June 15, 2011 – Carnival Cruise Lines has made changes to its smoking policy on board its entire fleet of 23 ships – and some changes take effect as early as today.
Starting today, Carnival is restricting smoking to designated open-deck areas, the Jazz clubs (only certain ships), and certain areas of the casino and casino bars.
After December 1st, 2011 – Carnival will prohibit smoking in all staterooms and assess a $250 cleaning fee if smoke is detected. Smoking on the balcony (unless you are booked in a spa suite) will still be permitted.
This is a great change, which means that effective today, cruisers can go the piano bar, wine bar, sports bar, and most public open-deck areas and not have to worry about breathing in cigarette or cigar smoke.
We’re proud of Carnival for making the change, even though it will undoubtedly upset some of their customers. Carnival believes that only about 10 percent of its passengers are smokers, though the debate raged with they did a trial run on certain ships which prompted this editorial on the matter.
Carnival sent an email discussing their reasons for the changes which we’ve included below. Continue reading “Carnival’s New Smoking Policy Takes Immediate Effect”