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Cruise Line Smoking Policies  

To smoke ... or not to smoke. Nothing fires up cruise travelers more than this issue. Indeed, check out the posts on Cruise Critic's message boards -- but we warn you: Put on your oven mitts before you open any thread with "smoking" in the title. It'll be red hot. . . .

Cruise lines, though, have generally taken a more moderate approach to smoking policies. Renaissance Cruises, an entirely non-smoking line, no longer exists. Carnival's Paradise, which started life as a smoke-free vessel and stayed that way for six years, now allows smoking onboard. But several major cruise lines have recently introduced very limiting policies, as have many small-ship "boutique" lines and river cruise vessels. But for other major companies, the policies are not nearly as restrictive as most non-smokers wish they were.

It's an issue of "spoilage" (the industry's lingo for unsold cabins) that keeps cruise lines from designating some cabins non-smoking, in the fashion of hotel rooms. "It would present an inventory mess," says a spokesperson for CLIA, the cruise industry's official trade association. "The cruise lines' yield management people want the ships to sail full at all times; you can't do that if you set aside non-smoking rooms."

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