discrimination based solely on age

[agilis]

I would advise against booking anything through the cruise line, and especially scuba diving. Contacting dive shops and making arrangements before your cruise begins would be best, if possible. The whole system is rigged between the various island governments and the cruise ship lines, with kickbacks the order of the day.

In many cases local shops are forbidden from soliciting business from passengers, so it's best to make all arrangements privately and discreetly. You'll get a better dive, because the cruise ship specials are crowded and third rate compared to what you get as a private walk up customer.

When traveling in the Caribbean I have always made it an iron rule to stay as far away from those floating project apartment buildings as possible. Just seeing them in port turns my stomach.The age limitations are the work of the cruise line legal departments. I'm 74, and I've talked to cruise ship customers younger than me who were denied diving on the basis of age at the same shop that I use by the cruise operator.

 

[timetraveler]

I agree with you, agilis, except that cruise ships don't give me digestive problems. I happen to like cruising myself. I have booked cruise ship dive excursions on those occasions when the time in port does not match the dive trip schedule of independent operators, and I might need to do so again.
You say that "The age limitations are the work of the cruise line legal departments." Might I ask your source of information about that? I'm considering complaining to Carnival Corporation and I'd like to have my ducks in a row.

 

[agilis]

I agree with you, agilis, except that cruise ships don't give me digestive problems. I happen to like cruising myself. I have booked cruise ship dive excursions on those occasions when the time in port does not match the dive trip schedule of independent operators, and I might need to do so again.
You say that "The age limitations are the work of the cruise line legal departments." Might I ask your source of information about that? I'm considering complaining to Carnival Corporation and I'd like to have my ducks in a row.

A good friend of mine is an executive with Carnival. He's been in the tourism business for decades, a top executive with Air Jamaica back when Butch Stewart ran it. He arranged a nearly free cruise for me a few years ago, and I hated it. A few hours ashore just does not do it for me. His description of how things work in the cruise ship world is the main reason I detest the sight of these floating pollution factories.