Best cruise ship for smokers and bring own drinks?

[caviargal]

Wow...when I first saw this thread pop up, I ignored it...thought it was a sarcastic joke...like "What's the best cruise line for smoking, smuggling booze, hogging deck chairs, allowing one's bratty kids to run amok unsupervised, stealing robes and towels, harassing other guests, ignoring dining room etiquette and p*ssing in the jacuzzi?"

 

Like someone was rolling all the major pet peeve threads into one sarcastic cruise recommendation satire...

 

But, I finally went ahead and read this and found out someone's SERIOUS!!!

 

Look, most ships allow some smoking to go on in sections of the ship...With Carnival changing the policy on the Paradise, I don't think there's a completely nonsmoking ship out there...ALTHOUGH THEY ALL SHOULD BE...Smoking IS evil...and it IS harmful to those around the smoker...especially to asthmatics like myself...Unfortunately, such a policy is not in effect anywhere in the cruise business today...So, discussing the merits in response to this thread is moot...

 

However, if what they also might be concerned with is how they might be received as smokers, there is some amount of difference in the acceptance of smoking cruise line to cruise line, ship to ship and itinerary to itinerary...Some ships have larger areas restricted than others...

 

The first thing to look at is the nationality-demographics...Europeans and Asians are more likely smokers than Americans...A cruise line that specifically caters to Europeans like Costa, for example, is likely to have a larger proportion of smokers and therefore, less restrictive rules and more overall acceptance...

 

And beware any cruise out here on the West Coast...California has the most restrictive smoking laws and has had them in effect for the longest time...and California also has the smallest proportion of smokers in the entire US...Smoking just isn't quite as accepted here as it is in other parts of the country...Cruises out here have a much higher number of Californians and, therefore, far fewer smokers...and smokers may feel less at ease with us anti-tobacco vigilantes on board...

 

Smuggling drinks is another matter...and I've discussed that at length on another thread...

 

Whatever your friends do, please tell them NOT to cruise on the Constellation this July...and keep them off the Pacific Princess next July...

 

Many of us are looking for the ships that discourage smoking...don't cater to booze smugglers...and also are adverse to those who hog deck chairs, folks who allow their bratty kids to run amok unsupervised, people who steal robes and towels, people who harass other guests, ignoring dining room etiquette and, especially, p*ssing in the jacuzzi...

 

 

I could not have said it better myself!