Are Fire drills held inside?

[crp3]

Many of the Cruise Lines have their "drills" in a common room.

Does anyone know how HAL/Zuiderdam hand this.....

Thanks

[mudscraper]

Many of the Cruise Lines have their "drills" in a common room.

Does anyone know how HAL/Zuiderdam hand this.....

Thanks

Outside at your assigned lifeboat station.

[trophy_23]

Outside at your assigned lifeboat station.

Yup outside at your assigned station as mentioned. No longer any need to bring your 'lifejacket' either.

[eh2zed]

Some lines do it in large public rooms but HAL is still on deck at your lifebaot station. To me that does makes more sense.

[fsdj1097]

HAL will hold a lifeboat drill approx. 45 minutes prior to departure. In your cabin, and on your ID card will be your assigned lifeboat number. Lifeboats are located on the Promenade deck. Instructions on how to attend the drill are in your cabin. You do not have to wear or bring your life jacket, but attendance is mandatory.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Agree with the above.

BUT -- on one ship -- no attendance was taken while on another ship attendance was taken.

Even if it raining -- it is still held outside.

[eh2zed]

And they do take attendance and usually follow up with the non attenders.

[Typhoon1]

Without life vests. You may see a few people who can't follow instructions.

[mudscraper]

No attendance was taken on our two HAL cruises this year.

[eh2zed]

No attendance was taken on our two HAL cruises this year.

ok then. Thanks. Interesting. Will be on Statendam 3 weeks today and will see.

[basiaZ03]

Last summer while on the Nieuw Amsterdam attendance was taken, yet in February on the NA attendance was not taken.

[Globaliser]

Some lines do it in large public rooms but HAL is still on deck at your lifebaot station. To me that does makes more sense.I think that all cruise lines do the drill at your muster station. One reason is to make you physically walk the walk to your muster station, which improves your memory of where it is.

The difference is that some ships have their muster stations in public rooms indoors, and other ships have their muster stations on the deck where you would embark the lifeboats in an emergency.

In at least one of the recent big cruise ship emergencies at which the general emergency alarm was sounded and passengers were mustered for real, having passengers muster on the open promenade deck would have been crazy, for at least two reasons. First, they were mustered for hours before they could be stood down; much better to be indoors where they could sit down and not be exposed to the elements. Second, on one side of the ship there was a huge fire raging above the open deck, which might have made life a bit interesting for the passengers mustered on that side.

So there are some good reasons for mustering indoors. Like all things, it's a balance because there are disadvantages as well. I don't think it can automatically be said that one method is definitely better than the other.

[1 HappyCruiser]

ok then. Thanks. Interesting. Will be on Statendam 3 weeks today and will see.

Let us know if they took attendance or not.

[rose hill]

When did Holland stop making us wear the life vests, and why? (Just curious because the last cruise I took with them a couple of years ago, we had to wear them.)

[fsdj1097]

When did Holland stop making us wear the life vests, and why? (Just curious because the last cruise I took with them a couple of years ago, we had to wear them.)

Not sure if I can explain the why, but the when occurred early in 2010. It was the talk of these boards in February last year.

If I was speculating on the why, it might be due to the number of passengers who were injured wearing their lifejackets while taking the stairs.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Nieuw Amsterdam -- no attendance was taken.

Amsterdam -- attendance was taken.

[Krazy Kruizers]

When did Holland stop making us wear the life vests, and why? (Just curious because the last cruise I took with them a couple of years ago, we had to wear them.)

On most ships the wearing of the lifejackets to the lifeboat stations was stopped in late 2010.

There were several incidents where people did not tie off their straps -- let them drag on the ground -- some people tripped on them -- there were several bad accidents in recent years.

[airlink diva]

I know in December on the Maasdam, we had the drill outside and cabin number was called.
On my Dream cruise in September, my cabin was assigned to the dining room and we were shown how to wear the jacket, what lifeboat to head to and other info.
I want to say that HAL is still one of the few where you still go to the lifeboat station. No biggie to me. I would rather go to that area so heaven forbid if something happen, I would have some idea where to head to.

[doncarlos]

I hear that when attendance is not taken cabin stews check cabins and if they find you they ask you to go and if you opt out they advise someone .....what next is not clear......also sometimes I observe "silent " attendance is done [ ie they copy your cabin from a visual observation of your vest/jacket which has # on it ]...this is obviously not perfect .

Once we were "excused " [ B2B less than 30 days total...this varies ship to ship so don't take this to bank with out getting the ok from a senior officer ] and went to the crows nest and the bar staff asked why we were not on lower prom [in the 45 degree temp with a nasty NW wind in our face ] and after explaining we were excused she said thank you very politely [ what would you expect ] but she did call someone [ we have good ears ] to tell that cabin 000 [ she had the bev. receipt with cabin # ]were safe and sound and happy in her crows nest ! ......moral of the post : sometime more than meets the eye :)

[RuthC]

......also sometimes I observe "silent " attendance is done [ ie they copy your cabin from a visual observation of your vest/jacket which has # on it ]...this is obviously not perfect .

That's not possible anymore since life jackets aren't welcome at the muster drill. I do remember those days, though, when my number was taken as I approached, wearing my life jacket.
And I remember being excused on my back-to back last winter! It was so nice not having to stand in the heat.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I hear that when attendance is not taken cabin stews check cabins and if they find you they ask you to go and if you opt out they advise someone .....what next is not clear......also sometimes I observe "silent " attendance is done [ ie they copy your cabin from a visual observation of your vest/jacket which has # on it ]...this is obviously not perfect .

Once we were "excused " [ B2B less than 30 days total...this varies ship to ship so don't take this to bank with out getting the ok from a senior officer ] and went to the crows nest and the bar staff asked why we were not on lower prom [in the 45 degree temp with a nasty NW wind in our face ] and after explaining we were excused she said thank you very politely [ what would you expect ] but she did call someone [ we have good ears ] to tell that cabin 000 [ she had the bev. receipt with cabin # ]were safe and sound and happy in her crows nest ! ......moral of the post : sometime more than meets the eye :)

Since we have not been wearing lifejackets for the better part of 2 years -- there can't be a "silent" taking of the cabin numbers.

We have also been excused from the second lifeboat drill on our Collector's cruise -- and no one ever asked us why we were not at the drill.

[SeaSheep]

Since the policy was changed in early 2010 it was a bit of a mess and every ship did something else. Nowadays all passengers have to attend every boatdrill, so if you are B2B you have to attand twice!

The entire ship is checked by crew and if they find you, you get a letter that you have to attand the make up drill the next day.

That is offcourse for the passenger safety briefing. The fire drills are normally held inside. ;)

[sapper1]

Since the policy was changed in early 2010 it was a bit of a mess and every ship did something else. Nowadays all passengers have to attend every boatdrill, so if you are B2B you have to attand twice!


The entire ship is checked by crew and if they find you, you get a letter that you have to attand the make up drill the next day.

On the Nieuw Amsterdam in April of this year all those who boarded in Fort Lauderdale were excused from the safety drill held for the next portion of the cruise in Barcelona.

When the monitors asked why we were walking around the ship, an explanation was quickly accepted.

[doncarlos]

[quote=SeaSheep;30886146]Since the policy was changed in early 2010 it was a bit of a mess and every ship did something else. Nowadays all passengers have to attend every boatdrill, so if you are B2B you have to attand twice! end q.


In Dec 2010 we were excused twice on a 27 day B2B2B [ 10-10-7 ] so as noted every ship/Capt/etc might be different.
Ruth and KK are as usual :) correct in noting that silent attendence is no longer possible as it once was.

[trophy_23]

No attendance done on the Eurodam Sept 10.

[Two@Sea]

When did Holland stop making us wear the life vests, and why? (Just curious because the last cruise I took with them a couple of years ago, we had to wear them.)

I agree with previous posters that there were injuries associated with hanging life vest straps, but I think they also finally realized that their "code orange" procedures would be far less effective as long as everyone was still wearing those "gee, was this thing EVER cleaned?" vests up next to their noses and mouths... jmo.

(Was I the only one spraying those things with lysol... ?)

[Nasmas]

On the Eurodam last year, no attendance taken. My husband wasn't feeling well once and he didn't go. No one knew he wasn't there. When they called our number, I just raised my hand and they went on. I have been running late and chased out of the cabin by the steward, but that is the only time I know that they checked.