Non-smoker question

[HD2003]

We just received our guarantee Veranda cabin number on the Equinox.  It is a 2C cabin on deck 6 midship which is above a designated smoking area on deck 5.  Have any non smoking passengers found this to be an issue while sitting on your balcony while in port or underway?

[CoconutOne]

Yes! In my case they moved the smoking area to mid-ship starboard due to the gangway being on deck 5 mid-ship port. The balcony was unusable during the two days we were docked in port. While they gave a credit for a future cruise since I complained about it, I would have rather been able to use my balcony. 

 

I would never book on the port side, and after dealing with the nonsense they pulled on my sailing, I'm going to try and book forward or aft if we're in a port where a high gangway is used.

[Grandmaanne7]

Having just walked through the smokers is enough for me to never book a veranda on the port side.  We always book starboard, even on higher up decks.  It's not worth the risk of being unable to use the balcony that you paid for.

 

[bubbachief]

See if you can switch to a 2C cabin on the starboard side. They do switches like that all the time.

[laughingas]

We were on Equinox in Oct. We had a hump cabin on the starboard side of deck 8. By the 3rd day we found that our balcony was mostly unusable because people would go out on deck 5 outside of the cafe bacio to smoke. This was on the starboard side. They would have their coffee and pastries and smoke after or during. As that area is VERY popular...there was almost always some people smoking there. In port the smoke would rise directly up to those balcony staterooms over that area outside Cafe Bacio. Ugh!

[dogs4fun]

10 hours ago, HD2003 said:

We just received our guarantee Veranda cabin number on the Equinox.  It is a 2C cabin on deck 6 midship which is above a designated smoking area on deck 5.  Have any non smoking passengers found this to be an issue while sitting on your balcony while in port or underway?

If this was our designated cabin, we would immediately request a change. The smoke rises and you will smell it while in port. I am surprised that Celebrity does not take the extra step to assign these cabins to cruisers that enjoy smoking as I suspect that the smell of smoke would not be as bothersome to them as to a nonsmoker.

[Bo1953]

1 hour ago, dogs4fun said:

If this was our designated cabin, we would immediately request a change. The smoke rises and you will smell it while in port. I am surprised that Celebrity does not take the extra step to assign these cabins to cruisers that enjoy smoking as I suspect that the smell of smoke would not be as bothersome to them as to a nonsmoker.

Hmmm, I rechecked the booking process and related areas and did not find anyplace where X asks if I or anyone in our party are smokers and would we enjoy cabins above or near the smoking area...

 

If I missed it, please advise.

 

bon voyage

[twins_to_alaska]

It was suggested it would be good to ask that... not that they currently do.

 

[Ergates The Ant]

Made this mistake once, and never again! Yes, the smoke rises, and smokers do tend to lean on the railing to flick their ash over the side!

We have favoured Celebrity because of its strict smoking policy, but they do rather spoil it by rendering half the already short promenade deck unusable, and in my opinion, a good number of the balcony cabins on the smoking side.

I would certainly complain about your allocation and give your reasons, if we don’t tell them, they won’t know. I have in the past not booked more than one Celebrity cruise because the only cabins in the category I wanted were on the designated smoking side.

[fragilek]

8 hours ago, bubbachief said:

See if you can switch to a 2C cabin on the starboard side. They do switches like that all the time.

 Just for info you cannot do this if you book in the UK .  In case someone reads and thinks they can book and change- I got caught out with is booking in the UK after having read about changing on here.

[dogs4fun]

1 hour ago, twins_to_alaska said:

It was suggested it would be good to ask that... not that they currently do.

Thanks - that is precisely what I meant. 

[lovecruzin]

14 hours ago, laughingas said:

We were on Equinox in Oct. We had a hump cabin on the starboard side of deck 8. By the 3rd day we found that our balcony was mostly unusable because people would go out on deck 5 outside of the cafe bacio to smoke. This was on the starboard side. They would have their coffee and pastries and smoke after or during. As that area is VERY popular...there was almost always some people smoking there. In port the smoke would rise directly up to those balcony staterooms over that area outside Cafe Bacio. Ugh!

 

We were also on Equinox in October. I complained about them moving/adding the smoking area to Starboard. Much of deck 5 was unusable as there was smoking forward on the port side and mid starboard.  I don't know what they changed the smoking section , i only hope that is not the new norm. 

[Cruise Raider]

I really wish they would limit smoking to the top deck at the very aft....they've done so good eliminating it from most all other areas.  

We were in the last cabin on the smoking side of the ship on deck 6 and we found there was so much smoke in that hallway as either someone was smoking on their balcony or just had their balcony open and then opened their cabin door and the entire hallways smelled of smoke.  It wasn't just us, others we were traveling with complained about the same, except they were more midship and were really affected by it.  

We even found that being in the AQ cabins on deck 11, being below and just aft of the smoking area near the pool, that the smoke sucked right into our balcony when the pool area window was open.  

Anyway, we now just avoid the smoking side altogether when we book on Celebrity.  

[laughingas]

If we had known Celebrity would have a section on STARBOARD for smoking ( Equinox) as we understood all smoking was portside...we would have not booked the hump cabin over the smoking section. We are sailing on Reflection next year and hope they haven’t opened a Starboard section on 5 under the hump.  It’s bad enough that the Sunset bar is virtually unusable for non smokers while ship is underway especially when cigar smokers are on port side. It is a lovely area and we would have loved to use it. 

[bEwAbG]

The rule of thumb is that the smoking is on the port side but it's really at their discretion.  Sometimes they move it if they're using the port side for something else while in port, particularly if they are taking on fuel or have to do maintenance.  They may also close the port side due to weather conditions, particularly if it's very windy. 

 

You can always call the front desk and complain if people are smoking some place other than a designated area, keeping in mind that the designated area may have changed based on the circumstances.

 

They already restrict smoking to outside only.  I think it's a bit unreasonable to expect that they're going to be able to control the direction of the smoke beyond that, especially 24/7. 

[Jammu2]

I was on Eclipse on 6 right above the smoking area. It did not spoil our cruise or anything, but I know to look out for it in the future.

 

I only smelled smoke a couple times so in that regard, not really a problem.

 

But it seems smokers are pretty friendly with each other (good for them) and there was some pretty loud talking, laughing, which sometimes turned in to cackling hacking and coughing. So I will be more aware of placement next time.

 

[pilot]

We were on deck 9 forward and could smell the smoke. Would not book this area again. 

[candydane]

Where are the designated smoking areas on Equionox?

[hcat]

On 11/13/2019 at 7:45 AM, fragilek said:

 Just for info you cannot do this if you book in the UK .  In case someone reads and thinks they can book and change- I got caught out with is booking in the UK after having read about changing on here.

Even if someone has allergies or breathing issues? 

Seems wrong to make someone suffer a health related problem not of their own making

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

2 hours ago, hcat said:

Even if someone has allergies or breathing issues? 

Seems wrong to make someone suffer a health related problem not of their own making

If you have issues that require you not to be near certain areas (breathing, seasickness, etc.) then booking a GTY cabin or bidding on an upgrade where you could be assigned anywhere is probably not the option you should choose IMO.