discrimination based solely on age

[redacted]

One problem is many C-cards include DOB and I would bet over half the shop clerks could figure out your age within a year or two.

 

[Lorenzoid]

One problem is many C-cards include DOB and I would bet over half the shop clerks could figure out your age within a year or two.

Hmm.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Wait, I've got it! Get recertified with another agency and give a false date of birth. Okay, now I'm just getting creepy.

 

[Altamira]

The only time I have seen an age limit for diving has been some cruise ship dive ops at some locations. Example, a Princess cruise to GC next March has a 65 age limit. The next stop at Coz had no age limit. My philosophy is that if they don't want my money, I will take my money elsewhere, as they are never the only game in town. The ironic thing is that if I email the dive op, telling them my age, dive experience, etc., and set up a dive, age is not a problem, but if I come to them as a cruise ship passenger, suddenly I am too old. Idiotic business practice at best. I even had one dive op insist that it was the ship's age policy, and not theirs, until I pointed out to the moron that the ship had no such policy at the other two dive destinations on the itinerary. I suspect the problem is that the legal weasels that set up the contracts tell their dive op clients to blame the ship.

 

[timetraveler]

That's disconcerting. How were you able to discover that the dive excursion wouldn't allow you to dive, in time to make an alternative booking? I ask because Princess is my usual cruise line and usually when I call their 800 number, the agent knows little or nothing about the shore excursion's policies. Also, because of the ship's itinerary, it's often difficult or impossible to book dives with independent operators. Sometimes I've even had operators tell me that they can not book me as an independent customer because their contract as a cruise excursion operator prohibits it.
Funny, I've been on several cruise ship dive excursions during which divers behaved in dangerous ways. ALWAYS those divers were much younger than 65.

 

[Altamira]

When cruising, I sometimes use the ship's contract dive op, and other times use outside dive vendors. Which I use varies with location, tender or docked, previous experience with dive ops in port, time in port, and arrival time. Sometimes the ship gets in at a time that does not work for many of the outside dive vendors, leaving me little choice. Before booking a ship's excursion, I always check every detail on the dive excursion description in the cruise line's website. You can't make any assumptions with shore excursions, and that is where I find any age limitations. If there is an age limit, sometimes I will contact the vendor directly to find out why the restriction, and see if I can get a waiver (works sometimes), but mostly I will just move on and spend my money with dive ops that do not discriminate based on an arbitrary age limit. What the dive ops that have arbitrary age restrictions probably fail to realize is that if I can't use them because of my age, I will be taking family and friends with me to another dive op, and would certainly not be recommending them to anyone. But hey, maybe they get all the divers they can handle, and that's OK too. After all, it is their business model ,and will lead to their success or failure.

 

[timetraveler]

Thanks for posting, Altamira. I will be careful to check for age limitations from now on.

 

[timetraveler]

I just became aware of another incident of cruise ship passengers being denied a diving excursion because of age. This one happened in Bonaire, of all places. I saw it in a review from a Carnival passenger posted in January of 2016. I happen to be in Bonaire, at Buddy Dive, at the moment. Buddy is supplying dive excursions to the cruise ships here. They said that there is indeed such an age discrimination policy, but it isn't theirs or Carnival's. It's the policy of the organization that has the contract with the cruise lines and hires the dive operators to supply the demand.
I wonder how you track down such a thing, and how you protest against it?

 

[Lorenzoid]

I just became aware of another incident of cruise ship passengers being denied a diving excursion because of age. This one happened in Bonaire, of all places. I saw it in a review from a Carnival passenger posted in January of 2016. I happen to be in Bonaire, at Buddy Dive, at the moment. Buddy is supplying dive excursions to the cruise ships here. They said that there is indeed such an age discrimination policy, but it isn't theirs or Carnival's. It's the policy of the organization that has the contract with the cruise lines and hires the dive operators to supply the demand.
I wonder how you track down such a thing, and how you protest against it?

Does Buddy Dive object to a customer arriving by cruise ship organizing their diving directly with Buddy Dive and bypassing Carnival and the middleman? I don't know about Bonaire, but in other ports of call there are often ways to organize some diving without going through the ship's shore excursion service.

If you have useful information, posting here and on forums frequented by cruise enthusiasts might help get the word out.

 

[timetraveler]

Buddy tells us that they are prohibited by contract from taking independent cruise ship passengers.
There are lots of other dive operators on Bonaire where a cruise ship passenger can book a boat dive if the cruise ship is in port at the right time, and it's easy to rent a pick-up and tanks to go shore diving. Getting around the ageism rule on Bonaire is not difficult, if you know how (I would be glad to share details if asked).
But discrimination based solely on age makes me mad. How do we protest effectively? And how do I avoid booking a cruise to dive destinations, only to find out too late that we won't be allowed to dive? ( I'm guessing that Carnival and Princess agents probably don't have that information)