Lifeboat Capacity

[princessmommyx3]

Over the years on this board I have seen regular references to a “muster station being full”, mostly in reference to someone not being able to add a person to a room, even if the room has a bed for the additional person. This has always puzzled me because that must mean that the ship has more total beds than spaces in life boats/rafts, right? Surely regulations would not allow cruise ships to be built with fewer spaces in lifeboats than beds on the ship? I did a small amount of research and found several websites that said that cruise ships actually are required to have a total lifeboat capacity of 125% total ship capacity (and some have more!), due to lifeboat maintenance and/or malfunction. If this is indeed correct, then the argument about there not being enough room at a muster station to be able to fill all of the beds in a room would not be correct, or am I missing something? I know that cruise ships probably never sail with every bed full, but surely they have to be built to provide enough lifeboat space if they ever did, right? If so, then there should always be room at every muster station for every bed in that station to be sold/filled. Someone please correct me if I am not thinking about this correctly, my analytical mind needs to know!

 

[HeatherLassell]

How I understand it:

Each muster station has only a set number of seats in lifeboats. So if you want to join a room in a section of the ship that would have already filled every lifeboat seat...you can't join that room. You *can* get a room in a different part of the ship with open lifeboat seats.

Yes rooms can "sleep 3 OR 4" or "4 OR 5" so if you're last one to book and there are only 3 lifeboat seats left it doesn't matter that your room *can* sleep 4 3 will be the max allowed.

 

[princessmommyx3]

How I understand it:

Each muster station has only a set number of seats in lifeboats. So if you want to join a room in a section of the ship that would have already filled every lifeboat seat...you can't join that room. You *can* get a room in a different part of the ship with open lifeboat seats.

Yes rooms can "sleep 3 OR 4" or "4 OR 5" so if you're last one to book and there are only 3 lifeboat seats left it doesn't matter that your room *can* sleep 4 3 will be the max allowed.

So according to this logic, a ship is built with more beds than lifeboat spots. I guess it's possible, but seems reckless and not in line with the research that I did.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

So according to this, a ship is built with more beds than lifeboat spots. I guess it's possible, but seems reckless and not in line with the research that I did.

Not all cruise lines have built their ships with that many excess beds. Primarily DCL has in order to allow more flexibility for bookings. Most cruise lines don't have as many 4 person rooms as DCL does.

 

[hrhdhd]

So according to this logic, a ship is built with more beds than lifeboat spots. I guess it's possible, but seems reckless and not in line with the research that I did.

But they don't sell any more beds once the lifeboat is full.

 

[HeatherLassell]

So according to this logic, a ship is built with more beds than lifeboat spots. I guess it's possible, but seems reckless and not in line with the research that I did.

How so? They don't FILL the beds over the capacity of the lifeboats.... which is why people talk about being unable to add a person to their room.

 

[princessmommyx3]

Not all cruise lines have built their ships with that many excess beds. Primarily DCL has in order to allow more flexibility for bookings. Most cruise lines don't have as many 4 person rooms as DCL does.

So if this is true, then DCL was allowed to build ships with more beds than lifeboat spaces, and they just have to promise to never fill every bed? Maybe I'll ask an officer next time I'm onboard.

 

[HeatherLassell]

I mean you asked and we answered. Not sure why you're being so negative and acting like we don't know what we're talking about.

 

[princessmommyx3]

How so? They don't FILL the beds over the capacity of the lifeboats.... which is why people talk about being unable to add a person to their room.

Because if they don't sell beds over the capacity of the lifeboats, then that means there are more beds on the ship than spaces in the lifeboats.

 

[HeatherLassell]

*head desk*

 

[princessmommyx3]

I mean you asked and we answered. Not sure why you're being so negative and acting like we don't know what we're talking about.

I'm not trying to be negative, I guess I'm just wondering if anyone can tell me that DCL does indeed have more beds on the ship than spaces in lifeboats, which is what you seem to be saying. If so, I think that's interesting. I'm just wondering how it works is all.

 

[HeatherLassell]

I'm not trying to be negative, I guess I'm just wondering if anyone can tell me that DCL does indeed have more beds on the ship than spaces in lifeboats, which is what you seem to be saying. If so, I think that's interesting. I'm just wondering how it works is all.

They definitely have the capacity in rooms that IF they were to fill every bed it would be more than the lifeboats. But that's why they say how many the room *can* sleep. They will never have more people in a muster station than the lifeboats can handle.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I guess I'm just wondering if anyone can tell me that DCL does indeed have more beds on the ship than spaces in lifeboats,

Yes, they do.

 

[princessmommyx3]

Yes, they do.

Thank you very much for answering my question.

 

[tvguy]

Yes, they do.

Yes, they do.

I'm not trying to be negative, I guess I'm just wondering if anyone can tell me that DCL does indeed have more beds on the ship than spaces in lifeboats, which is what you seem to be saying. If so, I think that's interesting. I'm just wondering how it works is all.

If you count only lifeboats, yes. But they also have life rafts. It appears that there must be space in a lifeboat or life raft that is equal to, or greater than, the number of beds. https://casualnavigation.com/how-many-lifeboats-are-there-on-a-cruise-ship/

 

[Mrlogboy]

So if this is true, then DCL was allowed to build ships with more beds than lifeboat spaces, and they just have to promise to never fill every bed? Maybe I'll ask an officer next time I'm onboard.

I believe that Statement is correct. It’s just like there’s a number of adjoining rooms on a boat and for every cruise the two rooms are not necessarily related to each other so the joining doors never get opened. So technically more beads than boats to allow for a bit of flexibility for families of different sizes. I am betting they have less actual beds ( excluding sofas and foldaway etc) than life boats spots

Interesting question but nothing to be concerned about

 

[princessmommyx3]

If you count only lifeboats, yes. But they also have life rafts. It appears that there must be space in a lifeboat or life raft that is equal to, or greater than, the number of beds. https://casualnavigation.com/how-many-lifeboats-are-there-on-a-cruise-ship/

By lifeboats, I meant boats or rafts - basically a way to evacuate a person from the ship. The article you quoted is one of the ones that I saw that intrigued me. How do you interpret this @tvguy? Do you think this means that a muster station could ever be full? I’m not trying to be negative or argumentative, just looking for a healthy dialogue on a subject that interests me. I’m not claiming to know the answer.

I believe that Statement is correct. It’s just like there’s a number of adjoining rooms on a boat and for every cruise the two rooms are not necessarily related to each other so the joining doors never get opened. So technically more beads than boats to allow for a bit of flexibility for families of different sizes. I am betting they have less actual beds ( excluding sofas and foldaway etc) than life boats spots

Interesting question but nothing to be concerned about

I’m not concerned, just interested to know more about the topic.

 

[Mommb]

I think of it this way. I don’t know the actual numbers, but the exact numbers aren’t important to understand the principle. Suppose each lifeboat holds 150 passengers (plus crew, but assume the crew number per boat is fixed) and suppose that each muster station has 40 rooms. Each room has beds for 4 passengers, but some rooms will have only 1 or 2 or 3 people who reserve that room. (Some rooms actually hold 3 or 5 people, but that’s not important for this example.) The maximum number of passengers that DCL will book in those 40 rooms is 150. That is the capacity of that section. If half of the rooms have 3 people and half have 4 people, that’s 140 people. Then 10 of the 3-person rooms can add another person. However, if an 11th room wants to add a person, DCL will not permit it, because the capacity in that section has been reached. However, there may be a different section that has an available 4-person room, so the 3 people and 1 more person can take that room. Now that frees up a room in the first section that could take 1, 2, or 3 people, but not 4.

The total number of passengers on the ship cannot exceed the number of lifeboat spaces. No one will get on the ship without a reservation, and no one can make a reservation that will cause there to be more passengers than lifeboat spaces, so the total number of beds isn’t relevant.

If the ship had a lifeboat seat for each bed, there would be many more lifeboats, causing more weight/expense/maintenance. It is highly unlikely that there would ever be a sailing on which every bed would be filled, or even 90% of the beds, because not everyone travels in groups of 4. Thus, having a total useable capacity of something like, in my hypothetical example, 93.75% of bed capacity would be a prudent use of resources.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Whose law would it be about more beds than lifeboat spots? That's a key bit here that makes the sentence tricky.

Under the regulations of most ports, DCL cannot have more people on board than lifeboat spots. How they configure beds and rooms is unrelated save when allowing bookings.

A room may have 2 beds and 2 people (sister trip), or 2 beds and 4 people (couple and their kids), same room, same number of beds. So the math of beds and lifeboats gets weird anyway, and too much of a mess to regulate strictly on a one-to-one basis. It is far easier to say "if you have 500 lifeboat spots you can book 500 people, and have them sleep however they want."

 

[tvguy]

By lifeboats, I meant boats or rafts - basically a way to evacuate a person from the ship. The article you quoted is one of the ones that I saw that intrigued me. How do you interpret this @tvguy? Do you think this means that a muster station could ever be full? I’m not trying to be negative or argumentative, just looking for a healthy dialogue on a subject that interests me. I’m not claiming to know the answer.



I’m not concerned, just interested to know more about the topic.

Yes, a muster station could be full. Which is why the won't let more people in cabins assigned to that muster station to exceed the capacity of the lifeboat. Nothing to worry about, by International law every cruise ship has a place in a lifeboat or life raft for every passenger and crew member on board.