Cigar Smoking

[DesertGal]

We just returned from a cruise on Jewel of the Seas and loved the ship but hated all the smoking areas onboard. We were happy to be upgraded to a junior suite until we tried sitting on our balcony. Someone in a balcony below ours kept smoking one cigar after another. The smoke kept getting trapped beneath the overhang above the top deck area where we were located. We ended up hardly sitting on our balcony at all because of the smoke.

 

We also had to walk through a smoke filled casino to get to the theater, as well as walk through a smoke filled piano bar to get to the two alternative restaurants and main entertainment lounge each evening.

The NCL Dawn and Carnival Ships we've sailed had a hallway around their casinos. I don't ever remember having problems with smoke on other cruiselines like I have on Royal Caribbean due to the designated smoking areas. NCL Dawn had a smoking room for cigar lovers. I wish all ships did. Unfortunately, I spent much of my cruise ill from all the smoke.

[Happy ks]

I'm sensitive to smoke, so I know how you feel. I always try, once I know where the smoking areas are, to find an alternate route to where I'm going. If I can't, I take a deep breath and try to hold it while I rush through the smokey area. It might not always be convenient, but I don't want to be obnoxious to the smokers in their designated areas, which are shrinking all the time.

[LHT28]

Some cruiselines do not allow smoking in the cabins or public areas . Just 2 designated areas on Orientlines and Oceania...not sure of other lines.

Best to check first before you book...we are doing a Princess cruise next week so hope they have some rules also.

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

I share the frustration about smoke-filled casinos and some public areas on Royal caribbean. The only thing I know to do is every time you get a customer satisfaction survey at the end of your cruise, make your disatisfaction about the smoke known. Or write a letter or e-mail detailing your concerns. RCI claims to pay attention to passengers' suggestions and design their new ships with these concerns in mind. I don't know if that is really true, though, or just good politically correct PR.

 

It is often said here at these boards that smokers pay the same fare everyone does, and therefore have the right to smoke. I say, non-smokers pay the same fare as smokers do and therefore have the right to clean, pure air even in the casino.

 

Brilliance of the Seas has a cigar bar quite isolated from other areas. I think passengers should be told that the bar is available and to please refrain from smoking pipes and cigars in other areas or staterooms as a courtesy to other passnegers. But I am a hardliner about smoke, being an asthmatic.

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

Sorry about this addenda to my previous post, but the thought occured to me that you could also have gone to the Guest Relations desk and explained the unpleasant situation with your balcony air quality. I would love to know what, if anything, the staff would do about it. Would they just blow you off or would they make an effort to ask the smoker to please seek out a smoking area in a lounge. My guess is that they would apologize to you, while doing nothing, but maybe I am selling them short.

 

My son is a comptroller in the hotel industry. He has told me that customers who have a complaint and you have a valid complaint, by all means, must make their concerns known to management immediately. The quicker you do so and the higher up you go in the management chain, if a junior manager does not satisfy you, the better your chances are of having some accommodation made. If you wait until the end of the cruise or later, you lose a powerful negotiating benefit.

 

Next cruise, please try that strategy. I would love to know how it works out for you.