Do cruisers want to smoke inside? While it isn’t what the majority of cruisers want, a significant percentage of them would like somewhere indoors to enjoy a cigarette.
Carnival allows smoking in a few different designated areas of each ship. There is typically an outdoor smoking area towards the back of the ship, one deck above the pool deck area. And part of Carnival’s onboard casino on each ship allows smoking while passengers are actively gambling.
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However, there is no bar, either inside or outside, that allows smoking. To be fair, some cruise lines do have bars that allow smoking or have smoking areas very close by.
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A Carnival Cruiser recently commented on brand ambassador John Heald’s popular Facebook page to request an indoor bar that allowed smoking. Heald used the request to conduct an informal poll to gauge cruisers’ interest, and there were three different options:
“Carnival treats smokers like ****. There should be an indoor smoking bar on every ship.” I am a smoker and I agree. (Note: The words in quotes were the original request to Heald.) I am a smoker and I do not agree. I’m fine with how it is at the moment. I do not smoke so I would not be in an indoor bar where smoking is allowed.
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While most passengers do not smoke, the ones who do are asking for more places where smoking is allowed.
Image source: Getty Images
Do Carnival cruisers want an indoor smoking bar?
Since the majority of the U.S. adult population doesn’t smoke, it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that the third option was by far the most popular response. It got nearly five times as many votes as the other two choices combined.
However, of the smokers who responded, about one-third said that there should indeed be an indoor bar on every ship that allows smoking, with the rest happy with the current onboard setup.
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Some of the people who voted in Heald’s poll decided to elaborate on their opinions. And to be fair, many of the non-smokers aren’t necessarily opposed to having an indoor bar that allows smoking – they would simply choose not to go there. Heald follower Patricia Rouse said, “I’m a non-smoker, adding an indoor smoking bar, lounge or library is just another place I won’t go!”
However, some of the smokers pointed out that other cruise lines allow smoking at certain bars. “Princess had 1 bar area that allowed smoking on our Alaska cruise. It was nice having a warm place to go in the morning for my coffee and a smoke,” commented Michael Walters. Others who don’t consider themselves regular smokers say they would like somewhere to smoke a cigar (which isn’t allowed in the casino) without having to go outside.
Some had interesting suggestions, such as Joyce Anderson, who would love to see Carnival “turn one of the bars into a smoking bar and ban smoking from all casinos.”
Could Carnival allow smoking at an indoor bar?
To be fair, Carnival could probably allow smoking at the bars inside the casinos (on ships that have casino bars), or at least on one side of them, without much of a change to the atmosphere.
Carnival casinos all allow smoking on the casino floor while actively playing, but in practice the “actively playing” part isn’t often enforced unless the person in question is disturbing someone or isn’t in the vicinity of a slot machine or table that allows smoking.
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In other words, it’s not unusual to find someone who is simply walking around and smoking a cigarette. So, allowing smoking at an in-casino bar probably wouldn’t have that big of an impact on the general smokiness of the casino space.
Having said that, there is no indication that Carnival has any immediate plans to allow smoking at any of its indoor bars. But it’s a fairly popular request among smokers who like to cruise.
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