Princess Cruises making big casino change passengers demanded
Princess Cruises is moving closer to something that would be transformational for its cruise experience.
Although smoking indoors is banned in most restaurants and bars, as well as many hotels and other businesses these days, most cruise lines continue to make one indoor smoking exception.
That’s because most major cruise lines’ ships have onboard casinos (besides Disney’s).
Related: Princess Cruises makes another beverage package change
Although some land-based casinos have gone smoke-free, the majority of casino operators still believe that prohibiting smoking would be bad for business. And most cruise lines seem to agree.
Opinions seem to be shifting, however, as cruise lines work to increase their appeal to younger generations, who are smoking cigarettes less and less. In general, Millennials and Gen Z travelers tend to be more averse to being around secondhand smoke, too.
But although non-smoking casinos are becoming easier to find on cruise ships, not all lines have embraced the changing times.
Offering both a traditional smoking casino and separate non-smoking one has been a solution for some cruise lines, but the limited space on most cruise ships makes it difficult to offer that on smaller ships.
Most cruise lines are hesitant to go entirely smoke-free in the main casino due to concerns that non-smoking casinos would generate less revenue. If a passenger has to leave the casino to go smoke outside, they may not come back.
But a few cruise lines are already propelling a change in the industry.
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Which cruise lines have non-smoking casinos?
Celebrity Cruises stands out in the cruise industry for maintaining fully smoke-free casinos on all of its ships.
Smoking is also prohibited in Virgin Voyages’ cruise ship casinos, though smoking is permitted in a designated smoking room nearby that includes a few slot machines. A few Norwegian Cruise Line ships also have a designated casino smoking room that’s separate from the rest of the casino.
On select ships, Royal Caribbean and Carnival now offer smaller designated non-smoking casinos in addition to smoking ones. Royal Caribbean has acknowledged the popularity of these separate smoke-free casinos since adding them on its newer Oasis and Icon Class ships, and has now started adding them as it refurbishes older ships, too.
Related: Royal Caribbean makes a huge casino and loyalty program change
Many Royal Caribbean cruisers would like to see the cruise line take the non-smoking casino a step further and swap the casino spaces, making the larger main casino smoke-free and limiting smoking to a smaller, separate space.
In general, most cruisers hope the smoke-free casino trend will continue to grow and spread to more cruise lines like Princess Cruises. Some Princess cruise passengers say that smoke drifting from the smoking section of the casino can be unbearable on some ships.
Princess Cruises is listening to demands for non-smoking cruise casinos
“I would love to play the tables, but the cigarette smoke is awful. Why allow smoking in the casino? Seems counterproductive as myself and other non-smokers simply will not use the casinos,” codspeace recently wrote in the Princess Cruises Reddit community.
Many passengers agreed, although several expressed doubts that a fleetwide casino smoking ban would happen anytime soon.
To be clear, Princess cruise ship casinos are intended to be non-smoking areas, with one key exception. Each casino has a section of designated slot machines where guests are permitted to smoke only while playing at those machines. All table games are non-smoking, however.
Related: Princess Cruises passengers warn of chaos at in-demand port
Many Princess passengers think that should change, because the smoking area isn’t fully isolated from the main casino and smoke travels easily.
As the cruise line builds new ships, it does appear to be paying attention to passenger demands for smoke-free cruise casinos.
The cruise line has emphasized that a key highlight of its upcoming ship Star Princess, which debuts in the fall, is expanded non-smoking casino areas. This will include 68 additional slot machines in newly designated non-smoking sections of the casino.
Although it’s not a full non-smoking Princess cruise ship casino just yet, it’s a step in the smoke-free direction.
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