Should HAL follow suit

[serendipity1499]

Ever been to Europe or Asia? There is very little restriction there and none in Asia. I'd venture to say that the same applies to S. America and Africa.

 

Don't know how long it's been since you have traveled, but you are dead wrong....There are many smoking bans in Europe, Asia, & Africa & South America..There are now 49 countries have some sort of smoking ban...Some are or will be very stringent such as France & the Netherlands:

 

Check out the following site:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_smoking_bans

• 50 Outdoor smoking bans , 51 Other bans,52 Other restrictions ,53 Proposed bans

[jtl513]

scratched

[peg013]

There is no reason to change it any more than they already have. If they do they won't have my business. Drinking can be just as bad for you.....think they are going to outlaw drinking next!?!

[superdee]

As an ex-smoker I now am one of the people I wanted to strangle when I smoked. When I smoked I was totally ignorant to how offensive smoking is. I think smoking should be allowed only in designated areas and away from people that choose not to smell smoke. Sorry I don't want to get in an argument with anybody about smokers rights and the like but smoking has been proven that it is harmful to your health and it kills you. If that is not motivation to quit what is. I personaly get sick at the smell of it and I smoked for 30 years before I got smart and quit. 10 years without smoking has made my life better and I can only pray more people see the light. Have a great day.

[kittikat]

In response to the original questin... when RCCL announced the new policy I cancelled the cruise I had booked for next April and got my deposit back. I did have to hold quite a while when I called and was told by the rep I spoke to that the call volume was extremely high because of cancellations.

[kryos]

If they do that will be the end of my cruising, and I know other long time cruisers feel the same way.

Sadly, it will be my end on HAL too.

 

However, to be totally objective about this, I think it's a foregone conclusion that all cruise lines are gonna go this way in the next couple of years. So, for us smokers, the choice is gonna be either deal with not smoking in your cabin or simply quit cruising ... because I doubt there will be a single cruise line that will allow smoking in the cabins or on balconies within a few years from now.

 

My guess is that there will be some very limited smoking areas on ships ... all outside ... and that's about it.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[kryos]

In response to the original questin... when RCCL announced the new policy I cancelled the cruise I had booked for next April and got my deposit back. I did have to hold quite a while when I called and was told by the rep I spoke to that the call volume was extremely high because of cancellations.

But ... here's my question. If there were no cruise lines at all that permitted smoking in the cabins and on balconies, would you have still cancelled?

 

I honestly don't know what I would do in that situation.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[741323]

Yes - we now have smoking restrictions here in the UK.

 

As a non-smoker (asthmatic) who suffered from a very regular balcony smoker next door on our last Princess cruise (to the extent that I could barely go out there) - the sooner that smoking is restricted away from balconies and rooms the better.... Perhaps the cruise lines should introduce those smoking areas with fans (they have them at heathrow airport)....

[venicecruiser]

Should HAL make their policy more restrictive? NO.

 

Claudia

[bUU]

But ... here's my question. If there were no cruise lines at all that permitted smoking in the cabins and on balconies, would you have still cancelled?

Actually, Rita, the question is will more people not cruise because there are smoking restrictions or because there aren't smoking restrictions.

[Bouff]

As a non-smoker and a UK citizen I much prefer going to the pub, be it for just a drink or a drink and something to eat now that they are smoke free. However I accept that there are those who want to smoke.

 

With the size of cruise ships now surely it should be possible to have smoking and non-smoking cabins in the way that most hotels now do. After all isn't a cruise ship a floating hotel?

[bUU]

True, but there are problems with that. For example, there is a cost of switching a cabin back and forth between smoking and non-smoking. (Actually, the cost is only in one direction. :)) So unless you have exactly the same number of guests of each sort on each voyage, that cost has to be factored in.

[Sea King]

There is no reason to change it any more than they already have. If they do they won't have my business. Drinking can be just as bad for you.....think they are going to outlaw drinking next!?!

 

sorry: to the best of my knowledge, no one has died from "second hand drinking" :rolleyes:

 

for a non-smoker (and that again is about 75% or more on any given cruise), second hand smoke stinks, burns your eyes and makes you cough .. and those are the "good parts":eek:

 

sorry: it's time smoking ended on balconies and in the casinos

 

maybe, just maybe, someone in Seattle might "catch on" .. then again

[welove2cruise232]

sorry: to the best of my knowledge, no one has died from "second hand drinking" :rolleyes:

 

for a non-smoker (and that again is about 75% or more on any given cruise), second hand smoke stinks, burns your eyes and makes you cough .. and those are the "good parts":eek:

 

sorry: it's time smoking ended on balconies and in the casinos

 

maybe, just maybe, someone in Seattle might "catch on" .. then again

 

I guess you don't know anyone who's been injured or killed by a drunk driver, or anyone who's been on the receiving end of the fist of a drunk...:rolleyes:

[lovingwife1229]

Sadly, it will be my end on HAL too.

 

However, to be totally objective about this, I think it's a foregone conclusion that all cruise lines are gonna go this way in the next couple of years. So, for us smokers, the choice is gonna be either deal with not smoking in your cabin or simply quit cruising ... because I doubt there will be a single cruise line that will allow smoking in the cabins or on balconies within a few years from now.

 

My guess is that there will be some very limited smoking areas on ships ... all outside ... and that's about it.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

 

First I read on another thread that people will stop cruising because of the AYW dining...and now a smoking ban.

I surely hope that on my first cruise in 2009... I'm not the only one on the ship!

[madelinerose]

RCCL has apparently decided to eliminate smoking in cabins effective in 08' if that be the case, should HAL follow suit what's your vote?

 

 

Yes, if hotels, bars and restaurants on land can do it.......;)

[JimVrhovac]

We are already very limited as to where we can smoke on the ships. If they wanted to make cabins on one side of the ship smoking and the other side non smoking that would be ok with us. If eliminated it in cabins completely would stop cruising the line....

 

Ruth and Jim

[welove2cruise232]

Now I think they should NOT allow smoking in cabins, but allow smoking on verandas, open decks, and a few lounges (other than just the cigar bar) inside the ship. I'm a smoker, but never smoke in my cabin...:cool:

[advocado]

Smoke primarily outside. On your verandah, on the deck or in the designated smoking areas i.e sports bar, cigar lounge. Don't do it in the cabin, but don't become anti-smoking bullies about it, either.

[greggrass]

Look, all of this is getting so silly and ridiculous. RCCL is banning smoking in the cabins but not on the balconies but is only designating one of its lounges as non-smoking. What sense does that make? If, as HAL does, a cruise line has a good filtration system in place, smoking in the cabin is not going to bother anyone else. They are allowing smoking on the balconies which could bother other people. They are allowing smoking in a public lounge could bother non-smokers in other parts of the lounge. Conversely, NCL is banning smoking in all bars but allowing it in the cabins. That makes little sense to me either. Contrary to what some people are claiming, the non-smoking laws are bad for bars; 1/3 of the bars in New York State have closed since 2003 when the smoking ban became effective and, truth be told, if you go into a bar late enough at night in many parts of New York State they flout the law which the county health departments have little resources to seriously enforce.

 

So RCCL has a theory that smokers will tolerate not smoking where they sleep, and let's face it, make love, because they can smoke in a bar. Conversely, NCL has a theory that smokers will be ok with smoking in their bedrooms but will tolerate not smoking in bars.

 

Neither cruise line seems to have a clear idea of what they are trying to do.

 

Personally I think that the system which has worked for quite a few years now while the cruise industry has grown by leaps and bounds is fine. If people just respected each other and treated each other politely everybody would be fine. I smoke, but if a neighbor is next to me on a balcony, especially if they are aft of me, I don't smoke if they are out there unless I ascertain either from the fact they smoke too or through conversation, that they don't mind. If a bar on board is non-smoking I stay clear of it and wish the people in there a good time.

 

The anti-smoking movement has taken an ugly turn. Sure, it's great to get people to be healthy generally. And sure, I wish I had never started when I was a teenager in the 60's. But some of us can't manage to break an addiction which is described as more addictive than heroin or cocaine. Where were all these lovely people in 1964 and I was seven and the Surgeon General announced that there was a link between smoking and lung cancer? Why didn't they ban it then? Why don't they ban it now? Because state and federal governments get a big fat chunk of every pack of cigarettes sold in this country. This promotion of hatred against smokers by the government is completely hypocritical. As for those who claim that anti-smoking laws are so popular, I ask, if they are so popular, why do you need them? Repeal them and see how fast all these non-smoking bars and restaurants stay non-smoking.

 

The whole approach to this issue is so messed up and sick.

 

Everyone would have been better off if they had let the marketplace decide. Before the 2003 smoking ban in New York some restaurants banned it anyway--non-smokers who hated smoke had a place to go. Smokers had little pub type places where they could go. Eventually the places where smokers could go would have gone by attrition and everyone would have been happy.

 

Anyway, the point is that cruises are one of the few places left where smokers can relax and find some measure of peace and escape. If our presence is truly so terrible, why those of you who think they can't tolerate us still go?

[hammybee]

 

 

Everyone would have been better off if they had let the marketplace decide. Before the 2003 smoking ban in New York some restaurants banned it anyway--non-smokers who hated smoke had a place to go. Smokers had little pub type places where they could go. Eventually the places where smokers could go would have gone by attrition and everyone would have been happy.

 

I agree with you that it was better to let the owners and patrons of bars and restaurants decide for themselves, instead of imposing laws. Instead, state after state is ruling in favor of non-smoking to avoid giving those municipalities that allow smoking an advantage over those, that chose to be non-smoking.

 

And as you say, there are back rooms/ late nights everywhere that cater to their smoking patrons. Maybe some of them will be raided and the owners and patrons arrested for hurting no one other than themselves. Go figure.

[greggrass]

Yes. Go figure indeed. It's less than 100 years ago that the temperance movement convinced three-quarters of the states that it was wise to pass a constitutional amendment to ban the sale and consumption of alcohol. Yet, some 12 or 13 years later the same states passed a constitutional amendment to repeal it.

 

Those who do not remember history are indeed doomed to repeat it. :D

[WillieF]

We are already very limited as to where we can smoke on the ships. If they wanted to make cabins on one side of the ship smoking and the other side non smoking that would be ok with us. If eliminated it in cabins completely would stop cruising the line....

 

Ruth and Jim

 

We're with you folks!.......at a stage in life where such things matter to us (the underlining and italics are ours!)

 

HAL does a wonderful job of eliminating smoke odors from cabins.....why can't people live their lives and let others do the same! Still feel that 'smelling smoke' is all in the mind!

 

Smoker and 'never smoked' couple.:p

[bUU]

Still feel that 'smelling smoke' is all in the mind!

That may be a big part of the problem. Different people have different tolerances and sensitivities. That doesn't make their experiences, if different from yours, "all in the mind".

[terrydtx]

HAL does a wonderful job of eliminating smoke odors from cabins.....why can't people live their lives and let others do the same! Still feel that 'smelling smoke' is all in the mind! .:p

 

As long as HAL continues to do a good job eliminating the smoke smell from the cabins before the next cruisers depart in that cabin, I see no problem with smoking in cabins. As non smokers, my wife and I hate left over smoke smell in hotel rooms, but ship cabins seem to be easier in eliminating the smoke smells. We do agree that all common areas on the ship should be smoking free including the casino and all lounges. Our last few cruises have been so bad in the casino with smokers that we stayed away! Allowing smoking in cabins, balconies and outside decks should be plenty of places for smokers and their discusting habit