Less smoke on the water

Cruise News column from the Daily Mirror print edition, June 18.

Smoking on cruise ships has been a hot topic this week with three major lines clearing the air by finally announcing they are to ban lighting up in cabins.
While hotels and restaurants on land in America and most European countries are off-limits to smokers, new rules to be introduced by Carnival, Holland America and Princess restrict the number of bars where smoking is permitted, and limit smokers to separate sections of casinos on their ships.
On the newest Carnival ships, the dedicated cigar lounges are now non-smoking rooms because they are effectively through routes for passengers walking to other parts of the vessels.
Carnival and Holland America will still permit smoking on cabin balconies, often a cause of annoyance to neighbouring non-smokers. It will be banned on Princess ships – not surprising as a stray cigarette end was blamed for a fire which damaged 85 cabins on Sea Princess in 2006.
Passengers who flout the rules will face a $250 fine – in effect a bill for deep cleaning of the cabin.
The new restrictions are to be introduced in stages between now and January. Jan Swartz, executive vice-president for customer services at Princess, said: “Smokers are a small minority of our passengers, and the large majority of passengers value having their primary living space onboard smoke-free.”
Cunard, which does not allow smoking in any public rooms apart from cigar lounges, announced last year that it will be banning smoking in cabins from 2012. On P&O ships, and most other vessels operating from the UK, passengers may only smoke in designated areas of open deck and on balconies.