Silly question from a First-Timer about muster drill

[GamerMom64]

I know back in the 50's and 60's if someone was going on a cruise, you could have friends come on board for awhile and then it would be announced that all visitors would have to leave. It was those people who would be at dockside waving to the passengers on the ships, it was kinda cool, but they stopped that in the early 60's. So sailaways are not really like they show in the movies unless it is the old ships like Titanic or the any of the liners up until the early 60's that are shown in movies.

 

I do remember, as a child, waving to my grandparents from the dock as their ship pulled away. Because they would be gone for months at a time, the whole family would see them off each time they went go on a "sea trip" (grandparents didn't call them cruises). We would be all dressed up, ladies wore white gloves so grandparents could see us waving (we could never see them).

 

And when my father was a child, grandparents would ship their Studebaker with them. They didn't want to "hire" a car when they reached their destination. Today, we are so lucky to be able to research, choose and book our shore excursions online LOL :p

 

PS - Does anyone know if there is a live band for the sailaway?

[mudpievelour]

Of my 15 Carnival cruises, NONE have been held during sailaway. Muster drill has always concluded at least 30 minutes prior to sailing.

 

Of my four Carnival cruises, ALL have been held during sailaway. All have been from the port of Galveston. Maybe it has something to do with this port.:confused:

[DukeFamily]

PS - Does anyone know if there is a live band for the sailaway?

 

I don't think I've ever been on a cruise where the steel drum band WASN'T playing during the sailaway. Of course.....with everyone still wearing life jackets and jammed into their muster stations, it was kind of hard to notice until the ship had sailed......so to speak...:p

[want2cruiseagain]

Sailaway has occurred during muster drill on at least half of my Carnival cruises. There is no reason for that to still be occurring considering everyone has to be on the ship 60 minutes prior to sailaway.

 

For me, it is disappointing for the first time cruisers. Not a good way to start a cruise.

 

Dave

 

 

I hope not! I get my best pictures during sailaway. Guess I bring my camera from the stateroom just in case. Our other two, muster was at least another before sailaway.

[GoPennState]

I posted earlier that we were going to make shirts for our cruise, and finally finished making them and wanted to show them to you. Maybe you will want to make them too for laughs!

 

P.S. We are so excited that I bought a DVD of 13 episodes of the "Love Boat"! Our kids are the same age we were when it 1st came out. Now, every day until we cruise, we are going to watch 1 episode to get even more into the mood......if that's possible!! :D

[suzyjack]

We sailed on the Ecstasy out of Galveston in February. It was our first cruise. We met for Muster in one of the bars, we were in there for over 30 minutes (we were one of the first to arrive), then we went outside to the lifeboats. As we were leaving the bar for the lifeboats, we started sailaway. I was very unhappy with the timing. I hope they do a better job on the Conquest next February!

 

Hi, sailed on the Conquest on the 17th. Muster drill was on the deck just below the lifeboats, after it was over we had time to return the lifejackets, get to the upper deck and grab a drink before we sailed. We hurried, but made it.

I don't know what determines the different timing on different sailings.

[emmysmommy]

Two out of three cruises have begun before the muster drill was done for us. It is really annoying as we have to run back to the cabin and return the life vests before we can begin to enjoy the sailaway happenings.

[HighSeaslover]

I know I'll be slammed for this but on the last 3 cruises, hubby and I didn't participate in the drill. But on all of our cruises the drills were all finished prior to sail away

[glrounds]

You ought to be . . . you'll be the one in an emergency running around in circles, crying like a little girl, screaming, "We're all gonna die ! ! ", taking up the valuable time of the crew trying to deal with the emergency, but that's okay, I'm sure whatever you were doing is much more important. :rolleyes:

[crusinpsychRN]

On our 8/21/08 Inspiration cruise muster drill did end before sail away. We were inside and it took all of 9 or 10 minutes. The reason they take so long sometimes is that all passengers are not accounted for and are being looked for to get to their station.

 

Sail away on Inspiration was better than any others I've been on with a live band (no steel drums) on Lido deck with lots of dancing. It was fun!

[Riley's Mom]

On all of our cruise we have never had sailaway during Muster Drill.. Like a previous poster stated it is usually thirty minutes or so prior to saliaway. We don't even go out on deck anymore for sailaway. we are usually in our cabin getting dresed for dinner. We always have early dinner and need to get ready for that.

Carla

P>S> You will have an AWESOME time on your cruise. Have Fun!

[retirednready2go]

Do they ever clean the life jackets? or do we need to take hand towels to wrap around the necks?

[cheeseheads1]

March 2008 on the Legend we did sailaway during the end of muster drill. Very little fanfare as we were the only ship leaving at that time. That was a bit disappointing as it was the first cruise for our teens. LOTS of people avoiding the drill definitely contributed. Nobody likes it. Everyone needs to do it. Don't be the idiot that leaves all of us standing on the deck packed in like sardines!! JMHO:D

[Curt Jerome Wild]

There are several scheduling and port reasons that ships sail during sailaway or not.

One major factor is all the people who think they're being fun or cool, by skipping out and hiding in their cabin. (Thanks guys).

A lot of times, they are going to have to literally go cabin to cabin and track down these people.

This can add 30 to 45 minutes to the muster drill, thereby forcing the ship to sail before it's concluded.

Please be considerate to your safety and the safety of the other passengers - get yer butts up there, so we can all get it over with, and enjoy the sailaway!

 

Now, regarding this:

I know back in the 50's and 60's if someone was going on a cruise, you could have friends come on board for awhile and then it would be announced that all visitors would have to leave. It was those people who would be at dockside waving to the passengers on the ships, it was kinda cool, but they stopped that in the early 60's. So sailaways are not really like they show in the movies unless it is the old ships like Titanic or the any of the liners up until the early 60's that are shown in movies.

I've been cruising since I was a baby, so that definitely had to go way past the early 60s (I'm younger than that time frame).

And I have pictures and "kid memories" that had to be up to the late 70s of grandmas hanging out on board the ship before we sailed.

Then going down to the dock to wave.

 

They also timed it to the point where the social staff would give out streamers (running around passing them out) to all the passengers.

We would then throw the streamers down, and get people to catch it on the dock and hold on.

So bunches of people would be holding onto one end of the streamer from the deck of the ship. The other ends of the streamers were held by the family on the dock.

You'd hold on and hold on during sailaway, until the boat finally pulled far enough away from the dock that all the streamers would break in half.

 

That was the official start of the cruise...

When the streamers "snapped"!:D

 

I'm going to have to try to find some ancient pictures, as I know they're probably in a box somewhere!

;)