No smoking on balconies

[BamaGuy44]

Non smoker here, but the policy never made sense to me.

 

So you can't smoke on balconies because it may effect the health and enjoyment of non smoking guests, and for them not to be able to enjoy their balcony.... yet you can smoke on the lower promenade - with all the smoke blowing up onto the balconies above?

 

And, now there is more smoking crammed into the the casino.

 

So I really don't get it. People staying on the smoking side of the ship are still going to get it on their balconies, and the amount of smoking inside the casino definitely travels through the ship, that can't be good for health.

 

Why can't they ban smoking completely inside the ship and have it outside on one side of the ship - including balconies on that side of the ship.

 

Cruising before I always had a balcony and no smoke ever bothered me. Walking through the ship now and the casino, it does actually bother me and is disgusting. I find the policy ridiculous, making no sense and actually worse for a non smoker.

 

There aren't enough smokers booking cruises to fill one side's balconies, so that idea wouldn't work. And if you're more than one floor up from the promenade the smoke reaching your cabin will be far less than someone smoking one balcony over.

 

I agree it sucks that it's pushing more smokers into the casino. It's supposed to be only if you're gambling but I doubt it's enforced. I don't agree it's worse for a non smoker overall though, IMO it's a step in the right direction. Just a stepping stone to all smoking being banned indoors on the ships. Only a matter of time.

 

To the person that asked whether the smoking rules will be relaxed on the Asian routes, of course it will. RCI will set policies that match up with what their Asian customers want. Just like the North American policies match up with what customers want here.

Edited September 9, 2014 by BamaGuy44

[negc]

Well, folks time to start writing those letters and emails to RCCL if you want the policy to be changed again.

 

I agree...smoking should be outdoors. I'm sure they can find a compromise. Make one side completely smoke free. Dedicate a set number of balconies, on the opposite side of the ship, in the same section of the rear and once they're gone, they're gone. Hotels do this...why can't RCCL?

 

 

Check your fact about hotel smoking policies again and I think that you will find that most of the major hotel chains now totally ban smoking on their properties. Only about 20% of the US adult population now smokes and the percentage seems to be shrinking each year, so determining how many staterooms to designate as smoking rooms is easier said than done. Making only one side of the ship smoke=free means that under your proposed solution 50% of the balconies would be available for the 20% of the passengers who smoke. Trying to apportion the number of rooms according to the number of smokers on any particular sailing is a task I wouldn't wish on anyone and if a room that was a smoking room on one cruise was reclassified as a non-smoking room on the next, non-smokers assigned to that room might not be happy with the lingering odor of stale cigarette smoke that they encountered in their stateroom. A simpler solution was the one that was chosen - prohibiting smoking on ALL balconies. The trend towards disallowing smoking in most public venues on land and at sea is becoming more and more obvious, so the casino situation may eventually be changed as well. In the meantime, the line has provided locations where smoking is permitted.