The Future of the Muster Drill?

[Rancher Dave]

Richard Fain write the above line in his blog post, stating that Oasis of the Seas will have a wireless system to account for passengers at their muster stations in real-time.

 

Does anyone have details about this system?

 

My guess would be RFID (radio frequency identification) chips in the SeaPass cards, like you have in newer passports and used in stores for inventory control? As passengers assemble at their muster stations, a sensor at each location would wirelessly "check in" each passenger.

 

If this is the case, what are the greater privacy issues? One could argue that the ship's crew could know the location of any passenger at any time. But one benefit to this could be in the case of a missing passenger -- did they fall/jump overboard, or are they somewhere on the ship? Pinging the RFID chip would give the officers an immediate answer.

 

Thoughts? Opinions?

 

- Mike :-)

 

Actually they would not be able to locate the pax immediately just their sea pass...which in a person overboard could give a false sense of security that no they did not fall overboard. It would boil down to how the process works...if handled like now and someone goes to find the seapass and hopefully the pax great!!!

 

Sure would be able to id who goes to MDR, what bar, CL, crew areas they should not be in...other pax cabins, let the list begin...

[EddiesToys]

I would like to hear comments from those quest who have actually had to abandon a cruiseship at sea.

 

I'm wonder if those who had an Alaskan or Antarctic experience would have liked not having a quick trip to their cabin for the life jacket, warm clothes, etc...

 

I've seen some life jackets that actually grow mold when kept in an outside locker environment. Personally, I'd like a fresh and well kept life vest that would allow evacuation by helo should that be necessary.

 

If the life jackets in an ondeck locker are gone, where would one go?

 

Each jacket has cabin number and lifeboat assignments which are very important. Imagine trying to extract cabin info from one guest who's cabin mate is missing. Hysteria and shock might make that difficult, if not impossible.

 

Eddie M

[TPKeller]

If the life jackets in an ondeck locker are gone, where would one go?

It's hard to overstate the comfort of knowing your life jacket is securely locked in your room, waiting for you to come put it on.

 

In an emergency, I wonder if people will stand around in a calm and orderly fashion waiting their turn to be handed a life jacket from a storage container?

 

Theron

[BroncosFan2010]

This is one of the few changes to cruising that I am happy to see. I know other lines have been doing this for a while, and I think it is a fabulous idea. The thought of not having to wait in my cabin with that grimy bulky life jacket on is great. Not having to stumble down the stairs, unable to see where my feet are landing, even better!!

 

YEA!!! For something that actually improves cruising!

[cruiseREF]

certainly an issue, but many of us do not take daily meds and will not be in your way as you head for your cabin.

 

You are ending up at the muster station in anyway...

having your meds in the cabin or not will not make a difference to where your life jacket is stored.

 

It makes common sense to have the life jackets at the muster station. It's a brilliant plan.

[cruiseREF]

It's hard to overstate the comfort of knowing your life jacket is securely locked in your room, waiting for you to come put it on.

 

In an emergency, I wonder if people will stand around in a calm and orderly fashion waiting their turn to be handed a life jacket from a storage container?

 

Theron

 

The life jackets are still numbered, and YOUR life jacket is waiting for YOU at YOUR muster station. The traffic jam on the staircases etc was a much bigger problem and will be an even bigger problem in a real emergency than being GIVEN YOUR life jacket when you ALREADY standing on your designated spot at your muster station.

 

Genius plan.

[Katie333]

This sounds good to me, 4K people lugging life vests around does not sound ideal. :)

 

Regarding muster drills, for me, Princess still does it the best. I really like the comfort and convenience of being able to assemble in an air conditioned location with seats vs. being out on deck in a small place with dozens of other people all crowding around.

[hmsdos]

This sounds good to me, 4K people lugging life vests around does not sound ideal. :)

 

Regarding muster drills, for me, Princess still does it the best. I really like the comfort and convenience of being able to assemble in an air conditioned location with seats vs. being out on deck in a small place with dozens of other people all crowding around.

 

Well... "some" lucky people on RCCL also get to sit in air conditioning... we have friends we sometimes cruise with.... and wouldn't you know... every time they sail their muster station is inside... in air conditioning... and we... are outside sweating :eek:

[snrlnd]

I have always hated Royal Caribbean's muster drill outside, normally in hot, humid Florida. My favorite muster is on Princess. Go to your designated muster station which is one of the showrooms or theatre, sit in comfortable chairs and enjoy air conditioning. RCCL's change does seem better that previous.

[cristine]

It makes perfect sense to me to have them stored where you are getting into the lifeboats, In a REAL emergency not only do you have to get back to your room first to retrieve it, you then have to get back to your lifeboat.. Alot of precious time wasted when just a few minutues could make a big difference.

Think of it as a evacuation plan you should have in place in your own home & family should any emergency situation occur. Everyone should have a place to meet in the event of a fire , tornado, hurricane, earthquake...ect..... You get the idea..... The last place you should go is back in the house...

Just my opinion...

[OPERLAD10]

It makes perfect sense to me to have them stored where you are getting into the lifeboats, In a REAL emergency not only do you have to get back to your room first to retrieve it, you then have to get back to your lifeboat.. Alot of precious time wasted when just a few minutues could make a big difference.

Think of it as a evacuation plan you should have in place in your own home & family should any emergency situation occur. Everyone should have a place to meet in the event of a fire , tornado, hurricane, earthquake...ect..... You get the idea..... The last place you should go is back in the house...

Just my opinion...

 

I agree with you. Also, if our family is at one end of the ship, and there's a situation on board: fire, collision, grounding, explosion etc. I don't want to have to find my way through lots of people (probably in a panic), down hallways, stairs etc. to get to my room and retrieve the life jackets. Then go through all that again to get to our muster station. Alot of time wasted. I say, go to your muster station and have the life jackets there.

If you can't get to your muster station, go to the nearest one and wait for instructions from the crew. Hopefully they wil have a plan!

[TPKeller]

The life jackets are still numbered, and YOUR life jacket is waiting for YOU at YOUR muster station. The traffic jam on the staircases etc was a much bigger problem and will be an even bigger problem in a real emergency than being GIVEN YOUR life jacket when you ALREADY standing on your designated spot at your muster station.

 

Genius plan.

I think you seriously overestimate the civility of scared people in an emergency situation.

 

Give the ship a slight list and the occasional smell of smoke wafting through the air, and there is no way your description of a calm and orderly life jacket distribution will actually happen.

 

Fortunately, the overwhelming odds are that we will never know.

 

Theron

[SRW277]

I hope that they plan to keep some lifejackets in the rooms too!. Like most passagers who have cruised several times, the muster drill can be annoying. Don't get me wrong, the law is a great thing, and we need to know where to go in an emergency. But what if a fire broke out, and you in your room, and you were trapped by the fire? I hope this never happens to anyone, but it could! I would want the lifejacket there in my room.

 

I hope Royal Caribbean has thought this through. I think it would be great to have jackets at the muster station in lieu of carrying them from your room.

[A1CruiseLady]

I have wondered why they couldn't store the life vests at muster stations? Having people trudge back and forth to their cabin for life vests is dangerous, which defeats the purpose of the drill to begin with. Also, in an emergency, having people running to cabins (or not, if they are disabled) is just ludicrous. Happy to see that one of my favorite cruise lines is thinking of the customers safety first..:D

[mmsatkins]

This is a GIANT step forward. No more wasted space in a cabin. AND, no more worries about tripping on the straps of passengers going back to your stateroom to put your jackets up! It'd be great if all the jackets on all the ships could be stored this way!

[BobandBrenda]

Hello

My problem is the elevator are not working right before and after the muster drill and we are

lugging or wearing around our life jackets and we need walk down or up 7 or 8 flights with these life jackets. My husband is ill and I have a bad knee from it being cracked, there are lots of people with other problems. When people are going to their muster station they require you to wear them going up and down stairs and you can see the stairs. How safe is this? Get rid of the life jackets during the drill. I cant stand wearing them knowing the last person was probably sweating in them. Gross!!! I wont care if someone was sweating in a real emergency. ( the vanity part)And girls what good is it getting your hair fixed up if its ruined by the life jackets.

thanks RCCL for thinking.

Im on the Brillance next month, RCCL please take away the life jackets in the muster before I get there.

 

Happy cruising

Brenda

[tinsel57]

There are certainly cases where a ship has listed far and fast enough to render one side unusable. However, in today's modern cruise fleet, I believe you would need an extraordinary sequence of circumstances for this to happen fast enough to actually be a problem.

 

Barring a catastrophic event, these bigger ships take longer to load enough water to list and sink, and cautious captains will have the lifeboats filled and away well before most people probably even think is necessary.

 

You can never predict the future, all you can do is think hard about what might happen and mitigate the risks. Fortunately, cruise ships are safer and safer as time goes by.

 

Theron

 

I am sure the mathematicians have calculated and assessed all the risks and have determined that this method is as safe as any other. They never make a policy change that would cause RCCL to be in a higher risk category.

 

You are correct in that one can never predict which catastrophe would cause such an extreme action as to abandon ship and it's probable that some area of the ship, be it your cabin area or muster station would not be available to you. That's one reason why they have always had extra life vests at the muster stations.

 

My issue is not with the process but in human behavior. People's worst side comes to the forefront in times of panic. We've all seen mass chaos where people are trampled, pushed out of the way so the strongest and most selfish get to the front of the pack. In a ship emergency, I don't foresee any slow orderly line heading to the muster stations and people politely standing there to receive a life vest on a first come first serve. That bothers me. In that respect I'd rather have the security of having the vest in my cabin and if your circumstances dictate you have to arrive at the muster station without it, there would be the extra vests available for you. But of course, I am not one of the risk calculating bean counters so I can only assume RCCL has taken this into consideration and calculations before changing their policy.

 

It never ceases to amaze me how many people grumble about a tiny little thing like wearing your life vest for something that takes a few minutes out of your entire cruise. They must lead such magical and privileged lives to make such a big fuss over something that could make the difference in saving their own life. But then I have watched people hoard food from the Windjammer, on day one..... like they were expecting some big famine to hit over their sail dates... go figure human behavior. It always presents a conundrum.

[Lynnees]

I don't either, but I know they stress the importance of having your meds with you and while neither you or I have any, many do!!!

 

I do...but I only have to have one of my meds for sure. The rest would wait. As such I make sure a puffer is with me at all times. Under those circustances I wouldn't need to go back to my cabin.

 

But, now my DH needs his heart medication. We have taken to setting up a couple of day at a time in seperate containers and those are easy enough to have in his or my pocket at all times. Also, his nitro spray is suppose to be with him at all times anyway.

 

I would suggest that everyone have at least 24 hours of meds anyway in their pocket at all times.

[intothevoid]

This absolutely makes sense. I don't know why this has never been before!

Having the life jackets at the point of use instead of having to travel all the way to your room and back makes total sense. I used to hate to go to my room.......to my station......... back to my room and then go back to having fun. This is great news indeed!

[TPKeller]

Hmm... so what happens if you arrive at your muster station during the pre-cruise muster (as they are conducted now) without your life jacket? Surely they don't send you back to your cabin to get it, do they?

 

I suppose all of the folks they have stationed in the hallways throughout the ship would tell you to go get it well before you arrived at your station.

 

You'd have to "hide" out of sight near your muster area to pull this off. :D

 

Theron

[compuryan]

Richard Fain write the above line in his blog post, stating that Oasis of the Seas will have a wireless system to account for passengers at their muster stations in real-time.

 

Does anyone have details about this system?

 

My guess would be RFID (radio frequency identification) chips in the SeaPass cards, like you have in newer passports and used in stores for inventory control? As passengers assemble at their muster stations, a sensor at each location would wirelessly "check in" each passenger.

 

If this is the case, what are the greater privacy issues? One could argue that the ship's crew could know the location of any passenger at any time. But one benefit to this could be in the case of a missing passenger -- did they fall/jump overboard, or are they somewhere on the ship? Pinging the RFID chip would give the officers an immediate answer.

 

Thoughts? Opinions?

 

- Mike :-)

I'm thinking the wireless part is not the tracking itself, but the transmission back to an onboard computer system. Likely a staff member with a wireless barcode scanner (the same kind which are becoming popular at sports, theater, and other ticketed events) which will scan the barcode on your seapass and send that data to a central computer to account for all passengers on board.

 

I think it's a bit early to see RFID in short-term use cards right now. Seems like it would be expensive for something that's only going to be used for a week. Not to mention, the kind of long-range RFID you are describing is not mainstream right now and is VERY expensive. Current RFID technology requires the chip to pass within at least 1 foot of the scanner (and often closer than that), so I don't think you should be expecting them to track your every move just yet.:rolleyes: Give it ten years.

[marielco]

The first time I did the drill I found wearing the lifejacket to the muster station very akward and needed to watch my step. I thought this a very IMPORTANT experience should I have to do it for real. I would not like to be trying to get around in the lifejacket for the first time in an emergency.

 

I also feel much more secure at night knowing that my life jacket is within reach.

 

If anything happens to the ship at night in the dark it might not be possible to reach your muster station - what then?? At least under the current system you would have your lifejacket.

 

Why people find the safety drill a bore beats me. It takes 30 min max and could save your life and the life of others. RC Please stop and think before bringing this on all your ships. It would certainly make me think twice about crusing with RC again.

[marielco]

It's hard to overstate the comfort of knowing your life jacket is securely locked in your room, waiting for you to come put it on.

 

In an emergency, I wonder if people will stand around in a calm and orderly fashion waiting their turn to be handed a life jacket from a storage container?

 

Theron

 

I agree 100% Panic can lead to terrible events and one of them could be fights over the vests at the muster station. Leave things alone. "If it's not broke don't fix it" !!

[JayBS]

Why does this need to be an either/or situation? I think most people agree that lugging your life jacket back to your room is a pain - but the value of the muster drill cannot be underestimated. The best way to avoid panic is with education. So having life jackets stored at the muster station makes some sense. But this does not preclude storing life jackets in the cabins ALSO!!! If you are in your stateroom, grab your life jacket and head to a muster station, otherwise head to a muster station and get a life jacket there.

 

When it comes to safety, there should be no compromise. When it comes to convenience, they have spent enough money on these ships, they charge enough for the ride, they can afford the extra set of life jackets. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

[sharpie13]

Why does this need to be an either/or situation? I think most people agree that lugging your life jacket back to your room is a pain - but the value of the muster drill cannot be underestimated. The best way to avoid panic is with education. So having life jackets stored at the muster station makes some sense. But this does not preclude storing life jackets in the cabins ALSO!!! If you are in your stateroom, grab your life jacket and head to a muster station, otherwise head to a muster station and get a life jacket there.

 

When it comes to safety, there should be no compromise. When it comes to convenience, they have spent enough money on these ships, they charge enough for the ride, they can afford the extra set of life jackets. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

 

Regardless of where the lifejackets are stored, in an actual emergency passengers will still need to go to thier cabins for medications and additional clothing.

 

I agree that having the lifejacket stored at the muster station is a wonderful convenience for the passengers, but as pointed out no system is perfect.

 

What's next? Each cabin becomes a floating escape pod? With the modular construction of most ships the idea may not be so far fetched.

;)