"New" Harmony non-smoking "mini"casino

[The Scurvy Pirate]

Was looking at the Harmony deck plans and cruise planner and just noticed it is now showing a dedicated non-smoking "mini" casino where Jazz of 4 used to be located.  I also never noticed before, but it says slot machines are open 24/7 except in restricted ports while the hours of operation are for the tables.  Wonder if the mini-casino will have its own bar or whether your will have to walk back to the main casino for a prime drink.

[steamboats]

Wonder of the Seas already has that mini casino called Golden Room (see here). At least on Wonder there is no bar in the Golden Room. Just sort of a buffet. But there it was planned as a VIP casino for the China business. It then was used as smoking casino. But I´m pretty sure that they do serve you drinks in there.

 

steamboats

[JamesEM]

I will be doing a b-3-b next month on the Harmony and report back.

[Denversail]

I think they just added this room to Oasis as well. 

[marymunro]

Wasn’t on Oasis in January, but was much needed. Many slot machines were out of service, and the casino was bursting at the seams with so many smokers, it was really nasty smelling with no reprieve. The casino bar had 30 min wait time for a drink, packed with non-gambling chain smokers.

[Denversail]

22 minutes ago, marymunro said:

Wasn’t on Oasis in January, but was much needed. Many slot machines were out of service, and the casino was bursting at the seams with so many smokers, it was really nasty smelling with no reprieve. The casino bar had 30 min wait time for a drink, packed with non-gambling chain smokers.

It was under construction in March. Not sure if it has opened yet. 

[brillohead]

1 hour ago, Denversail said:

I think they just added this room to Oasis as well. 

 

It's being added to all of the O-class ships, removing the Jazz on Four lounge.

[marymunro]

1 hour ago, Denversail said:

It was under construction in March. Not sure if it has opened yet. 

It would have made it a whole different experience for me, for sure 😊

[marymunro]

36 minutes ago, brillohead said:

 

It's being added to all of the O-class ships, removing the Jazz on Four lounge.

It’s not reflected in the Symphony deck plan

[nelblu]

21 hours ago, The Scurvy Pirate said:

Wonder if the mini-casino will have its own bar or whether your will have to walk back to the main casino for a prime drink.

The DL is there and wonder if some arrangements are made.

Also, besides being a non-smoking area, what about the main Casino part will it still be smoking and non-smoking. 

[BirdTravels]

21 hours ago, The Scurvy Pirate said:

Was looking at the Harmony deck plans and cruise planner and just noticed it is now showing a dedicated non-smoking "mini" casino where Jazz of 4 used to be located.  I also never noticed before, but it says slot machines are open 24/7 except in restricted ports while the hours of operation are for the tables.  Wonder if the mini-casino will have its own bar or whether your will have to walk back to the main casino for a prime drink.

Royal still doesn’t get it. NCL has had mini casinos for years. BUT,,, the NCL small, enclosed casino is for smokers. And their main casinos are non smoking. The Golden Room on the Wonder is a joke. 

[rberns6171]

Was on Wonder in January.  They have Golden casino where Jazz club was.  There is a black jack table, Texas hold em table, and Roulette table along with probably 20 slot machines. There is no bar but they do have waiter service !!There also is a small buffet like diamond lounge in back of casino  Completly NON SMOKING !!  They also have a drawing at midnight where they give away $$$$ to get people to come play in Golden Room. We really enjoyed it !!

[Mikew0805]

8 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Royal still doesn’t get it. NCL has had mini casinos for years. BUT,,, the NCL small, enclosed casino is for smokers. And their main casinos are non smoking. The Golden Room on the Wonder is a joke. 

I think they get it just fine, as Michael Bayley said back in June.

[dad son team]

I'm on the Harmony in 2 weeks and I was looking at the schedule and they have the non smoking casino listed as an activity 

Edited April 1, 2023 by dad son team

[mac_tlc]

3 hours ago, Mikew0805 said:

I think they get it just fine, as Michael Bayley said back in June.

I think Celebrity gets it.

 

Having a fictitious divide between the smoking and non-smoking sides of a large room is crazy and quite ineffective. The casino bar usually reeks of smoke and the smell only fades as you get to the far wall. 

 

mac_tlc

[Mikew0805]

11 hours ago, mac_tlc said:

I think Celebrity gets it.

 

Having a fictitious divide between the smoking and non-smoking sides of a large room is crazy and quite ineffective. The casino bar usually reeks of smoke and the smell only fades as you get to the far wall. 

 

mac_tlc

What does this have to do with my response. The comment is about Royal, not Celebrity. What I cannot believe is that so many people think that Royal just leaves the smoking area so smokers can smoke. Are you kidding me? If Royal thought they would make $1 more by making it non smoking, they would do it in a heartbeat. It's about money... period.

 

If a non-smoker does not like the smell... don't go. It's really that simple. Maybe if enough non-smokers do not go, it will affect the bottom line more than when smokers choose not to go when there is no smoking.

[mac_tlc]

23 minutes ago, Mikew0805 said:

What does this have to do with my response. The comment is about Royal, not Celebrity. What I cannot believe is that so many people think that Royal just leaves the smoking area so smokers can smoke. Are you kidding me? If Royal thought they would make $1 more by making it non smoking, they would do it in a heartbeat. It's about money... period.

 

If a non-smoker does not like the smell... don't go. It's really that simple. Maybe if enough non-smokers do not go, it will affect the bottom line more than when smokers choose not to go when there is no smoking.

Since your response was about Royal in contrast to NCL, given the post you quoted, I think it’s allowed to mention Celebrity in contrast to Royal. 
 

We don’t gamble a lot of $$, and have severely reduced our Royal sailings, but will be visiting the new no smoking casino on Oasis this summer and will not visit the smoke filled one. 
 

mac_tlc

[Mikew0805]

35 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

Since your response was about Royal in contrast to NCL, given the post you quoted, I think it’s allowed to mention Celebrity in contrast to Royal. 
 

We don’t gamble a lot of $$, and have severely reduced our Royal sailings, but will be visiting the new no smoking casino on Oasis this summer and will not visit the smoke filled one. 
 

mac_tlc

Fair enough, but I didn't respond to the NCL portion, I really responded to the "Royal doesn't get it," which they clearly do.

 

It's also nice in there when you just want some peace and quiet from the main casino floor. I have went into the one on Wonder several times each cruise.

 

[BND]

I think it's an easy way to test out smokeless casinos without making the full up one so until they see the results.  It's coming by the way as cigarette smokers are a smaller and smaller percentage of the population.  

[lovesthebeach2]

1 hour ago, Mikew0805 said:

What does this have to do with my response. The comment is about Royal, not Celebrity. What I cannot believe is that so many people think that Royal just leaves the smoking area so smokers can smoke. Are you kidding me? If Royal thought they would make $1 more by making it non smoking, they would do it in a heartbeat. It's about money... period.

 

If a non-smoker does not like the smell... don't go. It's really that simple. Maybe if enough non-smokers do not go, it will affect the bottom line more than when smokers choose not to go when there is no smoking.

From what I’ve read, smoking like gambling along with other things, are types of addictions. 
knowing that smoking is unfortunately clearly an addiction, I wonder if more smokers gamble than non-smokers? If so, then it makes sense that Royal keeps the casino a smoking venue, since maybe they may gamble more than non-smokers. But as long as they allow smoking, we won’t be gambling as you suggested. I just wish they had doors on the casino to keep the smoke inside.

 

[Mikew0805]

2 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

From what I’ve read, smoking like gambling along with other things, are types of addictions. 
knowing that smoking is unfortunately clearly an addiction, I wonder if more smokers gamble than non-smokers? If so, then it makes sense that Royal keeps the casino a smoking venue, since maybe they may gamble more than non-smokers. But as long as they allow smoking, we won’t be gambling as you suggested. I just wish they had doors on the casino to keep the smoke inside.

 

They have them on Wonder, but not sure they make much of a difference. I cannot imagine why a glass(ish) wall right down the middle of an Oasis Class ship Casino would be very expensive, (comparatively speaking) and would seem to really make the folks happy that do not like that there is no physical separation. 

[sandebeach]

When cruising first started back post-Covid, Royal’s casinos were non-smoking. They changed that within a few weeks. 

[Mikew0805]

33 minutes ago, sandebeach said:

When cruising first started back post-Covid, Royal’s casinos were non-smoking. They changed that within a few weeks. 

Dec(ish) 2021 into Feb or early March of 2022. Between restart and Dec(ish) 2021 there was smoking. Yep they changed it back, the first chance they got. Those casinos were pretty quiet during that 3 month time frame. (I can only speak to Odyssey, Allure, Indy, Freedom, Mariner, during that time period)

[lovesthebeach2]

30 minutes ago, Mikew0805 said:

Dec(ish) 2021 into Feb or early March of 2022. Between restart and Dec(ish) 2021 there was smoking. Yep they changed it back, the first chance they got. Those casinos were pretty quiet during that 3 month time frame. (I can only speak to Odyssey, Allure, Indy, Freedom, Mariner, during that time period)

There weren’t that many people cruising yet and the ships were only about 30% full, at least the ones we cruised were..It was very easy to get into an empty elevator the majority of the time. I don’t think they gave it enough time to see if the smokers would stay away or not. Like I said in my precious post, smoking and gambling are both addictive….. Im gambling that the smokers would not stay away 😁

[gavvy]

If I'm right in my thinking, Wonder's only smoking area is on the pool deck, so at night when most are lower in the ship the smokers are almost forced into the casino to smoke regardless if they want to gamble or not.

 

Maybe if they had another smoking area on the lower outside deck like on Anthem, then less will wonder into the casino bar just to smoke?