All resort non-smoking

[jarestel]

It's going to be interesting when nonsmokers start getting charged erroneously for smoking in their room. But I'm sure all the nonsmoking zealots will be happy to fork over $500 for the cause.

If you haven't smoked in the room, there will be no charge. The identification of leftover smoking residue is fairly easy to detect. If one didn't smoke, there will be nothing to detect.

 

[dannyh23]

WRONG-O! On our Feb stay at OKW [where we could NOT get a smoking room because they were ALL occupied!] we did have a designated smoking area outside the front of the studio villa next to our one bedroom.

So being the law abiding folks that we are, that's where we went to smoke - and did it ever aggrevate the folks in the studio!!!

As a non-smoker and fellow DVC'er, thank you for following the rules. Perhaps that designated smoking area will be moved in the near future.

 

[Pennyguy23]

This is crazy. I love a cigar at night while sitting on my balcony. I am not going to go find a place to smoke. I like to sit out there and just look at the sky. I can understand the no smoking in rooms, but a balcony? To be honest I am pretty annoyed right now the more I think of it. I can believe disney can do this really. I am going to have one everynight this upcoming trip so I can enjoy it while it lasts.

 

[dannyh23]

I can also see lots of family fights resulting from smokers who won't go out to the smoking area. That's going to make for a lot of fun family vacations. Feel the magic!

Again --- This policy will help more families than it hurts. Per your previous posts, I really am sorry your father will have to go to a designated area to smoke instead of the balcony. If it upsets you that much, tell Disney by selling your points.

Pennyguy, yeah, but Disney can do whatever they want -- it's their resort, and we agreed to follow their rules when we bought in.

I'm sure some people will be so upset that they can't smoke in their rooms/balcony that they will sell... but many will be buying them too...

 

[LisaS]

Smoking is a very addictive expensive habit....

After spending THOUSANDS of dollars
If anyone thinks that most of these smokers will give
a damn about a 300 dollar smoking fee.....THINK AGAIN....

I'm not so sure about that. Many DVC'ers are fiscally conservative -- that's why they joined DVC in the first place, and stay somewhere else on weekends to conserve points, and like to go during December when villas are cheapest.

Some time back I listened to an executive from one of the major hotel chains that had gone smoke free being interviewed about how things were going since the ban was initiated. He said they started out charging $100 for violations of the no smoking policy and a lot of people smoked in the rooms. So they raised the fee to $250 and the violations stopped. So for one hotel chain at least, they found that the amount of the fine did make a difference in stopping the behavior.

I imagine the reason Disney announced a scale of $250-$500 is because deep cleaning a hotel room is one thing but deep cleaning a DVC 1BR, 2BR or GV is going to be expensive. So I expect DVCers will be subject to the higher end of those fines for smoking in a villa. I'll be surprised if people are willing to cough up (pun intended) that kind of money for the privilege of smoking in their room. And if DVC is finding certain people repeatedly violating the policy, there may be more serious actions they could take.

 

[dznymom1]

I am very disappointed that my Mom will be selling her points as a result of this policy change. I feel terrible that I encouraged her to buy points after my Dad passed away. I thought it would give her a safe and comfortable place to travel to for as long as she was able, but now she will either stop traveling or go to places that will have the family worrying. Thankfully, I told her to hold off on renewing her AP last week. If she had spent the money on that the week before this policy was announced, she would have been furious!

 

[Kurby]

Of course the next question is whether those fines would be assessed to the credit card on file or to the point owner. Could have an interesting impact on the point rental market if it were the latter, eh?

A number of years ago we had photo-radar up here and if the car was caught speeding along the highway where the camera's were it was the owner of the car who received the ticket since they couldn't prove who was actually driving (the camera's were up on a bridge). it didn't last long and so many people complained saying that they weren't driving that they had lend out their cars to someone else.

i maintain that - that was the chance you took and if you did lend out your car to someone and they got a parking ticket or photo radar ticket then it is your responsibility to collect the fee from who you lent the car too.

i think the same should apply here too - IF they do go to 100% non-smoking and someone smokes then the fee should be charged to the point holder.

i too am an ex-smoker (7 years and counting) and rarely smoked in the house or car since the lingering smell would be too gross. i never smoked inside designated smoking rooms, in fact i never booked a smoking room and if we were given one by mistake i could smell the stale smoke smell and would ask to be moved.

i'm not so sure going 100% non-smoking is the way to go though

 

[LisaS]

This is crazy. I love a cigar at night while sitting on my balcony. I am not going to go find a place to smoke. I like to sit out there and just look at the sky. I can understand the no smoking in rooms, but a balcony? To be honest I am pretty annoyed right now the more I think of it. I can believe disney can do this really. I am going to have one everynight this upcoming trip so I can enjoy it while it lasts.

I see you own at AKV. AKL does not allow smoking on the balcony of savannah-view rooms. I expect that policy would also apply to savannah-view villas in the new building at AKV. So if you had planned to stay in savannah view villas at AKV, you would have to abide by these same restrictions, even without this new nonsmoking policy.

 

[Disneyracingfan]

I see the whole if you get caught in your room smoking they fine you it's easy for someone to smell the remnants of smoke. The problem I see is enforcing it on the balcony/patio for those who will "sneak" a smoke now and again.

 

[dannyh23]

I am very disappointed that my Mom will be selling her points as a result of this policy change. I feel terrible that I encouraged her to buy points after my Dad passed away. I thought it would give her a safe and comfortable place to travel to for as long as she was able, but now she will either stop traveling or go to places that will have the family worrying. Thankfully, I told her to hold off on renewing her AP last week. If she had spent the money on that the week before this policy was announced, she would have been furious!

Sorry to hear that -- I'm sure she won't be the only one that will sell because of the new policy. Hopefully she will be able to find a nice resort in Orlando that still allows smoking -- but I really do think that once Disney goes this way, many more will as well.

 

[Chuck S]

I just don't understand the logic of banning smoking on an open balcony, but having a designated smoking area in front of the buildings where non-smokers have to walk through the smoking area to get to their rooms, and given the layout of OKW, that is what will happen...unless they remove shrubbery and put in new patio areas...at DVCers expense, of course.

 

[pilferk]

Again, tobacco is legal to purchase, possess and use. Does it make sense to have a product that is legally available, then put so many widespread restrictions upon where it can be used? Name another product that has similar restrictions that can also cause severe damage to other folks by its use...alcohol..nope you can drink almost anywhere on Disney property, and it can affect your neighbors, especially if you then decide to drive, which is legal until you reach the blood level limit in your state.

Disney doesn't police their rooms to the point of not allowing an addict to illegally use syringes of narcotics...they will even provide a needle disposal kit, no questions asked, they will assume the person is an insulin diabetic. So basically, smokers have less rights in their room than illegal drug addicts.

And remember, they sell cigs at Disney.

OK, that's just blatent hyperbole.

And the fact is, legal or not, Disney has the right to put in place restrictions, on it's property, that it feels are appropriate. "Heely's" are legal....kids wear them all over the place...but are prohibited from the parks. Why? Because Disney feels that they endanger other guests, could cause harm to the guest wearing them on Disney property and negatively impact other guests experience. It's a restriction they feel is appropriate. Given we're talking about PRIVATE PROPERTY, any discussion of "legal rights to smoking", "smokers rights" or anything else goes right out the window. You have very few rights, especially in relation to things like what we're discussing on private property, other than the ones the owner wishes to extend at will. DVC documents and the rental documents for hotel rooms spell all that out pretty clearly. If people dislike Disney's decisions, they have the right to vote with their wallets. I assume Disney has gauged how many of those wallets might vote, and decided the policy makes the best sense for them.

 

[F4disneyfan]

I don't seem to find in that 'article' any reference to penalties.
And again, absence an official release (which may, or may not come), I'm not prepared to accept it as such.

Not sure if you found it Convert as I didn't read al teh rest of the posts before digging it out if you did sorry to re post it.

"They want that there be no smoking in their presence. It's not just a couple feet away," Pizam said. "So this is answering the market demand. It's not just that Disney came up with the idea -- the idea came from the bottom up. The customers are demanding that."

It can be expensive to sneak a cigarette in a nonsmoking room. If Disney finds that someone did light up, a "cleaning fee" of $250 to $500 will be tacked onto the customer's bill. That is to cover the replacement of fabrics such as draperies and bedding, and the deep cleaning of everything else.

 

[BostonDisneyKid]

I just wanted to put out a couple of predictions relating to this subject.

First prediction - I can foresee a "Fabreeze" sales increase in the Orlando area (buy stock quick)
Second prediction - I can foresee a "Fabreeze" hand off thread in the near future

 

[jarestel]

If people dislike Disney's decisions, they have the right to vote with their wallets. I assume Disney has gauged how many of those wallets might vote, and decided the policy makes the best sense for them.

Absolutely! If Disney finds they are being negatively impacted by this latest policy, it will be reversed. It has nothing to do with morality, rights or implied promises, simply $$$! If enough people decide to stay away due to this policy, guess what... it gets overturned. Assuming those who stay away aren't replaced by others who see this as a good thing, anyway.

 

[LisaS]

I just don't understand the logic of banning smoking on an open balcony, but having a designated smoking area in front of the buildings where non-smokers have to walk through the smoking area to get to their rooms, and given the layout of OKW, that is what will happen...unless they remove shrubbery and put in new patio areas...at DVCers expense, of course.

I hope that the designated smoking areas are "isolated", as stated in the article posted earlier today in this thread. But if I do have to walk through a crowd of smokers at the front of the building, I can get through the wall of smoke in a matter of seconds and I can hold my breath as I walk through. If smoke from a neighboring balcony is wafting over to mine, I'm in the smoke for 10 minutes at least and more if there are multiple smokers or one chain smoker out there.

From a financial perspective, if Disney qualifies for reduced fire insurance rates by going nonsmoking, I imagine that the nonsmoking policy must apply to all parts of the building, including the balcony.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

I could be wrong here, but I believe balcony smoking at AKL was never allowed.

Not exactly sure where I was going with that thought, but it sounded good as I was writing it..

MG

 

[dannyh23]

I just don't understand the logic of banning smoking on an open balcony, but having a designated smoking area in front of the buildings where non-smokers have to walk through the smoking area to get to their rooms, and given the layout of OKW, that is what will happen...unless they remove shrubbery and put in new patio areas...at DVCers expense, of course.

As Lisa S says, I would say the logic is due to smokers on their own balconies causing health problems with those in neigboring balconies/rooms. If I request a non-smoking room due to health reasons, and go out to enjoy my balcony -- then my balcony neighbor decides to go outside and smoke, I am now exposed. Personally, I don't have a serious medical problem, but know family members that do and we have to request non-smoking due to medical reasons.

Also, there is no guarantee that designated smoking areas will be in front of every OKW building... maybe there will be enclosed "huts" every few buildings and there will be a new request for room reservations -- "Close to Smoke Hut!"

I can see the savings side too for DVC members -- less furniture with burn holes that need to be replaced, less drape cleaning expense, lower insurance costs, etc.

It's going to be an interesting few months....

 

[F4disneyfan]

Non-smoker here, more concerned with how this policy was implemented and what it could mean in the future. I wonder how people would feel if certain other changes took place because only a small percentage utilize them. For example, what percentage of EPCOT visitors enter via World Showcase? It might be cost effective for Disney to close that entrance. There are many, many changes Disney can make that can affect any of us, so don't lose sight of that in your excitement over the Smoking Ban.

Actually to be honest for our family we have only ever used the international gateway entrance 1 time in umpteen trips so if it sclosed no big deal honestly compare that to smoking and the helth risks associated with it for my NON Smoking family hands down smoking bans are a much higher peg on our list of things that need to be addressed and I am glad they finally have.

 

[F4disneyfan]

Absolutely! If Disney finds they are being negatively impacted by this latest policy, it will be reversed. It has nothing to do with morality, rights or implied promises, simply $$$! If enough people decide to stay away due to this policy, guess what... it gets overturned. Assuming those who stay away aren't replaced by others who see this as a good thing, anyway.

The thing to consider is it can also bring in NEW and more money from all the noon smokers that were staying away because they didn't want to get saddled with a smoking room at Disney so it can play out both ways. I am sure this will attract far more NON SMOKERS than it will drive away the smokers.