Carnival offers a smoke-free cruise on Paradise

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This article was published 05/01/2002 (8965 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MIAMI — Passengers board the Paradise anticipating the usual amenities of a cruise ship: 24-hour food service, a solicitous staff, shore trips, the casino, nightly shows, cosy but comfortable cabins.

But on this ship, there’s one thing that won’t await them: tobacco smoke.

Carnival Cruise Lines launched the Paradise three years ago as the only non-smoking ocean liner, which it still is. The occasional passenger who lights up finds it the most expensive puff he or she has ever taken.

Getting caught means being booted off the ship — the polite term is “disembarked” — at the next port. No refund, no second chance. On top of that, the passenger’s shipboard account is docked $250 US for disregarding the rules.

“We have made it very clear that Paradise is a completely smoke-free ship, and we intend to be very stringent in enforcing that policy,” says Carnival president Bob Dickinson.

The first man to enforce the non-smoking rule had to quit himself.

Capt. Carlo Queirolo, a 16-year Carnival veteran, was in charge of the ship’s construction in Helsinki, Finland, before taking her helm in 1998.

“I was smoking some cigarettes, but it was not too really tough to quit,” he says. “I have to thank Paradise for that.

“The company told me that if we see anybody around smoking, the captain is responsible to disembark a guest, to disembark a crew. It was an extra task to do it, but I thought right away that it was a great idea, especially because it was the first ship doing something like that.”

He sent four or five passengers home after Paradise started regular cruises in December 1998.

While passengers can smoke when they’re ashore, the crew cannot. In the early going, crew members who were caught smoking on the pier were assigned to other ships. Now, they get the same heave-ho as the passengers.

Boarding the Paradise requires signing a waiver that acknowledges the no-smoking agreement and its consequences. The policy is spelled out in signs at the ship’s entrance — in both English and Spanish for Caribbean ports — and is reinforced in the daily newsletter delivered to cabins. The universal no-smoking red circle with a slash through a cigarette appears on the ship’s bow and stern.

Paradise hotel director Keith Bunton said the axe falls a little less than once each week-long Caribbean cruise.

The guilty usually accept being busted.

“We just inform them that they’ve been observed smoking or with smoking material and we must invoke the policy of disembarking them and charging them $250. We assist them in every way we possibly can in the next port of call.

“We don’t treat them as criminals. We make it as comfortable for them as we can. But we market this cruise as a non-smoking vessel and usually the guest is understanding. They go peacefully.”

He says the final decision rests with him and then the captain.

“It’s really something we don’t enjoy,” Bunton says. “We don’t want to see somebody’s vacation come to an end and their cruise ruined. We have to protect all the guests who come on for non-smoking. If you’ve got cigarettes, give them to security on embarkation. Throw them away. Because it’s not worth it.”

Capt. Vito Garrucio, a non-smoker who piloted the Paradise this summer, says he is committed to keeping Carnival’s pledge to its passengers.

“They come on here two, three, four times in a year because they like the smell of the ship,” he says. “If we close one eye, we do no good. They don’t come back. I want to keep my eyes open. I want to protect the company — and my salary, too.”

Since Caribbean ports of call often feature Cuban-type cigars, it’s OK to buy them as long as they –and any other smoking materials like lighters or matches — are turned over to the ship’s security when boarding. They’re returned at the end of the cruise.

Smokeless tobacco is also banned, although getting caught only means losing the pouch or tin. The cruise continues.

Garrucio, whose association with Carnival began in 1972, said it’s the company’s intent to offer non-smokers an option, not to pick on smokers. The line has 14 other carriers — some of them identical to Paradise — that allow smoking in limited areas.

“They can take another ship,” he says.

Associated Press

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