Non-smoking cruise?

[DaCruiseBug]

5 hours ago, pacruise804 said:

While the percentage of overall population may not smoke (or consider themselves smokers), that doesn't mean the same percentages apply to cruisers.

 

Some people do not consider themselves smokers, but will sometimes smoke socially (drinking).  Also a good number of smokers gamble/gamblers smoke and cruise ships have casinos, ergo...higher smoking potential on ships than on land.

 

As a non-smoker, I'm fine with the outdoor permitted smoking spaces (but not violating the rules and smoking on balconies), and mostly fine with casino smoking, but wish ventilation was better so it didn't creep into other areas of the ship.

 

 

About 10 years ago a study was done to determine if there's a higher percent of gamblers that smoke and that proved to be false. The percentage of gamblers who were smokers was in line with the percentage of the general population.

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18276735

[BDRebel]

23 minutes ago, DaCruiseBug said:

 There's also been an emphasis on creating smoke-free environments such as restaurants, hotels etc as someone else has said.

There is a big difference between a smoke free restaurant, hotel, etc and a cruise ship.

It is extremely difficult to jump off a cruise ship for a smoke like you can exit a restaurant, hotel or shop on land.

Most smokers are able to do without a cigarette for a couple of hours. I do not know many that are willing to go several days/weeks without one.

[OCruisers]

24 minutes ago, BDRebel said:

There is a big difference between a smoke free restaurant, hotel, etc and a cruise ship.

It is extremely difficult to jump off a cruise ship for a smoke like you can exit a restaurant, hotel or shop on land.

Most smokers are able to do without a cigarette for a couple of hours. I do not know many that are willing to go several days/weeks without one.

 

Agree!  Seems it's extremely unlikely any who smoke or fume would take a cruise where there was no smoking/fuming whatsoever allowed!  

[navybankerteacher]

Whether it is 15% or 20%, no cruise line is going to refuse business from that large a segment of the population.  Additionally, a number of non- smokers travel with smokers, so they represent an additional portion of the population which would be written off if a ship were to be made completely smoke free.   Further, the necessity of having a 100% non-smoking crew would seriously complicate staffing.

 

Finally, very, very few non-smokers are absolutely unwilling to sail on a ship which has reasonable restrictions on smoking - so the decision to permit limited smoking across the board is a no-brainer.

[OCruisers]

46 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

Whether it is 15% or 20%, no cruise line is going to refuse business from that large a segment of the population.  Additionally, a number of non- smokers travel with smokers, so they represent an additional portion of the population which would be written off if a ship were to be made completely smoke free.   Further, the necessity of having a 100% non-smoking crew would seriously complicate staffing.

 

Finally, very, very few non-smokers are absolutely unwilling to sail on a ship which has reasonable restrictions on smoking - so the decision to permit limited smoking across the board is a no-brainer.

 

Very much agree with All of your above comments.

 

Edited December 13, 2018 by OCruisers

[DaCruiseBug]

5 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

Whether it is 15% or 20%, no cruise line is going to refuse business from that large a segment of the population.  Additionally, a number of non- smokers travel with smokers, so they represent an additional portion of the population which would be written off if a ship were to be made completely smoke free.   Further, the necessity of having a 100% non-smoking crew would seriously complicate staffing.

 

Finally, very, very few non-smokers are absolutely unwilling to sail on a ship which has reasonable restrictions on smoking - so the decision to permit limited smoking across the board is a no-brainer.

 

I certainly see that aspect, but again...not a single ship out of the dozens of cruise ships? Staff can smoke if they choose, their areas are not the same as guest areas so you wouldn't deal with smoke in the casino or in certain areas outside.

 

What I will say is that I do enjoy gambling but usually avoid it if there's smoking going on. My girlfriend is the same way and so are several of our friends. So how much are they losing from "potential gamblers"?

 

In my opinion it's certainly worth a shot (if any cruise employees are reading this). If nothing else, they can test it for a few months and see if there's positive feedback and revenues change at all.

[davekathy]

26 minutes ago, DaCruiseBug said:

 

I certainly see that aspect, but again...not a single ship out of the dozens of cruise ships? Staff can smoke if they choose, their areas are not the same as guest areas so you wouldn't deal with smoke in the casino or in certain areas outside.

 

What I will say is that I do enjoy gambling but usually avoid it if there's smoking going on. My girlfriend is the same way and so are several of our friends. So how much are they losing from "potential gamblers"?

 

In my opinion it's certainly worth a shot (if any cruise employees are reading this). If nothing else, they can test it for a few months and see if there's positive feedback and revenues change at all.

Try Celebrity. No inside smoking including the Casinos. They took the gamble (pun intended) a few years ago. On all of our Celebrity cruises the Casinos are busy. Apparently it's working for them.

Edited December 14, 2018 by davekathy

[Go-Bucks!]

8 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

Carnival just changed their policy making it so the cleaning fee assessment is charged per occurrence and stating that passengers in violation are subject to removal from the ship.

 

This has been the policy on Princess for many years, but it appears it's difficult to enforce unless they catch the people in the act. On 3 different occasions the staff said they'd investigate, but would then tell us that they never caught anyone. But we would continue to smell it throughout the cruise. Oh well....

[sparks1093]

10 hours ago, DaCruiseBug said:

 

I certainly see that aspect, but again...not a single ship out of the dozens of cruise ships? Staff can smoke if they choose, their areas are not the same as guest areas so you wouldn't deal with smoke in the casino or in certain areas outside.

 

What I will say is that I do enjoy gambling but usually avoid it if there's smoking going on. My girlfriend is the same way and so are several of our friends. So how much are they losing from "potential gamblers"?

 

In my opinion it's certainly worth a shot (if any cruise employees are reading this). If nothing else, they can test it for a few months and see if there's positive feedback and revenues change at all.

I am a non-smoker (now) and avoid the casino because of the smoke. Every now and then in the morning I'll stop in if there is little action going on and put $20 in the slots, so they certainly aren't losing potential big bucks from my steering shy of the casino. If the ship is smoke free then it would be so for the crew also or it's can't really be advertised as a smoke free ship, which defeats the purpose (hey, book our ship, it's sort of smoke free!). And your opinion is valid, but you aren't the one with all of the demographic studies and decades of experience with running a cruise line and you aren't the one with revenue on the line. I'm pretty sure that if any cruise line really thought that they could turn this into extra profit they'd be all over it, since as a business it's all about profit. Filling a ship week after week, year after year is a daunting task in and of itself, filling one when one group is excluded would be even harder.

[sparks1093]

9 hours ago, Go-Bucks! said:

 

This has been the policy on Princess for many years, but it appears it's difficult to enforce unless they catch the people in the act. On 3 different occasions the staff said they'd investigate, but would then tell us that they never caught anyone. But we would continue to smell it throughout the cruise. Oh well....

Yes, this was a huge topic of debate on the Carnival board when the change was announced with some posters calling others rats if they said they would report balcony smoking (FWIW I was one of the so called "rats"🤣) and enforcement is tricky. I think most smokers comply with the rules and those that don't typically don't because they are ignorant of the rule or justify the rule breaking to themselves somehow (it's open air on the balcony, who can it really bother? or the "fine" is only $250 and it's worth it to not have to go up 10 decks). I've known very few smokers that were so militant that they would intentionally smoke in a non-smoking area. So with the change Carnival is hoping to add another layer of deterrence for those who do know the rule but justify it to themselves somehow. Back in the day I could see myself slipping out to the balcony for a fast one just before bed or something, but if I knew that being removed from the ship was a possibility it would be enough for me to not do that. One can only hope that smokers will comply and if they don't that the cruise line will enforce the rule. 

[pacruise804]

18 hours ago, DaCruiseBug said:

 

 

About 10 years ago a study was done to determine if there's a higher percent of gamblers that smoke and that proved to be false. The percentage of gamblers who were smokers was in line with the percentage of the general population.

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18276735

I didn't read the study, but I am willing to stand corrected 😉 

[jayscore]

As a former heavy smoker, I can understand the opinions from "both sides of the fence".

Smelling and dealing with offensive odors takes SO many forms. How about those reeking of perfume, or gastric problems. How about that vile exhaust from the ship's stacks, or cars? I could go on and on....

We are never going to experience a pure air situation unless we totally avoid a shared human environment.

We all have to deal with our surroundings as the status quo allows, for better or (sadly) worse.
In other words., if you truly can't deal with the situation, don't go there.

(OK, I'm off my soap box now!)😋

 

[navybankerteacher]

18 minutes ago, jayscore said:

As a former heavy smoker, I can understand the opinions from "both sides of the fence".

Smelling and dealing with offensive odors takes SO many forms. How about those reeking of perfume, or gastric problems. How about that vile exhaust from the ship's stacks, or cars? I could go on and on....

We are never going to experience a pure air situation unless we totally avoid a shared human environment.

We all have to deal with our surroundings as the status quo allows, for better or (sadly) worse.
In other words., if you truly can't deal with the situation, don't go there.

(OK, I'm off my soap box now!)😋

 

 

As another former heavy smoker, I think some of your comparisons need questioning:

gastric problems are involuntary, stack gasses and auto exhaust are largely unavoidable if you want a ship  or car to move, perfume is rarely as pervasive and simply does not linger the way tobacco smoke does —- tobacco smoking stands alone.

[lisiamc]

1 hour ago, jayscore said:

As a former heavy smoker, I can understand the opinions from "both sides of the fence".

Smelling and dealing with offensive odors takes SO many forms. How about those reeking of perfume, or gastric problems. How about that vile exhaust from the ship's stacks, or cars? I could go on and on....

We are never going to experience a pure air situation unless we totally avoid a shared human environment.

We all have to deal with our surroundings as the status quo allows, for better or (sadly) worse.
In other words., if you truly can't deal with the situation, don't go there.

(OK, I'm off my soap box now!)😋

 

I’d rather look at it as “If you truly can’t deal with the situation, try to improve it”!  It’s down to people’s attempts to make things better that there are as many non-smoking places onboard ships as there are.  It hasn’t always been that way.

[DaCruiseBug]

I’m not advocating that all cruise ships become smoke free. But I’m a little perplexed as to why there isn’t a single ship that is.

 

It’s like Casinos...most allow smoking but there are some that are smoke free and they do just fine.

[navybankerteacher]

1 hour ago, DaCruiseBug said:

I’m not advocating that all cruise ships become smoke free. But I’m a little perplexed as to why there isn’t a single ship that is.

 

It’s like Casinos...most allow smoking but there are some that are smoke free and they do just fine.

 

Smoke free ships ships have been tried - it did not work.  Completely banning smoking would make it harder to fill the ship -  why would a line intentionally take a step to make that “... SINGLE SHIP...” less profitable?

 

They do not need to:  non smokers are perfectly willing to sail on ships which permit limited smoking;  while smokers WILL NOT sail on non-smoking ships.

Even if that market segment is as low as 15%, no business is going to walk away from 15% of the potential market for EVEN JUST ONE of their ships - when it is shown as unnecessary.

[Seadog & Sea Hag]

Just BAN it internally and everyone will be happy 

[jayscore]

10 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

 

As another former heavy smoker, I think some of your comparisons need questioning:

gastric problems are involuntary, stack gasses and auto exhaust are largely unavoidable if you want a ship  or car to move, perfume is rarely as pervasive and simply does not linger the way tobacco smoke does —- tobacco smoking stands alone.

 

My apologies for my blunt, thoughtless comments . I should have been less descriptive, and simply said, " Odds are, we all have to deal with these situations in our own personal ways."
Sorry for the crude remarks.

 

[Heidi13]

5 hours ago, DaCruiseBug said:

I’m not advocating that all cruise ships become smoke free. But I’m a little perplexed as to why there isn’t a single ship that is.

 

It’s like Casinos...most allow smoking but there are some that are smoke free and they do just fine.

While any cruise line could probably fill a non-smoking ship with passengers, the challenge would be finding officers and crew. Many of the crew work 6- 10 month contracts. With the number of ships being built, the crews have options, so highly unlikely any crew or officers that smoke would sign on. Those that did sign on, would most likely find place to smoke, which increases the fire risk.

 

As an ardent non-smoker, in my opinion while not perfect, the current situation of designated areas is probably the best compromise for safety, customer service and crew welfare.

[sloopsailor]

7 hours ago, DaCruiseBug said:

I’m not advocating that all cruise ships become smoke free. But I’m a little perplexed as to why there isn’t a single ship that is.

 

It’s like Casinos...most allow smoking but there are some that are smoke free and they do just fine.

 

There are even cruise lines - Disney for one - that do fine without the casino as well. Can't smoke in them if they don't have them. 

Edited December 15, 2018 by sloopsailor

[SteveH2508]

3 hours ago, sloopsailor said:

 

There are even cruise lines - Disney for one - that do fine without the casino as well. Can't smoke in them if they don't have them. 

Azamara are in the process of removing the casinos as well.

 

For information, Azamara has just one small outside area on deck 9 for smokers.

Edited December 15, 2018 by SteveH2508

[sparks1093]

2 hours ago, SteveH2508 said:

Azamara are in the process of removing the casinos as well.

 

For information, Azamara has just one small outside area on deck 9 for smokers.

 

6 hours ago, sloopsailor said:

 

There are even cruise lines - Disney for one - that do fine without the casino as well. Can't smoke in them if they don't have them. 

Both of those lines charge so much for their base fare that they don't need a casino to increase revenue.

[lenquixote66]

I cannot understand why anyone would desire to smoke. Two of my friends died from second hand smoking and two others are suffering from lung cancer now.

[navybankerteacher]

19 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

I cannot understand why anyone would desire to smoke. Two of my friends died from second hand smoking and two others are suffering from lung cancer now.

 

After a few years there is no “...desire to smoke...”;  it is a difficult urge, an addiction - which only strong determination on the part of the individual can overcome.  

 

Most honest smokers acknowledge that they should quit - and that they will “someday”. It is just easier to keep at it.

[davekathy]

14 hours ago, Seadog & Sea Hag said:

Just BAN it internally and everyone will be happy 

I don't know about everyone  but at least all of us non smokers. Celebrity does just that.