Disaster Practice on Mega Ships

[rugbypopsie]

I noticed the on one of the other threads that the Oasis of the Seas never tenders...hmmm that made me wonder..while I understand that tendering 5000 or 6000 passengers is a major major headache..what kind of practise do they get in the event that a major disaster befalls the ship and evacuation by tender becomes necessary?

 

At least with tendering the passengers are used to getting on and off tenders the crews get practice in boarding tenders and lowering them etc. etc.

 

Makes you wonder doesn't it?

 

Sue

[voyager70]

I was just on Allure of the Seas last month. They conduct muster drills just like any other ship. Everyone is instructed on what to do & where to go in case of emergency. Whether or not people take it seriously & pay full attention, I can only speak for myself, but I've been on 20+ cruises and felt as safe if not safer on this ship than on any other ship I've been on. They (Oasis & Allure) are truly magnificent vessels, albeit I realize they are not for everyone.

[bazzaw]

I really don't know whether the size (big or small) of a ship makes a difference in the event of a BIG emergency. However I do think that 3 times the number of passengers has the potential to cause 3 times the chaos in the event of one.

 

Barry

[MMDown Under]

I really don't know whether the size (big or small) of a ship makes a difference in the event of a BIG emergency. However I do think that 3 times the number of passengers has the potential to cause 3 times the chaos in the event of one.

 

Barry

 

I agree.

 

We have cruised on ships that made public announcements in many languages. As English was one of the latter languages, I found it difficult/impossible to hear the English announcements, because the earlier language groups (the majority) tended to speak after they had heard their language. This would have serious implications in the case of an emergency, especially on ships with larger numbers of passengers.

[NSWP]

I note that HAL chucked a passenger off the ship for failing to attend lifeboat drill. Well done, should be more of it. Anyone who fails to report for lifeboat drill should be put off, they are a liability to themsleves and everyone else on board.

 

On Princess these days, Muster Station staff have hand held devices to record/check off every passengers name at boat drill, that way they can ascertain who is 'hiding.' Well on Ruby and Coral recently they had the devices. Not sure about on the Aussie Princess ships, Sun/Dawn/Sea Princesses, poor cousins, crew probably have to use their fingers whilst counting heads.

 

Just call me the lifeboat police.

[sheridan318]

no finger counting, Sea Princess had same hand held devive in December 2011

Jacquie

[Aus Traveller]

On Sun Princess last year they also checked off cruise cards with the hand-held device.:)

[rkmw]

on the Dawn Princess they scan you too

[Kiwi_cruiser]

Same on the Diamond Princess they also scan you.

[voyager70]

Let's get this post back on topic. Whether you are scanned or checked off during the muster drill is irrelevant to the OP's point. They imply that if you are on a cruise where tendering is the norm, it gives an advantage in case of emergency evacuation, in particuliar to mega ships such as the Oasis and Allure which do not tender at all. Having cruised on ships ranging in size from 25,000 GRT to 225,000 GRT, I must disagree. Tendering in port as opposed to getting on lifeboats for a true emergency cannot be compared. And let's be honest; the Concordia tragedy was indeed horrific, comparable to an airliner crash, but also extremely rare. Your overall chances of such an accident happening on any given cruise is miniscule. I will continue to cruise whenever & wherever in the world I want to go with no worries & I hope you all can do the same! Cheers.

[The_Big_M]

We have cruised on ships that made public announcements in many languages. As English was one of the latter languages, I found it difficult/impossible to hear the English announcements, because the earlier language groups (the majority) tended to speak after they had heard their language. This would have serious implications in the case of an emergency, especially on ships with larger numbers of passengers.

 

That doesn't always happen though. With the cruise I just came back from, the multiple languages side didn't complicate things too much. While it did make the announcements longer, there wasn't one specific group that far outnumbered the others that caused that, even though some groups were larger than others (Italians being the greatest number).

 

Even with the Concordia which was an Italian based ship, and the varying complaints that came afterwards, I haven't heard much criticism due to different languages.

[sparky-elpaso]

Here are a couple of pics of the crew practicing with a lifeboat on our HAL Caribbean cruise. My guess would be that they do this at least once on each cruise even if they don't use the lifeboats as tenders - and that they alternate boats so eventually they all get used.

 

 

[Waihekean]

I noticed the on one of the other threads that the Oasis of the Seas never tenders...hmmm that made me wonder..while I understand that tendering 5000 or 6000 passengers is a major major headache..what kind of practise do they get in the event that a major disaster befalls the ship and evacuation by tender becomes necessary?

 

At least with tendering the passengers are used to getting on and off tenders the crews get practice in boarding tenders and lowering them etc. etc.

 

Makes you wonder doesn't it?

 

Sue

 

 

There was a thread recently about life boats on the very large ships as Oasis. Apparently they have "chutes" where you can glide of the ship (like of an airplane). The bottom of the chute blows up into a large life raft.

 

However, these chutes are meant to be for the crew, so it does not help much with the tender question, except they could be used for pax as well if needed.

Saw some practising and looked very interesting, but was wondering how it really would work in high seas for example.

But it would get you off the ship very fast.