Holland America Balcony Smoking Survey: Intermediate Results

First, I would like to thank the 284 people who took the time to answer the questions in the balcony smoking attitudes survey. That's a pretty impressive number of responses for a 16 hour period. I expected to see more people participating since the survey was anonymous, but the numbers exceeded my expectations.

Here are the highlights of the mid-point readout:

• The respondents were 51% non-smokers, 27% former smokers, and 22% smokers. This tracks pretty closely with national averages for the age groups in the survey.
  
• 49% of the survey participants would either prefer that balcony smoking be banned or are considering leaving because of balcony smoking.
  
• 28% of the respondents would either prefer that balcony smoking continue to be allowed, or would stop cruising on Holland America if smoking were no longer allowed on verandahs.
  
• 16% of the people taking the survey are neutral on the subject of balcony smoking.
  
• Before you tell me that those three percentages don't add up to 100%, please remember that the three numbers above don't include people who say they've stopped cruising on HAL. This group makes up the other 7%
  

You can see all the results, including the age and country data on the Holland America Balcony Smoking Survey: Intermediate Readout page, and you can download a PDF of the midpoint results, complete with pretty bar graphs and the numbers that accompany the percentages.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Before anyone decides to perform a victory dance on the subject, please be aware that once the survey data is sliced and diced, you will likely have a different picture than what you see from the aggregate data. The number of non-smokers and former smokers is quite high compared to the number of smokers. Once we filter the results to account for that, you will see a somewhat different scene begin to emerge.

We will also be looking at demographics such as age and location, and several other exciting variables sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. I will try to have the final report ready next week.

Thanks again to everyone who participated!

Thanks POA for doing the survey. Looking forward to the sliced and diced information.......:)

I guess that there were so many smoking threads lately that I have ignored, I missed your survey.

I guess that there were so many smoking threads lately that I have ignored, I missed your survey.

It's okay. I will still be your friend. :)

Love that the Institute of Cheer has carried on with it's all important issues.

It seems appropriate that you followed up with the corkage fee with this all important, encompassindcissue on the boards:D

Love the website:D

Thanks for reporting back.... but is this thread likely to disappear now or was the poll approved?

Thanks for reporting back.... but is this thread likely to disappear now or was the poll approved?

This is just the results from the people who voted.

It's a survey, which while a cousin of the poll, is a bot more complicated. Polls, like the ones you can host here, are just simple multiple choice questions. You could do a poll asking each of the questions (except location) but they would be standalone and there would be no way to separate out the responses of the various groups. You also wouldn't be able to guarantee that all of your required questions were answered by each participant. The survey engine allows you to do a lot more - both in terms of data collection and results analysis.

Thanks for the info. Like the website:).

Love the website:D

Thanks. The Institute is fortunate to have people with some mad web skillz. :cool:

Thanks, POA1. Very interesting, and scientific.:)

Thanks. The Institute is fortunate to have people with some mad web skillz. :cool:

May I make a small suggestion as I know absolutely nothing about any of this. Please take a snip or snapshot of your poll results. I am hoping I am wrong but I have a small inkling CC may be unhappy that your link actually directs cc members off of their site. This way if there is a problem you can simply post the results in a thread.

HalFacts I am sure is looked upon as good for the cruise community as Joanie's site was.

As always a wonderful job!

I'm pleased to see your preliminary results, as I had wondered what you would do after your thread disappeared.

I'm looking forward to your final report.

Thanks for work on this.

You're my hero POA ;)

Subscribing because at this point I love smoking threads.

You're my hero POA ;)

Wait until you see how excited everyone will be when they read the report detail (link in first post) and find that we're not as old as most people think.

Unless people lied about their age, which would never happen.

Just took the quiz and added to the ranks of 51-60 year old ex smokers from Albania who still sail HAL and will regardless but prefer no balcony smoking.

Actually since I'm over 50 I refrained from selecting Albania but man, I hovered over it. ;)

I guess that there were so many smoking threads lately that I have ignored, I missed your survey.

I missed it as well. I try to avoid the smoking threads but I do get drawn in at times. Thanks for taking the time to do the survey.

A very interesting read, Brian. Thanks for doing the survey!

A very interesting read, Brian. Thanks for doing the survey!

You're welcome.

This is the nicest smoking thread ever. (I probably jinxed it now.)

You're my hero POA ;)

Are we not owed an additional research project on the "Dive-In"? LOL!

Are we not owed an additional research project on the "Dive-In"? LOL!

Say what? ;)

Are we not owed an additional research project on the "Dive-In"? LOL!

You'd have to figure out how to do it with one question that can be answered with only multiple choice responses and you would have to be able to limit your choices to 14. That's what the CC polling tool supports.

Wait until you see how excited everyone will be when they read the report detail (link in first post) and find that we're not as old as most people think.

 

Unless people lied about their age, which would never happen.

I told the truth...:(

:eek: I hate to be at the start of a new "range".

I told the truth...:(

 

:eek: I hate to be at the start of a new "range".

I feel your pain. I'm at the start of a range. My wife, who is two years younger, is at the end of a range. This is very funny to her.

At least for the nest year or so.

I also missed taking part in your survey.