In-person muster drills?

[fyrmrs]

Have heard NCL is the only company going back to in-person muster drills. Anyone experience this and how was it?

[cheersforbeers]

Just off Breakaway on a B2B and in person drill was mandatory. Like in past drill would not start until all checked in. Our station was in the Manhattan and it was packed. 

[shof515]

in person is back, same horrible process that takes forever

[sailorusvi]

Checked in last week for our Feb 18 trip, no safety video.  In-person it is.

[JIMESOPUS]

Just off the BA  ( 1/29/23 ), here is something to view ( I'm not a subscriber to his channel ), exactly what what we experienced the week before his cruise. Total chaos and confusion.

 

[RocketMan275]

Norwegian and it's sisters curise lines and Disney are the only ones returning to the old muster system.  RCCI and Carnival are not.  

 

The points guy thinks Norwegiann decision has more to do with saving money than safety.

 

https://thepointsguy.com/news/cruise-ship-muster-drill-changes-reasons/

 

Everyone gets an after cruise survey.  

Be sure to tell Norwegian what you think about this. 

[fyrmrs]

That is sad to hear and read. We are not loyal to any specific cruise line as we love all cruising and trying new things. We do miss having the loyalty that frequent cruisers attain, but....there is downfall to anything. Hopefully by not choosing to cruise with them until they change back will allow us back soon ( we actually cruised with NCL three times last year). Thank you all for your information, greatly appreciated as we plan for our next cruise.

[Turtles06]

 

[Paula_MacFan]

We sailed on Pride of America a week ago and had the in-person muster drill.  I didn't find it any worse than any other muster drill I've attended over the years 🙂  Same spiel, same amount of time.  

[Lionkingrichard]

Lets hope we never need to muster!

 

Be truthful! Did everyone watch the video or just one family member watch it for all parties?

[ChiefMateJRK]

We were in person on the Sky last week and it was a wasted 40 minutes of my life that I will never get back.  We showed up a minute or two early, were rudely ordered to stand first here, no wait move there, etc.  A slew of people packed in like rats under a lifeboat (que the Covid spreading discussion).  Did nothing for 15 minutes while they goofed around and checked in the random late arrival.  Then some skinny kid showed us how to put on a life vest and he wrapped the waste strap around himself twice (which was the only humor for a few of us larger passengers).  Then the guy came on over the speakers and said a bunch of stuff nobody could understand because of a) language differences, b) crappy acoustics and c) a bunch of people talking about where to get their next meal/drink/entertainment/etc.  I did make out that he was also giving us a general safety briefing that included, and I'm not making this up, watch your fingers when you close doors and drawers so that you don't pinch them?  Really?? 🤣

[sunkey1]

1 hour ago, fyrmrs said:

That is sad to hear and read. We are not loyal to any specific cruise line as we love all cruising and trying new things. We do miss having the loyalty that frequent cruisers attain, but....there is downfall to anything. Hopefully by not choosing to cruise with them until they change back will allow us back soon ( we actually cruised with NCL three times last year). Thank you all for your information, greatly appreciated as we plan for our next cruise.

Don't like the in person drills at all but certainly not going to avoid cruising on a line solely for that reason.

[RocketMan275]

1 hour ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

We were in person on the Sky last week and it was a wasted 40 minutes of my life that I will never get back.  We showed up a minute or two early, were rudely ordered to stand first here, no wait move there, etc.  A slew of people packed in like rats under a lifeboat (que the Covid spreading discussion).  Did nothing for 15 minutes while they goofed around and checked in the random late arrival.  Then some skinny kid showed us how to put on a life vest and he wrapped the waste strap around himself twice (which was the only humor for a few of us larger passengers).  Then the guy came on over the speakers and said a bunch of stuff nobody could understand because of a) language differences, b) crappy acoustics and c) a bunch of people talking about where to get their next meal/drink/entertainment/etc.  I did make out that he was also giving us a general safety briefing that included, and I'm not making this up, watch your fingers when you close doors and drawers so that you don't pinch them?  Really?? 🤣

I'm reminded of the posters insisting that  these inperson muster drills are much better than the emuster.  

[ontheweb]

5 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

Norwegian and it's sisters curise lines and Disney are the only ones returning to the old muster system.  RCCI and Carnival are not.  

 

The points guy thinks Norwegiann decision has more to do with saving money than safety.

 

https://thepointsguy.com/news/cruise-ship-muster-drill-changes-reasons/

 

Everyone gets an after cruise survey.  

Be sure to tell Norwegian what you think about this. 

Yes, tell them you are glad that they consider safety first.

 

As long as you don't want the Covid change of e-muster to stay, do you also want vaccine requirements and Covid testing to stay? They were all part of the same change, and for the same reason?

 

 

 

 

[ChiefMateJRK]

30 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Yes, tell them you are glad that they consider safety first.

Absolutely.  Thanks to my Muster on the Sky twelve days ago, I didn't pinch my fingers in a drawer once during the entire cruise (see my previous post just above).  I accurately described what happened.  I'm really struggling to understand what part of that exercise made any of us more safe.  I actually benefit more from the forced video on the TV because I can understand what they are saying and nobody else is drowning (no pun intended) them out.  IMHO, it's time to move on in the interests of both safety and passenger comfort/enjoyment.  Perhaps the decision makers who come up with these drills (NCL, regulators, etc.) should attend one or two to see what they really consist of.

[RocketMan275]

41 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Yes, tell them you are glad that they consider safety first.

 

As long as you don't want the Covid change of e-muster to stay, do you also want vaccine requirements and Covid testing to stay? They were all part of the same change, and for the same reason?

 

 

 

 

Yes, I will tell them to consider safety first especially since it's been established that the inperson muster inferior to the emulster/video from a safety perspective.

 

[sailorusvi]

While it's not going to be the highlight of my cruise, I'm not terrible upset.  My husband has little patience, so I'm more worried about him.  I've already started warning him it's coming, including watching the video last week. Which If I understand correctly,  was the first one in 3 years.  Kind-of hoping they work out the kinks in the coming weeks before we go on our cruise, as it would be the first time for a lot of crew I would imagine.

 

 

[ChiefMateJRK]

3 minutes ago, sailorusvi said:

Kind-of hoping they work out the kinks in the coming weeks before we go on our cruise, as it would be the first time for a lot of crew I would imagine.

I didn't experience any "kinks," just a really crappy process for providing critical safety information.  We've spent three years being told that it is unsafe to gather in a large, stationary crowd yet that is exactly what I experienced.  Stood there within a few feet of at least a half dozen strangers and within a few more feet of many more.  Add to that the crowded lines upon completion with many huffing and puffing trying to be the first to the now-reopened bars.  While I haven't checked lately, I'm guessing that NCL's safety protocols still recommend distancing whenever possible.

[ChiefMateJRK]

I would like to hear of any recent experiences of folks missing their muster drill.  We missed one before Covid and just had to show up for a makeup session in the theatre.  

[Monica887]

Yuck. I remember the last cruise I took before the world shut down, and I was there with little squirmy kids and we sat for probably 40 minutes before anything started. And when it didn't was hard to hear and everyone was checked out and antsy by then. It was the worst one we had ever done.

 

So in the 2 post Covid cruises I've done, e-muster has been amazing. You can actually hear what they're saying without the chaos. 

[chengkp75]

22 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

Yes, I will tell them to consider safety first especially since it's been established that the inperson muster inferior to the emulster/video from a safety perspective.

 

Who has established this?

[ChiefMateJRK]

7 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Who has established this?

People like this:

16 minutes ago, Monica887 said:

So in the 2 post Covid cruises I've done, e-muster has been amazing. You can actually hear what they're saying without the chaos. 

And myself based upon actual experience:

41 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

I actually benefit more from the forced video on the TV because I can understand what they are saying and nobody else is drowning (no pun intended) them out. 

 

[chengkp75]

5 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

People like this:

And myself based upon actual experience:

 

You are addressing one small portion of the muster drill.  But, as I've addressed on many threads about this, this removes any actual, realistic, training for the passengers regarding muster (how you navigate a thousand other people doing the same thing), and removes any realistic training for crew in handling hordes of cats that need herding to muster.  And, in reality, the lifejacket demonstration, and "safety briefing" is filler to keep you occupied, while the rest of the muster process (that you don't see, because you're at your station) is completed.  And, for the last couple of decades, while using the in person muster system, ships were allowed to not have in person lifejacket demonstrations, or safety briefings, as long as they were shown on the TV's in the cabins.

[RocketMan275]

30 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

You are addressing one small portion of the muster drill.  But, as I've addressed on many threads about this, this removes any actual, realistic, training for the passengers regarding muster (how you navigate a thousand other people doing the same thing), and removes any realistic training for crew in handling hordes of cats that need herding to muster.  And, in reality, the lifejacket demonstration, and "safety briefing" is filler to keep you occupied, while the rest of the muster process (that you don't see, because you're at your station) is completed.  And, for the last couple of decades, while using the in person muster system, ships were allowed to not have in person lifejacket demonstrations, or safety briefings, as long as they were shown on the TV's in the cabins.

you still haven't addressed why RCCI and Carnival consider the emuster a superior way to comply with the muster requirements. 

Nor, have you addressed the claim that the major reason NCL has returned to the inperson muster is not safety, but to save money.

[zgscl]

From a strictly a guest perspective, the e-muster is an absolutely no brainer. So much easier and much more pleasant of an experience. I would think that the advantage for the cruise line is to give the crew real practice with crowd management (and all the other behind the scenes things we don't see like sweeping the ship if they do this during the muster drill). Ironically the people who show up late are rewarded as they don't have to stand in the crowded room for half an hour waiting for themselves to show up.