Ahoy, smokers, welcome aboard

Apparently it wasn’t paradise for everyone.

Carnival Cruise Lines is snuffing out its own smoking ban on the Paradise, touted as the world’s first smoke-free ocean liner when it hit the water five years ago. Workers who built the ship weren’t allowed to light up; passengers faced $250 fines and were asked to disembark at the next port just for taking cigarettes aboard.

The Paradise will end its ban next year when it’s reassigned from the Caribbean to Mexico on cruises sailing out of California, a hotbed of anti-smoking sentiment.

The change will take effect Sept. 20, as the 2,052-passenger Paradise replaces its sister ship, the Ecstasy, on three- and four-day cruises out of Long Beach to Santa Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico.

Because Paradise will be the only Carnival ship on that route, the company can’t limit it just to nonsmokers, Bob Dickinson, Carnival’s president and chief executive, said earlier this month.

From the start, the ship had trouble attracting group bookings because most include at least some smokers. However, it has been “hugely popular with families,” some specialized organizations such as doctors and physical-fitness buffs, and with people allergic to smoke, said Jennifer de la Cruz, a Carnival spokeswoman.

When Paradise made its debut in 1998, there were predictions that other ships would follow suit, said Mike Driscoll, editor in chief of Cruise Week, a weekly industry newsletter. “But nobody else came up with a second, third or fourth smoke-free ship,” he said. “I suppose you could call it one of those noble experiments.”

Carnival had a different view. “The Paradise’s smoke-free concept was very much a success,” De la Cruz said. “Financially, it actually outperformed what it would have done ... as a smoking ship on a seven-day Caribbean deployment.”

Renaissance Cruises briefly went smoke-free and adults-only before it stopped operating, shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. Most major cruise lines today ban smoking in at least some public areas but allow it in cabins.

Paradise’s smoke-free swan song will be a 15-day repositioning cruise that will leave Miami on Sept. 5, transit the Panama Canal and arrive in Long Beach on Sept. 20. Fares begin at $1,149 per person, double occupancy.

After that, it will revert to a policy, typical of Carnival’s fleet, that bans smoking in dining rooms and show lounges and allows it in other areas, De la Cruz said. Baja cruise fares will start at $299 per person, double occupancy. (800) 227-6482, www.carnival.com.