Smoking at Sea

Passengers abroad Princess Cruises will not be allowed to smoke in staterooms or on balconies staring Monday - with one exception. Look for other cruise lines to tighten up on their "smoking policies" soon.

Here's the most recent cruise line politices:

Princess: With cabins now off-limits, smokers will be able to smoke in designated areas only including Churchill's cigar lounge and sections of the disco, casino and open decks.

Holland America Line: Starting Sunday, the cruise line will also ban smoking in staterooms fleet-wide.

Norwegian Cruise Line: As of Jan. 1, no smoking in cabins, but balcony stateroom guests can light up on balconies. Cigar and pipe smoking isn't permitted in either area. Guests can smoke in designated areas such as sections of the casino and in some outdoor public spaces and open decks.

Carnival Cruise Lines: Since Dec. 1, smoking is banned in all cabins across its 23-ship fleet, but not on outside balconies, except for Spa staterooms. Guest surveys showed less than 5% of guests opted to smoke in their cabins.

Ok, back to the exception to Princess Cruise Lines smoking policy . . .

Princess is making e-cigarette users, sometimes called "vapers," the exception. E-cigarette users can smoke in staterooms and balconies, but will be banned from other areas on the ships.

Also, Carnival and Norwegian cruise lines are restricting e-cigarettes to designated smoking areas only.

We will post updates as we get them