NRKelly: No one hates the effects of second hand smoke worse than I do, however, unless your son is going to be in the smaller bars, he should not have a problem. The Elation is rumored to be one of the jewels of the Carnival line while it was in California. I am sure you will have a wonderful time.
Camp Carnival does not allow any smoking or drinking in the bars, when they in there during the day with their activities. We have never had a problem with a smokey smell in our cabins.
I don't do the Casinos, so I can personally comment on that location...but the only time we have had a problem with smoke (on any of the many Carnival ships we have been on) was during Karaoke or at the Piano Bar.
The only time your son may run into trouble is if there are a lot of smokers on the Promenade when he has to go down that way. Just teach him to look ahead and if he sees a haze of smoke in that area, go up or down a level to reach his destination. If the destination is one of the smaller lounges right in the middle of that area...then he is out of luck.
Oddly enough, on the Holiday, one of the worse smoke hazes I had to walk through on the Promenade was from the crew who all sat by the Bus Stop and smoked. Surely Carnival could regulate that. But again, Carnival will only do what it has to. Non-smokers will only have the level of comfort we require from any cruise line. And the only way to do that is to use those comments cards and our wallets. If 60% of the cruisers really are nonsmokers and we stopped cruising...how quickly would Carnival's policy change. I am with you on the Paradise. If they are only going to have one non-smoking ship...then they should rotate it to different ports. At least to Tampa or Port Canaveral.
