This Thread Is To Be Used For All Discussions About HAL's On Board Smoking Policies

[antiquitys]

I am in favor of the current smoking policy and hope it continues.

[cruiseing marly]

I am in favor of the current smoking policy and hope it continues.

 

Have you ever taken a Holland America cruise ? Or is your reasoning that you need to have one that still allows balcony smoking ?

 

 

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[IRL_Joanie]

I am in favor of the current smoking policy and hope it continues.

 

Agree wholeheartedly:) And, I've sent both email and snail mail to HAL Corporate praising the current smoking policy. I've also made it very clear that IF HAL changes the policy to no verandah smoking then I will cancel any and all cruises already paid for and all future cruises where they'd make a bundle on just hubby's spending alone:)

 

Joanie

[solocanadian]

Agree wholeheartedly:) And, I've sent both email and snail mail to HAL Corporate praising the current smoking policy. I've also made it very clear that IF HAL changes the policy to no verandah smoking then I will cancel any and all cruises already paid for and all future cruises where they'd make a bundle on just hubby's spending alone:)

 

Joanie

 

On what is Roger spending his bundle?:confused:

[taxmantoo]

On what is Roger spending his bundle?:confused:

 

Cigarettes?

[solocanadian]

On what is Roger spending his bundle?:confused:

I guess this really means you would have to give up cruising as there is no where else to go that allows on board smoking:rolleyes:.

[IRL_Joanie]

On what is Roger spending his bundle?:confused:

 

LOL, He seems to have a penchant for watches:) Oh Yeah, and now that I roll my own smokes he is able to spend the savings on $$$ Excursions:) We both win:)

 

Just saw your post above. Yes, IF HAL makes verandah smoking a no no, then we will spend our money elsewhere, which is what I stated a couple days ago in this thread. Hope that never happens, but I'm prepared to make my daughter happier than she is at this time.

 

Joanie

Edited January 28, 2015 by IRL_Joanie

[sail7seas]

Well, here's a new wrinkle to HAL permitting e-cigarette smoking anywhere on their ships. Health Officials in California just announced they find e-cigarettes to be unsafe. I did not hear the full news report but it is clear there is a new battle about to begin. To the best of my knowledge, CDC has never issued an approval or announcement of safety for e-cigs.

[snapdragon7]

I'm a non-smoker with allergies, but I try to be respectful and flexible. In the past, if someone was smoking by our balcony, I simply went inside for a few minutes. No big deal. They enjoyed their balcony, I enjoyed mine. But now that HAL is the only major line that allows balcony smoking, I'm worried there will be a great deal more of it. Has anyone found that to be the case? We have a Europe cruise planned for this summer, and if we can't enjoy our balcony for a reasonable portion of time, it will be our last HAL cruise.

[Trevor Fountain]

I'm a non-smoker with allergies, but I try to be respectful and flexible. In the past, if someone was smoking by our balcony, I simply went inside for a few minutes. No big deal. They enjoyed their balcony, I enjoyed mine. But now that HAL is the only major line that allows balcony smoking, I'm worried there will be a great deal more of it. Has anyone found that to be the case? We have a Europe cruise planned for this summer, and if we can't enjoy our balcony for a reasonable portion of time, it will be our last HAL cruise.

 

Why take the chance? If you have allergies related to cigarette smoke, the last thing you should do is spend any part of your vacation sat in an ashtray.

There's plenty of choice out there, do yourself a favor and enjoy smoke free balcony cruising.

[HamOp]

Well, here's a new wrinkle to HAL permitting e-cigarette smoking anywhere on their ships. Health Officials in California just announced they find e-cigarettes to be unsafe. I did not hear the full news report but it is clear there is a new battle about to begin. To the best of my knowledge, CDC has never issued an approval or announcement of safety for e-cigs.

 

Isn't just about everything unsafe in California?:D

[Copper10-8]

Isn't just about everything unsafe in California?:D

 

Not everything bug man:cool:

[HamOp]

Not everything bug man:cool:

 

Yes sir:o, sorry sir......

[sail7seas]

Isn't just about everything unsafe in California?:D

 

Most of those new CA ideas work their way east. In U.S. most of those notable changes seem to originate on one coast or the other. :)

 

[PathfinderEss]

Isn't just about everything unsafe in California?:D

Yup, just living in this state is unsafe.......:D:D:D

[snapdragon7]

Why take the chance? If you have allergies related to cigarette smoke, the last thing you should do is spend any part of your vacation sat in an ashtray.

There's plenty of choice out there, do yourself a favor and enjoy smoke free balcony cruising.

 

If it's anything like our previous experiences on HAL, we'll be fine :) Just wondering if we should expect a major change since our last HAL cruise a few years ago... I wasn't sure if the policy changes on other lines had significantly affected HAL's demographic. If I had asthma or another serious issue, I would just keep cruising on Princess, but it only bothers my eyes and nose. Either way, I'll live. The itinerary and price were enough to entice us back at least one more time.

Edited January 29, 2015 by snapdragon7

[erewhon]

I posted on HAL's social media page awhile back and they responded suggesting I email my concerns to this email address:

 

guestrelations@hollandamerica.com

 

Thanks for your helpful reply.

[The Sunset Glow]

Thanks for your helpful reply.

 

 

You are very welcome :)

 

 

 

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[peddieplease]

Well, here's a new wrinkle to HAL permitting e-cigarette smoking anywhere on their ships. Health Officials in California just announced they find e-cigarettes to be unsafe. I did not hear the full news report but it is clear there is a new battle about to begin. To the best of my knowledge, CDC has never issued an approval or announcement of safety for e-cigs.

 

Good grief. They cruiselines are spewing smoke from the smoke stacks, not to mention the other environmental issues involved with this kind of vacation, and they won't permit e-cigarettes? I get that they need to ensure they are not really toxic, but can we just for one minute not get on the "let's make everything in the world safe so we can live in a bubble, as we put our children in" bandwagon??

[peddieplease]

Agree wholeheartedly:) And, I've sent both email and snail mail to HAL Corporate praising the current smoking policy. I've also made it very clear that IF HAL changes the policy to no verandah smoking then I will cancel any and all cruises already paid for and all future cruises where they'd make a bundle on just hubby's spending alone:)

 

Joanie

 

I have to go with you Joanie. If I've seen correctly you always book an aft cabin and likely never bother anyone with smoke drift. I hope you still get to cruise for years to come.

[Mrdillion]

I’m breaking one of my cardinal rules and although I know much better I’m posting on a smoking thread. :eek:

 

With some questioning quoted statistics on this thread I decided it was time to share some I gathered back in July. At that time, before Walt wisely put a halt to the numerous “smoking threads” and came up with this single one, there were two threads that asked questions about smoking and the opinion of Cruise Critic posters. Now mind you the responses were only by CC posters and not the entire cruising public but the responses are a sampling (typical statistician jargon) and inasmuch can not be deemed totally invalid.

 

The 1st thread was posted by Legalslave and solicited responses to “I will continue to sail on HAL if balcony smoking is permitted”. The results are as follows:

 

84 individual CC members responded.

Of those, 73 responded with YES (86.9%), 3 responded with NO (3.5%), and 8 (9.5%) were unresponsive to the OP choosing to use their post for personal agendas.

Of those 73 respondents who said YES 38 (52%) stated they were nonsmokers and had never been bothered by smoke of their veranda.

 

The 2nd thread was posted by sail7seas and sought to expand the inquiry by asking for responses to three separate questions. The following are the statistics gathered from those individual questions.

 

89 individual CC members responded.

19 of the responders were unresponsive to all of Sail’s questions so the percentages shown are based on a total of 70 responses.

 

“Have you or are you planning to switch to HAL because you can no longer smoke on your favorite cruise line's verandah?”

6 (8.5%) Responded with YES.

1 (1.4%) Responded “Maybe” but stated it was for reasons other than smoking.

 

”Have you or are you planning to switch cruise lines because you do not like that HAL continues to permit smoking on verandahs?”

12 (17%) Responded with YES. Of those 12 CCers 4 clearly stated their reason had nothing to do with smoking (wanted new itineraries, service/food preferences, etc) dropping that 17% to 11%.

3 (4%) Responded with “Maybe” and out of those 2 stated that their reason for doing so was other than smoking.

48 (68.5%) Responded with NO. Of those responses 15 stated they were nonsmokers but had never bothered by smoke.

 

Sail’s third question dealt with family members and had only 1 response.

 

And, as long as I am boring you with numbers the other statistic I find worthy of note is that one I gathered by examining this thread. As of 1123am today there were a total of 1239 individual posts. Of those 1239 posts 663 had been made by a total of 12 individual posters. That equates to 53.5% of the total posts. One can draw their own conclusion from that statistic.

 

I find your posts on statistics especially your last paragraph regarding this particular thread and the % of posts by the same Posters very interesting! I hope you come back and post another one a month from now with an update on the statistics. Since your post there have been 133 posts! Again, the percentage of these posts are mostly comprised of the same 12% individual posters that you noted made up 53% of the posts up to when you did your analysis.

 

I am a Non-Smoker and have no problem with Smoking on Balconies or the Casino. I have sailed multi-lines and find it very amusing when Holland America is called "Ashtray of the Seas". HAL is very restrictive with their smoking policies including the Outdoor Areas. They have eliminated it from Promenade as well. I have sailed multi times on Holland this past year and never found their Ships to be smoky. Yes, it can be smelled in the small area in the Casinos but I wouldn't call it smoky. We have never had a problem on the balcony even when we did have Smokers next to us.

 

This is my opinion based on my experiences and expressed it for those that have stated concern about sailing on an "Ashtray", etc. Go and enjoy your cruise and don't be scared off by some of the postings on Smoking threads.

 

I guess some just aren't willing to compromise and won't be happy until the whole World (in this case HAL) marches to their drummer.

 

Happy sailing to all!

Edited January 30, 2015 by Mrdillion

[legalslave]

This is a thread regarding smoking on Holland America ships. What I find interesting are the amount of posters who post on this thread, who have never sailed on HAL or haven't sailed on HAL for many years, long before balcony smoking was even an issue. Their loyalties are with other cruise lines as noted in their many posts over the years.

 

I realize this post may be removed as someone will complain about it.

 

Diane

[The Sunset Glow]

This is a thread regarding smoking on Holland America ships. What I find interesting are the amount of posters who post on this thread, who have never sailed on HAL or haven't sailed on HAL for many years, long before balcony smoking was even an issue. Their loyalties are with other cruise lines as noted in their many posts over the years.

 

 

 

I realize this post may be removed as someone will complain about it.

 

 

 

Diane

 

 

Maybe people would like to try HAL for the first time or sail with them again after a long absence but won't because of the smoking. If it's stopping them from sailing on HAL then why can't they comment on this or have an opinion?

 

I'm one if them. I've only sailed HAL twice and it was years ago. We loved our HAL cruises. Once we started sailing with our kids we sailed other lines that were more family friendly. We've recently started cruising once a year without the kids and would like to sail HAL again. I would also like to send my parents on an Alaskan cruise on HAL for their 50th wedding anniversary. But I won't choose HAL at this time due to the smoking.

 

Since I WANT to be a customer, what is wrong with me having an opinion about this? You make it seem like we must be an exclusive HAL cruiser before we can have an opinion.

 

 

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[Hlitner]

When we saw the recent post on statistics it made us smile. Those stats were only based on the posts to this single thread on Cruise Critic, which represents a very small percentage of total cruisers. If you want to cite statistics (and we have talked about this in other posts) lets look at the statistics of smoking in North America (the overwhelming majority of HAL cruisers). Total smokers are now less then 20% but this is before you adjust for demographics such as race, age and educational level. A large majority of HAL cruisers are white with a good education. Within this group less then 15% are smokers (probably a lot less). So HAL is simply trying to hang onto no more then 15% of the cruiser market by making up to 85% of cruisers uncomfortable. But those 85% of nonsmokers (including moi) now have many other options. Even if some of us still cruise on HAL they have still alienated a huge majority of the market. And folks like moi who do like cruising on HAL are now much less inclined to book any cruise on HAL unless they are offering some kind of itinerary or pricing that just blows away all the competition. And this is not happening!

 

So, all you smokers and smoker supporters, please tell me where I am wrong!'

 

Hank

Edited January 31, 2015 by Hlitner

[kjw869]

Maybe people would like to try HAL for the first time or sail with them again after a long absence but won't because of the smoking. If it's stopping them from sailing on HAL then why can't they comment on this or have an opinion?

 

I'm one if them. I've only sailed HAL twice and it was years ago. We loved our HAL cruises. Once we started sailing with our kids we sailed other lines that were more family friendly. We've recently started cruising once a year without the kids and would like to sail HAL again. I would also like to send my parents on an Alaskan cruise on HAL for their 50th wedding anniversary. But I won't choose HAL at this time due to the smoking.

 

Since I WANT to be a customer, what is wrong with me having an opinion about this? You make it seem like we must be an exclusive HAL cruiser before we can have an opinion.

 

 

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So send your parents on another line, plain and simple. We go to Alaska ever year and book either a aft wraparound aft or the Pinnacle Suite, and in the six cruises, have seen about three smokers, far away from us. We've never been bothered my smoke on any of our 16 cruises. On the Westerdam that we disembarked on January 17th of this year, we had a wraparound aft and didn't see one smoker either below or on any decks that we could see up the starboard side, nor did we smell any smoke. The only time I saw someone from the ship smoke that I could smell was the Captain while walking around the ship in Alaska a few years ago.

 

At the Suite Welcoming party I asked one of the top officers if he heard about the Cruise Critic thread on smoking and he laughed. It seems that there are less that 20% of ashtrays that are requested than there five years ago by cruisers.

 

If it gets to the point we are smoked out on our balcony, we'll choose another line. I also read somewhere that all the Carnival and Princess smokers who flock to HAL. Well, if they did, they were all in there 60s and 70s and gave up smoking.;)

 

We again will be in Pinnacle Suites on our B2B cruises in Alaska in a few months, and I'm 100% positive smoke will play no part in our cruise enjoyment. :)