Smoking

Which cruise line is best to choose if you detest smoking. We have just cruised on Norwegian Spirit and despite generous designated outdoor areas for smoking, these were largely ignored.

Celebrity has a smoke free environment shipwide, other than for select outdoor designated areas. RCI allows smoking in the Casino and designated outdoor areas (primarily one side of the pool deck), and no balcony smoking.

My understanding is Celebrity does a good job enforcing theirs. RCI's more restrictive policy eliminating balcony smoking and indoor casino only location just went into effect 1/1/14 - to soon to see how well it is enforced.

Depends in your party. If you are only adults, Windstar restricts smoking to a small area in the top deck. If you are going with kids, DCL is smoke free indoors and restricts smoking to specific areas in the deck.

Autocorrect responsible for most typos...

We've been cruising Princess for the past couple years and they have eliminated smoking in most indoor areas, I think the casino and perhaps a cigar lounge is about the only indoor area left for smokers. No balcony or cabin smoking, which is wonderful. They do have designated outdoor/indoor areas. I just find out where those areas are and avoid them.

I wish we could afford to cruise Oceania, from what I've read they are the most restrictive on smoking.

It sure is a lot better than it was 10-15 years ago. Back then, there were almost no restrictions whatsoever. I even recall we never would book a HAL cruise, as at the time they were the last holdout for allowing smoking even in the dining rooms. We did one Carnival cruise and the whole ship smelled like a dirty ashtray.

I do feel bad for the smokers and their limitations, but worse for them to have the addiction at all. I stopped smoking 25 years ago and the attitude towards smokers was just as bad then as it is now. I understand how they feel so attacked, because in reality they cannot have a clue as to how offensive it is. Not until they get away from it for a long time. This is the reason I just try to stay away and if I do come in contact with them, I make no comments or fan my face or anything…I never understood how bad it was (when I was still a smoker) and always thought people were overreacting. I would just get angry with them.

Still allows smoking in the Casino and the small cigar lounge. There are designated no smoking nights for the casino. My experience has been about 2 nights per week. Smoking is banned in staterooms and on balconies. Smoking is allowed on one side of the prominade deck outdoors and also at one of the bars topside towards the aft. At least that was the case on the Golden this past November. I'm on her again 1 Apr so I will see if there are any changes

I think Azamara has only 1 small area on the pool deck

Oceania have 1 small area on pool deck & 1 area in the forward lounge but it is glassed off ..not enclosed completely

Those are the most restrictive

I've never sailed NCL.

Smoking rules are very relaxed on MSC & Costa - and enforcement is even more relaxed. So they're two more lines to avoid.

But I've not seen even mild abuse of the fairly-stringent regs on other ships.

Thomson has zero designated smoking areas inside and, like all cruise lines that I know, limits outdoor smoking to a maximum of one side of the ship.

Most others restrict inside smoking to the casino plus one dedicated room (a room specifically for smoking & usually the only place cigars & pipes can be smoked). Some have no smoking in the casino, some have no-smoking there on specified evenings. RCI don't allow smoking in the casino on cruises out of the UK, so designate another bar for smoking.

To the best of my knowledge no mainstream cruise lines now permit smoking in cabins.

Princess don't allow smoking on balconies, RCI do (that's contrary to leaveitallbehind's post so mebbe they're wrong or mebbe I'm out-of-date), P&O are banning it from March 2014.

Yes, I'm a smoker.

I find the indoor smoking areas on most ships to be repulsive, they tend to be used only by smokers nipping in for a quick smoke - so everyone in there is lit-up & the atmosphere is way more foul than any pub used to be. Kinda like indoor smoking areas used to be in airports.

Conversely, I find the outdoor smokers' areas to be the most sociable places on a ship - even my ex-smoker partner agrees about that.

And one pet amusement for us smokers there is the anti-smokers who deliberately go out of their way in order to walk through a designated smoking area, so that they can toss their head in the air, wave their hands around & feign a cough. They're very few, but usually a few on any cruise.

Advice not aimed at the OP but at anyone reading this who does that - we know your silly game, & we have a good laugh at your expense.:D

Live & let live.:)

Or if you're an ardent anti-smoker, live & let die ;)

JB :)

when we first started cruising many years ago - we always requested a smoking table in the dining room even though we did not smoke. We just found we enjoyed those folks more...

changed now of course, but we did hang out at the smoking bar on the Ruby over Christmas - mainly because despite all our efforts to the contrary both our kids smoke and that's where they hung out.

I am lucky in that I have never been bothered by others smoking.

To the OP's question - I did not see anyone abusing the smoking policy on Princess - but they do allow smoking in the Casino.

Celebrity also gets my vote. They have one of the most restrictive smoking policies of the mainstream cruiselines -- and, what's even better is, they enforce it! :cool:

John Bull

RCI have banned balcony smoking wef 1 Jan 2014. Just for info...

HAL permits smoking in the casino but only people actively gambling can smoke there. That is the only interior space smoking is permitted.

Smoking is permitted on verandahs and one side of outside aft pool. There might be one other outside smoking area but I'm not sure.

None of the three main British-managed shipping lines- P&O, Thomson and Fred Olsen allow any smoking AT ALL inside the ship.

Is NCL Spirit in the Med at the moment? Sometimes there has been a blind eye turned on ships which pick up passengers from Med countries where smoking is heavily used.

None of the three main British-managed shipping lines- P&O, Thomson and Fred Olsen allow any smoking AT ALL inside the ship.

Is NCL Spirit in the Med at the moment? Sometimes there has been a blind eye turned on ships which pick up passengers from Med countries where smoking is heavily used.

NCL Spirit is doing Barcelona-Canary Islands-Casablanca-Malaga at the moment. (Great cruise - did it last week!)

NCL does have more liberal smoking rules than many other lines but I can say that the rules were followed (I did not see people smoking where they shouldn't or smoking what they shouldn't). I am a smoker and I find NCL's rules work for me hence one of the reasons they keep getting our business.

I did not hear (or see) any anti-smoker, hand-waving, faux-coughing theatrics either - people seemed to have the sense to avoid the smoking areas if they did not like it. It is a simple laissez-faire attitude which many would do well to adopt.

If smoking is a deal-breaker to someone then they should choose a line with very restrictive rules (e.g. Celebrity). If they go with NCL then expect to find more smokers (especially in Europe) - simple really. We all have choices and we all have priorities - these inform our choices in life - including which cruise line we sail with or which areas we choose to use.

Here is a link to the article that Cruise Critic has compiled; it might be best to read here instead of relying on information that may be incorrect/out of date.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=225 <--click here

.

John Bull

 

RCI have banned balcony smoking wef 1 Jan 2014. Just for info...

Thanks for the update, Steve. As per Langley Cruisers post, policies are frequently changing (getting more restrictive).

BTW, I don't shoot messengers :D

JB :)

Which cruise line is best to choose if you detest smoking. We have just cruised on Norwegian Spirit and despite generous designated outdoor areas for smoking, these were largely ignored.

I'll make it simple. Of the major lines, they are Princess, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean. Of those 3, I believe Celebrity is most restrictive. None of the 3 allow it on balconies, which is literally a breath of fresh air!

Among the Mass Market (main stream) cruise lines Celebrity has the most restrictive smoking policies (no smoking anywhere indoors and no smoking on balconies). HAL seems to be the most lenient still allowing smoking on balconies, in the casino, and in quite a few outdoor areas.

Hank

Among the Mass Market (main stream) cruise lines Celebrity has the most restrictive smoking policies (no smoking anywhere indoors and no smoking on balconies). HAL seems to be the most lenient still allowing smoking on balconies, in the casino, and in quite a few outdoor areas.

 

Hank

Some cruise lines focus on water parks, others on rock walls, and some on elegance. Apparently HAL has decided to be the "Ashtray Cruising" line. Nice to see that they have found their niche. :)

Some cruise lines focus on water parks, others on rock walls, and some on elegance. Apparently HAL has decided to be the "Ashtray Cruising" line. Nice to see that they have found their niche. :)

ARGH. All too true. We do love HAL for their amazing itineraries (especially on longer cruises). As a result, we do tolerate their out-of-date liberal smoking policy..not to mention the too oft sub-standard A/C. On HAL we have taken a personal pledge to never spend one penny in their casinos until they totally ban smoking....and this probably saves us lots of money :). Walking through a HAL Casino sometimes smells like a dirty ashtray...although their new policy of trying to limit casino smoking to active gamblers has helped. The casinos now sometimes only smell like a half-dirty ashtray :)

Hank

Some cruise lines focus on water parks, others on rock walls, and some on elegance. Apparently HAL has decided to be the "Ashtray Cruising" line. Nice to see that they have found their niche. :)

I can understand the bargain basements holding out, but I'm surprised HAL isn't evolving like the other nicer cruise lines.

As the OP is from the UK, I checked other UK managed ships, and it looks as though none of them, other than Cunard, allow any smoking inside the ship, but I think smoking is still allowed on Saga's balconies.

Some cruise lines focus on water parks, others on rock walls, and some on elegance. Apparently HAL has decided to be the "Ashtray Cruising" line. Nice to see that they have found their niche. :)

HAL has no water parks, no rock walls and elegance in abundance...

I can understand the bargain basements holding out, but I'm surprised HAL isn't evolving like the other nicer cruise lines.

We, too, are surprised HAL still permits smoking on verandahs.

It is long past time they should ban it. They claim to be so environmentally conscious, so dedicated to serving only 'renewable' fish, to not poluting the waters...... how about not poluting the verandahs of non-smoking guests who have neighbors blowing smoke their way?!

HAL has no water parks, no rock walls and elegance in abundance...

Elegance? Yes, we do find some degree of Elegance with their ship designs...but after our last 2 cruises (35 days on the Westerdam and 28 on the Veendam) we think the word "elegance" is quite foreign to many passengers. The days when HAL passengers dressed nicely on formal nights appear to be only a memory. Many of the passengers on those two cruises did not wear clothes that would have been acceptable in many work places much less in a dining room on formal night. Some of those folks could have improved their outfits by wearing HAL robes! LOL

Hank

We, too, are surprised HAL still permits smoking on verandahs.

It is long past time they should ban it. They claim to be so environmentally conscious, so dedicated to serving only 'renewable' fish, to not poluting the waters...... how about not poluting the verandahs of non-smoking guests who have neighbors blowing smoke their way?!

 

 

 

 

I will be shocked if HAL bans smoking. After annoying the people who bring wine on, there is no way they are going to lose the smoker's market as well. HAL is the goto line now for smokers and I fully expect to have smokers next to my verandah in the future!