General Alarm @ 2 am-crown princess

[RickEk]

I think that the biggest point here is that the general emergency signal was not sounded... no 7 short blasts followed by a long blast....ergo, no emergency! If this announcement only played in passenger cabins, the crew would be completely unaware and would not respond to their emergency stations. 22 minutes for them to assess that there was a spurious computer glitch that triggered an automated announcement is not outside the realm of possibility.

[pablo222]

So the elephant in the room here is why would the original poster go down to the Purser's Desk and wait to speak to someone after what he thought was an emergency alarm?

 

One wants to be first in line to demand a refund...

[bdjam]

One wants to be first in line to demand a refund...

 

Hehehe :D

[aquaclass]

So the elephant in the room here is why would the original poster go down to the Purser's Desk and wait to speak to someone after what he thought was an emergency alarm? Right the proper emergency signal did not sound and it seemed that this was part of the overall muster announcement, but if I had been awakened at 2:00 with a "possible" alarm, the last thing I would have done is stand around the Purser's Desk. I would have been with the folks that went to muster...if it was all a mistake, finding out later would have been perfectly acceptable...my safety comes first.

 

 

If you are awakened at 2:00am go to your muster station and there is no staff present, where else would you go to find a staff person with answers?

 

Where else would you go? or should you wait at the muster station for 20 minutes?

[RickEk]

If you are awakened at 2:00am go to your muster station and there is no staff present, where else would you go to find a staff person with answers?

 

Where else would you go? or should you wait at the muster station for 20 minutes?

 

Hmmmm... well, if there was nobody at the muster station, I think that I would assume that I've over-reacted and go back to bed... :rolleyes: 'specially if I'm Elite...

[more cruises]

I've been on a few cruises and feel like I'm a pretty savvy cruiser but if I heard an announcement in my room in the middle of the night advising me to go to my muster station I would have been scared witless, grabbed my life jacket and gone to muster. It never would have occurred to me that there weren't any alarm blasts. You might recall the alarm wasn't sounded on the Concordia for an hour but it was still an emergency, even without the alarms.

 

If the OP had simply stated the facts as she experienced them and not added that she was looking for a new cruiseline I think some posters here would have been more sympathetic to the panic she must have felt and not so quick to find fault.

 

I have to wonder about security. Couldn't they see on the cameras all these people pouring into the halls with their life jackets. Shouldn't there have been someone on duty responding to all these people?

[MauiLvrs]

My question is, why was the OP at the Passenger Services desk instead of his muster station???

Because there was no alarm.... :confused:

[SwissDave]

If you are awakened at 2:00am go to your muster station and there is no staff present, where else would you go to find a staff person with answers?

 

Where else would you go? or should you wait at the muster station for 20 minutes?

 

I've been on a few cruises and feel like I'm a pretty savvy cruiser but if I heard an announcement in my room in the middle of the night advising me to go to my muster station I would have been scared witless, grabbed my life jacket and gone to muster. It never would have occurred to me that there weren't any alarm blasts. You might recall the alarm wasn't sounded on the Concordia for an hour but it was still an emergency, even without the alarms.

 

If the OP had simply stated the facts as she experienced them and not added that she was looking for a new cruiseline I think some posters here would have been more sympathetic to the panic she must have felt and not so quick to find fault.

 

I have to wonder about security. Couldn't they see on the cameras all these people pouring into the halls with their life jackets. Shouldn't there have been someone on duty responding to all these people?

 

I have every symapathy that people got woken up, however there was no alarm, and there was no request to go to muster stations. The message was the one played at muster drill that states 'if you hear the general alarm, go to your cabin, collect life jacket ..etc..etc'

 

There was no general alarm. If there had been it would have been going continuosly. As also stated at muster drill passengers do not need to take any action unless the general alarm is sounded.

 

There was no general alarm.

 

The message was only played into passenger cabins.

 

If there had been a real emergency, the crew would have been the first to know and would be responding and assessing the situation before the general alarm, if needed, would be sounded. That will also be why there were no crew around, they did not the message played in error, and obviously had not been requested to attend becuase there was nothing to attend to.

[caribill]

22 minutes for them to assess that there was a spurious computer glitch that triggered an automated announcement is not outside the realm of possibility.

 

Since there was no alarm at all (just an unexpected 2 AM welcome aboard message followed by muster how to) it is possible that the first crew member to even know this happened was the poor night person at the Purser's desk and then only after the phone calls started coming from passengers.

 

I am sure that if a real emergency was only suspected by ship's officers, crew would have gone to their assigned spots, the alarm sounded, and everyone asked to go to the muster stations. If it then took 22 minutes to determine there was no emergency, passengers would be sent back to their cabins.

 

If a real emergency is suspected and turns out to be real, a 22 minute delay in notifying passengers while determining real or not could be a disaster in the making.

 

What bothers me is not that it took 22 minutes for the staff to realize the welcome to the muster message had erroneously been broadcast, but that every passenger who heard it did not go to his/her muster station. If it had been real (which many people seemed to think it was), calling/visiting the purser's desk is not in the procedures. Reporting to the muster station is. What would they do in a real emergency, get on the phone?

[pablo222]

Since there was no alarm at all (just an unexpected 2 AM welcome aboard message followed by muster how to)

 

So, I have now read here that this was the welcome aboard/muster drill

announcement broadcast in error; there was no emergency

signal; and this mistake had happened previously.

 

It's funny that posters here jumped to the conclusion that:

"there was no excuse for crew not to respond..."

and that it's time to call the coast guard.

[CTGirl]

I am on the Crown also and we too heard the announcement. It sounded like the speaker was standing right over me. Being on Princess ships many times, I recognized it right away as the drill announcement and did not worry about a thing. I just wondered when they were going to turn it off.

 

The captain did apologize several times and he did explain what happened. It was just one of those things that can happen but I can see how some people might get frightened. The captain did acknowledge that this experience taught Princess something about their system because as mentioned before the announcement was not heard in the crew quarters and it should have just so that the crew could get up to the passenger decks and assure anyone that there was not a problem.

[MJSailors]

There is a live post for this sailing of the Crown that mentions this false alarm situation.

It is posted by NewGrandma.

I think she said it took the Captain fifteen minutes to address the passengers.

Check out her version of the story.

[bhopal21]

There is a live post for this sailing of the Crown that mentions this false alarm situation.

It is posted by NewGrandma.

I think she said it took the Captain fifteen minutes to address the passengers.

Check out her version of the story.

 

She gave it in post #41 above.

 

Mike:)

[Loonbeam]

The lack of the actual alarm explains a lack of crew response. From talking to crew, they tune out a lot of the announcements, having learned over time what to actually listen for. Either horn signals or key phrases are much more relevant (code alpha, code beta, response team, etc.) You will notice that many things in an actual situation are repeated 2x for just that reason.

 

That said, I could see someone waking up to the latter half of the message thinking they had missed the general alarm. I can also see a lack of personnel at muster stations for the reason above. That said, as soon as the pursers desk reported the first calls (which having worked in hotels I safely assume would have come in about 9 seconds after the message), ship's officers should have been dispatched around the vessel to check on passengers and explain. It should NOT have taken 22 minutes for the bridge to realize what had happened, especially since it had happened before.

 

Systemically, the fix for this is pretty simple. All all-cabin announcements should be set to play somewhere on the bridge, regardless of source. Given it is the bridge that usually triggers them, they will be immediately aware this was an unplanned message.

[New grandma]

I thought I should clarify one thing. The announcement we heard from the captain took around 15 or 20 min. after the false alarm. He actually came on earlier but the communication system that caused the problem in the first place didn't work. So he used the backup system.

One other thing I should mention, as you can imagine, it was the talk of the ship for the next couple days. We met two people that slept through the announcement and one person that started getting dressed. Everyone else said they recognized it as the embarkation muster announcement and knew it had to be a mistake.

Could this have startled some people? Sure. Unless you were here, you really can't comment on what you would have done. Everyone reacts differently.

I think the majority of the passengers recognize it for what it is and are not worried about Princess being unsafe.

[Ethel5]

I thought I should clarify one thing. The announcement we heard from the captain took around 15 or 20 min. after the false alarm. He actually came on earlier but the communication system that caused the problem in the first place didn't work. So he used the backup system.

One other thing I should mention, as you can imagine, it was the talk of the ship for the next couple days. We met two people that slept through the announcement and one person that started getting dressed. Everyone else said they recognized it as the embarkation muster announcement and knew it had to be a mistake.

Could this have startled some people? Sure. Unless you were here, you really can't comment on what you would have done. Everyone reacts differently.

I think the majority of the passengers recognize it for what it is and are not worried about Princess being unsafe.

 

Thank you for the clarification. May you have many more wonderful cruises. :)

[iceleven]

Oh what a coincidence. Just last night I was watching a documentary on the Concordia. I believe it included the video from approximately 4-5 passengers and one crew member. It showed all the confusion and the lack of instructions in a real emergency by the crew and the bridge. I'm sure most of you all remember hearing about the female crew member who told all the people to go back to their cabin. Well, some of those people who went back to their cabin never got off the ship.

 

If I were awakened in the middle of the night, thinking I heard only part of an announcement I would be in panic mode. I would have been dressed in less than 30 seconds and my life vest in my hands and walking down the hall to my muster station in less than 2 minutes. If I didn't see any crew I would proceed to my life boat section and stayed there until I knew what REALLY was going on.

 

Concordia's accident should have taught all of us to not always trust what you hear from the staff or crew but to also trust your own instincts.

 

As the story unfolds, I find it an unfortunate mistake. Status on the ship is totally irrelevant as if affected everyone. How you interpreted it is entirely up to you. The crew was probably curious as to why so many people were sleeping late the next morning. I know I would be...trying to catch up on the missing ZZZZs.

[caribill]

If I were awakened in the middle of the night, thinking I heard only part of an announcement I would be in panic mode. I would have been dressed in less than 30 seconds and my life vest in my hands and walking down the hall to my muster station in less than 2 minutes. If I didn't see any crew I would proceed to my life boat section and stayed there until I knew what REALLY was going on.

 

On Princess there is no "life boat section" that you are asisgned to.

 

In a real emergency you would be led from the muster station to a working life boat if necessary.

 

Reason for no pre-assignment is that depending on what the emergency is, one or more lifeboats may not be usable and it could be hazardous for people to be near the unusuable ones (example, in case of a fire near a lifeboat).

[regnig]

I am on the Crown also and we too heard the announcement. It sounded like the speaker was standing right over me. Being on Princess ships many times, I recognized it right away as the drill announcement and did not worry about a thing. I just wondered when they were going to turn it off.

 

The captain did apologize several times and he did explain what happened. It was just one of those things that can happen but I can see how some people might get frightened. The captain did acknowledge that this experience taught Princess something about their system because as mentioned before the announcement was not heard in the crew quarters and it should have just so that the crew could get up to the passenger decks and assure anyone that there was not a problem.

 

I still believe that was the point of the OP's original concern and it's good to read that the Captain himself understood the lack of that internal procedure and the need to correct that situation. Would it have been better if the OP hand not mentioned "elite" or commented on not sailing Princess again, yea but I do understand the effects of coming off an adrenaline rush that the "mistake/accident" probably caused him so how about cutting him some slack.

[patterson3]

I just got off of this cruise, and I can say that a) it was not the same pre-recorded message that they play during the drill, it was the message that they would play in an actual emergency. (The difference is that in the drill they frequently say "had this been an actual emergency..."), but the message was not preceded by the blasts, so most people onboard, although alarmed, assumed that it was not an actual emergency. Like the OP, my wife and I were originally more upset at princess' lack of alerting passengers that it was not an actual emergency, but the captain finally did make an announcement and they made another one the following day and it appears that they did in fact make a quick follow-up announcement, it just didn't go thru because if a malfunction of the equipment. It may just be princess trying to cover their a**, but I tend to believe them and their explanation was adequate for me. It was an alarming few moments, but it certainly didn't dampen the cruise for us at all, and I'll gladly cruise Princess again in the future.

[jackson bernard]

You don't really think the crew is going to help you if the ship starts sinking do you?

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Forums mobile app

[texast518]

On our cruise to nowhere over Thanksgiving, our first stop was an unscheduled Costa Maya port. Shortly after docking when the captain gave the all clear to start disembarking he decided that this would be a smashing time for a crew drill.

 

I have never had a longer time trying to get off a ship due to all of the craziness that ensued.

 

I wonder if that is compensatable as well? :D

 

We were on that cruise & did not recognize a crew drill, we were off ship before 10 AM. We did watch the newly weds? miss the ship

Edited January 18, 2014 by texast518

[own]

I'd much rather be on a ship that has one too many emergency announcements than one too few.

[iceleven]

Originally Posted by iceleven

If I were awakened in the middle of the night, thinking I heard only part of an announcement I would be in panic mode. I would have been dressed in less than 30 seconds and my life vest in my hands and walking down the hall to my muster station in less than 2 minutes. If I didn't see any crew I would proceed to my life boat section and stayed there until I knew what REALLY was going on.

 

 

On Princess there is no "life boat section" that you are asisgned to.

 

In a real emergency you would be led from the muster station to a working life boat if necessary.

 

Reason for no pre-assignment is that depending on what the emergency is, one or more lifeboats may not be usable and it could be hazardous for people to be near the unusuable ones (example, in case of a fire near a lifeboat).

 

Yes, I know that, I've cruised Princess many times (and others) and I know how the different cruise lines do their muster, but I certainly wouldn't be sitting at an assigned muster station(casino, restaurant, theater, etc) for 20 minutes waiting for instructions if I saw no crew members. I know which deck the life boats are loaded on. I would be there and ready to go.

 

In the Costa Concordia documentary that I mentioned, ALL of the people who provided the videos ignored the female crew member who told everyone to return to their cabins. All of them boarded the life rafts from the loading deck. "Abandon Ship" was not even called from the Bridge for more than an hour after the ship hit the rocks. In the documentary there was audio on the bridge where you could hear a crew member radio the captain telling him people have already gathered on the deck and ready to board the life rafts. The captain had not even given orders to do this.

 

I'm all for following instructions to maintain order and to prevent chaos but there are times one must take charge and responsibility for their own lives. We all rely on our captain's instructions when we are on his ship. I don't see where he did anything wrong but it would have helped if some of the working crew were informed immediately so they knew what to tell those who were confused with the announcement.

 

The wonderful thing about incidents that happen with uneventful and happy endings is that we all learn something from them without the cost of lives. If this were to happen on a ship I was on, I would still be up and out of my cabin and where I am supposed to be as if it was a true emergency. Rolling over in bed just isn't my nature.

[Husky61]

ELITE member for some time, looking for another cruise line.

 

What is the significance of your being ELITE and the alarm message?:confused: