Smoking Restrictions Continue to Grow

As a non smoker I have requested a non smoking room at a hotel, only to show up and not have the room type requested available. It can range from tolerable to "how does anyone stay in a room like that?" in the terms of odor. Luckily for us, we have not had a problem with the smell of smoke in the cabin when on a cruise. I don't know how they do it, but the some in the hotel industry needs to learn from the cruise lines in how to clean a room. But slowly smoking is going away from areas like the stateroom on board ship. People laughed when Carnival introduced its non smoking ship, the Paradise in 1998, and three years ago the non smoking moniker was removed when smoking in some public areas was allowed, the trend of major cruise lines on smoking has been shifting. Royal Caribbean just this past summer announced its new rules that go into effect starting next year which includes an all out smoking ban in all cabins on board, and Disney has had a ban on smoking in the cabins for a while now. Norwegian announced tighter rules on where smoking is allowed on board just this past summer as well. Its not like smoking bans on cruise ships are new, they are just following a trend that has been happening in many cities and states in the U.S. Living in Arizona where a state wide ban on smoking inside all public places (outside smoking patio's are everywhere now) it was interesting to see how a short term decline on business did not last long before the restaurants and bars were back to normal capacity. The excuse that cruise lines have given in the past for taking so long to make changes, or just not making changes in the past has been that a large number of passengers are from countries that have a large smoker base. Now, however, many have started or are looking into toughening their smoking regulations and not making excuses anymore. If cities like New York, and states like Arizona are any example, the changes will be welcomed by many. In talking to a handful of people that have never cruised before, they did not know that on most cruise lines, there was not a choice between a smoking and non smoking cabin and the way things are going, there still wont be, but the shoe will be on the other foot. As the saying goes, you can't please everyone, and with the percentage of smokers in America going down every year, the cruise lines are showing that they see the numbers.