cruise within a cruise - how is muster drill handled?

[bebe08]

We are on the 10 day Fort Lauderdale to Montreal cruise on Zaandam leaving next week.  You can also book this as a 7 day cruise and embark in Boston.  For those of us who embark in Fort Lauderdale, will we need to take part in a 2nd muster drill in Boston, or will there just be a muster drill in Boston for the new passengers?  This is a first for us so just curious as to how this works.  

[liketraveling]

When I have done cruises like this, I have only had to go to one Munster drill.

Edited April 16, 2019 by liketraveling

[Shmoo here]

6 minutes ago, bebe08 said:

We are on the 10 day Fort Lauderdale to Montreal cruise on Zaandam leaving next week.  You can also book this as a 7 day cruise and embark in Boston.  For those of us who embark in Fort Lauderdale, will we need to take part in a 2nd muster drill in Boston, or will there just be a muster drill in Boston for the new passengers?  This is a first for us so just curious as to how this works.  

When we booked our HAL Panama Canal cruise (a couple of years ago), you could embark in either Boston or Ft Lauderdale.  Those of us who boarded in Boston had to attend both muster drills (Boston & Ft Lauderdale).

 

I've read that some lines (and maybe HAL does now) don't require those passengers who've attended a muster drill within something like a week on those cruises that have multiple embarkation ports don't have to attend subsequent ones.

[TAD2005]

The official rule on HAL ships is that you only have to attend a muster drill every 30 days.   If you have a collector's cruise or a B2B, you are exempt from the 2nd drill, unless your first leg of your cruise is over 30 days, which could happen if you are on 2 segments of the world cruise.   

We cruised just last year from Venice to Ft. Lauderdale, with a stop in Rome for disembarking some passengers and embarking new passengers.   We received cards in our stateroom a few nights before Rome listing their 30 day policy and telling us we did not have to participate in the drill in Civitavecchia before sailing.

[Crew News]

The second muster drill may be waived by the Captain but you cannot count on it until you receive a letter in your stateroom.

[Hlitner]

The answer depends on your Captain!  We say this because we have been on HAL cruises when those who embarked at an earlier port were excused from a 2nd muster drill, and we were on one particular HAL cruise (from Quebec City to San Diego) where everyone had to attend each and every muster drill.  In our case that meant 3 muster drills in the first week (Quebec City, Boston, and Port Everglades).    There was some grumbling aboard that cruise (about all the muster drills) and the Captain addressed the moaning with an explanation that muster drills were very important to crew and passengers.  So, you might have to attend a 2nd drill (at Boston) or perhaps you will be excused.  You will find out while on the cruise :).

 

Hank

[Krazy Kruizers]

Do agree with the last posters -- it depends on the captain.

 

We have done 21 day repositioning cruises and on day 16 we had to attend the life boat drill along with all the new passengers in San Diego.

[bebe08]

Thanks all for the quick responses.  Nice to have an idea of what to expect.