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[beachblanket]

And THAT Ladies and Gentlement is why cloths irons and candles are banded from staterooms.

Investigators are saying the fire was the result of a smoldering cigarette.

 

[Deb in IA]

Princess had the one non-smoking ship a few years back, but they relocated it and gave up on the non-smoking idea.

It was the CARNIVAL Paradise, and not a Princess ship.
You must have missed this a while back.

In November 1998, Carnival Cruise Lines introduced the first all-non-smoking cruise ship, the De.az/S Paradise. This September, the Paradise will make its last non-smoking cruise and then will become a normal “smoking OK” cruise ship.

And so another noble experiment ends in failure.

Carnival never built another non-smoking cruise ship. Paradise was the first, and it will be the last.

No other major cruise line currently operates a non-smoking ship. Renaissance Cruises operated eight non-smoking ships—which also did not allow children on board—but they closed down in September 2001. No cruise lines have announced plans for non-smoking ships.

For perspective, there are right around 100 cruise ships run by the major cruise lines serving Americans—the exact number varies from month to month as new ships are added and old ones retired. Carnival Cruise Lines operates about half of those ships under its five biggest brand names: Carnival, Costa, Cunard, Holland-America, and Princess. Yet it seems that there is no longer room for even one of those cruise ships to be non-smoking.

I have sailed on the Paradise on four sailings, including the inaugural sailing. On all of the sailings, the ship was booked to near-capacity. There was no shortage of people who wanted to cruise in an environment where smoke didn’t fill the public areas of the ship. So, if the ship was always popular, why did Carnival never build another, and why are they ending the non-smoking experiment entirely?

I cannot say for certain, as I do not work for Carnival and they have not made any explanation in their announcement. The announcement plays it as an obvious move since Paradise is now one of their smaller (and older) ships and thus will be relegated to making short cruises. All of which is reasonable, but the question is “Why is there no new non-smoking ship for the big cruises?”

Here is my own guess. On the Paradise, it was nice that there was no smoke hanging in the casino and lounges. But there also were precious few passengers hanging in the casino and lounges. On the other hand, the fitness center—and Paradise has one of the largest fitness centers on a cruise ship—was always bustling. Casinos and drinks make money for the cruise line; the fitness center is a free service.

Non-smokers tend to have a more conservative life-style than do smokers, and this hits the cruise lines in their big profit centers: liquor and gambling. And that is my guess as to why the cruise lines cater to smokers.

Sunday, 18 January, 2004



http://creativekarma.com/ee.php/web...moking_cruises/

 

[beachblanket]

And THAT Ladies and Gentlement is why cloths irons and candles are banded from staterooms.

As for the fire on the Magic, there was a fire in the engine room and/or exhaust funnel. Everyone was wakened in the middle of the night to go to muster stations. Crews put the fire out before life boats had to be loaded. Damage was limited. No cabins were directly affected and the cruise continued on schedule. (At least that's my impression from what I read here on the boards back when it happened, any 1st hand accounts?)

This seems to "softball" the Magic fire. I was on the March 2003 cruise that immediately followed the fire, and the level of damage on the stack was major and frightening. The area at the top of the slide at the Mickey pool was damaged in the fire, and it didn't open until late in our cruise.

 

[Deb in IA]

And for anyone who is interested, here is the official smoking policy on DCL ships, from their website:

Where can I smoke onboard?

Smoking is permitted only in designated areas of the ship. Guests are allowed to smoke on open decks (except near Mickey's Pool) and on the verandah of their stateroom. Inside, smoking is permitted within Sessions in the Beat Street entertainment district on the Disney Magic®, within The Cadillac Lounge in the Route 66 entertainment district on the Disney Wonder®, and at the bar area in Diversions on both ships.

 

[momrek06]

just scrolled through some of the p*ssing contests here back and forth that took smokers, drinkers, engineers, sloppy people, wife beaters, child beaters, and the overweight to task in various turns. usually i need to go to cruise critic for sniping and pettiness and mean-spirited exchanges.

our thoughts and wishes to our fellow cruisers out there, on all cruise lines. disney ships are happy places, so lets share positive emotions.

DITTO!!

And so so sad that an elderly man (as I am hearing) had to lose HIS life over the careless disposal of a cigarette! He is in my prayers!

 

[magiroux]

just scrolled through some of the p*ssing contests here back and forth that took smokers, drinkers, engineers, sloppy people, wife beaters, child beaters, and the overweight to task in various turns. usually i need to go to cruise critic for sniping and pettiness and mean-spirited exchanges.

our thoughts and wishes to our fellow cruisers out there, on all cruise lines. disney ships are happy places, so lets share positive emotions.

ITA. Some postings on this thread are some of the most ignorant and mean spirited things I have read in a long time .

We are all human with faults..perhaps we can just be compassionate people and post our condolences, and save the superiority complexes for another thread.

 

[atigeg]

It was the CARNIVAL Paradise, and not a Princess ship.
You must have missed this a while back.

Actually, Carnival owns Princess. That's why the initial news reports on the fire said it was a Carnival vessel. Technically that's true, but it was a ship under their Princess brand.

 

[HappyLawyer]

ITA. Some postings on this thread are some of the most ignorant and mean spirited things I have read in a long time .

We are all human with faults..perhaps we can just be compassionate people and post our condolences, and save the superiority complexes for another thread.

I fyou don't like what your watching, change the channel, don't like what is on the radio, change the station, don't like what you eat, fix something else, get the picture, i have read through this thread, and people are posting their thoughts, no one has called any particular person out of their name have they no- no one has used profanity toward anyone else on here have they no- so if it bothers you so much, don't read it. I am not trying to be mean, maybe it's just natural but not intended but i do not think people have been any more rude or disrespectful then they would on any other thread.

Have a disney day all.

 

[magiroux]

I fyou don't like what your watching, change the channel, don't like what is on the radio, change the station, don't like what you eat, fix something else, get the picture, i have read through this thread, and people are posting their thoughts, no one has called any particular person out of their name have they no- no one has used profanity toward anyone else on here have they no- so if it bothers you so much, don't read it. I am not trying to be mean, maybe it's just natural but not intended but i do not think people have been any more rude or disrespectful then they would on any other thread.

Have a disney day all.

Umm, actually, I don't "get the pitcure", and I have no idea where you are coming from with your response to me . I posted an opinion, just like everyone else. Maybe if you don't "like the channel" you should just ignore my postings.

You have a Disney Day too

 

[Dreamer04]

Ummmm, really?
I've been on 3 DCL cruises and on all of them, we just requested an ashtray from our cabin steward and one was provided. They even cleaned and replaced the ashtray for us several times a day.

Same here. All we did was ask for an ashtray and they kept it clean for us.

 

[atigeg]

This is Barb, posting under hubby's ID:

To me, the extraneous issues (i.e. smoking, drinking, or whatever) are irrelevant. It doesn't matter HOW you cause a fire...it could just as easily happen with a "smuggled" iron as with a cigarette. The bigger issue is personal responsibility. People should be held accountable for their actions. The person who caused this fire should have to answer for it.
Barb

 

[JDietz40]

This is Barb, posting under hubby's ID:

To me, the extraneous issues (i.e. smoking, drinking, or whatever) are irrelevant. It doesn't matter HOW you cause a fire...it could just as easily happen with a "smuggled" iron as with a cigarette. The bigger issue is personal responsibility. People should be held accountable for their actions. The person who caused this fire should have to answer for it.
Barb

Well said, I think society today is to quick to blame everything and everyone else and not take responsibility for ones own actions.

John.

 

[HappyLawyer]

Umm, actually, I don't "get the pitcure", and I have no idea where you are coming from with your response to me . I posted an opinion, just like everyone else. Maybe if you don't "like the channel" you should just ignore my postings.

You have a Disney Day too

well you can re read your original post and try to figure it out, other then that i am in no mood to argue i will not let you bring down my spirit, so take it as you like
have a good day

 

[PizzieDuster]

Looks like she's still in port. I wonder what they do with the passengers...

go to Star Princess

http://www.kroooz-cams.com/Princessindex.html

 

[HappyLawyer]

This is Barb, posting under hubby's ID:

To me, the extraneous issues (i.e. smoking, drinking, or whatever) are irrelevant. It doesn't matter HOW you cause a fire...it could just as easily happen with a "smuggled" iron as with a cigarette. The bigger issue is personal responsibility. People should be held accountable for their actions. The person who caused this fire should have to answer for it.
Barb

you are quite correct in your postings, i suppose things got off topic because of people wanting to ban smoking, and the point i was trying to make is people smoke, just like they drink and do other things, and it would not be realistic to expect that to happen, i said before i have severe asthma and bronchritis and i am not for smoking but i accept it is part of our socitey,

You are correct in what the bigger issue is the holding people accountable, i could not have phrased it better.

 

[dwkwootton]

Must be like towel animals, some rooms stewards do it and some don't. Our room steward(ess) said that she was unable to do an ashtray. We didn't become unglued over it so maybe if we had pushed she would have come around. Not a big deal. We borrowed one from an outside deck and it was removed the next time she did the room so we didn't borrow any others. Besides, as has been pointed out earlier, there aren't enough to begin with to make following the rules in a neat and clean fashion as there should be. We figured it was a bad idea to take glass out on the balcony so we put some water in a plastic cup. We did think that was only a so-so idea but not worth making a hassle over.

Enough senseless explanation. The real point here is that its one thing to be anti-smoking but its another thing altogether to be stereotyping and personally offensive. When I made the comparative about obesity, the monkeys started jumping. As I said earlier, they're finding that obesity lends to more health problems than smoking. And its been known for years that our youth is in the worst shape they've ever been. But does that mean that people should feel free to make personally insulting comments in this area? I mean we're talking posts like just calling all smokers stupid & purposefully rude and making all smokers march through the carnage and view the injured first hand ~ good grief!

 

[captaincrash]

I am really not trying to be rude however, too make a statement like this is unnecessary and just plain mean. It could just have easily been a non-smoker who got drunk and decided to light up that caused the fire.

You're right...

... I could (should) have been more diplomatic... and I am simply outraged at this having happened. I guess my comments were a shade stiffer than they should have been.

Off hand... it's enough to simply say I am sorry to see this sort of thing happen. But - it could have been an electrical short or who wknows what having caused this.

Frankly, I can't quite fantom how they have determined that it WAS a smoker who caused this. So quickly to have found out - and then what are the odds it was a ciggy from that cabin or one tracing a ballistic line above and ahead of the ship one or two distant from the flash point? Yeah, if it was a ciggy then they must have a good idea of who was at fault.

Bottom line - this is a tragic event with unnecessary loss of life. And I maintain, that I consider cigarette smokers to be more likely to be inconsiderate sorts... I find cigarette butts litterred about as if they did not want to use an ash tray or other proper disposal method. And if this is in fact proven to be caused by a cigarette then it is exactly this sort of inconsiderate notion of disposal that led to the fire.

Smokers should be restricted to the rear third or lowest balcony level of the ship or fan tail where if they must flick a cigarette butt into the ocean then it is a little less likely to return to another person's balcony. Of course, an inconsiderate smoker might just smoke in an unauthorized area or decide it's funny to flick their spent cigarette up onto someone elses' veranda!

The insanity of some people never ceases to amaze me. I was on the Carnival Spirit this past Valentines day and I was shocked to discover a vandalized elevator. The interior had gang letters scratched into the wood paneling and a metal trim piece (thick at about 1"x 0.5" cross section) pulled away! I have sailed with my spouse on about 15 cruises and on DCL with 4 voyages for 26 nites on the Magic and NEVER have I seen this sort of nonsense. WHat is the world coming to?

So... once again I am very soprry to have offended you ericamanda01... I meant no ill intent. I am just a little angry over this example of potential inconsideration from another cruising patron. Just like having encountered the vandalized elevator.... that was dissappointing but in a far lessor way.

I know that it is possible to take the soft view that we forgive and move on. I can do that too. No problem. But... has anyone ever seen a cigarette tossed out a window ahead of you at night while driving? Yeah... in California that would be a $1000 fine for litterring if the person were caught... and the driver ahead is doing this intentionally.. not some kind of innocent accident. Yeah - they smoke maybe half a pack a day and might have a clean ash tray in their car?!? That's not exactly neighborly. And has anyone ever seen ciggy butts on the ground? NOT everyone who smokes does this but some people do so... and someone might have caused this accident ... as well as many other fire "accidents". AND... has anyone ever been to a non-smoking room with a ciggy burn in the carpeting? Tossing a bit of regular trash rarely leads to destruction, fire, smoke and possibly loss of life. Not to say I'm a litter bug. But every tossed ciggy that is lit by the road side can lead to a brush fire and potential property damage and or loss of life. That is bad enough to say this is not the best of conduct for all concerned... but a really bad example.

SO - my regrets at offending anyone who smokes. The next time you're with one of your smoking pals and your pal throws a smoldering butt on the ground or leaves it in any inappropriate area - I challenge you to make them pick it up and dispose of it properly. DO that each and every time because the one time it is not done maybe that will be the time a fire is started and someone might get hurt unnecessarily. We should work collectively for the greater common good... and take the smoking where it should go.

TTFN...

 

[dwkwootton]

I think that the unfortunate truth is that most people are inconsiderate. There's no basis to suggest that smokers are more so than others and I think that if you really think about it, you'll see the flaw in that theory.

As for "just the facts ma'am" the official cause of the fire remains undetermined.

They "think" that it "may" have been the smoldering cigarette theory. I was intrigued at how quickly this theory was reached (much too quickly if you think about how long it generally takes to determine the cause of a fire) and by the loose language they continue to use. As for me and mine, our immediate thought was that the cruise line is concerned that maybe it was an electrical short or something and is trying their very best to get the focus exactly where it is on these boards. Could be that by the time the actual cause is determined, most people will be more concerned with more current news. Or the initial guess could be right, we'll all have to wait and see. But, either way, its never a good idea to stereotype or be personally offensive to any group ... whether the group is linked by bad habit be it smoking or overeating, race, religion, etc.

 

[mommasita]

Good Grief, I am so sorry I even posted this.

My original intent was to make some people think twice about attending the lifeboat drill..I think only one person responded to that..I just thought that this incident should not be in vain, one death too many..

I absolutely in no way want anyone to be bashed, smoker, drinker, etc..I don't think it is the time for this, although I do totally agree of the dangerous possibilties..Could we possibly make a truce in honor of the one person who passed away in this tragedy..

I do believe there is a debate board...

 

[HappyLawyer]

Good Grief, I am so sorry I even posted this.

My original intent was to make some people think twice about attending the lifeboat drill..I think only one person responded to that..I just thought that this incident should not be in vain, one death too many..

I absolutely in no way want anyone to be bashed, smoker, drinker, etc..I don't think it is the time for this, although I do totally agree of the dangerous possibilties..Could we possibly make a truce in honor of the one person who passed away in this tragedy..

I do believe there is a debate board...

of course, i can't speak for anyone else but i am done.