Advice needed for first time non-smoker with cigarette smoke allergies!

[gonetoexplore]

My husband and I have thought about cruising for a LONG time now, and are seriously considering booking a Caribbean cruise with our travel agent this spring on the Celebrity Infinity.

 

We have many concerns about cruising, but our main concern is smoking. I am highly allergic to cigarette smoke and am very worried that this might be a problem. After numerous calls to Celebrity, I have been informed that they don't have any non-smoking rooms. All of them are smoking, but the air is "filtered" after every cruise.

 

Are there any others out there with smoke allergies who have had problems? I'm afraid that we will be miserable in our room, and possibly where we dance and out on the deck.

 

PLEASE help!

[usha]

I'm an ex-smoker (is there anything worse?:D ) and while I've never been diagnosed as being allergic to smoke, I sure don't like it, and avoid it as much as I can. That said, I've never smelled smoke in any of the cabins on Celebrity's ships. They do an incredible job of eliminating any smoke odors. The only place that really gets smokey is the casino, and to an extent, the lounges. Don't worry, get excited!

[howard6933]

There is really nothing to worry about regarding smoking odors or anything like that. As the previous poster said, they do a great job of airing out the cabins after each cruise. And of course, smoking is prohibted in the dining areas, and the show lounges. I can remember several years ago when the ships were much smaller than they are now, some cruise lines would have one side of the ship with the smoking cabins and the other side as non-smoking cabins. But that's a thing of the past I guess. At any rate, don't let it worry you, everything will be OK and you'll have agreat cruise. ;)

[gonetoexplore]

Is smoking a problem there?

[howard6933]

Good question, and I am afraid I don't have a definitive answer. However, just a guess that there probably is smoking allowed in the lounges where dancing takes place. But again, just a guess on my part, but they may have the lounge seperated with smoking on one side and non smoking on the other side. :rolleyes:

[dmarch@islc.net]

I'm a smoker. I respect the rights of others. I only smoke where I'm supposed to. That said, if you were to come over to "our side of the ship" and politely ask that I extinguish my cig due to your allergies, I would be more than happy to oblige you. There are plenty of places to smoke and I don't want to ruin anyone's good time. It's the folks that make little comments out the side of their mouth or "tell you" not ask you, that make me want to blow smoke in their face. LOL

 

Do you have a small air purifier at home? You could always bring it just to be on the safe side.

 

I really hope you have a wonderful cruise,

David

[tbelian]

I am highly allergic to cigarette smoke and am very worried that this might be a problem.

 

If you are highly allergic and very worried, I would not suggest this as a vacation alternative.

 

I am not trying to sound 'flippant' . But why stress yourself out over something that is supposed to be relaxing (specifically: vacation).

 

There are no smoke free cruise ships (at least the major lines). Smoking is permitted in 'designated' areas, but you will find many rule violators. Smoking is also permitted in staterooms.

 

Release the stress and consider another alternative.

 

That's my .02 worth.

[gonetoexplore]

Unfortunately, smoking can make or break a vacation for us. When going to a hotel, they can switch rooms for you, and even if they can't switch rooms, you can always choose another hotel. We have had to do this in the past. I am afraid that on the cruise ship, the staff will be unwilling or unable to accommodate us, or there will be unfriendly passengers in non-smoking areas who aren't understanding of our needs. Any of these situations could make our vacation awful.

[sweetair]

i have to agree with tbelian.

If you are HIGHLY allergic it isnt worth taking chances with your life.Severe allergic reactions can be fatal(unless immediate care is taken) and i am sure nobody would like to see that happen to you.

in public areas...1/2 of the ship is designated smoking. Smoke does not know it cannot cross to the non-smoking side.

 

cabin changes: the cruiseline might be able to switch your cabin IF: there is another cabin available in the category you paid for or to a lesser category.

But i wouldnt rely on that happening.

*sweet*

[GBarrontine]

My step-mom is allergic to cigarette smoke, but she just basically get's a severe migraine headace from it so nothing life threatening. She has cruised a couple of times and has no problems. Just stay away from the casino's and lounges and you'll be fine.

[LDVinNC]

I also, if sadly, agree with tbelian. We sailed on the Infinity in an aft cabin with a wonderful large balcony. Unfortunately most of our neighbors were smokers and we usually got whiffs of smoke both outside and in the cabin. Merely an annoyance for us, but if you are allergic it could be a real problem.

Our closest neighbor coughed and coughed in the mornings. You'd think she would make the connection! Wish I could advise otherwise.

[flashdog_1]

I would advise getting an inside or ocean view cabin where you can control the atmosphere. You'd have a place to retreat to if smoke got to you in another area on the ship.

 

You can avoid walking thru the casino, even though there is no other way inside on deck 4 if you are traversing the deck, but you can go outside to walk the length of the ship to the next entrance, bypassing the casino. Or you can go up to deck 5 or down to deck 3 to avoid it. I've done that. It's not just the smoke that bothers me there, but the noise! I've travelled with allergic people who did just that.

 

Some people pay a premium to have a balcony just so they can smoke without offending anyone else. So if you're thinking that's your solution, think again.

 

On Infinity the port side is the smoking side and starboard no smoking. So if you are in a lounge that spans the entire deck, stick to the starboard side. but as the above poster said, smoke doesn't know the boundary lines, so I can't promise what it would be like.

 

If you were on land, where would you go to avoid the smoke? No smoking in the dining areas, the theater, though. Hope that will help you.

[mrs66]

I would have to vote with the "go for it" crowd. My husband and I have been on Celebrity twice and we're going again in January. We suffer from asthma and migraines between us and are both extremely sensitive to smoke, but it hasn't been a significant issue on our cruises. Sure, there are some places on the ship (lounges in particular) where cigarette smoke is more pronounced at times, but if we're uncomfortable we relocate within the lounge or even find another place to go, much as we would in a similar situation on land. There are plenty of places to go that are nonsmoking. There was absolutely no hint of smoke in our cabin on either cruise...I actually assumed we just had non-smoking cabins until I was told they didn't exist. Of course, we haven't had a balcony and I can imagine that blowing smoke could be unpleasant for us if we did have one, so I just think about the money I'm saving by getting a regular ocean-view cabin with no way for smoke to blow in! As much as I don't care for cigarette smoke, I couldn't imagine missing the joys of a cruise just to avoid it! :)

[frankpc]

You might also look at Oceania cruises. They only allow smoking in two designated areas on ship (a section of one of the bars and a section of the pool deck). No smoking allowed in staterooms or on balconies.

 

Pricing/amenities in roughly the same league as Celebrity ....

 

Frank

[Shaco]

I am HIGHLY, HIGHLY allergic to cigarette smoke. At first, my nose begins to run buckets and my eyes water. But that's just the beginning. My throat begins to close. I can't use an inhailer because I can't force any air in my airway. In short, it's a mess.

 

All that said, let me ask you this. Are you lucky? Because when you cruise, and we have gone 17 times on Celebrity[Elite], the cabins are all smoking allowed. So are all the balconies. If you think you are safe in an inside room, think again. We were on Century in an oceanview, no balcony, when the smoke came in from the cabin next door through the ventalation system. We complained to guest relations, and our cabin steward changed everything in our room, including the draperies. That helped for one day.

 

Here's where the luck factor comes in: We've been on Century 4 times. As stated, had 1 problem. 1 time had a problem using the balcony on a cruise. All the rest of the cruises have been problem free.

 

You can increase your odds of encountering fewer smokers by cruising at times of the year when more older people (not summer, holidays) are likely to cruise. Don't go when school is out because there tend to be younger parents or college kids who still think it's cool to smoke. Any chance you could do a 10 day in the fall/winter? Lots of retired folks (non smokers) on those.

 

Remember: on Celeb Right side=non smoking. No smoking in the dining rooms, including the buffet. Sit farther back in the dining room to avoid the smokers who lite up as soon as they swing out the door. Their smoke wafts back into the dining room. Yuk.

 

One last thing: Never book with cruise lines who do not cater to Americans, such as Costa. They don't get our aversion to smoking. The same can be said if you choose a European itinerary. Did you know they sell single cigarettes in Europe at grocery check outs? Everyone there smokes.

 

Good luck on making your decision. I hope I have helped you.

[nparmelee]

I'm also very allergic to cigarette smoke. On our two cruises I never had any problem with our room. Casino area was avoided and if we needed to go through, went through as quickly as possible and in some lounges, same thing, DH is very good about noticing smoke in the air and guiding me away from it. We've had balconies, love sitting out there and watching the water and occassionally smell smoke coming by from other balconies, but never anything bad enough to make us go inside. Some people have had horror stories with chain smokers next door to them making the balcony unusable, so we may have just had good luck. Did we smell smoke, yes, in the places where the smokers were, but we were able to still have a very good time and just avoid those areas. Depending on which ports you are going to, the amount of smoking in the port might be more bothersome than the areas on the ship. When we go to Europe next June, we purposely booked non-smoking hotels so I can have a break from the throngs of smokers for our pre and post cruise stays in Italy and Turkey. We are also booked on Oceania, who has very limited smoking on the ships.

[Danno]

If you are highly allergic and very worried, I would not suggest this as a vacation alternative.

 

I agree 100%....smoke and smoking is not handled well on this cruise line nor any other I expect...the non-smoking areas are simply the 'non-peeing" end of the pool...once we can get the actual smoke to respect the imaginary line on the floor, then you should be ok...I have asthma and it creates some problems, but I'm able to handle it because I do not have a severe case of this affliction.

 

My point...if you cruise, you will smoke, whether you light up or not...don't let well meaning smokers tell you different...they just don't know.

 

Oh ya....the cabins have always been very good.

[jasm8449]

You will have to make sure to always walk through the non-smoking side of public lounges. You will have to forego the casino, as smoking is allowed everywhere there.

 

I think it is a mistake to take an inside or ocean view room. The people next to us were smokers, and on debarkation day, their balcony door was left wide open by the room steward to air out the room, and when I went in there a couple hours later, the smoke smell was gone. If the previous guest in an inside or oceanview was a smoker, it will be much more difficult, if not impossible to get rid of the smoke smell.

 

Also, avoid a room with a connecting door. Otherwise, really, you should be fine.

 

By the way, we just sailed, there were no teens on board, it was a much older crowd, and it was the first time that the casino was so smoky that I could not even walk through it, much less play. But folks seemed to obey the no-smoking side rules in the other public places.

[Pegleg1]

I am HIGHLY, HIGHLY allergic to cigarette smoke.

 

I have kind of an oddball question, please everyone, don't "flame me", but I'm curious about allergies in general. Have any of you actually been medically tested for cigarette smoke? All of the information I could find went along these lines:

 

>>>And as for that cigarette allergy, smoke isn't an allergen in the strict medical sense. For a substance to trigger an allergic reaction, you need a protein component that tobacco smoke doesn't have. What the lady should have said is that the mucous membranes in her nasal passages are sensitive to assault by tobacco smoke; or maybe she should have said she is asthmatic and cigarette smoke makes it worse. But if you want to get picky, picky, picky, no, she should not be saying she's allergic to cigarette smoke. But I also predict you're cruisin' for a bruisin' if you continue to challenge the smoke-enraged in this way. Would you rather be right or keep all your original teeth?<<<

 

Apparently the prevailing opinion was that secondhand smoke will exacerbate existing allergies, but that the smoke itself is not truely an allergen. Does anyone know more about this?

[usha]

Yes, Pegleg1, I understand that cigarette smoke can trigger allery-like symptoms, but people are not truly allergic to cigarette smoke. You can be very sensitive to cigarette smoke. You can detest cigarette smoke. But the truth of the matter is that cigarette smoke is not an allergen.

 

Hey, I really don't like cigarette smoke either, and it stinks and I don't wanna breathe it, but that doesn't make me allergic to it.

 

Flame me if you must, but saying you're allergic to cigarette smoke is like saying you're pregnant in your butt... it just isn't medically founded.

[twonpcb]

We were on Summit two years ago in a balcony cabin. Our initial cabin reeked so severely of smoke that we had to have our cabin changed. I don't mean that it smelled a little of smoke, but it was REALLY HORRIBLE! The previous occupants must have smoked the entire cruise, lighting one cig from the other. I'm not one of those fanatics who goes around preaching and complaining about smoke in most places, but this was our cabin and we were going to have to be in there for 10 days. The staff worked hard to get us a different cabin but since we were in Concierge Class "we might not have another cabin available." I told here I didn't care.....put me in an inside cabin on deck 2 before I spend 10 days in my present cabin. Thankfully, they were able to find us another cabin just down the hall from our initial one. When the Concierge came down to our cabin to help us move herself, she was horrified at the smell. She could not believe that a cabin smelled that bad. For the next 6 or 7 days of the cruise, every time we passed our smoke filled cabin, there was the sound of machines running inside - I'm sure some kind of air purification system.

 

Having said that, we have cruised 7 times, and this was the only problem with smoke in a cabin that we have ever experienced. Smoke in a lounge can sometimes be an annoyance, but for the most part, if you stay on the "non smoking" side of the ship, you will have very little problem.

 

Robert

[greeneg]

Yes, Pegleg1, I understand that cigarette smoke can trigger allery-like symptoms, but people are not truly allergic to cigarette smoke. You can be very sensitive to cigarette smoke. You can detest cigarette smoke. But the truth of the matter is that cigarette smoke is not an allergen.

 

Hey, I really don't like cigarette smoke either, and it stinks and I don't wanna breathe it, but that doesn't make me allergic to it.

 

Flame me if you must, but saying you're allergic to cigarette smoke is like saying you're pregnant in your butt... it just isn't medically founded.

 

Sorry, Usha, no flame intended here, but you are simply wrong on this one. There are any number of scientific papers which have been written which strongly implicate both active and passive smoking in allergic reactions, both local and systemic. Having practiced medicine for 32+ years, my clinical experience confirms this.

 

Having said this, I would agree that most people are not so allergic as to be "threatened" by stale atmosphere on a cruise ship, but there is the rare individual who does need to be concerned and does need to take certain precautions: i.e., avoid the obvious areas such as the Casino and the smoking side of the ship and lounges ( usually the Port or Left side of the ship facing forward is the smoking side.), and certainly do not forget your medications or inhalers. Under "normal" circumstances, just about everyone can cruise and expect to have a great time.

 

I also agree with most of the other posters in this thread that it would be nice if cruise lines, in general, and Celebrity in particular, would pursue a more aggresive non-smoking policy and at least have a certain percentage of non-smoking cabins and even decks available. Personally, my own preference would be to permit smoking only on the weather decks, and not inside the ship at all, but I don't think that is likely to happen in my lifetime at least.

 

One would hope, since smokers are now in the minority (as opposed to my generation), that perhaps there is some hope for the future on this one.

 

Best Regards to all,

[CaptData]

I also consider smoke a sensitivity. I have problems with it so I avoid the Casino except when there are only a few people in it. When I enter my room I ask the Steward to get the machine that gets rid of smoke and use it for at least two more hours. I check out the lounges and see/ask where the non-smoking areas are. This is important because the ones with the areas near the door seem to be better then when you have to walk though the smokers to get to the door (duh). After 11 PM it would start to get a little smoking in some bars so I would move to others (I have not been on Celebrity yet but several lines). I got to see most of the lounges as one would be more smoking on one night then another. there is usually one bar that I have found on most of my cruises that seems deicated to smokers, I avoid it like the plaque.

 

I have also been told about Oceiana (sP). My Ta as also suggested it but I do not no if they go to Hawaii.

[usha]

Correct me if I'm wrong, greeneg, but isn't an allergen something that's harmless to most people, but harmful, and sometimes even fatal to some? If that definition fits, then cigarette smoke doesn't fit that definition. Cigarette smoke is harmful to everyone.

I can understand how allergies can be aggrevated by cigarette smoke, but wouldn't that pretty much be chemical sensitivity? I've never heard of a lab test to see if a patient is "allergic" to cigarettes, the way they test for pet dander, molds, dust, pollen, etc..

[greeneg]

Correct me if I'm wrong, greeneg, but isn't an allergen something that's harmless to most people, but harmful, and sometimes even fatal to some? If that definition fits, then cigarette smoke doesn't fit that definition. Cigarette smoke is harmful to everyone.

I can understand how allergies can be aggrevated by cigarette smoke, but wouldn't that pretty much be chemical sensitivity? I've never heard of a lab test to see if a patient is "allergic" to cigarettes, the way they test for pet dander, molds, dust, pollen, etc..

 

Actually, Usha, the definition of an "allergen" is "something that causes an allergy"( Merriam-Webster). The pathogenesis of Allergic reactions is complex and highly individualized; the same allergen ( whatever it might be) may produce a very mild nasal congestion in one person, while in another individual, a near-fatal ( or worse, fatal) asthma attack could be the results. ( Admittedly that's an extreme example, but certainly fatalities due to shellfish ingestion are well known, while most people eat shrimp very happily.)

 

Unfortunately, these reactions are not necessarily predictable, at least the first time out. If a person knows that they are going to react adversly to an antigen ( allergen), then common sense tells you to avoid it as much as possible. Wise people try to asses the "risk level" before making a move and this was how I interpreted the OP's initial post.

 

As much as anything, I am not arguing here for a non-smoking cruise, but, because I think that this is a serious issue, trying to make the case for keeping smoking under control, so that everyone can have a good time and not be "threatened".

 

The point is not, if you can't stand the smoke don't go there, but instead, let's at least be considerate and aware of the needs and wants of all, so that everyone who wants to can take the trip and enjoy.