San Juan departure: dinner time vs. Life boat drill ?

[bryanjaync]

Sailing on Summit 11/11 from San Juan, scheduled departure time is 8:30 pm. We have a dinner reservation at 6:30. So when is the life boat drill ? Hopefully not during dinner ? How do they handle a drill during dining hours?????

[luv2camp04]

If I recall, Muster was at 7:45. If you're eating dinner, everyone must leave and head to their muster station. After the drill, you can go back to dinner. With a 6:30 dinner time, you should be pretty much done by then anyway. It's a little more casual that first night because of the late departure, etc... We've always done Select dining so we go around 6:30 and are done in time. Lots of people will just eat at the buffet because of the timing. You just don't want to miss sail away, because the city lights are beautiful!!

 

Have a great cruise!!

[fleckle]

.....So when is the life boat drill ? Hopefully not during dinner ? How do they handle a drill during dining hours?????

As previously stated, they schedule the muster drill for 7:45, but it is usually a while after that before it actually begins as there are always late arrivals.

 

The muster drill is scheduled for the time slot right between early and late traditional dining.

Everything else on the ship shuts down during the time of the muster drill -- usually shutting down about 15 minutes before the scheduled time for the muster drill to begin.

Select dining typically will not seat anyone during the 45 minutes or so right before the muster drill. They tell anyone who shows up then to come back after the muster drill is over.

The specialty restaurants offer discounts on the first night, taking into account that people who dine there may have their dinner interrupted by the muster drill.

 

Traditional second seating in the MDR does not begin until the muster drill is over, even if it runs late.

Standard advice is to go to your muster station early if you want a seat because some of the muster stations do not have enough seats for everyone, so late arrivals need to stand through the whole thing.