Smokers

[TKS]

This thread exemplifies why I will never cruise on O again. You people go around sniffing to see if others, by chance, offend you by their odors?

 

For the record, on my one and only O cruise, the most interesting and informative people I met were the smokers, when we met up in the teeny smoking ghetto on the ship. We really enjoyed our times with the captain too, when he joined us to indulge in a fag.

 

You consider the many, many ways others might offend you on your cruise. Just a thought - might you be offensive to others in some way? Or do you care at all about that?

 

Yes, I do consider how I might offend others, and I do care. But it is true that smokers are not looked upon kindly aboard O's ships, and many other places. I took a Celebrity cruise last spring, and its policies were similar to O, and the smokers were similarly restricted aboard, and the areas where smoking was taking place were similarly deserted by other passengers.

 

Sorry if I offended you because I have a sensitive sense of smell, but as a smoker I expect life aboard O is not the only place you are looked at sideways. More and more ships, cities and countries are severely restricting smoking, so your life can't always be easy. My dad struggled to quit smoking the last 10 years of his life, and I saw how hard it was for him.

 

I hope you find a cruise line that better meets your needs.

[no fuss travel]

This thread exemplifies why I will never cruise on O again. You people go around sniffing to see if others, by chance, offend you by their odors?

 

For the record, on my one and only O cruise, the most interesting and informative people I met were the smokers, when we met up in the teeny smoking ghetto on the ship. We really enjoyed our times with the captain too, when he joined us to indulge in a fag.

 

You consider the many, many ways others might offend you on your cruise. Just a thought - might you be offensive to others in some way? Or do you care at all about that?

 

How do you manage in restaurants at home in Ottawa. Canada has some of the most restrictive laws banning smoking in public places. I am sorry if you were offended by my comments about scents, but when one has allergies towards smoking byproducts and perfume, after shave odours, they are not being rude by not talking to or associating with smokers, they are just trying not to have a severe or mild reaction. Yes, you have a right to smoke, but society is now laying down more rules for you as smokers are now in a minority rather than a majority in Canada and several other countries. Here is hoping you can find a cruise line that will allow you to smoke in peace.

[Iceberg 3]

This thread exemplifies why I will never cruise on O again. You people go around sniffing to see if others, by chance, offend you by their odors?

 

For the record, on my one and only O cruise, the most interesting and informative people I met were the smokers, when we met up in the teeny smoking ghetto on the ship. We really enjoyed our times with the captain too, when he joined us to indulge in a fag.

 

You consider the many, many ways others might offend you on your cruise. Just a thought - might you be offensive to others in some way? Or do you care at all about that?

 

Yes I care - and no I won't miss you

[therhodes]

I get the impression that if someone smells, of just about anything that someone else doesn't like, they are immediately and absolutely disliked. Perhaps that''s not really the case but it's like you are looking down your nose at these people.

 

You may be missing out on meeting some incredibly wonderful people!

 

Like the old, sweaty, smelly lady next door to us in Italy........she was just wonderful, gave us some of the best homemade olive oil I've ever tasted and beautiful fresh veggies from her garden, took us on a tour of her little vineyard and sat tasting her wine on crates.

 

Or the old guy in Greece with the butt hanging out of his mouth (AND missing teeth!), halo of smoke surrounding his head.......he gave us the best real sundried tomatoes ever and huge zucchinis from his garden.

 

The man in Turkey with the eggs, the old man in France that fixed our flat tire and then gave us some of his homemade wine and sausage.....all would have sent someone with olfactory issues over the egde.

 

On and on I could go......if we'd let these "smelly people" offend us we'd had missed some of the greatest opportunities of our travels.

 

The world is a big wonderful place and sometimes tolerance of things that don't hurt you (physically) is a virtue that will let you see the real world.

 

Safe travels everyone.

[ClaudiaF]

While whenever "smoking issues" come up on this board..it is always a "Hot topic" ( pun intended)... but now it is just ridiculous to read..

To Therhodes , you are so right and I would share a tour with you any day:D

[therhodes]

Thanks Claudia......having an open mind, being non-judgmental and a sense of adventure really opens the world and all the great people and experiences that can be enjoyed.

 

Sometimes letting your hair down (not your guard!) and living for the day is the way to go.

[Hawaiidan]

It seems more and more people are developing aversions to every thing from peanuts, perfume to smoking. New allergies and conditions are popping up like weeds.

These aversions did not exist 20 years ago and seem to have been developed to ever reaching heights in todays society. It seems cool or erudite to be so sensitive and caring.

 

I liken it to the princess and the pea syndrome. The real problem begins with a person wanting to have a problem.:rolleyes:

 

In the final decision to be upset or affected is in reality your own personal choice. Likewise you can also choose to not let it affect you.

 

I can sit down with a group of smokers and tobacco chewing, knuckle cracking sweat drenched folks anytime any where if they so interest me.

 

How about you?:cool:..............life is too short to be pickey

[tropicalkerry2002]

to infer that I WANT to have a problem with the smell of cigarette smoke!

 

I am an RN, interview patients pre-op. When I bring the paperwork from the patient's home into my interview room before I even SEE the pt, I quite often know they smoke, from the odour on the papers. My sinuses start to congest. Once the patient is IN my room and I am talking to them, my throat gets dry and scratchy, and eventually my eyes will water. If the next pt is brought into the room immediately, without time to have some circulation through the room, that pt will often comment that a smoker was in the room. I have had patients refuse to come into that interview room, until it airs out. I work with decongestant nasal spray in my pocket, and oral decongestants handy.

 

I posted this on anther thread but here it is again:

 

It is great that SOME people can afford their own private tour, or always have people travelling with them to defray the cost of their private tour.

 

(It is also great if you are lucky enough to not be bothered by any chemicals, but don't think that people are "imagining" it, and can will themselves to stuff up their sinuses, cough and get watery eyes!)

 

We can not afford to do a private tour on our own in each port.

 

We choose to sail Oceania for the wonderful experience, and don't want to take ship excursions.

 

If I do the work of organizing a private tour(researching guides, communicating with guides and participants for several months, reconfirming with guides and participants before the cruise), I feel I have every right to ask for non smokers only, so I can enjoy the fruits of my labour.

 

I do NOT go around sniffing people to see if they smoke; I don't have to: 99% of the time, I know immediately.

 

Your attire does not affect my health. Your kids do not affect my health. (well, maybe my mental health!)

 

Your smoking affects my health.

 

I have no problem with smokers on the ship. I will not avoid you if you are a smoker...I just want to be able to breathe in small, enclosed spaces.

 

I have NO choice in this matter if I want to be able to enjoy myself.

 

I would prefer no one smoked, but I am accepting that some do. I don't look down my nose at you...but in some situations my health comes first!

[Hawaiidan]

to infer that I WANT to have a problem with the smell of cigarette smoke!

 

 

I do NOT go around sniffing people to see if they smoke; I don't have to: 99% of the time, I know immediately.

..but in some situations my health comes first!

 

Both my wife and I have a background in medicine,( RN/PA/MICPN)

What you inferred was you had an anaphylactic episode with no physical contact. Which is a physiological impossibility with out the body absorbing a substance through direct contact to form antigens in response to that contact. Smell is not contact.

What you actually did described is a psychological or psychogenic response to a personal aversion; your patients too described the same based on their choice .

 

Pavloff 's dogs salivated by pure psychological training and no physical contact. You see it in placebo testing where the brain tells the body what to do. Much akin to aversion therapy people can be trained to be come repulsed even ill if smelling a favorite food like candy or ice cream.

So yes your body and those of others have conditioned response's triggered by psychological aversions which have been selected by conditioning.

 

So yes... we choose in many cases what will affect us........ That is my point. The bottom line is we all can control our lies for the better or worse....Choice its all yours

[tropicalkerry2002]

With airway swelling etc, requiring adrenaline to reverse.people carry epi pens.

Most allergic responses are not anaphylaxis.

We,ll agree to disagree on your theory.

[Hawaiidan]

Kerry,

.....flood a bag for me TKO....

[azevedan]

*50* years ago, when I was growing up, I would hide in another room by myself because the uncles and aunts (but fortunately, not my parents) all smoked (and many died early) so as to minimize how much smoke I would breathe in during their visits.

 

*30* years ago, when I started working in the corporate world (and smoking was still allowed in the buildings), the person behind me smoked a pipe and it would make me feel lousy and give me headaches. So I brought a small (yes, it was small) fan and blew the smoke backward. The seating got rearranged because *he* complained.

 

I, too, can instantly tell if someone is a smoker or if a smoker has been in a room or elevator I have just entered. I wager to say most anyone who isn't a smoker can do the same, unless they have a compromised sense of smell. I certainly don't have to go 'sniffing' for it. I have had smokers tell me they don't smoke when I can clearly smell it on their breaths. You know why? As with any odor you're around all the time, you become inured. (That's also why some people overdose themselves with perfume - they can no longer smell it, so they think they need more.)

 

*25* years ago, I stopped bowling after only a couple of years because I was tired of driving home even in the winter with the windows down in hopes that my now-smoke-embued clothes would not pass their stink on to my car.

 

After visiting my sister (now an ex-smoker), we would jump in the shower as soon as we got home and throw our clothes right in the wash. Ditto with presents - either wash, or air them outside until the stink was gone. I ordered a pack of note cards from an artist (through the mail) once that I couldn't use, as beautiful as they were, because they stunk of smoke.

 

Just because it doesn't bother *you*, or *you* don't smell it does not mean that everyone else is insensate to it. Just because it doesn't give *you* a scratchy throat, watery eyes, and/or headaches, does not mean it has no physiological effect on anyone else. By your rationale, no one would ever react to pollen in the air, either.

[ORV]

We are thinking of joining a couple of private tours on our next O cruise but hate travelling in small buses with smokers. They are free to smoke to their hearts/lungs content but we find that the smell can be overpowering in confined areas (for example a small bus).

 

Is it politically correct to ask the question ?

 

Oh and I have no objection to anyone wearing Dungarees as per other thread !

 

Brian

 

As we seem to be getting off the original topic here I thought I'd post it for those that are losing focus.

 

As has been pointed out by others I feel that if you are the tour organizer you can set it up any way you like.

[ChatKat in Ca.]

Smoking threads on the boards usually go nowhere fast. I am thankful that smoking is limited on Oceania. It gives me a choice of an area on board to stay away from.

 

About 8 years ago I was in Alaska on a cruise; I am a photographer and the woman in the next cabin and I knew each other from a travel board and the cruise was put on by our mutual travel agent. She knew that I was a former smoker and did not like being around it. Every time I went out to photograph from my veranda she went out purposefully to smoke and she was one cabin forward of me. If we went to the lounge - which smoking was permitted at the time - she purposefully came near me to blow smoke in my face. Honestly - it really affected my entire cruise;

 

I think people should do as they will - but - your right to smoke ends when it affects me. If someone is on a private tour I am on and have planned and they smoke, they are welcome to but if they puff just before boarding - then it's inconsiderate of the others on the tour. I ask everyone on a tour I plan to be considerate and polite to one another. If they can't abide by the one rule, then they might find themselves on an alternate transport back to the ship.

[Noxequifans]

If a person is addicted to candy bars it does not impact me. When the addiction is tobacco it does. I look forward to the day when smoking will not be permitted on board .... Same as on airlines.

[orchestrapal]

if a person is addicted to candy bars it does not impact me. When the addiction is tobacco it does. I look forward to the day when smoking will not be permitted on board .... Same as on airlines.

 

agree !

[hypercafe]

I do not see the big deal here, if you do not like smokers stay away from them. If the ship allows smoking in some places stay away from them. If you plan a tour only allow non smokers to go. If you can not find any go by yourself. I really do not think anyone wants to tie you down and blow smoke in your face. If smelling smoke on a persons cloths is offensive, just to play it safe stay in your room or stay home. Maybe someday it will be outlawed, then if you smell smoke on a person you can have that person put in prison, until then I do not see any recourse.

[TKS]

This thread is becoming really tiresome. Isn't it time to give it all a rest and let it die a natural death?

[DOJO466]

this thread is becoming really tiresome. Isn't it time to give it all a rest and let it die a natural death?

r.i.p

[Host Jazzbeau]

I do not see the big deal here, if you do not like smokers stay away from them. If the ship allows smoking in some places stay away from them. If you plan a tour only allow non smokers to go. If you can not find any go by yourself. I really do not think anyone wants to tie you down and blow smoke in your face. If smelling smoke on a persons cloths is offensive, just to play it safe stay in your room or stay home. Maybe someday it will be outlawed, then if you smell smoke on a person you can have that person put in prison, until then I do not see any recourse.

 

What part of "New York, NY" do you live in - and have not seen how quickly mores and laws about smoking can change? If Mayor Bloomberg had been able to get a 4th term, smoking would be outlawed even in your dreams!

[tropicalkerry2002]

Please read about it.

[brian_uk]

Having started this thread I feel I should end it.....

 

It was a simple question requiring the same answer.

 

I could care less if any person chooses to smoke, I will happily be in their Company but I just felt that in the confines of a small bus, whether it would be acceptable to ask the question.

 

A tout a l'heure

 

Brian

[hypercafe]

What part of "New York, NY" do you live in - and have not seen how quickly mores and laws about smoking can change? If Mayor Bloomberg had been able to get a 4th term, smoking would be outlawed even in your dreams!

 

I live on Staten Island, what people wish would happen or dream about does not matter at all. What matters is following the laws that are on the books where you are and the rules and guidelines of the place/ship you on on/in. If all do that the only recourse you have is to vote with your ballot/money.

[gillianrose]

This thread is becoming really tiresome. Isn't it time to give it all a rest and let it die a natural death?

 

No thread is tiresome if anyone still wants to comment on a subject.

What I find tiresome is people who try to shut down speech.

[Travelcat2]

No thread is tiresome if anyone still wants to comment on a subject.

What I find tiresome is people who try to shut down speech.

 

Agree 100%!