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Smoking Bans on Cruise Ships Cost Millions in Cancellations
Regent Seven Seas intends to tighten its smoking rules this December. Although not even in place yet, the plan to ban smoking in cabins and on balconies has already cost the company $3 million in cancellations. And Regent isn't the only cruise line pouring water on smokers' fires; Oceania Cruises implemented a zero-tolerance policy the same day a smoldering cigarette killed one person and ruined 79 cabins aboard the Star Princess last year.
On Regent's ships, cruisers can still light up where they're likely to spend money -- in the casino and in designated sections of bars.
[via USA Today]
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Reader Comments (Page 4 of 40)
Dorothy Sep 9th 2007 9:01PM
You non smokers wanted your right to non smoking places and room etc. so you got it. But that does not seem to be enough. Now you want the whole cruise ship, the whole restuarant and everywhere else. We should still have rights too. I agree with the comment that drinking does more serious damage than a cigarette ever did so why not ban that? I find drunks offensive, so it must be my right to say they can't do it around me RIGHT!
andrew Sep 9th 2007 8:58PM
why not ban cars, they cause death and pollute the air. yet no one stands against them. fat people smell bad and make me sick. i dont see anyone suein mcdonalds or any other company. i have yet to see someone die from standing next to a smoker or being on a cruise ship or in a restaurant. the people complaining are just a bunch of dumbass, ignorant, stuck up pricks who gladly get down on their knees, open theirs mouths and get force fed this prejudice non-sense. then they turn around and say they are tryin to help people when they are only concerned about themselves. so i only have a couple things to say, shut the f**k up and dont tell me how to live my damn life. worry about your own life and sit the f**k down before you fall down. this is suppose to be the land of the free. but like everything else in country its all talk and not real.
Kathy Sep 9th 2007 8:57PM
Oh wait - freedom to smoke - lol, I think not! We used to be a country where people were polite enough to go outside to smoke and ask if it was ok to light up... and as for the right to smoke in a room you have paid for, well, I wonder how that fire that killed a person and ruined about 70 cabins started! I hope at least that the person who died was the smoker, but the other people were endangered by the fire and it sounds like they probably lost all their stuff. Certainly their cruise was ruined at least. There is no "right" to smoke, but the attitude that you will do what you want to is exactly what I mean about smokers. It's an addiction, and most addicts act the same way.
splishdripper Sep 9th 2007 8:59PM
I was married to a non-smoking alcoholic obnoxious woman that to this day gives me the creeps when I picture her crawling up the stairs to our house after going out to places where we could never show our faces again. Totaling car after car in drunken stupor accidents and leaving the scene, etc., etc. Sound familiar non-smokers? Yeah, you know who you are. And smoking stinks? Drunks are pathetic! Please Congress, let's ban alcohol now before anymore drunks kill us. PLEASE save our streets from these criminals!!
webguy Sep 9th 2007 8:58PM
Smoking cigarettes is what rebuilt America after the Civil War....the production and consumptoin of. Now is is costing Medicare too much money to treat smoking related illness as cigarette smoking may kill but not reliably.
faye Sep 9th 2007 8:58PM
While some of the post below had merit, the part about God is simply untrue, There is a God and he is nothing like what you assume him to be. He wants a relationship with you as much as anyone else, you need only to confess he is God, repent of the things that cause you to be separated from him. It is not a lightning bolt and the relationship is a ongoing one with a continuing learning. Do these things and you will see for yourself. What do you have to lose really?
DITCH THE HABIT. 8 YEARS AFTER QUITTING IT'S ALMOST AS IF YOU NEVER STARTED. AND ALWAYS REMEMBER . . . THERE IS NO GOD !
Posted at 8:16PM on Sep 9th 2007 by Daniel Mullane
wammer Sep 9th 2007 9:01PM
It truly is amazing that smokers are the bad people. Yet anyone can drink all they want anytime and any place they want and when they are drunk enough they can jump off the ship? or puke all over the floor, how romantic, have you ever kissed a person who has just puked all over them selves? and the ship turns around to pick them up? but don't you light up that ciggy, because someone might smell the smoke, and what an inconvenience that would be.I think they should ban all drinking and deserts while they are at it because Drunks and fat people are disgusting and they are causing my insurance rates to go up..Wammer
L Sep 9th 2007 8:59PM
The pollution emitted from cruise ships and all of the SUV's on the road are far more harmful than a little second hand smoke. So are the chemicals used to "clean" your homes.
sandy Sep 9th 2007 8:59PM
hahaah Ya'll flip my lid!! I smoked for 36 years and I quit last Decemeber!!! I know smoking is bad for you BUT!!! I still stand up for the smokers!! A bumper sticker I have; To ALL of the Non Smokers; Wait until they take something you want!!! Its coming people!!! You better wake up!!!!!!!!!
Leon C. Sep 9th 2007 9:02PM
Ok so all you ex-smokers are now 2 faced? Those that never smoked keep it SHUT!!! You do not know how it is and never will. I agree with Jackie, do we not have other issues at hand? All those complaining have you no life? Worry about yourselves, and if you do not like the smell here is an idea....WALK AWAY!!!
Dorothy Sep 9th 2007 9:00PM
All of you smokers out there need to complain complain complain it worked when the non-smokers did it. Thats why these things are happening. We have a voice so use it. Call your congressman and local restuarants and anyone else you can think of and complain!!!!!!
jskys55 Sep 9th 2007 9:01PM
I don't believe anyone is interested in taking the rights away from smokers to smoke the living daylights out of their own lungs if they want. As an ex-smoker, one who finally succeeded in quiting after many years of trying, I truly do not want to breathe anyone else's smoke. Is it such a horror to ask people to be considerate when they smoke so as to not inflict the dangers on others who don't? It never seemed too much to ask when I smoked. Why should someone else have to breathe my addiction?
As far as not being allowed to smoke on one's own property, that is as outrageous as anything can get.
DeDe Sep 9th 2007 9:01PM
Patrick, you need to stfu. Deisel fuel stinks up the air. You gonna slam truckers? Factories stink up the air. You gonna slam business? Smokers pay a majority of taxes out there. Do you know how much money the government would lose if every smoker just stopped? Do you have any idea how many jobs would be lost if every smoker quit? If some place is a non smoing place, smokers don't go. They go some place where they are welcome. It's a shame that there isn't a place where big mouths like you are prohibited from going.
ps....I know several fat people who would love to shove a box of twinkies down your throat.
John Sep 9th 2007 9:01PM
Hey, all you prudes. There are a lot of dirty habits, like picking your nose, wiping your ass, and scratching your crotch. You just live with them. You're on this ball called earth with everybody. Don't try to rule it!! Live with it and be glad you're alive and can smell the smoke!!
Patrick Sep 9th 2007 11:10PM
When you see the smoker with a car full of kids and the kids just sitting there having their health destroyed, it shows how little smokers care about anybody but themselves. Of course consideration is something smart people have and dumb people know nothing about.
Blissful Sep 9th 2007 9:12PM
Hooray...another area where all that smoke..which contributes to global warming by the way...is now free. Yay. Now I must simply take a cruise. The smokers need a change of perspective...no one is taking away your right to smoke...as long as it doesn't invade anyone else's space who does NOT wish to smoke, which isn't possible because it floats all over the place. What gives YOU the right to cause all of us to smoke because YOU choose to do so; really when it comes to rights, the right goes to the non-smoker because they're not doing anything except standing there. The smoker is assaulting the non-smoker..so it's up to the one doing the assaulting to catch the blame. Not to mention how terrible it looks...not glamorous, not cool, we just think you're stupid, whether you hold a job or not, are honest or not..you have a wish to be unhealthy or you wouldn't do it....hey all you young people who know how bad it is for your body...why bother taking up the habit. Yes the old timers may have trouble quitting because it's so addictive..so I cut them some slack..but not youngsters. In 1964 the government knew that second hand smoke caused cancer (there's a congressional report on this, look it up, I still have copies). I even hate walking behind a smoker, because there it is...coming into my lungs, my hair, my clothes. Why do you think you have the right to stink up my clothes? Did you know if there are smoking and non-smoking areas, it doesn't matter how far away you are from the smokers if everyone shares the same ventilation system...the air quality is as if you are next to the smoker...even if you don't 'smell' it. (In the congressional report). So it's your choice to gunk up all your body organs if you so choose...although we all pay for your health care when you get sick...just stay away from those who don't want to smoke. Ugh...I cannot stand to be anywhere near someone who smokes...even if they aren't smoking..the smell comes out of their pores,they stink and you can tell a smoker by the sickly look they have. I can spot them everytime...then there's the gravely smokers voice that's so irritating to listen to. Then there's the rudeness of flicking ashes and cigarette butts out car windows, distraction from driving by lighting up, smoking..as bad as talking on cell phones...and the number of cigarette butts these self-righteous, polluting smokers have scattered about is sickening. I think they should have a ban period on smoking..oh..another fact: If you're in a roomful of smoke..or smoking..it affects your driving just as if you've been drinking...another researched item. I do think the cruise ships should ban smoking everywhere and agree with whoever said, notice they keep it where they make the most money. The one good thing..I am rarely anywhere where I am forced to smell smoke...so thank YOU to ALL the laws out there and people who have put them into effect to protect the rest of us. AND one last comment...comparing smoking to drinking or overeating is bogus...it has nothing to do with anything...this is about SMOKING !
John Sep 9th 2007 9:05PM
people keep saying they've lost their freedom. Not so! You still have the freedom to smoke and destroy your health, go for it. What you don't have is the freedom or right to destroy other peoples health with second hand smoke. Nor do you have the right or freedom to destroy private property with the smell of cigarrette somke that is nearly impossible to get out of bedding, carpeting, and so on. After my grandmother died (a smoker for 60 years), we scrubbed her apartment walls for a week and the color went from cardboard brown back to barely white. And that same crap is wallpapered over in hotels and cruise ships so to hell with you and your so called freedoms.
Marion Sep 9th 2007 9:03PM
Iam sure drinking kills more people than second hand smoke, you can walk away from a smoker, but you cannot get out of the way of a drunk driver. More people falls overboard from drinking, when will they stop the drinking. you can walk the streets with a can of beer in a bag, but god for bid light up
mkw Sep 9th 2007 9:06PM
THERE IS A GOD!!! Thank you for finally wisening up to getting these smokers out of our air space. You know what makes a non-smoker a grouch... breathing smokers lousy stinky second hand smoke! The sooner the smokers kill themselves the sooner they stop killing us. We should be free to breathe smokefree air.
Bob-O Sep 9th 2007 9:05PM
Patrick, you are a narrow-minded, opinionated a-hole. We are all dumber now for having read your comments. By the way, I am a non-smoker.