Emergency on Board Question

[DutchsMommy]

Just wondering if in your cruise docs or during the lifeboat drill it is discussed what to do if there is an emergency that would cause you to have to go to your lifeboat station and your child is in the Club/Lab. I am not trrying to be paranoid, but I figure there must be some protocol for this?

 

[HappyMommy2]

Great question; I was just thinking about this! I'd love to hear the answer.

We had a small fire at our church recently. I was upstairs when the alarm went off and my kids were downstairs in the nursery on the other side of the (large) building. I knew the nursery staff had a good evacuation protocol in place but my every instinct was telling me to backtrack to the nursery and make sure my kids were getting out safely before I went outside myself.

I can imagine that it would be VERY hard for me to trust strangers to get my kids out of danger in the event of an emergency on the ship. Knowing the evacuation procedures for the kids' clubs/Flounder's will make me feel much more at ease, I'm sure.

Can anyone help with this question?

 

[CM_Mom]

The wristbands the kids wear in the club have their stateroom number AND their lifeboat station shown on them. If there is an emergency that would require you to go to the lifeboats the CMs will get your children to the right lifeboat station. In this situation it would be more dangerous and MUCH more time consuming for all the parents to come to the Club or Lab to get their children. The parents should go directly to their lifeboat station so they can take charge of their children when the CMs bring them.

One advantage the CMs have is that they know the ship VERY well and know the shortest way to get places using crew stairs, etc that would be less crowded. Since the Club/Lab/Flounders are on Deck 5 and the lifeboat stations are on Deck 4, your children are often closer to the lifeboat stations than you are.

My DD is a CM in the Club and she says if an emergency is announced during Club hours, EVERY CM who works in the Club has orders to get there ASAP to assist in evacuation procedures regardless of where they are on the ship. They don't make a big deal about it to the guests, but they do have defined procedures, all crewmembers have defined emergency assignments AND they practice them regularly.

Hope this helps put your minds at ease. If you have other specific questions, please feel free to PM me.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

I think a part of the answer is "Captain's discretion".

So far I've only heard of people being asked to report to their life boat stations once in the middle of the night because of something like an engine room fire (someone here has posted pictures of the damage that was done, but since repaired, to the smoke stack).

I don't know if they have ever gone so far as to acctually lowered passengers into the water in life boat with any DCL or not. Anyone with more information?

But in general, most of the stories I've heard (DCL or other cruise lines) usually involve a fire on board, usually a small fire that they will send everyone to life boats (and maybe put them in the water) until they KNOW the fire is contained. That's perhaps the single biggest danger you could expect to encounter on a cruise ship.