get rid of smoking in the casino

[TheHawk1]

2 hours ago, BND said:

The US has banned smoking indoors too.  It's the cruise lines that are behind the times.

There are 5 states that explicitly allow smoking in bars and casinos, Florida being one of them.  Every time I go to Florida, it's like being in a time warp where people in big cities like Miami and Tampa still smoke in bars. I would hardly blame the cruise lines as the only group behind the times.

[BND]

34 minutes ago, TheHawk1 said:

There are 5 states that explicitly allow smoking in bars and casinos, Florida being one of them.  Every time I go to Florida, it's like being in a time warp where people in big cities like Miami and Tampa still smoke in bars. I would hardly blame the cruise lines as the only group behind the times.

Never said they were the only, but they are behind the times for most locations.

 

I, personally don't know anyone who smokes anymore.  The few people we knew that did at work, have all died over the last 15 years or so.  I cannot name a single person I know that does.  At 15% and dropping, as I said, where is the tipping point?   Vast minority of the population.

[BND]

I love how the reality is smoking is dangerous for both smokers and those exposed to it.  No one should have to defend their right to not have to breathe it.

 

I think it's only a matter of time before the cruise lines follow almost every other location and ban indoor smoking.  Having been on multiple cruises and in the casino, I can tell you most smokers use the casino to smoke, not gamble.  I see a lot more people not smoking actually gambling.  

[SOCACRUISEGUY]

On 6/21/2021 at 8:25 AM, ramja96 said:

 

Should they ban breathing, too?

People stupidly chose to smoke, everyone has to breathe. 🙄

[davekathy]

4 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Well,,, for other ships like the Adventure, all adults have to be be vaccinated, so, by default, all casino players are vaccinated. 

I'm on onboard with that. Should be every ship and everyone, no matter age or medical condition. Eliminate all inside smoking on all ships and that would be even better.   

Edited June 27, 2021 by davekathy

[Tippyton]

Please make this happen.

[davekathy]

13 minutes ago, SOCACRUISEGUY said:

People stupidly chose to smoke, everyone has to breathe. 🙄

Disagree. Speaking only for myself, and a x-smoker I didn't stupidly chose to smoke. As a baby boomer I chose to smoke as it was the cool thing to do being under age (seemed like everyone smoked). I enjoyed smoking (26 years) but quit (over 30 years ago) because I wanted to. Saw too many people attached to oxygen. But I will admit, after I quit smoking I realized how bad the stench on my person including my breath was from cigarettes. I have no problem if others smoke (their choice for what ever the reason) but where they smoke is the issue. 

[Tippyton]

3 minutes ago, davekathy said:

Disagree. Speaking only for myself, and a x-smoker I didn't stupidly chose to smoke. As a baby boomer I chose to smoke as it was the cool thing to do being under age (seemed like everyone smoked). I enjoyed smoking (26 years) but quit (over 30 years ago) because I wanted to. Saw too many people attached to oxygen. But I will admit, after I quit smoking I realized how bad the stench on my person including my breath was from cigarettes. I have no problem if others smoke (their choice for what ever the reason) but where they smoke is the issue. 

Well stated from another ex.

[cruisegus]

On 6/21/2021 at 10:06 AM, ryano said:

 

Not gonna happen.  Smoking and gambling goes hand in hand to too many people.  Carnival tried to make one of its ships 100% smoke free.  It didnt last long.   Im sure RC gets hundreds of maybe even thousands of complaints a year about it

while i have heard this argument before, in out state which banned smoking even in bars, casino included, the proprietors all claimed they would go out of business.

Didn't happen, not even close.  More an more establishment opening every day and the old ones are still mostly in business.

[sparks1093]

10 hours ago, BND said:

I love how the reality is smoking is dangerous for both smokers and those exposed to it.  No one should have to defend their right to not have to breathe it.

 

I think it's only a matter of time before the cruise lines follow almost every other location and ban indoor smoking.  Having been on multiple cruises and in the casino, I can tell you most smokers use the casino to smoke, not gamble.  I see a lot more people not smoking actually gambling.  

I also think it's a matter of time before it changes, I just don't think it's going to happen now. I lost part of a lung to lung cancer due to smoking so I know first hand how dangerous it is. I steer clear of the casino because of the smoke. Smoking is still a legal activity and people still have the right to do it, even if they can't light up with impunity as they used to. But this thread isn't a defense of it at all. It's about Royal and their policy in one area of a ship. While what you've observed is valid it is too small a sample size. Royal has hundreds of people observing throughout their fleet every day and they have the most accurate data of what their passengers do, pre-COVID. The tipping point is dollars and cents...when Royal starts losing money because of the smoking then they will look at changing the policy. There is only one cruise line that has been mentioned as having banned smoking so Royal isn't alone and that too is another factor for them to consider. While they may be happy to lose a nonsmoker to Celebrity over this, since it's owned by Royal, I doubt they'd be willing to lose a significant number of smokers to CCL or NCL.

[livingonthebeach]

12 hours ago, TheHawk1 said:

There are 5 states that explicitly allow smoking in bars and casinos, Florida being one of them.  Every time I go to Florida, it's like being in a time warp where people in big cities like Miami and Tampa still smoke in bars. I would hardly blame the cruise lines as the only group behind the times.

 

The only places you can smoke indoors in FL are the Native American Indian casinos and some stand alone bars and even some of them have converted to non-smoking. I live in Miami-Dade County and haven’t been or heard of any smoking indoor bars or casinos in Miami. Florida passed the Florida Clean Indoor Air Act (FCIAA) in 1985. Where in Miami did you smoke indoors?  If there are any smoking places left they won’t be in business very much longer especially since the passing of the ban of e-cigarettes and vapping in 2019.

[coffeebean]

On 6/25/2021 at 12:38 PM, Evilgrin72 said:

Exactly this.  I'm a non-smoker, but if the rules keep pushing the smokers into smaller and smaller spaces, then the smoke in those spaces is going to get proportionately thicker.  Pretty simple.  People mill around the casino smoking because it's the only place left they can smoke indoors.  Not everyone wants to sit outside and smoke all day when it's a heat index of 110 degrees and/or pouring rain, as it often is in the Caribbean.

 

Ban inside smoking entirely and the next step is that people will complain about how smoky it is on the pool deck and start pushing them to ban it there too.  Pretty soon, you'll have 300 smokers standing in a 100 square foot spot somewhere outside on deck 14 and it'll look like a second funnel as the ship passes by.  Eventually, people who smoke will say "to hell with this" and move to another cruise line or off of cruising entirely if the others follow suit.

No great loss to have the smokers move off ships. As an ex-smoker, I would welcome a non- smoking ship.

[livingonthebeach]

45 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

......There is only one cruise line that has been mentioned as having banned smoking so Royal isn't alone and that too is another factor for them to consider. While they may be happy to lose a nonsmoker to Celebrity over this, since it's owned by Royal, I doubt they'd be willing to lose a significant number of smokers to CCL or NCL.

 

There are more cruise lines than Celebrity that have banned smoking in their casinos.  Azamara (pre sale), Cunard, some HAL ships, Oceania, P&O, Ponant, Regent, Seabourn, SeaDream, Silversea, Virgin and Viking Ocean to name a few. 

[sparks1093]

10 minutes ago, livingonthebeach said:

 

There are more cruise lines than Celebrity that have banned smoking in their casinos.  Azamara (pre sale), Cunard, some HAL ships, Oceania, P&O, Ponant, Regent, Seabourn, SeaDream, Silversea, Virgin and Viking Ocean to name a few. 

Thanks for the info. But Royal doesn't compete with those lines and their direct competion does allow smoking in their casinos. (And it seems that we nonsmokers have many options if we truly want a smoke free casino.😉)

[livingonthebeach]

Just now, sparks1093 said:

Thanks for the info. But Royal doesn't compete with those lines and their direct competion does allow smoking in their casinos. (And it seems that we nonsmokers have many options if we truly want a smoke free casino.😉)

 

True -- I've been on a few Celebrity ships (owned by RCG) and have truly enjoyed my time in the casino.  I would spend more time and $$ in RCI ship casinos if they had the same policy.  The smoking in casinos policy may change for RCG and other competing cruise lines in the CV19 era, going forward. 

[DirtyDawg]

Now that we've solved the smoking problem on Royal's ships, can we now turn our attention to those darn chair hogs and non-tippers. 😉

 

Edited June 27, 2021 by DirtyDawg

[livingonthebeach]

1 minute ago, DirtyDawg said:

Now that we've solved the smoking problem on Royal's ships, can we now turn our attention to those dawn chair hogs and non-tippers.

 

Easy solutions - enforce removal of personal belongings after 10 minutes for the chair hogs and have mandatory tipping on onboard accounts - no removal allowed. The smoking problem is harder to solve - maybe have a few ships non smoking in casinos to test the revenue stream?  I for one would book in a heart beat and would frequent the casino. 

[coffeebean]

On 6/25/2021 at 2:07 PM, Evilgrin72 said:

 

We're all just "making stuff up."  No one KNOWS for sure what would happen, unless you have a crystal ball to which I am not privy.

 

The big difference in the example you give is that a bar or restaurant is a place you go to for a couple of hours.  A cruise is someplace you go for several days to several weeks.  For a smoker, it's probably not THAT hard to keep an addiction at bay through a dinner.  They're not going to want to do it for days/weeks at a time.

 

It might not actually be that big of a deal to ban indoor smoking either, if it stopped there.  It won't.  I've already seen a lot of people griping about half the pool deck being a smoke cloud and it rolling over to the other side of the ship, if you just continue to increase the amount of smoking going on there, it's only going to get worse.  Which will foster more complaints.  Which leads us right back to this same spot again.

 

Another solution is to have smoking ships and non-smoking ships, the former having ample places to smoke and the latter having none.  But then, you'll get people complaining that all the itineraries/sail dates they wanted to book are on smoking ships.  People like to complain.

I think about how unhealthy a "smoking ship" would be for the crew. They would need hazard pay, IMHO.

[coffeebean]

On 6/25/2021 at 11:07 PM, ReneeFLL said:

Exactly, and if there are fewer and fewer places for smokers to go some might be more likely stop.

So very true. THAT is the reason I quit smoking 16 years ago and I was a 1 1/2 to 2 packs a day cigarette smoker. I was so tired of having to go somewhere else to smoke. I also felt like a second class citizen. I quit cold turkey and it has stuck, thank goodness.

[coffeebean]

On 6/25/2021 at 11:24 PM, livingonthebeach said:

Glad to see one of the new protocols for FOTS July 2nd sailing out of Miami is only vaccinated passengers will be allowed in the casino.  Unvaxxed blowing smoke (if smoking will be allowed - remains to be seen) will not be a concern.

 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/the-healthy-sail-center/getting-ready-to-cruise?dPort=miami

As someone said either in this thread or another thread on another forum (I read several cruise line forums)......if THAT doesn't send a message to the un-vaxxed, nothing will.

 

To the non-vaxxed........message received. Right?

[coffeebean]

On 6/26/2021 at 1:53 AM, ReneeFLL said:

They are taking away more and more places for the unvaccinated to go. They are definitely trying to get around the Florida rule. 👍🏼

I wonder what Governor DeSantis has to say about this?

[livingonthebeach]

5 minutes ago, coffeebean said:

I wonder what Governor DeSantis has to say about this?

 

Me too.  He wanted equal treatment and equal services for the unvaccinated. I don’t think he’ll interfere with cruises though - they bring much needed revenue to FL. 

[livingonthebeach]

14 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

The fact that Royal stills allows smoking leads me to conclude that they make money in the casino and that they believe it's because smokers spend more.

 

I believe it's drinkers that spend more -- that explains the free drinks to the high rollers.  You don't see them doling out any cigarettes.  They definitely need to go back to the good 'ole drawing board and do more studies when cruising comes back and see if they lose any high gambling smokers and not just people that use the casino as a smoking lounge, as many have pointed out,.  Could turn out they don't need to allow smoking in any indoor venues anymore. 

[coffeebean]

14 hours ago, TheHawk1 said:

There are 5 states that explicitly allow smoking in bars and casinos, Florida being one of them.  Every time I go to Florida, it's like being in a time warp where people in big cities like Miami and Tampa still smoke in bars. I would hardly blame the cruise lines as the only group behind the times.

I live in Florida and I did not know that. Just looked it up and checked Miami. Smoking is banned in bars in Miami that are attached to restaurants BUT smoking is permitted in free standing bars. Who knew? Not me as I do not go to free standing bars. Learn something every day!

[livingonthebeach]

Just now, coffeebean said:

I live in Florida and I did not know that. Just looked it up and checked Miami. Smoking is banned in bars in Miami that are attached to restaurants BUT smoking is permitted in free standing bars. Who knew? Not me as I do not go to free standing bars. Learn something every day!

 

There are not many in Miami.  I can safely state from living in Miami-Dade County that they are very few and far between. I don't know of any near me that allow indoor smoking.  The Hard Rock American Indian casino in Broward County is the only place I know of that allows indoor smoking and a lot of people will not set foot there because of that.