As of January 2017 a ban on smoking on cruise ship balconies will be put into place for Holland America Line. It stands as the last major US line to allow smoking on balconies but has finally joined its competition in rolling out the same ban.
The Seattle-based cruise line announced the new policy this week in order to ‘better align with guest wishes and health concerns’. It’ll prohibit passengers from smoking on their cabin balconies, however E-cigarettes and vaping devices will still be allowed for use inside the cabins.
There will also be several designated smoking areas where tobacco products will be permitted, whilst smoking will still be allowed in outdoor public areas. And while smoke-free casinos are a growing trend in the industry as MSC, Celebrity and Cunard’s entire fleet prohibit it, HAL passengers playing slots in on-board casinos will actually be permitted to smoke. However, the Oosterdam and Eurodam will boast entirely smoke-free casinos.
There will be a penalty for those guests who violate the ban which will be a $250 cleaning fee per day and repeat offenders will be at risk at being removed from the ship, says Holland America.
The line’s smoking policy comes more than three years after Royal Caribbean announced a smoking ban for its cabin balconies, and more than two years after Carnival began their ban. Norwegian Cruise Line was the most recent brand to introduce a smoking ban in November of 2014, yet Costa remains to join the other lines with this policy.
Holland America will roll out its new policy fleetwide, beginning with the Maaesdam and Rotterdam and by January 13th of next year the ban will be in effect aboard the Volendam, Veendam, Zuiderdam, Noordam, Niew Amsterdam, Eurodam, Westerdam, Koningsdam, Zaandam and Oosterdam.
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What is your reaction to the news? Are you pleased that HAL has now announced the same policy that many cruise lines carry? Do you think it’s only a matter of time before the smoking ban on cabin balconies rolls out to all cruise lines worldwide? Leave us your comments!
