Tom Stieghorst
Cruise passengers are an easygoing, live-and-let-live bunch. Except when it comes to smoking.
That's the upshot from a new survey on rude behavior on cruise ships and other travel venues taken by Travel Leaders Group.
The survey measured passenger response to hypothetical examples of rude behavior. The examples range from someone cutting in line while passengers queue up to board a flight to travelers damaging or disfiguring a major tourist attraction.
In the latter example, almost 90% of respondents said they would tell a security guard or official personnel, while 23.3% said they would intervene and say something directly to the person (more than one answer could be selected).
So in that case, travelers are clearly ready to take action to rein in behavior they find unacceptable.
In two examples from the survey, cruise passengers were less inclined to speak to fellow passengers about unacceptable behavior.
Travel Leaders asked cruisers what they would do if another passenger cut in front of them in the buffet line. In this example, 60% said they wouldn't do anything at all. Another 15% said they would stay quiet "even though it bothers me." Of the activists, 25% said they would say something directly to the individual, while 4% would tell a crew member.
In a second example, in which passengers were laughing and talking during the muster drill, nearly two-thirds would either not take action or stay quiet "even though it bothers me," while just over a third would mention something to the individual or to the crew.
But in the case of passengers smoking on the balcony where they're required not to, the hammer is coming down. In that case 72% said they would inform a crew member, while 14% would speak up personally, and only 18% would either stay quiet "even though it bothers me," or do nothing.
The survey doesn't cover the full range of rude behaviors. Some of my pet peeves — door slamming, laundry leaving, sun-chair hogging — were left off the list. But it's clear that smoking in nonsmoking areas is one rude behavior that won't be tolerated by a majority of today's cruise passengers.