Muster Drill on the Mariner

[Yvonne]

We are contemplating booking a January '06 cruise on the Mariner of the Seas, and I have been reading all the reviews about this ship that I can get my eyes on. I read on one review that the ship leaves Port Canaveral at 5:00 and the dreaded mandatory "muster drill" is at 5:15. Can someone tell me if this is true. I'm hoping it's not!! I want to be enjoying my balcony and watching us go past Jetty Park out into the ocean. I don't want to be standing on deck with a life jacket on!! Then if we have early dining at 6:00 there certainly isn't much time to take showers before dinner. :(

 

On the other cruises we've been on "muster drill" has always been BEFORE the ship left port.

[lottacruisin]

Of course you could just skip the muster drill. It's not that hard to do.

[jgoga]

Of course you could just skip the muster drill. It's not that hard to do.

 

How do you do that?

 

John

[lottacruisin]

Well you can hide in your shower, closet, balcony if you close the curtains, or even under the bed. Of course you only have to do this if they come knocking on your door. Only once have I received a letter on my door saying that I missed the drill but I never heard anything about after that.

[FaithsAngel]

When we were on the MAriner, our muster drill was at 4pm.

 

It had finished by about 4.30 and we went straight upto the pool for the sail away party!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Gem :)

[Ocean Boy]

The drill is over BEFORE Mariner sets sail. I think it started around 4:15 and it was over in plenty of time to put the life jackets away and get ready to sail.

[darchibald]

It is MANDATORY.

[Single mom]

I believe all muster drills take place @ 45 minutes to an hour prior to sailaway. They start making anouncements about 15 minutes prior to the drill, if you leave then to get your life jackets you can take the elevators up. I remember they locked out the elevators so you have to herd up the stairs. Back in the cabinby 4:30 and typically am on my 2nd drink by the pool before we set sail.

 

They do count people do not skip Muster, we had to wait once on people they found skipping people were not happy to stand there with those live jackets waiting for the few that didn't want to do it.

 

Oh yeah don't take a drink with you.. No alcohol allowed during muster. Leave it in your room. Lots of people lose drinks for this.

[Yvonne]

Thanks everyone! I wouldn't skip the drill, I know it's important and we've always done it on our other cruises but I would just hate for it to be AFTER we started leaving port. So I'm glad to hear it's done BEFORE that, thanks!

[Reltco]

I wouldn't skip the drill either. It's a pain if it infringes on your time but it can be fun. All depends on what you make of it. There's an extremely low probablity of ever having to abandon ship but since it this involves extremely high chaos, it's good to know at least where to go and how to put on the life jacket. I traveled on a couple of QE2 transLants and always looked forward to seeing all the big orange blobs stumbling around trying to figure out where to go. JMHO

[jrm9999]

Of course you could just skip the muster drill. It's not that hard to do.

 

While it may not be hard to skip the drill that does not make it ok to do. I know the drill is a pain in the you-know-what, especially on a hot day. Its just part of going on the cruise. Maybe this is your hundredth time doing the drill and you already know what to do, however there are also many many others doing it for the first time and don't know what to do. It would be considerate of you to set an example for the first timers just as others did for you on your first cruise.

[liljenn410]

What do you do about lifejackets for children?

[jrm9999]

They have special ones for kids under a certain size/age. If they do not have any small ones in the room, let the room steward know and they will get one.