Ever been called to muster stations for real?

[cruzincurt]

Have you ever been called to muster stations for real? What's your story?

 

On the Norway's last cruise, we were called to muster stations at 6:45 am after we had docked in Miami. The boiler blew up killing several crew members. Fortunately, were were docked at the pier and were told to just exit the ship ASAP after about an hour. We were led into a warehouse and released after about 2 hours. We went home without our luggage. Our luggage was shipped to us about 2 weeks later.

 

Attending muster drills is very important. Although we were not at sea, there was no power or lighting, so there was a lot of confusion among the passengers and crew.

[Luckyroot]

Very scary! Did they let you get back on the ship to get anything? I Would think some people left in PJ's at that hour of the morning. And also without their travel documents.

[BeanCounter30019]

There was that one cruise I took on the Titanic...very disorganized. In all the hub bub my DW dropped her giant diamond necklace and it sank to the bottom of the ocean...wait, I think I'm confusing my life with the movies.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Came close to having to report to our life boats.

April 2003 the fire alarms went off about 4:30 in the afternoon. DH was out on the verandah and I was in the dressing room changing for the day when the alarms went off. Within a minute the captain came on and asked all passengers to report back to their cabins and don their lifejackets and wait for further announcements. He explained that we had a small fire on the Lido deck.

Our tenders were already in the water and returning from shore with the last tours. They turned back, dropped off their passengers on shore and headed right back to the ship.

In 5 minutes the Captain came back on and said that the fire was out but that everyone was to remain in their cabins and he gave the all clear.

That came about 5 minutes later.

Were we scared? - Oh yes.

[cruzincurt]

On the Norway, after the captain released us, we were allowed to go back to the rooms, at least on the upper decks, to grab our carry-ons then head straight off. You could hear the boom and the ship shuddered. I looked out the balcony and saw the police boats coming down the channel and police cars racing up the pier. Then you could hear the fire trucks coming. I told my DW to get up and get dressed as I suspected something big had happened and we would probably be called to muster. Since the steam boiler had blown up, there was not a big fire, although you could hear them calling fire teams to their stations.Shortly thereafter the whistle blew the call to muster and the cabin steward came and pounded on our door.

 

The big question was, since we were already tied to the pier, did we need the life vests? We all took them anyway. The Norway, now retired, was the last of the early steam powered cruise ships.

[Kitty34]

How sad for those crew members who lost their lives. :(

[MrsBoo]

If I remember correctly a RCL ship hit a reef in the Caribbean in 1998 & passengers had to abandon ship without their belongings. I remember seeing passengers on the plane on their way up north wearing shorts in mid December. I believe it was on their way to first port of call == bummer.

[caribbean girl]

Wow, cruzincurt, what a story! It puts in perspective what goes on behind the scenes, while we are all relaxing/having fun. There are REAL people, doing VERY important work on these ships.

[kitty9]

Funny you should ask because last night, at around 2:30am, I thought we were going to have to do just that because there was an electrical fire in the crew galley. The midship hallways filled with smoke, but they were able to get things under control without much of a problem. I'm on the Crystal Symphony doing a trans-Atlantic.