Carnival Cruise Lines to Ban Smoking in Smoking Lounges

Carnival has announced it is "testing" the idea of banning smoking in cigar bars on it’s cruise ships.

 

If I would have read this news article on April 1st, I would have immediately dispelled it as an April Fool’s Joke. Unfortunately, it’s no joke my friends. You’d better check before bothering to pack your pipes and tobacco the next time you book a Carnival Cruise.

Why, you ask? Carnival ships have a cigar lounge, don’t they? Yep, that’s true, but the cruise line is experimenting with a total smoking ban.

No smoking in the smoking lounge.

The news of the test ban broke on the personal blog of Carnival’s cruise director, who was responding to a question from a Carnival customer who likes to light up while at sea.

John Heald replied the line has tried out the smoking bans on three ships that include the Bahamas, the Caribbean and Alaska as ports of call.

It is a very long blog post with lots of comments and topics, so here is a screen capture of the pertinent section so you don’t have to spend hours looking for the actual post, and then another 20 minutes reading it, like I did.

The above poll results were for the question, "Do you think the cigar bars on the Destiny, Conquest and Splendor class ships should be totally non smoking?"

So 51% of people idiots think the cigar bars should be non-smoking.

Full Blog Post Here

So the problem with firing up stogies, according to Carnival spokespeople, is guests have to pass through the stinky lounge to get to certain parts of the ships.

"What’s next? Banning swimming in the swimming pool?"

Here’s a great write-up by Bob Barr in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which originally alerted me to this totally bizarre news; Cruise-line tobacco police.

I suggest that Carnival change their slogan, "Fun For All. All For Fun" to "Dumb For All. All For Dumb".

Old Carnival Logo

New Logo Proposed by PipesMagazine.com

 




10 Responses

  • That is just Dumb If you have a Cigar bar you should be allowed to smoke in it. If your not going to allow smoking don’t even sell them on the ship. And Yes 51% of non smokers are Idiots.

  • Greetings,
    And another reason NOT to take a cruise. The biggest reason is food poisoning/sanitation problems. Mass sickness among passengers happens quite often. Too often for me. Now I can’t even relax with a smoke? Forget it! I’ll spend my vacation dollars elsewhere.
    Funny how smoking related polls always, ALWAYS, favor the non-smoking side by around 51-49%, just enough for the tyranny of the majority. State smoking bans and tobacco taxes follow the same percentages at the ballot box. Just enough to pass a ban or a tax. Just an observation.
    CACooper

  • On the bright side…, if there is any to this ludicrous development, at
    least they won’t be making a lot of loot selling those fake Cubans anymore.
    Things are really getting out of hand and this is just a symptom of a far
    greater problem. The steady erosion of personal choice and the loss of
    individual freedoms parallels the course of those tyrannies we fought to defeat.

  • Let me get this straight: they have areas designated as cigar bars that are being redesignated as not-cigar bars. This seems totally in keeping with our current tobacco hysteria, as sad as that is to observe.

  • to Hell with them ! Do we even care ? They don’t even allow you to bring and enjoy your own bottle of wine which used to be the case just a few years back. Food is gross,cheep drinks sold at premium -close. and no cigar. Count me out

  • I have always thought of going on a cruise some day but now, that dream is fast fizzing away with all this hype over no smoking a pipe in designated areas. Not even on my own balcony on my suite? Forget it. So long carnival, I’ll start looking for a cruise line that won’t roll-over on its back just because of some two point lead. It is time to announce a list of cruise lines that are smoker friendly and still consider non-smokers as well. All’s fair in love and war. I’ll take my money elsewhere.

  • I am an avid cruiser. 28 of them in fact so far. They are getting more restrictive about smoking but I fail to understand on todays super cruise ships, why they can’t design a cigar/pipe lounge with air filtration systems that are not a pass through for non smokers. All we ask for is one! The vote might be against us but to alienate 48 or 49 percent of your customer base does not make sense at all to me. If I can’t enjoy my pipe in peace, I will not sail that ship. It’s that simple. They are crying for business in this bad economy and with the bigger ships not sailing full, it makes no sense whatever for them to turn away our business. Not only do they lose our ticket prices but the sales of cigars and the drinks we buy while smoking.

  • The cure…..don’t go on any cruises. Same for non-smoking restaurants…do not give them any of your money. If all smokers would do this, sooner or later, they will get the message.
    It’s not like restaurants, cruise ships, and even public buildings couldn’t provide a Smoking Lounge for their patrons, if they wanted to. Around the turn of the 20th century, it was considered impolite to smoke around non-smokers and ladies, so most better establishments not only had Smoking Lounges, but would even provide you with a Smoking Jacket to protect your clothing, and lessen the smell on your own clothing. Of course, that was way back when people actually had some class.
    In my state of Tn. they have banned all smoking in any public buildings (which includes private business and offices that aren’t even open to the public)…even in bars. We have, and are still making sure that the elected jerks that sponsored this Bill are unemployed come next election. Many were already sent packing on the last go-’round.

  • why not relocate the internet cafe? it’s not too hard to move a bunch of computers and string up a few cable, we converted a 250 year old building into a computer lab at my school in less than a week.

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