News on Summit

[gillianrose]

If the casinos on =X= go non-smoking, they might gain a few new non-smoking patrons who avoided the smoke filled casino before now, but it won't make up for the loss they will take from the smokers who have to satisfy their habit when it is at its strongest - the stress filled scenario of winning or losing your money. When I smoked and lived in Las Vegas, I would chain smoke three packs of cigarettes in eight hours while playing blackjack. When I quit nearly six years ago, I also had to limit my gambling because I knew it was a trigger for the smoking habit. They simply go together. If I still smoked and sailed on a ship that had a non-smoking casino, I wouldn't play because satisfying the nicotine addiction and habit is far more important than gambling.

 

Nicotine is available in numerous forms which are not noxious to fellow passengers or fellow casino patrons. It does not need to be INHALED, or worse....EXHALED. There is no side-stream smoke when one gets their nicotine fix by these other methods.

 

The addiction is to the NICOTINE, not to the smoking of it as the method by which to get "THE FIX."

[helenp2]

France goes smoke free - what next??? Seriously, in Atlantic City it was the dealers, pit bosses, and floor people who insisted on "smoke fee" casinos. There is a very small area in each AC casino where smoking is allowed, but for the most part these casinos are smoke free. On HAL newest ship the Noordam their casino is completely non smoking for the entire cruise. Has it stoped smokers from gambling? In a word - no. They have a "sports bar" that allows smoking just outside of their casino, so what you see are smokers running in there to smoke. Now I'm hearing that the Bar staff in that bar are complaining that their only customers who run in to smoke and leave. Hard to please everyone, but I can tell you it is a pleasure not to have to enter that area and be forced to smell that tobacco oder that hangs in the air of most casinos.

[betsyter]

Trying to understand the high correlation between smoking and gambling....

[cptlapcat]

I can only impart what the Captain actually told us. This was not some "I heard from a friend of a friend, who may know the cousin of the captain", but actually from the man himself, told to my very own ears. He said, "they are replacing the pods". Whatever that entails, I have no idea, but that was also told to me by the Chief Housekeeper and the Hotel Director. I know that before Crystal Serenity had her maiden voyage, they had to send the Serenity back to France, two weeks before the first cruise, to replace their pods. The maiden voyage took place exactly on time, as I was on Serenity for that very first voyage.

Hi Kitty. I too had dinner with Captain Berdos and met him on the bridge for a private tour. I asked him about the dry dock and specifically if they were going to replace the pods. He stated they "were not" going to replace the pods at the dry dock. They were going to replace engines (can't remember which ones) and basically redo the entire interior with new carpeting and all new furniture. He said that the crew would remain on the ship for 20 days to assist with the work.

 

By the way, I don't doubt what you are saying.

 

I guess we now know how people get away with murder as there is sometimes two different versions of the same story.

[lvcruiser]

Nicotine is available in numerous forms which are not noxious to fellow passengers or fellow casino patrons. It does not need to be INHALED, or worse....EXHALED. There is no side-stream smoke when one gets their nicotine fix by these other methods.

 

The addiction is to the NICOTINE, not to the smoking of it as the method by which to get "THE FIX."

 

In your first paragraph, you are absolutely correct in the fact that there are other forms of ingesting nicotine other than smoking. Have you ever sat next to a cowboy with a big chaw in his mouth, who every two or three minutes has to spit his disgusting looking brown saliva into a cup sitting between you and him? The rancid smell will knock you off your seat. If you think the majority of smokers are going to have the consideration to go to WalMart and buy a nicotine patch and put it on before entering a casino, I suggest you think again.

 

In your second paragraph, I feel obligated to correct what appears to be a misconception on your part. If you have never been a smoker, you will not understand that cigarette smoking is both an addiction and a habit. The addiction is to the nicotine; however, the habit is created by the act of smoking. When I would chain smoke while playing blackjack, I would nearly overdose on the amount of nicotine I was putting into my system, but I continued to smoke, not because I had to satisfy the addiction - that had already been accomplished. It was to satisfy the habit that had been exascerbated by the stress from the game. For some people, it is more difficult to break the habit than the addiction when you take into consideration that the addiction is relinquished within 48-72 hours after smoking cessation but the habit is not broken for at least 21 days. I'm not trying to start a war here, only correct a misperception.

 

Don't get me wrong - I am happily a non-smoker now and wish more states would ban smoking from casinos so my coworkers and I do not have to breath the second hand smoke. But it's going to take a little more time for society's demands to catch up with and overtake the strength of the casino lobbys in states such as Nevada. I fully support the cruise lines who are trying to ban smoking from the casinos or the entire ships.

[lvcruiser]

Trying to understand the high correlation between smoking and gambling....

 

They are both habits and with some people, addictions. Not all smokers are gamblers and not all gamblers are smokers, but the propensity for becoming one is greater if you are already the other. Psychologists have a name for those who have a tendency for creating new habits easily - habitual or addictive personalities. Drug users and alcoholics can fall into the same category. That doesn't mean that if you are a smoker or gambler, you will eventually become a drug addict, because one does not necessarily lead to another. The different habits are, however, interrelated from a psychological viewpoint.