Another cruise line bans smoking on Balconies

For some people having a balcony cabin is for the fresh air, a chance to relax on the balcony with a glass of wine or a good book whilst watching the scenery/sea, others have a balcony purely so they can have a cigarette and do not have to go to the designated smoking areas on board the ship. To some of the smokers having a balcony so you can have a cigarette is important to them, whilst to the non smokers they can think of nothing worse than having to breath in the cigarette smoke or having it waft over to them.

However smoking on balconies is rapidly becoming banned from many of the cruise lines and this week saw Carnival Cruises and NCL join the list of cruise lines that have banned smoking on the balconies.  The cruise lines which have banned smoking are as follows: P&O, Cunard, Disney, Princess, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Oceania, Azamara, Regent, MSC, Thomson, Island and Silversea.

Obviously the cruise lines have listened to feedback from guests, and for the non smokers this is a great coup as they are now able to be able to sit on the balconies and not have to worry about breathing in other peoples cigarette smoke or damaging their own health. I know this has pleased my mother a great deal as she always used to book a balcony cabin, but after one sailing when she was smoked out by the neighboring cabins she then decided to save her money and just book an outside cabin. I have had on the flip side smokers not book a particular cruise or cruise line as they were unable to smoke on the balconies – and although they could smoke in the designated areas on the outer decks which might only have been a couple of decks above or below them, they felt very strongly about not being able to sit with their morning cigarette and a cup of coffee in their pajamas so haven’t booked.

There is also the safety side that has been taken into consideration, sometimes without realising you might not always extinguish your cigarette properly and is then left to smolder (in the open areas the staff would notice quite quickly) which is what happened in 2006 and a fire on the Star Princess broke out and killed 1 person and damaged 238 cabins. Other people just flick the ends of the cigarette over board, not thinking about the wind which could then blow the cigarette back on board and cause a fire.

Do you agree smoking should be banned on balconies? Should there be a few on each ship in one area especially for smokers so they could book one of these? As a smoker do you always book a balcony cabin?