Question about smoking on board

[Cruise_Christy]

Hi all. I know smoking is a "hot topic" in general, but I don't want a debate - I just want to try and gauge from other travellers whether the cruise will be suitable for me from your honest opinion. If the answer is no, that's fine - I am not being critical of people who smoke, just trying to choose the right booking for my family.

 

I am looking at booking for 2018 on the MSC Magnifica, for myself and husband (35) and our son who will be 18 months at the time. Northern Europe, sailing out of the UK, which is where we live.

 

We are both extremely sensitive to tobacco smoke, and have never been on a ship that allowed smoking in any indoor venues before. We have previously cruised on Thomson, Princess, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean and from what I can tell, MSC seems to have the most "open" of the smoking policies, which has made us question our booking. We also don't want our child around any smoke.

 

However - we are not partiers. We are unlikely to be in the bars past 8pm at night as that is our little ones bedtime anyway. We would obviously not go in a cigar room/smoking room, and we do not use the casino. Obviously we would not be taking our child in these venues anyway. We don't drink alcohol other than a wine with dinner so don't mind avoiding bars, and we tend to pack our port days to the max, eat early, sit on our balcony after dinner to relax and get an early night. We go more for the scenery and destinations than for ship activities.

 

Given those facts, are we likely to encounter a lot of the smell of smoking? Will there be the smell of smoke in other areas from smokers? Will the elevators smell of smoke because of the amount of people smoking and using them? If we are at the pool and there is a smoking section (which we will obviously avoid), is it likely to drift and be an issue? Or am I making a mountain out of a molehill since we will not be attending any venues where smoke is permitted?

 

I was all ready to press the book button and thought that the itinerary and ship seemed perfect for us, when I read a negative review regarding smokers. It is hard to know if this was an isolated situation, or if we would be better off looking at a different line.

[CruiseIreland]

I don't think you should worry about smoking. We have sailed 5 times on MSC and noticed on last cruise, on Splendida last month, that the rear pool area was now non smoking. As you have mentioned, smoking is allowed in the casino and smoking lounge. In addition, people seemed to smoke at the corner of the main pooldeck, there was an ashtray there but the smoke was not particularly noticeable. We had a balcony stateroom on deck 8, just above the promenade(lifeboat) deck and there were often smokers who came out the nearest doors from the bar to smoke on deck. Not really a bother as it's open air. Never any smell of smoke in elevators or any other indoor venues. I'm a reformed smoker so notice it and it never bothered me as we don't spend time in the casino.

[kernow]

We have booked Magnifica out of Southampton next April, we've done one MSC cruise before on Musica around the Emirates last year. We don't smoke and don't like the smell of it and we had no problems at all on Musica. I think there were smoking areas in some of the bars but we avoided those and I can't remember ever smelling smoke at all. Most areas inside the ship are non smoking, there was no smoking in lifts, corridors, restaurants etc.

I think one side of the outside deck was smoking but that is the same on most of the cruises we've been on, just walk/sit on the other side. We cruise mostly on RCL and I sometimes find that because the only inside area to smoke is the casino that anywhere close by gets the smell drifting in too. We usually avoid the casino itself and nearby venues. I think because there are more options for smokers on MSC the smell is less concentrated and easily avoided.

 

Given what you have said, I don't think it will be an issue for you.

 

Julie

[galfromkazoo]

We were on the MSC Poesia in April. I too was concerned about the smoke as I was told that there was more smoking on med cruises but this was not the case. Even the casino was not smoky. Never smelled smoke on our balcony.

 

 

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[Beamafar]

You really have nothing to be concerned about. MSC has gradually been decreasing the smoking areas onboard over the last couple of years. My DH smokes so we really notice it. Smoking areas are mainly outside and limited (usually on the port side and on a couple of decks) although most ships have a cigar lounge - Preziosa being one of the exceptions.

 

For non-US sailings, most casinos onboard are either totally smoke-free (Meraviglia) or only one area allows for smoking (Fantasia). This was our experience in February and June. There are no bars on Magnifica where smoking is allowed. In fact, Lirica class are the only ones that have a bar that allows smoking - Sheelagh's House on Sinfonia did have a smoking area when we were onboard last November.

 

As you say, you won't be in the casino or the cigar lounge so your enjoyment of the cruise will not be marred by cigarette smoke.

 

Bytheway, Magnifica is a great ship! We had a fabulous cruise onboard last year and are really looking forward to sailing on her again in September.