you will be presented with a cheesy plastic bucket with the Coors Light logo on it. I adore Carnival.

Bon Voyage!

Lana

Just got back from the mexican riviera and they had no problem serving my 18 yr old son both at dinner and at the lido deck during a party. I think they use the Mexican legal age of 18 even though they won't say that. We sailed the Spirit, Dec18th.

Also we brought several bottles of wine in our checked luggage no problem. Our waiter did not charge us a corkage fee for 4 bottles he opened for us. I think they worry about you adjusting their tip if they chage you the corkage. Just my opinion.