Lifeboat drill

[Texed]

Did you find your room after the drill?

 

Now, that's funny, I don't care who you are. :D

[boogs]

Another reality is that there are no "assigned" lifeboats, simply because the crew won't know until an actual emergency which lifeboats are safe to utilize. I think that's a grand idea, because if for example I was assigned Lifeboat # 3 and it was under water come time to abandon ship, I don't think I would be too thrilled watching the rest sail away.

 

And don't worry, there's lots of lifeboats to go around.:)

 

In the early days of passenger ships there were many fewer passengers on board than is typical of today's cruise liners. That made it easier to manage crowd control, and mustering at the lifeboat stations was manageable. That traditional management methodology continued until recent years when the large size of newer ships made it clear it was unworkable for them. Today's way of having passengers gather in a muster location instead of at the lifeboats makes the logistics of getting 3,000 to 6,000 passengers to safety much more efficient.

[ThursdaysChild]

I for one wish Celebrity would go back to the full drill. It does not take that much time or effort and I feel it is important to ensure that everyone knows where to find their life jacket and how to put it on.

 

It is also important to know where your life station is and the best route to get there. It is also important to know what to do if you are not near your cabin in an emergency.

 

There are those that disagree. Their argument might be that they have sailed many times and are bored by it. But what about the first time cruisers. Can't we take a few minutes for them? Those that cannot be bothered would probably be the first in line to sue Celbrity for not preparing them properly for a real emergency.

 

There are probably a few members that have been in emergency situations at sea that can relate the importance of being prepared better than I can. Lets hear from those that have been there.

 

On Celebrity, instructions during muster drill are clear: if you are not near your cabin when the alarm sounds, proceed to your muster station. Not to the cabin to get stuff (lifejacket or belongings), not to a lifeboat, but to your muster station. You know, the one printed on your Seapass. Your crew members will lead you from there. You will get a lifejacket if you do not have one with you.

 

People seem to forget that with the Costa tragedy, people were going out to lifeboats that were unuseable. What would you do, Edward, if the lifeboat you run out because you think you should have a specific boat assigned turns out to be unuseable? With X's system for Muster Drills, you need only go to your muster station, and from there, the extremely well-trained crew will let you know the situation and what next steps are.

[ThursdaysChild]

On our recent cruise our muster station seemed an awfully long way from our cabin, we were on penthouse deck, and our muster station was muranos, we wondered if this was to somehow be a "posh" muster station for those in suite class?! I would have preferred to be as close to my cabin as possible in case of emergency in the night, than have a posh place to do the drill!! I still feel there are so many pitfalls in any drill, sadly, in the event of emergency we will have to hope for luck to save us. Another issue i had was the kids club, allowing my nine year old to sign homself out - i asked, what if there is an emergency and he has signed himself out without us knowing? No answer, just a shrug!!

 

Am I wrong in believing a parent has to give permission up front for a child to be able to sign him/herself out of Kid's Club??? Who on earth would let a child of that age wander around alone? And don't kids under a certain age have wristbands?

 

And what I have been told by crew is that any unaccompanied child seen during an emergency will be taken to the appropriate muster station whenever possible. I seriously don't believe for a moment that X crew would shrug off a young child on their own during an emergency.

[room010]

In a real emergency, no matter what kind of drill is held, chaos will reign supreme and I'm guessing not many will be at their correct muster station. While I don't think they're a waste of time, they could do a better job with organization and making people shut up and listen.

 

OP, how in heaven's name did you find your way back to your cabin if you didn't know you cabin number?

 

This. It's one thing to get a large group of compliant, mostly bored people to stand quietly during a drill and quite another when panic sets in during a real emergency. Human nature being what it is, it will be every man/woman for themself.

[broadbent]

Gosh, what a lot of complacent snobs most of you are!

I knew exactly where my cabin was by its position.

 

And if life vests are dangerous, why issue them at all?

 

The muster station had a few screens so that we could see a film, but there were too many people there to get any view of the screen. The crew were shouting and seemed disorganised, and were clearly bored by the whole process.

 

My question really is why bother to do the drill if you don't take it seriously?

[cruisestitch]

In a real emergency, the hazards of wearing a life jacket are far outweighed by the hazards of not wearing one.

 

In a drill, the hazards of walking around the decks dragging the straps behind you where others can trip on them, combined with the possibility of tripping because you can't see where you are going very well are of significance.

 

Furthermore, with the addition of velcro connections on the life jackets they are not difficult to put on. There isn't much of a learning curve there.

[Presto2]

 

My question really is why bother to do the drill if you don't take it seriously?

 

For those of us who do.

 

Having read many posts about the life jacket I still think that we should know how to put them on -- it may seem like a small thing but in a panic it would be worse. I've watched people at muster drills get in real tangles trying to get them on ---- in a panic who'd have time to go around and show them what to do :confused:

 

Re your cabin - have to salute you on that one -- we knew our cabin number on Oceana way in advance and still ended up going the wrong way down the corridors sometimes, at the wrong end of the ship outside someone else's cabin. We have now learned to pay more attention to the cabin numbers on the doors and if they are going up / down :):D

[broadbent]

I guess being an architect has given me a sense of direction. But I still found it difficult to know starboard from port when inside the ship.

[Despegue]

I posted a series of post regarding safety onboard ships, procedures and reasoning behind procedures after the Costa Concordia disaster.

 

I do not want to repeat myself as some posters here have explained already some procedures.

 

But here is a quick note from a Professional...

 

Your Assembly station, is where one must go to in an emergency. It is YOUR responsibility to know the exact location of it and the way to it from your cabin.

You will be shown how to put on your lifevest. It is not difficult when you pay attention, you can try yourself in the privacy of your cabin. you do NOT take your lifevest with you for the drill. Reason for this is Safety. there have been a lot of incidents regarding people tripping over ropes and passengers misplacing and losing their vests after the drill. Again, it is YOUR responsibility to make yourself familiar with the use of the vest.

 

In case of an emergency, you will be required to report to the assembly station. It will then be decided by the Ship's Officers which lifeboats or rafts are allocated to you depending on the actual conditions. ship list, fire or operational difficulties might result in a different actual allocation than originally planned. Be assured that this IS the safest way and most effective way to organize an evacuation. remember that the vast majority of ship evacuations are not time critical but people critical, meaning that the biggest hurdle is how to keep the evacuation organised. This is different on aircraft, where the evacuation is always time critical (90 second limit for full evacuation!)

 

In every cabin, on the inside of your cabin door, you have safety briefing cards dexplaining to you the escape routes, assembly station location, lifevest-donning instructions and emergency instructions.

It is YOUR responsibility to read these and to make yourself familiar with it. All the passengers on Costa Concordia who claimed not to know where to go to in case of an emergency and not knowing anything regarding emergencies have partly themselves to blame as all had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the briefing card.

 

On Celebrity, ALL crew is thoroughly trained with weekly drills. safety is the number one priority in Passenger Shipping and Aviation.

 

I do hope this makes things clearer. i can talk for hours but if you have any specific questions , feel free to ask. Remember however that I am NOT a Celebrity Cruisees employee .

 

Regards,

 

Despegue

Captain B747.400

Chairman TCAS Aviation and Maritime Safety.

[broadbent]

My original question (more of a complaint really) was that I don't think Celebrity handled the lifeboat drill as well as I had expected them to.

It was good to see how the floor lighting worked, and getting to the muster station was efficiently handled, but once there, the procedure was a shambles, with hardly anyone paying attention, with different crew members shouting out at the same time, without being able to see the video, without having our names properly checked etc. It was, I felt, a waste of time.

 

This was my first cruise on Celebrity. I have been on one before and on a much smaller ship. There the drill made some sense to me. This didn't.

 

So I think that Celebrity should either give much more thought (and it is their responsibility) to this drill or not bother at all.

[u2cruiser]

@ Despegue

I hope that if ever I am in a situation of danger onboard an aircraft or ship, I have someone like you giving me instructions.

 

A while ago, on the P&O board, you talked me through a few issues regarding my (irrational) fear of flying and my following flights were so much easier for me. I thought of all the reassurances from you re landing gear, aborted landings, zero visibility and my worst fear, turbulence.

 

Regarding ship's safety drills, I hate how some people don't pay attention. I wish the Captain could speak as most people shut up when there is a Captain's announcement. Of course, the Captain is busy doing final checks for sailaway at that time, but I think an initial pre recorded message in the Captain's authorititive voice would shut most people up.

 

As for taking life jackets to muster, that is normal on P&O cruises. You can guarantee that as soon as they get to the lifejacket demonstration, off goes all the velcro as people start to put them on when they've been told not to until the demonstration has been done. That scares me the most; how people just don't listen to instructions.

 

In the Concordia case, it was made worse as some people had only boarded the ship a few hours previous and wouldn't yet be familiar with the ship. I will definitely be familiarising myself with the route to my muster station as soon as I enter my cabin if not before, on my next cruise.

[Despegue]

You are more than welcome and I am very glad to hear that your recent flights have been as they should be, an experience to look forward to. ( I know, whith current service, security etc. it more of a stress experience than anything else:rolleyes:;))

[excitedofharpenden]

I posted a series of post regarding safety onboard ships, procedures and reasoning behind procedures after the Costa Concordia disaster.

 

I do not want to repeat myself as some posters here have explained already some procedures.

 

But here is a quick note from a Professional...

 

Your Assembly station, is where one must go to in an emergency. It is YOUR responsibility to know the exact location of it and the way to it from your cabin.

You will be shown how to put on your lifevest. It is not difficult when you pay attention, you can try yourself in the privacy of your cabin. you do NOT take your lifevest with you for the drill. Reason for this is Safety. there have been a lot of incidents regarding people tripping over ropes and passengers misplacing and losing their vests after the drill. Again, it is YOUR responsibility to make yourself familiar with the use of the vest.

 

In case of an emergency, you will be required to report to the assembly station. It will then be decided by the Ship's Officers which lifeboats or rafts are allocated to you depending on the actual conditions. ship list, fire or operational difficulties might result in a different actual allocation than originally planned. Be assured that this IS the safest way and most effective way to organize an evacuation. remember that the vast majority of ship evacuations are not time critical but people critical, meaning that the biggest hurdle is how to keep the evacuation organised. This is different on aircraft, where the evacuation is always time critical (90 second limit for full evacuation!)

 

In every cabin, on the inside of your cabin door, you have safety briefing cards dexplaining to you the escape routes, assembly station location, lifevest-donning instructions and emergency instructions.

It is YOUR responsibility to read these and to make yourself familiar with it. All the passengers on Costa Concordia who claimed not to know where to go to in case of an emergency and not knowing anything regarding emergencies have partly themselves to blame as all had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the briefing card.

 

On Celebrity, ALL crew is thoroughly trained with weekly drills. safety is the number one priority in Passenger Shipping and Aviation.

 

I do hope this makes things clearer. i can talk for hours but if you have any specific questions , feel free to ask. Remember however that I am NOT a Celebrity Cruisees employee .

 

Regards,

 

Despegue

Captain B747.400

Chairman TCAS Aviation and Maritime Safety.

Your point about passenger responsibility is well taken. In the past it has amazed me how blasé and rude some people are (eg talking over announcements of their own or other languages). I was on a cruise in February and was very impressed at how well the guests conducted themselves. Maybe they had Concordia fresh in their mind to focus them. The crew in turn were excellent. That was on Azamara Quest. 10 days after I got off there was an engine room fire on the ship and people were called to their muster stations. Captain Karlsson was universally praised for the way he handled it.

 

The safety of the passengers is the most important thing on their mind, but you have to take some responsibility to give yourself the best chance.

 

Phil

[Lsimon]

I thought our muster drill was handled very well by attentive passengers and staff last March on the Equinox. Perhaps because it was so soon after the Concordia incident. I would hope this would continue but I'd also guess this depends a lot on the attitude of passengers attending.

 

 

On our recent cruise our muster station seemed an awfully long way from our cabin, we were on penthouse deck, and our muster station was muranos, we wondered if this was to somehow be a "posh" muster station for those in suite class?! I would have preferred to be as close to my cabin as possible in case of emergency in the night, than have a posh place to do the drill!! ...

Muster stations are on deck 5 because that deck is where the outdoor prominade deck is, and that is where lifeboat loading would be. All lounges and dining areas on that deck, and the deck below, are used due to their proximity to this area. An area closer to your stateroom might be further from these areas and in the event of an emergency you'd rather muster at a location closer to a place to get off the ship than one close to your cabin.

[phoenix_dream]

I have no problem with not requiring passengers to wear their life jackets as it is difficult to maneuver in them and it is a rare passenger who cannot figure out how to put one on (and as has been said, if you are that rare passenger, then ask your room steward). As to going to your actual lifeboat station, I am also fine with that change. In a true emergency, either the crew will do the right thing and make the appropriate choices of where to load the passengers based on the conditions at hand, or the passengers will panic and rush all the boats anyway. In either scenario, standing out in the hot sun adds no value IMHO.

 

What I do have a problem with is that 1) in many places in the muster stations you cannot see the video and 2) the staff does nothing to make people shut up and listen. If you've seen it over and over already, at least shut the heck up and let your fellow passengers learn what they need to. Think of it selfishly if you need to - if they don't know what to do they could be creating chaos in an emergency that may cost you your own life!!

 

As to the child question - also surprised a child that young can sign themselves out and wander the ship. But if they can, that is what the wristband is for. All they need to know is to show it to a crew member in an emergency and they will be taken where they need to go, if it is safe to do so. Human nature can be disappointing but I believe the number of crew members who would worry about saving their own a**s and leave a young child to drown are very few and far between, if any.

[robsaw]

The reality is that a single drill, not matter how seriously or unseriously observed is very unlikely to be preserved with any significant recollection in a moment of emergency and stress. The muster drill does little but give passengers some level of confidence that things will be taken care of in an emergency with a few small clues implanted in the brain as what to do. The primary purpose is to restrain panic.

 

This is why the ship's crew repeats their drills over-and-over again weekly or more for fire-fighting, abandoning ship, etc. Because, that is the only way to really learn and retain procedures that require quick and correct responses under stressful conditions.

 

Psychology 101

[gdnr68]

on the July 29th-Aug5th cruise to Bermuda.

 

As we entered we were asked for our room number and our names were checked off. A person we were traveling with did not attend her muster station and she received a letter the next day instructing her to attend at another location. There she had her name checked off the list.

[cruisestitch]

Connie August 2012....missing starerioms all read aloud, passengers quiet during announcements in all 4 languages. No complaints

[Presto2]

Just got back from Silhouette - the muster drill was taken far more seriously by guests of all nationalities this year. The difference was quite noticeable.

 

:)

[Maya57]

Wearing life vests, it turns out, is actually a safety hazard....long straps trailing behind are a danger to those walking behind you, and wearing the jackets while walking limits your ability to see where you are going and people have been known to trip as they cross raised thresholds.

 

In addition if you are no where near your cabin they do not want you going back to your cabin you are to proceed to mustard station where life jackets are availble.

 

This procedure is safer and approved by coast guard

[jaybird from SC]

Just got back from cruise on Equinox.

 

I thought the lifeboat drill on first day was not only a waste of time, but badly organised. Were asked for room number. Had

my pass which has no room number, so couldn't remember my number. Didn't seem to matter. Not required to wear life vest, nor shown which boat to use.

 

Is it just me? Or should celebrity tighten up the drill?

Didn't know your cabin number?

Why not? How did you find your way back?

[ourlol]

I'm not sure whether they still say this... but the bit of the Muster Drill that always flummoxed me was when you were told how to evacuate off the side... in the event you needed to enter the sea from the ship. Wearing your life jacket, instructions were given how to place one hand on your nose, your other arm being left to hold the life jacket... and simply "step off".

 

Of course I immediately had visions of being 14 decks up, looking down at the ocean below and thinking there is no way I will be able to calmly drop myself over the side... let alone remember to hold my breath at the appropriate moment. I think it would be a case of being pushed off in my case.

 

Laura

[Presto2]

I'm not sure whether they still say this... but the bit of the Muster Drill that always flummoxed me was when you were told how to evacuate off the side... in the event you needed to enter the sea from the ship. Wearing your life jacket, instructions were given how to place one hand on your nose, your other arm being left to hold the life jacket... and simply "step off".

 

Of course I immediately had visions of being 14 decks up, looking down at the ocean below and thinking there is no way I will be able to calmly drop myself over the side... let alone remember to hold my breath at the appropriate moment. I think it would be a case of being pushed off in my case.

 

Laura

 

This is a joke surely ?! :confused: If it is real, then they no longer say it ---- :)

[ourlol]

No... it's not a joke. Mind you you made me doubt myself for a minute. However, having just checked with my daughter, she confirms that yes she's been stood with me and heard the same thing. She even gave a quick demo of how we were told to stand (LOL). This was Princess albeit a few years ago now.