Thread: Are Cruiselines doing enough at Safety Briefings?

On several recent cruises, I had very differet experiences at Safety Briefings. On some we lined up at muster stations, others we met inside a lounge or conference room. On the most recent trip - The Dream, the sound system didn't work inside the conference room. There weren't enough seats for everyone. Do you think that the cruiselines should require us to bring life jackets to the briefings as they used to do? Should the cruiselines do a better job at these briefings? They do ensure that everyone is out of the cabins & public areas. I definitely think that passengers need to take them more seriously, too.

I could not agree with you more, glomarrone! Cruise lines should definitely take Safety Briefings more seriously. But as you so rightly say, so should PASSENGERS!

As UK citizens we have always noticed a considerable difference in the way that cruise ships sailing out of the USA handle safety drills compared to how companies such as P and O handle them. The British ships are far more organised and serious about this - there is less joking and chatting and the captain gives a long and detailed explanation of what to do in an emergency.

We have often been horrified by the stupidity of passengers who treat this as a bit of a joke. Well, the recent sinking of the Costa Concordia has shown it certainly is NOT a joke, and many lives could have been saved if emergency procedures had been carried out immediately, and if passengers had been briefed beforehand.

One thing which we strongly feel is that lifejackets should no longer be stored in staterooms. What is the sense of getting passengers to walk down into the bowels of the ship to retrieve a lifejacket and then asking them to push their way back up to the higher decks to get to their muster stations? It makes no sense whatsoever. We have sailed on ships which have changed their policy and who have removed lifejackets from the cabins, and instead have them available at muster stations.

Another thing which we think needs thinking about is the 'women and children first' policy. Whilst this was easy to enforce on the Titanic, where men were required to show a 'stiff upper lip' and where natural manners dictated that women and children were given priority, I do not see how this can work easily today in 2012.

Of course we want to save as many children and their mothers as possible, that is not in question. But my point is, how do you enforce this policy? Nowadays, men are often very involved in family life, unlike Victorian men who may hardly have seen their children grow up. How can we expect a man to be willing to be separated from his wife and children, if he can see that there is space in a lifeboat? And how can we expect women to willingly be separated from their menfolk. I, for one, would not have been happy to be parted from my husband. From reports, time was spent arguing with men who were distraught at being separated from their families - was this time well spent?

There still seems to be a woeful shortage of lifeboats available for the huge numbers of passengers and crew on modern day behemoths. Should there be a higher requirement following the recent disaster?

I am guessing that lifeboats take up valuable space which could be devoted to more income generating uses - staterooms, for instance, so only the bare minimum is carried on board ships. Whilst they may have liferafts, these, too, seemed problematic.

I think cruise passengers are also a little naive about who will actually be in charge of any emergency evacuation. Even on a ship such as Allure of the Seas there are actually very few officers per head of passengers. In reality you would probably be very lucky to have an fully trained 'mariner' in charge of a lifeboat. You are more likely to be in the hands of stewards and entertainers. I am sure that many officers would be far too busy dealing with the ship itself to be available to lower lifeboats. Reports from Costa Concordia indicate that there incidents of bravery amongst stewards and entertainers but there will also have been numbers of crew who would have panicked, or who spoke very little English, and who would have been lacking in the sort of skills necessary to lower a lifeboat full of people in safety.

There is also the question of alcohol. There is a very real culture of drinking aboard cruiseships, particularly amongst officers. Days are long, alcohol is cheap, and access is easy - often drinking starts in the morning. The captain of the Costa Concordia was apparently seen drinking wine a short time before the disaster, and yet he was not breathalysed when on land. Could his judgement have been impaired as a result of his drinking, and should any officer be allowed to drink in the hours before coming on duty?

Whatever the outcome of the recent disaster, and the number of deaths does seem disproportionate to the length of time the captain had to safely evacuate his passengers and crew, I sincerely hope that lessons will have been learned from this tragedy.

And maybe we, as potential passengers on these cruise ships (and it hasn't put us off cruising!) should be writing to the cruise companies and asking them what they are going to do as a result of the loss of the Costa Concordia.

I think at lot of people who have cruised before, treat the drill as an inconvenience and don't really pay attention.

I would rather be on a ship with 2,000 passengers panicing than 6,000 regardless of how many crew members there are.

I think cruise lines finally realized the liability of having passengers wandering about the ship with life jackets in hand. Far to many never read or take the time to understand how to put the vest on and many fail to secure the straps once they take them off after the drill which has led to people stepping on them and falling among other things. Whether you have 2000 or 6000 souls on board the vast majority seem to fail to comprehend the improtance of the drill, to them it is just an inconvenience they must endure before heading off to the bar for another drink or whatever major personal plan they have for themselves. Just look at all those around you who spend the entire time talking to their friends or others around them or fail to follow the rules about not bringing food or dirnk to the drill. Admittedly there may be valid reason to question the training of the crew. Then again even if they were in fact the greatest experts in the world on the topic of ship board safety the fact remains they are left trying to work with and or control the passengers many of whom will be in a total state of panic. Sorry folks I've had the misfortune of being in the middle of mob scene a few times in my life and they are next to impossible to control. Personally I will be more inteested seeing how people behave at the briefing on my upcoming cruise as it will say a lot about where we might be heading over time.

I told my hubby that some years ago when I went on a tour of the Celebrity Summit, I noticed that the safety drill was playing on the in-cabin TVs. So maybe they hope that passengers will see at least part of the video while unpacking their carryons, before the muster drill.

I like that Princess has you carry your life jackets to the muster drill, which is held in the stations inside (in a lounge or the theater). When we were on Carnival, the drills were held outside and it was hard to hear the instructions, and if it was hot or rainy, it was hard to be really attentive. Inside and sitting down, we can hear the PA from the captain explaining the procedures and look at the crew members who were demonstrating in front of us. Also on our last cruise, each passenger's cabin card was swiped, which I imagine was a way to see if everyone came to the drill.

[QUOTE=ellie1145;1837075]I could not agree with you more, glomarrone! Cruise lines should definitely take Safety Briefings more seriously. But as you so rightly say, so should PASSENGERS!

As UK citizens we have always noticed a considerable difference in the way that cruise ships sailing out of the USA handle safety drills compared to how companies such as P and O handle them. The British ships are far more organised and serious about this - there is less joking and chatting and the captain gives a long and detailed explanation of what to do in an emergency.

We have often been horrified by the stupidity of passengers who treat this as a bit of a joke. Well, the recent sinking of the Costa Concordia has shown it certainly is NOT a joke, and many lives could have been saved if emergency procedures had been carried out immediately, and if passengers had been briefed beforehand. .......



Hi Ellie,

I think it's great that you are so passionate about safety - it is really so important and I'm sure if you've seen of my previous posts earlier you know that I'm a massive fan of procedueres being taken seriously and in guests being repsonsible for their own safety. I do just want to respond to some of your points though as I'm sure it will answer a lot of your questions and clear up some concerns that you and others may hold. I will add that I can answer from my experience as a Purser and Muster station supervisor with Carnival so this may not apply to all the companies.

1) Lifejackets - there are spare jackets stored on the decks of the ship in both adults and childrens sizes. I am not sure of the exact reason whilst they dostore your life jacket in the cabin, but I can think of a number of reasons - 1) they do request that you go to your cabin to dress warmly, collect medication etc. If you are already there it makes a lot more sense to get your jacket it and put it on straight away as you make your way back up to the deck. 2) If the deck was the only place you could get life jackets can you imagine what it would be like if 2000 people are scrambling and fighting to get life jackets.The decks are already crowded enough and can be dangerous if people are pushing. If everyone already has a jacket it would reduce that. 3) if the ship is already listing you want to make sure that anyone who walks out that door onto a deck already has a lifejacket. There would be a risk of many more lives if people were out on the open deck in rough weather without a jacket.

2) The policy of women and children is not actively in place. Whilst I think it does show some common courtesy in all areas of life there has been a lot of focus on how to manage crowds in an emergency situation. All crew attend special 2-3 hour training courses (in addition to all the other training we do). We recognise that it works to keep families together so as not to add to the stress and would not actively seek to separate family members. People are loaded into the boats in the order they are taken outside or lined up.

3) There are enough seats and liferafts to carry double the capacity of the ship including passengers and crew. It is a legal requirement that this occur. The reason is that if the ship is listing or there was a fire, the entire ship would still be able to evacuate from the other side of the ship. If the ship is at it's highest capacity there would only ever be about 100 passengers that would be allocated liferafts - it's actually all the crew that come in them after the passengers have been disembarked.

4) Re the fact that there should be concern re who is responsible for lowering and driving the life boats. The staff members who are in those positions are there for a reason and that is because they are highly trained. In the case you were evacuating, your lifeboat would contain the lifeboat driver, his second in charge and a minimum of two high ranking ship officers. That is Pursers, Doctors, Nurses, Managers of other Departments. It is true that the lifeboat drivers usually are not not high ranking staff. They are instead from the dining room, housekeeping, steward, kitchens and deck department. They are the people who carry out the physical activities on the ships, carry trays of food, paint the decks, carry luggage, clean 30 cabins in 3 hours, push liinen from one end of the ship to the other and are good at this job because they are fit and strong. They don't speak perfect English, but they only need to understand the commands of the ships captain and the officers on board the boat, which they get plenty of practice in. They train normally once a month to release the boats into the water and bring them back up. All such staff members have attended and trained in a 30 hour course called SCC for this which is in addiiton to all the other work and training we do. This includes all ships officers. What you may not realise that in the worst case scenario your Purser, your housekeeiing manager, your deck crew are all qualified to drive a life boat once it is lowered into the water. Actually, in all honesty once the boat has been lowered into the water and is released from the hooks, you yourself could drive the boat with a quick 2 minute briefing

5) Alcohol & drugs policy onboard - Cruise ships definitely have a reputation as having a party atmosphere and I don't deny that after hours we do let our hair down, howeve the ships are also very strict on our levels of behaviour. Crew members have regular random drug test. If any crew member is found positive it is instant dismissal. We are permitted to drink alcohol whilst on board the ship. The ships normally do not permit us to exceed .05 and if we are on active duty this is reduced to .025. The crew bar where we purchase our alcohol has strict opening hours. It opens normally at midday to sell water, noodles, juices, and all items non-alcoholic. It then reopens at 8pm from which time it sells alcoholic drinks. There are strict rules around what can be purchased. No shots, no doubles, no drinks straight up. It is unlikely that you would find any crew member drinking prior to 8pm at night, unless they were attending an occasion such as formal night or dinner in the lounges, not to mention the first shifts to finish work that day isn't normally until around 9pm.

The last major sinking of a cruise ship that affected us as such was the Titanic in 1912. Ever since then there have been strict procedures in place, training, rules, regulations, legal requirements, audits in place and I don't think you could travel at a safer time. This was a highly higly unfortunately incident which will give us all a wake up call. There is not way by much of procedure etc that I think the ships could do, except from ensure the drills are taken more seriously and that eveyone is clear on th procedure. I also think that there will become a requirement that drill must be completed within the first hour of sailaway. However, none of these can be implemented without full public support from the guests and the guests demanding that the ships fulfill on this procedure as required and correctly instead of demeanding the process and lessening the importance of it which is common practice now.

Hope,
Thank you so much for your response. It actually helped me prepare for this week's podcast.

Thanks for all your terrific points. The crew of the Dream could hardly get the passengers to be quiet before the briefing could begin. I sometimes couldn't hear the crew member's instructions because of giggling and chatting going on around me. The whole exercise was a joke. And for the most part it was the passengers' fault. I agree with you that the life jackets in the stateroom makes little sense unless the disaster happen overnight. We need to rethink a lot of procedures. The ships need to ensure that audio equipment is working properly ahead of time & that there is enough seating provided. Yes, separating families is not good.

On one cruise, passengers were bragging about how they outwitted the crew & avoided the drill.

The cruiselines brag that they have so many different nationalities onboard. The problem is that many of them have limited Engish. This becomes a real problem in an emergency. If you sail on a foreign ship, this is an even bigger problem. Luckily I have never had to experience a crisis on a cruise ship. I do hear that at least the newer ships have lifeboats that are unsinkable. I have sailed on Hurtugrutin and they gave announcements in so many different languages that in an emergency it would be a real problem, English was last.