Tobacco.org

• Places that allow smoking on water are harder to find 

It's difficult to truly appreciate smoking restrictions on cruise ships until you've sat in the late-night dance club on an Italian ship packed to the ceiling with 300 chain-smoking Italian high school students.

The dance floor had a fog machine, but it was completely unnecessary.

Just two years after I witnessed that scene, however, the world is a different - and increasingly smaller - place for smokers. . . .

Last week, Celebrity said it will eliminate smoking from staterooms and, more significantly, all balconies, in October, becoming the first major North American line to ban lighting up in both areas. (Italian line MSC Cruises enacted a similar ban in September.) . . .

A few of the ultra-luxury and boutique lines have already made similar changes, including Regent Seven Seas and, to a lesser extent, Crystal Cruises. Celebrity's and MSC's are among the first behemoth-ship lines to cover all cabins and balconies, the latter traditionally having been the haven for smokers at sea. Royal Caribbean, for instance, enacted a smoking ban last year on all staterooms, but not on balconies.

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