Alaska Cruise Muster Drill timing with Dinner

[mdg4242]

We have a late traditional  dining time at 7.15pm on embarkation day. The muster drill usually happens 30-60 minutes prior to sail away  (our case 8.30PM). How does Princess usually handle the later seated dinner in conjunction with the muster drill? Do you begin dinner, then leave and come back? Thanks

[neverbeenhere]

Likely the muster drill will be earlier.

 

 The port of embarkation might help others answer your specifics. 

[skynight]

When the ship sails later in the evening on boarding day, traditional dining is normally changed to open seating. 

[Thrak]

14 minutes ago, skynight said:

When the ship sails later in the evening on boarding day, traditional dining is normally changed to open seating. 

 

Agreed. Dinner that evening will almost certainly be "anytime dining" for everybody.

[Coral]

If this is in Whittier - they have everyone eat either before or after Muster. The dining room is cleared for Muster for all individuals, even those on B2B.

 

I have had open dining and I have also had them hand me a dining time when I embarked.

Edited June 8, 2019 by Coral

[fishywood]

For embarkation day at Whittier:

 

MDRs open approx 5:15. They will seat  you whether you have early, late or ATD.

Doors close when they are full 15-30 minutes later.

Muster Drill will be 7:30 or 7:45.

MDRs will reopen as soon as it concludes. Anyone who did not have dinner earlier will be seated. 

 

They don't quite call it "open seating/ATD for all" but do it this way to accommodate the passengers on pre-cruise land tours who will be just reaching the ship at 7:00-7:30.

[mdg4242]

Yes we are embarking at Whittier. Thanks for the helpful responses  everyone!

[WisCruiser2]

Last year when we embarked on the Coral in Whittier (around 4:00) we were given a card with a dining time (early seating) on it for that night only. I assume those boarding later were assigned the late seating, which was after the Muster Drill. We had Anytime dining the rest of the cruise.

[cruise crazy64]

I am sailing on the Island Princess on June 26th with an 8:30 sail-away. Do you know if the Horizon Court is open on embarkation day? 

[fishywood]

2 minutes ago, cruise crazy64 said:

I am sailing on the Island Princess on June 26th with an 8:30 sail-away. Do you know if the Horizon Court is open on embarkation day? 

The HC and the various Lido Deck casual dining options will be open from embarkation until the muster drill.

The HC will reopen afterwards. The hamburger grill, pizza and ice cream stands will not.

[cruise crazy64]

thanks for the info Fishywood,

Karen 😎

[gremlinbangles]

Again thamk you for the posts.  We are doing a land tour before we arrive by train at 5:30.  With a 5:00 dining time we just assumed we do buffet but it sounds like we can just do dinner after muster drill.

[cruisequeen4ever]

I believe they made Whittier night Anytime dining for everyone due to the Muster Drill because everything shuts down for Muster. At least one of the dining rooms is a Muster station.

[lstone19]

1 minute ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

I believe they made Whittier night Anytime dining for everyone due to the Muster Drill because everything shuts down for Muster. At least one of the dining rooms is a Muster station.

 

Not quite - you will be assigned a dining time based on when you arrive. Early arrivals eat before the muster drill; later arrivals eat after the drill. But seating in the dining rooms is open (no assigned tables). So the first time TD diners eat at their assigned table and time is the second night which is a formal night.

[fishywood]

43 minutes ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

I believe they made Whittier night Anytime dining for everyone due to the Muster Drill because everything shuts down for Muster. At least one of the dining rooms is a Muster station.

All muster stations are on Deck 7 as that is where you would board the lifeboats should that ever become necessary. Have never been in a dining room for muster on any Princess cruise.

 

41 minutes ago, lstone19 said:

 

Not quite - you will be assigned a dining time based on when you arrive. Early arrivals eat before the muster drill; later arrivals eat after the drill. But seating in the dining rooms is open (no assigned tables). So the first time TD diners eat at their assigned table and time is the second night which is a formal night.

This was not done when I boarded Golden Princess in Whittier last year. I was one of the very first to board but did not go to dinner until after muster and no one questioned me. From the reports I have read this may only be done on Coral and Island Princess as those ships have only two MDR rather than the three on the various Grand-class iterations.

[lstone19]

2 minutes ago, fishywood said:

All muster stations are on Deck 7 as that is where you would board the lifeboats should that ever become necessary. Have never been in a dining room for muster on any Princess cruise.

 

This was not done when I boarded Golden Princess in Whittier last year. I was one of the very first to board but did not go to dinner until after muster and no one questioned me. From the reports I have read this may only be done on Coral and Island Princess as those ships have only two MDR rather than the three on the various Grand-class iterations.

I've seen deck 6 muster stations on Regal (and presumably the other Royal-class ships). I think we had the deck 6 mid dining room as our muster station on one of our Regal cruises.

 

My experience with Whittier boarding was on Coral so you may be right about that procedure being just on Coral and Island. We were handed tickets with our dining time as we boarded.

[Coral]

I have done several sailings out of Whittier and had them handle it multiple ways. Regardless, you must eat before muster or after. The dining room will be open before or after - if it is anytime or you are handed a time.

 

The dining room is closed during muster.

[Kingofcool1947]

On 6/8/2019 at 9:29 AM, mdg4242 said:

We have a late traditional  dining time at 7.15pm on embarkation day. The muster drill usually happens 30-60 minutes prior to sail away  (our case 8.30PM). How does Princess usually handle the later seated dinner in conjunction with the muster drill? Do you begin dinner, then leave and come back? Thanks

No.  You have Mustard first.   

Edited June 24, 2019 by Kingofcool1947

[JSandage]

Just off the Coral. Boarded in Whittier. We were handed a dining time ticket when we boarded. Since we didn't get onboard til nearly 7:00 we were scheduled to dine after muster. Muster was scheduled for 7:30 but didn't start until about 7:45. We had club class dining so as soon as muster was over we went to club class door and were seated immediately. 

[MitzyG]

How long is the average muster drill?   When I went last time, it was 1 hr long!   They started/stopped the recording multiple times, the live crew person kept getting angry every 10-15 mins telling us not to speak to each other, not to read the maps/tour material, just pay attention to him - fine, but he wasn't saying anything, nor demonstrating anything, nor was there a recorded message!    

 

I understand the drill is important, but I think that expecting that many people to focus for more than 20 mins is a bit much (particularly when most of the time, there was nothing to listen to, read or watch)

[Lindaru]

I think ours last month was a bit over a half an hour with getting everyone to the muster station and accounted for.  The thing they seemed to stress the most strongly was phones and other electronic devices must be turned off during the drill or be confiscated.  The only talking or reading going on was before the drill started that I could see.  The presenters were actually pretty good natured about the drill and even illicited a couple of laughs.

 

⚠️

 

[Coral]

1 hour ago, MitzyG said:

 

I understand the drill is important, but I think that expecting that many people to focus for more than 20 mins is a bit much (particularly when most of the time, there was nothing to listen to, read or watch)

Hopefully they still do Muster Drill to the theme of Love Boat - it is actually entertaining. 

 

I think 20 minutes is not a bit much when it comes about learning about safety. 

[MitzyG]

So are the muster drills usually 1 hour?   

 

It's hard to keep a crowd focused when there's no safety demo, no safety audio recording and a guy saying "stop reading your tour material"!    If it was 20 mins of SAFETY, yes, I understand.   But the audio playing for literally 1 min, then stopping, then nothing, then maybe someone waves a life jacket, but doesn't show how to fasten it...then maybe the audio plays for 2 mins, then stops.   then nothing for 5 mins.   That's not a safety drill.

[Coral]

1 minute ago, MitzyG said:

So are the muster drills usually 1 hour?   

 

It's hard to keep a crowd focused when there's no safety demo, no safety audio recording and a guy saying "stop reading your tour material"!    If it was 20 mins of SAFETY, yes, I understand.   But the audio playing for literally 1 min, then stopping, then nothing, then maybe someone waves a life jacket, but doesn't show how to fasten it...then maybe the audio plays for 2 mins, then stops.   then nothing for 5 mins.   That's not a safety drill.

I have never attended one that is an hour. Maybe 30 minutes.