Last week, Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) changed their smoking policy. Effective next year, smoking in NCL’s ships’ staterooms is banned, along with all indoor areas of NCL’s ships except in the casino and cigar bars.
Smoking outdoors will be confined to balconies, and designated areas away from food service, sports, and children’s areas.
NCL will join many other major cruise lines serving the US population such as Azamara, Carnival, Celebrity, Disney, Holland America, Princess, Regent, and Royal Caribbean, which already seriously restrict smoking, or will, as of next year.
Each of the cruise lines with restrictive smoking policies have stated the new smoking rules reflect changing customer preferences.
In 1998, Carnival Cruise Lines launched the world’s first completely non-smoking cruise ship, the Carnival Paradise. Even the ship’s construction was accomplished by non-smoking personnel.
Five years later, in 2003, citing poor revenue, Carnival discontinued the ship’s smoke free environment. Sales of alcoholic beverages, and gambling are critical revenue sources for most cruise ships and Carnival said, at the time, non-smokers tended to not drink or gamble as much as smokers.
On more than a few occasions, up until a few years ago, I found that on many ships, the few smoking restrictions which were in place, were not strictly enforced by cruise lines to keep smokers happy, and patronizing their ships.
Apparently today, eight years after Carnival’s smoke free experiment ended, cruise customer preferences have changed considerably.
Earlier this year, Jan Swartz, Princess Cruise Line’s executive vice president stated, “Our consumer studies now show that smokers are a small minority of our passengers, and that the large majority of passengers value having their primary living space onboard smoke-free.”
Just a few years ago, cruising forums on the Internet saw large numbers of complaints when cruise lines first started restricting smoking. When I looked at those same cruising forums this past week, about new cruise ship smoking restrictions, most of the posters were cheering the news.
Cruise lines like other service businesses are constantly surveying and speaking with their customers. Carnival has stated that it changed their smoking policy as a result of guest surveys and onboard testing. Holland America indicated its new smoking restrictions are “in keeping with the majority of guest preferences today.”
The move by many cruise ship lines to ban smoking in cabins, and most other ship’s areas, reflects the major reduction in US societal smoking in the last 30 years.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of 1965, 42.4% of the overall US population smoked. Five years later, in 1970, just 37.4% of US adults smoked, an almost 12% drop.
By 1990, smoking was down to 25.5% of US adults, and as of 2009, the number dropped to only 20.6%. Just since 1990, the percentage of US adults smoking has dropped almost 20%.
It’s impossible for cruise lines to ignore the general statistics and their own surveys. No wonder the cruise lines catering primarily to US travelers are changing their smoking rules.
The cost of cleanup and refreshing a room in which smoking occurred is another reason, often unstated, for the new restrictions.
I’ve walked into non-smoking hotel rooms and cruise ship staterooms, only to be almost knocked over by the odor of stale cigarette smoke. When I went to the front desk I was told they cleaned the room, but couldn’t get it “refreshed” in time for my arrival. I was fortunate empty non-smoking rooms were available.
I’m not sure how many realize how much cigarette smoke (cigar and pipe smoke, more so) penetrates, and permeates the wall paper, carpet, draperies, and other components found in staterooms, and how difficult it is to remove its smell, staining, and film from staterooms.
According to the head of housekeeping at a Hilton property I’ve frequented, a non-smoking room which has been smoked in by a guest will require an extremely thorough cleaning, far more than a conventional cleaning, and can take as many as two days of non-use during which the room is aired out, before it can be put back into non-smoking service.
Holland America apparently understands the cost of cleaning a smoke filled room. They will assess a $250 cleaning fee to anyone who smokes in their staterooms. Regent Cruises’ penalty for smoking where it’s not permitted is severe.
“Failure to comply with this ban will result in guests being asked to leave the ship at their expense, without refund or credit for the unused portion of their cruise.”
Removing a non-smoking stateroom from service due to smoking can be very expensive for a cruise ship with their quick “turn-arounds.” Additionally, holding a significant inventory of “smoker staterooms,” these days, can result in the serious expense of empty staterooms, since they are unusable by non-smokers.
Like many in the US hotel industry, cruise lines, who depend on a US customer base, apparently understand that it’s now cost effective, and at worst, revenue neutral, to eliminate smoking from their staterooms and most other ships’ areas.
While at the beginning of the 21st century, severe cruise line smoking restrictions were bad for business, times have changed.
After many years working in corporate America as a chemical engineer, executive and eventually CFO of a multinational manufacturer, Ned founded a tech consulting company and later restarted NSL Photography, his photography business. Before entering the corporate world, Ned worked as a Public Health Engineer for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. As a well known corporate, travel and wildlife photographer, Ned travels the world writing about travel and photography, as well as running photography workshops, seminars and photowalks. Visit Ned’s Photography Blog and Galleries.
