Royal Caribbean turns jazz lounge into smokeless casino aboard three ships
Royal Caribbean International has converted the jazz lounge aboard three of its Oasis class ships into a smokeless casino.
The conversion was carried out by Trimline on Harmony of the Seas, Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas.
Trimline reportedly carried out the work in two weeks per ship while the vessels were still in service.
A factor that contributed to the success of this project was Trimline’s TAPP software, which enabled everyone involved to monitor progress in real-time.
“It’s been an absolute pleasure to work with Royal Caribbean on these conversions,” said Billy Morton, Project Manager, Trimline. “The team has worked tirelessly to ensure that the work is delivered to the highest standards, and we are delighted with the results.”
“We’re confident that these new smokeless casinos will provide an enjoyable experience for the guests onboard,” he added.
The addition of smokeless casinos is an attempt by Royal Caribbean to keep all passengers happy following the smokers versus non-smokers controversy in the early weeks after the cruise industry returned to service during the pandemic.
While the CDC required guests to wear masks, passengers in the casino would remove their masks to smoke. Royal Caribbean therefore made the casinos non-smoking, which was popular with non-smoker passengers.
When Royal Caribbean once more allowed smoking in casinos, there were many complaints, but Wonder of the Seas was able to keep everyone happy as she was designed for the Asian market, with a smoking and non-smoking casino.
Due to the pandemic, she was deployed to the Caribbean out of Florida, and now her blueprint has been extended to Harmony of the Seas, Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas.
The new smokeless casinos occupy the space where the Jazz on 4 lounge previously was located.
The retrofit isn’t entirely without controversy therefore as some passengers will lament the loss of a live jazz music venue, while many non-smoker gamblers will also likely prefer the smaller smokeless section of the casino instead be allocated as a smoking section so that non-smokers have free reign of the main casino space.
