P&O Muster Drill

[dsrdsrdsr]

A lifeboat drill would have been entirely useless in the Concordia case, because lifeboat drills don't prepare you for when the captain is running around like a headless chicken and the crew don't know what to do. And waiting by the lifeboats for several hours while waiting for the order to abandon ship, quite probably in bad weather, would be no fun; the theatre seems a much better idea. P&O don't give you a specific lifeboat allocation anyway.

[PopsiB]

When we did a cruise on Oceana last October all passengers not on board for muster had to attend a second muster at 8pm. And the ship sailed out of Venice later that night.

 

I was always under the impression that the cabins were checked for life jackets during the muster and all cabins with them in the wardrobe had notes left either on cabin door handles or in mail box. Not sure if they then had a separate drill to attend.

 

I just find them useful to refresh things that you store to the back of your mind. Just the same as on airlines.

 

There is always a TV channel that shows the Emergency Drills on embarkation day.

[AndrewShooter]

I recommend use of the P&O Advice page, easily accessible from their web page, to get definitive advice which can be supplemented by case specific questions if required. So many of the "answers" given by forum users, and not just to this thread question, are just "opinions" from ill informed and so often generate non existent concerns or complaints.

 

With regard to the original question and the subsequent alleged inadequate

disabled passenger evacuation plan, P&O state:

 

Before setting sail, you will be asked to attend an emergency evacuation drill. You will be asked to go to your muster point which will be notified to you in your cabin.

 

Once at your muster point, you will be advised on what you should do in the event of an emergency, and the sounds and signs you should be aware of.

 

Full details will be given to you once on board. Safety advice is also displayed on your in cabin television

 

W

When booking your cruise, you need to tell us if you have a disability which might mean that you require additional assistance, in particular in an emergency situation.

 

Our Disability Team collate this information and ensure that each ship has a list of passengers requiring extra assistance, together with their cabin numbers, before the ship sails.

 

In the event of an emergency and when passengers are called to their Muster Stations, all passenger cabins are checked and evacuated by the cabin stewards. Any passenger who requires assistance getting from their cabin to the Muster Station will be given the required assistance by the ship’s specially trained Passenger Assistance Party.

 

Special evacuation chairs are available on all ships which will be utilised to transport passengers down stairs if required. This assistance will be arranged / requested by the cabin stewards evacuating the cabins. In the event that a passenger is away from their cabin, either on the open decks or in a public room, at the onset of an emergency, these areas are also checked and evacuated. In this event any passenger requiring assistance would be taken directly to their Muster Station by the Passenger Assistance Party and a life jacket/s would be provided in the Muster Station. This assistance will be arranged / requested by the crew members assigned to evacuate these areas. Similarly if a passenger requiring assistance presents themselves on a stairway at the onset of an emergency, this assistance will be arranged by a Stairway guide. Stairway guides are present on all stairways designated as passenger evacuation routes.

 

Please note that in the event of an emergency, passengers with restricted mobility will not be able to use the elevators (as with standard worldwide emergency procedures, elevators are not to be used in emergency situations). Please also note that in the event of an emergency, those passengers using motorised wheelchairs or scooters will need to be transferred to either a regular wheelchair or evacuation chair. It is not possible for the Passenger Assistance Party to transport passengers in motorised wheelchairs or scooters down the stairs, due to the additional weight and the subsequent risk of injury to the passenger and members of the Passenger Assistance Party in attempting this.

[peteukmcr]

 

If you are staying on the ship AND in the same cabin then it is not compulsory to attend the second muster drill. If you change cabins, then you do have to attend.

I did read your post and the point I'm making is regardless of whether you are a b2b cruiser on RCI or not, staying in the same cabin or not, you have to attend each muster drill.

[nomadgirluk]

On our second cruise on Ocean Village we did not attend the second muster drill half way through our back to back cruise. No one checked our cabin and we were left in peace.

[balf]

Given that before Concordia it was common practice to have the drill when the ship had been underway for some time, an obvious safety hazard, I'll continue to doubt that the present system is fully adequate.

 

Tragically people have to die to bring in measures that should have been obvious.

 

Boing claim that 850 passengers can be evacuated from an aircraft in 90 seconds. Do you believe that? In perfect non stress conditions, possibly but with a smokey cabin and possibly fire?

 

And you don't need to be an expert to have basic common sense.

 

David

[insanemagnet]

I keep remembering the Concordia videos.

 

Muster drill on Costa is now very serious.

 

Takes place inside, but next to the exit for your lifeboat.

Lined up in rows of 11 (or however many per bench in the lifeboat)

Lines are in order of height back to front.

Life jackets must be properly worn and all straps correctly fastened, and checked by crew.

Cruise cards scanned to ensure attendance.

No jokey speeches.

[Sanjam cruisers]

I would suggest that in an emergency situation the biggest threat to ones own safety is other passengers, the crew will be well trained in their duties the passengers aren't we all have all been on aircraft where the crew ask all passengers to remain seated until the aircraft is stationary on stand what happens said passengers are up on their feet opening overhead lockers and on their phones before the aircraft is anywhere near their stand.

Same on a ship the emergency could take place at any time with passengers all over the ship.

The advice given at the drill is exactly that "Advice" every emergency situation is different, follow crew instructions where possible but remember at the end of the day we are responsible for our own safety.

The BA crash at Las Vegas last year remember all the passengers evacuating the aircraft with their hand luggage they were the irresponsible ones, if such a passenger got in my way in that situation they would be trampled over my life and that of my wife is far more important than baggage.

I was a member of the emergency services for over thirty years and it amazed me how selfish some people could be in an emergency situation.

[CCFC]

I did read your post and the point I'm making is regardless of whether you are a b2b cruiser on RCI or not, staying in the same cabin or not, you have to attend each muster drill.

 

Odd that RCI do that.

 

Can you PLEASE sort your signature out as its making me scroll to read posts, stack them don't put them side by side would be a suggestion.

[majortom10]

Cannot understand the logic of having the muster drill by your designated lifeboat. What happens heaven forbid if the emergency means you cannot get access to your designated lifeboat where do you go then. It would cause even more chaos and panic and what would happen with the "women and children first". I for one would be uncomfortable climbing aboard my designated lifeboat and leaving women and children behind and what would happen do you sit and wait for everybody to turn up even latecomers before launching it I don't think so.

[Florry]

I would suggest that in an emergency situation the biggest threat to ones own safety is other passengers.

 

 

Given the scrum in the buffet I dread to think what it would be like in an emergency, you'd like to think people would be sensible but....

[dsrdsrdsr]

Muster drill on Costa is now very serious.

 

Takes place inside, but next to the exit for your lifeboat.

Lined up in rows of 11 (or however many per bench in the lifeboat)

Lines are in order of height back to front.

Life jackets must be properly worn and all straps correctly fastened, and checked by crew.

Cruise cards scanned to ensure attendance.

No jokey speeches.

 

Better an efficient captain and no lifeboat drill, than a perfect lifeboat drill and a captain who loses his head in a crisis. If Concordia's captain had been competent, the evacuation could have been done with very little, if any, loss of life. There was plenty of time to instruct people even after the ship had struck the rock.

[AnnieC]

Odd that RCI do that.

 

Can you PLEASE sort your signature out as its making me scroll to read posts, stack them don't put them side by side would be a suggestion.

 

I was just about to say the same thing.:)

[balf]

Cannot understand the logic of having the muster drill by your designated lifeboat. What happens heaven forbid if the emergency means you cannot get access to your designated lifeboat where do you go then. It would cause even more chaos and panic and what would happen with the "women and children first". I for one would be uncomfortable climbing aboard my designated lifeboat and leaving women and children behind and what would happen do you sit and wait for everybody to turn up even latecomers before launching it I don't think so.

 

 

See post by insanemagnet. This is how drills were done in the past and always made more sense to me than filling the theatre for the "comfort"

of passengers. And I'm not sure that women and children first would work any better in a full theatre group than in the smaller (150) lifeboat

one. In most situations smaller groups always work better than big.

 

David.

[majortom10]

See post by insanemagnet. This is how drills were done in the past and always made more sense to me than filling the theatre for the "comfort"

of passengers. And I'm not sure that women and children first would work any better in a full theatre group than in the smaller (150) lifeboat

one. In most situations smaller groups always work better than big.

 

David.

 

Not disagreeing about muster drills in massive theatres but against designated lifeboats what would your suggestion be if say a ship was listing i.e. Concordia and all of one side of ship's lifeboats inaccessible and that was where your designated lifeboat was. It then makes the whole muster drill farcical if you cannot get to your designated lifeboat in an emergency.

[Clodia]

I would not expect "women and children first". Why? We are all equally important and I would expect that there is a lifeboat seat for everyone on board so it doesn't matter in what order boats are filled. (I am female)

[balf]

Not disagreeing about muster drills in massive theatres but against designated lifeboats what would your suggestion be if say a ship was listing i.e. Concordia and all of one side of ship's lifeboats inaccessible and that was where your designated lifeboat was. It then makes the whole muster drill farcical if you cannot get to your designated lifeboat in an emergency.

 

 

Well it's only a few steps to the other side of the ship and the situation would be the same for the folk in the theatre, the boats would be rather crowded anyway. Which raises another point about how boats are launched, or not, but that's for another thread.

 

David

[dsrdsrdsr]

See post by insanemagnet. This is how drills were done in the past and always made more sense to me than filling the theatre for the "comfort"

of passengers. And I'm not sure that women and children first would work any better in a full theatre group than in the smaller (150) lifeboat

one. In most situations smaller groups always work better than big.

 

David.

 

I don't know about other lines, but P&O's logic is that the emergency signal (7 short 1 long) is not a signal to abandon ship; it's a signal that there is a problem and they want to have the passengers assembled just in case. If (say) the engine room is on fire but hopefully can be controlled, they don't want passengers standing about on the open deck for several hours, just in case they need to get in the lifeboat - after all, the lifeboats are very much a last resort.

 

PS - they don't do "women and children first" anymore, not because of reassessed priorities however right or wrong that may be, but because there is (hopefully!) room for all and so no point spolitting families. If somehow three quarters of the lifeboats were wrecked, I dare say it would be children first; but women before men? - I don't know.

Edited March 19, 2016 by dsrdsrdsr

[john watson]

Muster drill on Costa is now very serious.

 

There is a greater chance of an emergency happening on some cruise lines

 

Takes place inside, but next to the exit for your lifeboat.

 

This seems sensible until you have a ship list and make your life boat unusable.

Lined up in rows of 11 (or however many per bench in the lifeboat)

 

Dedicating a specific life boat to people makes it harder to fill quickly. Imagine a theatre full of people that empties. Ask them to go back in and sit down then imagine they have to do this but sit back in their originalk seats. How much longer would that take?

Lines are in order of height back to front.

 

This splits up families which they will resist in an emergency. Italians are not usually very tall.

Life jackets must be properly worn and all straps correctly fastened, and checked by crew.

 

If the person wearing it to a drill did not put it on personally will whoever helped them be available?

Cruise cards scanned to ensure attendance.

 

Seems sensible for a headcount.

No jokey speeches.

 

No very funny in the light of previous fatalities over the years on some lines.

 

 

 

Regards John

Edited March 20, 2016 by john watson

[GirlyCruiser]

I remember one cruise we did, we were in the muster drill at Southampton and there were people walking around outside. One couple even had a child in a pushchair with them. You could tell they weren't bothered about the drill as they didn't appear to be carrying life jackets. I can't recall which ship we were on (def P&O though) but I remember we had to meet at the show lounge at the rear of the ship so you had a good view of people walking around the prom deck.

[majortom10]

I remember one cruise we did, we were in the muster drill at Southampton and there were people walking around outside. One couple even had a child in a pushchair with them. You could tell they weren't bothered about the drill as they didn't appear to be carrying life jackets. I can't recall which ship we were on (def P&O though) but I remember we had to meet at the show lounge at the rear of the ship so you had a good view of people walking around the prom deck.

 

Like has previously been said they might have been on a back to back cruise so had originally attended the muster drill on their first cruise so P&O would not expect them to go again on the second cruise.

[Presto2]

On our first night on Britannia last year we were woken up at about 11.30pm by the whistle going and the Captain asking all crew to go to muster stations due to smoke in the Engine Room. Believe me, it frightened the life out of us - as it did those passengers who saw crew in the bar areas just down tools and put life jackets on etc!

 

Thankfully, this was not a real emergency (smoke had been sucked in to the Engine Room and this had been seen on a camera so the crew member on watch had hit the emergency button in line with procedure) and it was handled brilliantly by the Captain and his senior officers. Quite a lot of people complained about the fright they received, but I would prefer that to the Captain of the Concordia's approach. Just because the Captain on that ship was an idiot doesn't mean that we should think that they all are ....

 

Have to say, that sitting up in bed in the dark with all of the messages from the Captain coming over the in cabin system that night we both agreed that in between messages we were thinking of the Muster Drill - i.e. what to wear, what we needed to take with us and the route to our Muster Station if we needed to move.

 

We found the Muster Drills were taken far more seriously on P&O than on Celebrity and RCI. I do think that they need to take note of who does and does not turn up though.

[GirlyCruiser]

On our first night on Britannia last year we were woken up at about 11.30pm by the whistle going and the Captain asking all crew to go to muster stations due to smoke in the Engine Room. Believe me, it frightened the life out of us - as it did those passengers who saw crew in the bar areas just down tools and put life jackets on etc!

 

Thankfully, this was not a real emergency (smoke had been sucked in to the Engine Room and this had been seen on a camera so the crew member on watch had hit the emergency button in line with procedure) and it was handled brilliantly by the Captain and his senior officers. Quite a lot of people complained about the fright they received, but I would prefer that to the Captain of the Concordia's approach. Just because the Captain on that ship was an idiot doesn't mean that we should think that they all are ....

 

Have to say, that sitting up in bed in the dark with all of the messages from the Captain coming over the in cabin system that night we both agreed that in between messages we were thinking of the Muster Drill - i.e. what to wear, what we needed to take with us and the route to our Muster Station if we needed to move.

 

We found the Muster Drills were taken far more seriously on P&O than on Celebrity and RCI. I do think that they need to take note of who does and does not turn up though.

 

We had that last year on Ventura. Middle of the night the whistle sounded and they called crew down to deck 2. They thought it was fire in one of the washing machines but was just smoke from the faulty machine. Does make you think though! Took me ages to get back to sleep! Agree with previous reply though that if pax are doing back to back then they don't need to go. I must admit I kind of enjoy muster drills, all part of the experience for me.

[Presto2]

We had that last year on Ventura. Middle of the night the whistle sounded and they called crew down to deck 2. They thought it was fire in one of the washing machines but was just smoke from the faulty machine. Does make you think though! Took me ages to get back to sleep! Agree with previous reply though that if pax are doing back to back then they don't need to go. I must admit I kind of enjoy muster drills, all part of the experience for me.

 

Frightened the life out of us as it has never happened before! Spoke to one of the photographers and he said he was in his cabin and has not known it before either ... but credit to the Captain and crew, it was handled brilliantly. Went back to sleep eventually !!!

 

Agree re the other post that if you are on a back to back you don't need to go unless you are in a different cabin, but I suppose it isn't a great amount of time and if it saves just one life then it is worth it.:) Like you say, all part of the experience and far more enjoyable than the drill on aeroplanes ------ I hate flying !!

[Mysticalmother]

To put into context...the back to back we did was a 7 day TA to New York,followed by a cruise up the Eastern Seaboard to Quebec via Boston, Bar harbour, Newport & Halifax ( fantastic itinerary if ever you feel like it!).

We were up at 5 am to see a very foggy arrival into New York, and were then off the ship at 8.30 for a full day excursion in NY. We got back to the ship - exhausted!- about 15 minutes before the muster drill for new passengers. Of the 2000 or so passengers on board for the next leg, some 16- 1700 were "new" and the rest of us had been on the TA. We were told that the muster drill was not compulsory if we were in the same cabin as the TA although of course we were welcome to attend if we so wished. Anyone who had changed cabins was told they must attend the drill.

I believe that this was the right decision...we would have not gained anything by attending again.

But i have never not attended a muster drill at the start of a cruise. An absolute essential IMHO.