Which Cruise companies have you sailed in?

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Jkgourmet

Actually, I'm going to step in here and disagree a little bit. HAL (along with NCL and Carnival) still allows smoking on the cabin balcony. That creates a problem if you have non-smoking neighbors who are sitting on their balcony. HAL also allows smoking at 1-2 of their inside bars on a some ships, the casino, and cigar and pipe smoking in some outdoor areas. I'd call their smoking policy on the liberal to moderate side of the track.

We met several couples on our last cruise (NCL) who would only sail on those three lines because they could smoke on their balconies. If that was banned, they all declared they would not cruise again. (I'm making no judgements. I'd do the same if they said I couldn't have red wine when I wanted it.)

I haven't sailed on HAL recently enough to comment on their food.

Yes, smoking is allowed on the balconies, but HAL was the first to enforce no smoking nights and locations in the casino and really go out of their way to monitor the situation. I remember, about 8 years ago doing an HAL cruise. I still smoked then (yuk) and was attempting to smoke at the only smoking bar one night. it was one of the non smoking nights in the casino and because the bar was adjacent but not part of the casino we were told we could not smoke. The same cruise someone was smoking about 6am out on deck, but on the wrong side of the ship: they were quickly reminded it was the non smoking side and they would need to put out the cigarette or move. The interesting thing, I don't remember more than 3 or 4 people even on deck that morning. Even though I was still a smoker, it didn't affect me. I never smoker early in the morning. In fact I really smoked so little I have to wonder why I smoked.

[annerk]

Originally Posted by nmnita

Retired TA or whatever, I know for a fact they are wrong about the smoking issue. The rest is simply subjective: better food, better service, nicer ships, etc. As for knowing it all, no and I am able to admit I certainly do not know it all.

So now you read minds? The people on both sides of them chain smoked literally around the clock on their balconies making their unusable, and they said the smoke in the casino was worse than they had ever encountered. Their biggest complaints were with the food in the MDR, they felt that it had gone from previously acceptable to currently poor. The two items combined made them say "never again."

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by annerk

So now you read minds? The people on both sides of them chain smoked literally around the clock on their balconies making their unusable, and they said the smoke in the casino was worse than they had ever encountered. Their biggest complaints were with the food in the MDR, they felt that it had gone from previously acceptable to currently poor. The two items combined made them say "never again."

oh for heavens sake and now I will just drop the whole thing: I do not read minds, my only comment has to do with smoking policies, not about being bothered by the smoke: No one would want smokers are either side of them, I am questioning your comment about people have left other lines and switched to HAL because of their smoking policies. I am curious to know where you or your neighbor got that information. I haven't seen that study or survey; where is it posted? As for the food, again, I only said, food is subjective, which it is. I have 3 friends who just returned from HAL, they had a 2 bedroom suite. I never heard them say a word about the quality of food going down; maybe some think it has, as I mentioned food has gone down on most lines. Our last cruise someone was praising the food on MSC, our daughter did an MSC cruise recently and found the food to be spotty. Some of it was wonderful, especially the pasta, the rest not to their liking.

So, end of story: everything in life depends on how you see things.