Alpha, Bravo .. but Echo?

[Paul65]

Delta - Bio Hazard (I don't even want to think about that one)

 

Biohazard is usually not as scary as it sounds. It could be as simple as cleaning up a restroom where a kid had a nose-bleed. It's usually not a big deal, but requires specially trained crew to make sure everything is properly disinfected and disposed of as a potential biohazard.

 

I don't think I could hear and announcement of "Delta, Delta, Delta," though, without expecting it to be followed by "Can I help you, help you, help you?"

[AFS1970]

My info comes from Carnival not RCI, but on my only cruise back in 2005, my group was lucky enough to get a talk and tour of some of the emergency procedures and equipment from the Ship's Safety Officer. He said that his firefighting team was called the Alpha Team and was paged by sounding Alpha Alpha Alpha only in the crew areas, as the on duty fire team was made up of off duty crew. I honestly don't remember if the same crew responded to non fire emergencies.

 

As for hospital codes, My father designed phone and PA systems for hospitals in the 1960's & 1970's. I know that at my local hospital, which was one of his contracts a fire was Dr. Firestone, security was Dr. Blue and by far my favorite was a for body transport when they would page Dr. Mortimer Post.

[PattyG12]

We were on the Explorer last month when the captain announced Oscar, Oscar, Oscar. Thanks to CC I knew exactly what it was. I sure feel terrible for the family of the crew member that jumped and was never found. Hope we never have to hear that again as long as I live :(

[Sequim88]

Done some searching on old RCI forums and the consensus seems to be...

Alpha.... Medical (Sometimes paged as

Bravo.... Fire

Charlie.... Suspicious device

Echo...... Collision

Oscar.... Person overboard

 

Code Red.... Norovirus control (not 100% sure on this one)

 

Checkout the following video of Carnival Legend hitting Enchantment of the Seas. After they hit you can here someone on one of the ships paging "Echo Echo Echo".

[Sequim88]

Sorry for the double video link posting. I think it may be the same video as the other one that was posted but the URL is different.

[uksimonusa]

Done some searching on old RCI forums and the consensus seems to be...

Alpha.... Medical (Sometimes paged as

Bravo.... Fire

Charlie.... Suspicious device

Echo...... Collision

Oscar.... Person overboard

 

Code Red.... Norovirus control (not 100% sure on this one)

 

Checkout the following video of Carnival Legend hitting Enchantment of the Seas. After they hit you can here someone on one of the ships paging "Echo Echo Echo".

 

 

Correct on the code red, Freedom went code red last week

[sissymaryuk]

Done some searching on old RCI forums and the consensus seems to be...

Alpha.... Medical (Sometimes paged as

Bravo.... Fire

Charlie.... Suspicious device

Echo...... Collision

Oscar.... Person overboard

 

Code Red.... Norovirus control (not 100% sure on this one)

 

Checkout the following video of Carnival Legend hitting Enchantment of the Seas. After they hit you can here someone on one of the ships paging "Echo Echo Echo".

Not totally correct. Bravo is fire (when followed by location), or collision, oil spill, grounding (when followed by "go to your stations").

Echo is when the ship is in danger of breaking its moorings, drifting or generally getting out of control. This is why you hear the announcement in the video.

At the end of day, I wouldn't worry too much about knowing the codes. The reason they use codes is so passengers don't know what they mean and start panicking or getting in the way by rubbernecking/offering help. The crew is trained to deal with these things and most of the time they'll just be drills or not serious. The only time a passenger has to worry is if they hear the emergency signal or the captain comes on the pa telling them something's up.

[Capt_BJ]

these codes are not "universal" or "standard"

 

those with Navy experience know that the Navy codes are universal to that fleet and similarly each cruise line can and does adopt a set of codes dictated by their operations manual/protocol

 

The SOLAS requirements call for a process for dealing with an emergency, they do not tell the line HOW to do it. Regular inspections verify the line has effective procedures. If they announce the emergency as ALPHA or SWEETIE POO th inspectors don't care IF the response is organized and effective.

 

Yes OSCAR is common for OverBoard and Bravo common for fire ... but by no means universal.