Muster drill

[momphoto]

I have heard that Princess conducts their Muster drills differently. We will be on the Ruby in March and wonder how they do the drills on this ship??

[mii]

I have heard that Princess conducts their Muster drills differently. We will be on the Ruby in March and wonder how they do the drills on this ship??

 

On Princess, the muster drills are held in the various public areas; for example, Club fusion, Princess theatre, casino, just depend on what area your cabin is in. You do not go outside with your life jackets on. You take them to your appropriate area, then when they announce to put your life jackets on you do.

 

Mairlyn

[sultan_sfo]

Also, in case of Emergency, the locations used for Muster are the Emergency Assembly Points where further instructions are given.

[Colo Cruiser]

Look on the back of the cabin door for your Muster location. :)

[Pam in CA]

I have heard that Princess conducts their Muster drills differently. We will be on the Ruby in March and wonder how they do the drills on this ship??

Instead of standing out in the rain or perhaps high heat under a lifeboat that you probably wouldn't be able to find in an emergency (even in extreme circumstances, ships aren't abandoned immediately) and if you did, could possibly not be the safest place to be, Princess has you go to an assigned public lounge or area where you will be warm (or cool), comfortable and they can easily keep passengers informed as to what's going on. You do not put your life jacket on until they have demonstrated how to put it on and then tell the passengers to do so. There is no roll call taken -- they know who is on the ship and do a sweep of all cabins and public areas so they know who has not made it to Muster. It's much more civilized and certainly more effective in a real emergency, such as the Star fire.

 

I've been to Muster on HAL and RCI and it's horrible to be standing in a crowd, being pushed to the back, while it's raining or you're sweating to death. I've seen people faint, the elderly extremely uncomfortable standing for the whole thing, etc. Besides, when that alarm goes off, they tell you to stay in your cabin so what's the purpose of making you stand outside for Muster? You have no idea whether there's a fire above your lifeboat or not so why would you run outside to stand there (as some people did on my recent Prinsendam cruise when the alarm went off just before 2AM?) Beats me.

[Rollexx]

An hour before sailing, you will be instructed to go to your cabin, get your life vest, and report to your "Muster station". Takes about 20 mins.

[sherman931]

One of the things I have often thought about (and shame on me for never asking a ship's officer). What happens if they sound the ships emergency signal and an actual serious emergency event is occuring within your muster location?

[cruze610]

One of the things I have often thought about (and shame on me for never asking a ship's officer). What happens if they sound the ships emergency signal and an actual serious emergency event is occuring within your muster location?

 

 

Thats a good question.

[cruze610]

Has anyone here ever been on a cruise where there was an emergency that required evacuation or even just going to your muster station?

[RickEk]

One of the things I have often thought about (and shame on me for never asking a ship's officer). What happens if they sound the ships emergency signal and an actual serious emergency event is occuring within your muster location?

 

They would most likely have crewmembers available to direct you to another station. I'm sure they drill for situations like that...

[Cruisin' Chick]

Has anyone here ever been on a cruise where there was an emergency that required evacuation or even just going to your muster station?

 

Some CC members were on the Star Princess when it got on fire a couple of years ago. They ended up having to go to muster stations.

[sherman931]

They would most likely have crewmembers available to direct you to another station. I'm sure they drill for situations like that...

 

It would be nice of Princess addressed this during the first drill so people would pay close attention in the event of an emergency as to what station they may have to report to.

[alanmal]

On a RCCL ship a few years back and during the muster drill a person had a heart attack during muster drill. They made a coded announcement over the PA system, and within 1 minutes the medical team was on scene. The crew members, cleared a path for them, out of the elevator and onto the deck. I believe they practice this scenario.

[Cruise Junky]

One of the things I have often thought about (and shame on me for never asking a ship's officer). What happens if they sound the ships emergency signal and an actual serious emergency event is occuring within your muster location?

 

I'm sure the same thing would happen if you were supposed to meet by the lifeboats outside and there was an issue on that side of the ship. You'd be diverted elsewhere.

[MaggieQuebec]

Hi everyone,

There are so many information on the muster drill and I am a bit confused.

I will be on the Crown Princess and I am a first-timer.

Do I understand well?

1. The muster location is indicated at the back of our cabin door.

The muster location is not necessary on the same deck as our cabin is, am I right?

If it is not on the same deck, are the elevators available or do we have to take the stairs?

2. About 1 hour before the sailaway, an announcement will be made for the muster drill. I suppose that it will be a message and not the ship emergency signal. Is the emergency signal a continuous sound or not? Is it like an usual fire alarm?

3. Our life jacket is in our cabin.

4. We take it to our muster location but we wait for the crew giving instruction on how to put the life jacket on.

5. We are standing, waiting and suffering... It lasts for about 20 minutes, then we can go back to our cabin.

Does it summarize the whole thing? Am I missing anything else?

Thank you in advance for your reply,

Maggie

[Colo Cruiser]

Hi everyone,

There are so many information on the muster drill and I am a bit confused.

I will be on the Crown Princess and I am a first-timer.

Do I understand well?

1. The muster location is indicated at the back of our cabin door.

correct

The muster location is not necessary on the same deck as our cabin is, am I right?

If it is not on the same deck, are the elevators available or do we have to take the stairs?

stairs

2. About 1 hour before the sailaway, an announcement will be made for the muster drill. I suppose that it will be a message and not the ship emergency signal. Is the emergency signal a continuous sound or not? Is it like an usual fire alarm?

By PA

3. Our life jacket is in our cabin.

Yes

4. We take it to our muster location but we wait for the crew giving instruction on how to put the life jacket on.

yes

5. We are standing, waiting and suffering... It lasts for about 20 minutes, then we can go back to our cabin.

No standing you are comfortably seated ina lounge/restaurant inside

Does it summarize the whole thing? Am I missing anything else?

Thank you in advance for your reply,

Maggie

 

Hope this helps

[MaggieQuebec]

Thank you so much for your fast reply; everything is well understood.

Maggie :)

[Pam in CA]

One of the things I have often thought about (and shame on me for never asking a ship's officer). What happens if they sound the ships emergency signal and an actual serious emergency event is occuring within your muster location?

Having recently experienced that on the Prinsendam (it wasn't a serious emergency but we didn't know that at the time), the alarm went off just before 2AM. HAL has muster stations under the lifeboats and some people grabbed their life jackets and ran in their jammies to "their" lifeboat. I realized by the 2nd bell what was happening, got dressed quickly and was getting my life jacket and medications when the Captain came on the PA to tell us to stay in our cabins or where we were until we received further instructions. There was a small fire in the cooler (commercial refrigerator) in the Lido and the fire crew were putting it out. A few minutes later, the Captain assured us that the fire was out, the electricity had been turned off to the cooler and a fire crew would stand by for the rest of the night "just in case."

 

This made me realize that in the event of an emergency, the Captain doesn't want you running out on deck or putting yourself in danger. Chances are extremely slim that the ship would have to be evacuated immediately. Even when muster is done outside, they want you inside.

 

The Princess way of doing muster is that all of the muster stations are in public areas/lounges on deck 7 (or deck 5 on the small ships.) They have crew at every stairwell and throughout the ship directing people where to go and in case your muster station is not safe, they would direct you to another one. They also have a lot of staff stationed throughout each lounge/area to help, answer questions or if necessary, lead passengers to safety. If it's determined that the ship does have to be abandoned, they will group people together and lead them to a lifeboat. Some people whine that there's only one way in or out of the lounge or room. Actually, there is almost always an alternative exit or multiple exits so they can gather people together quickly and have them exit in an orderly way.

[Jules59]

Help! How do I delete this?

[Jules59]

Since I have some mobility problems, Princess has let me,( and other handicapped people ) take the elevator down to their muster station.

 

Jules

[RickEk]

Hi everyone,

There are so many information on the muster drill and I am a bit confused.

I will be on the Crown Princess and I am a first-timer.

Do I understand well?

 

2. About 1 hour before the sailaway, an announcement will be made for the muster drill. I suppose that it will be a message and not the ship emergency signal. Is the emergency signal a continuous sound or not? Is it like an usual fire alarm?

 

5. We are standing, waiting and suffering... It lasts for about 20 minutes, then we can go back to our cabin.

Does it summarize the whole thing? Am I missing anything else?

Thank you in advance for your reply,

Maggie

 

2. There will be multiple announcements prior to the drill starting. Once the drill is begun, they will sound the General Emergency Signal which consists of seven short blasts and then one long blast on the ship's whistle and internal speakers. You won't miss it...

 

5. As others have said, you'll be relaxing, seated indoors during the drill. No suffering at all... :p

[Kenzibell]

2. There will be multiple announcements prior to the drill starting. Once the drill is begun, they will sound the General Emergency Signal which consists of seven short blasts and then one long blast on the ship's whistle and internal speakers. You won't miss it...

 

5. As others have said, you'll be relaxing, seated indoors during the drill. No suffering at all... :p

We are past Carnival guest. We took our first cruise when our oldest daughter was 3 years and our youngest was 22 months. The only downside to cruising for them was the horrible experience of standing outside in a crowd of people for what seemed like forever. They are always pretty good, but they get hot and thirst. They are 3 and 5 now, and they love to cruise. But, like all of us that have to stand out in the crazy heat or cold for a muster drill, this is their least favorite part. Carnival used to do it this way also. It is nice to know Princess still does!

[OCruisers]

No one likes Muster Drills! :D

 

In the past we've found Princess makes them as painless as possible ....

[rdsqrl]

No one likes Muster Drills! :D

 

In the past we've found Princess makes them as painless as possible ....

Okay, so I'm weird . . . but I actually kinda like them! It means that the cruise is almost starting, and it's uniqueness to being on a ship rather than just at a resort is part of the specialness of a cruise. Were they ever to do away with muster drill, I'd miss it.

[drumline13]

Has anyone here ever been on a cruise where there was an emergency that required evacuation or even just going to your muster station?

 

Hi everyone,

 

I saw this message and could not help responding! Yes, I was on the Star Princess when it caught fire in March 2006 (I'm not sure if you can view my previous posts, but I posted a long description of the event on March 26th, 2006), and the actual event occurred EXACTLY as it did during the drill a few days earlier. At 3am, the emergency alarm sounded (7 short beeps + one long beep), and by the time my wife (well, fiancee at the time) and I got our lifevests and personal belongings and were out the door, the Princess staff was stationed everywhere, particularly at the stairwells. The staff remained completely calm even though there was a raging fire on the other side of the ship. The passengers, too, remained calm, and everyone headed down to the muster stations in an orderly fashion. Our station was the Princess Theater, and we were in there for 7 hours. During that time, roll call was taken for the entire ship (this took a good 2 hours), and the Captain kept everyone informed of the situation (status of the fire, etc). The staff was incredible the whole time, as they acted exactly as they had during the drill (this is the reason we continue to sail with Princess....the staff was that great). The Captain announced that the lifeboats were being lowered, that the ship was being stopped and spun around (to direct flames away from the boat), so we always knew what was going on. At 10am, some of us were allowed to head back to our rooms, and those who could not were immediately served breakfast in the restaurant.

 

Anyway, we have been on Princess cruises since, and we've heard people joke during the muster drill that "nothing ever happens". Well, we went on our first cruise, and it caught on fire and made CNN national headlines. So, yes, things DO happen. My advice: Pay attention during the muster drill and take it seriously...while the chances are slim that you'll have to follow in my footsteps, you never know. It's simply best to be prepared...