Safety drill

[4 mickey]

As of now is safety drill back to normal ( prior to covid

last dcl in May you could just go and take a picture of your station

thanks

 

[CamColt]

Yes, it is back to how it was pre covid, 4:00 pm, in person, no life vest needed.

 

[bcwife76]

Yes it's been back to in person for at least a month now. We did it on the Wonder on deck at the end of December.

 

[meliscan]

Yes back to in person but it seemed shorter to me than the pre-covid drills.

 

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

As someone who was a first time cruiser, I found it very disrespectful that everyone kept talking during it, no matter how many times they said to be quiet for it. While it might be routine for some, for some it’s new.

 

[auntlynne]

As someone who was a first time cruiser, I found it very disrespectful that everyone kept talking during it, no matter how many times they said to be quiet for it. While it might be routine for some, for some it’s new.

That’s one of the great things about virtual drills. And not having to wait for people who didn’t show up on time.

It sounds like the virtual drill was only a pause in the rules for cruising. The old style is still the requirement. Not just Disney.

 

[sethschroeder]

This is a big thing and blowing up more and more recently. Disney goes under the radar because its such a small line but NCL went back to this recently and has been getting hit hard.

Hopefully Disney goes back to virtual at some point.

 

[RedHead0186]

Hopefully Disney goes back to virtual at some point.

I believe that would require the Coast Guard to go along with it. And, from what I've seen on this board, that is unlikely (not impossible though). The fact that they made everyone go back to in-person from the virtual option seems to imply they feel strongly it has to be in person. But again, mostly my opinion based on what's been posted on these boards.

 

[bcwife76]

I believe that would require the Coast Guard to go along with it. And, from what I've seen on this board, that is unlikely (not impossible though). The fact that they made everyone go back to in-person from the virtual option seems to imply they feel strongly it has to be in person. But again, mostly my opinion based on what's been posted on these boards.

Royal Caribbean and Carnival have already come out and said they have no intention of going back to in person drills and will continue with virtual so if the coast guard is the reason for switching that makes no sense. It's more likely that there was not 100% guest participation for the virtual drills on Disney, thus they went back to in person.

 

[kiford]

Hopefully Disney goes back to virtual at some point.

I hope that they don't. We had to go down a set of crew stairs to get to our station which was a back entrance to World of Marvel. I don't want the first time I have to find my way there to be when there's a real emergency. I had absolutely no idea where I was going. Afterwards, I was able to imagine not only getting there using that staircase, but how I would be able to get to that staircase if I was not in my room, how I could get to the meeting place if I wasn't able to get to the staircase and how long it should take me. Practicing for emergency procedures are one of the most important factors in ensuring that real emergencies are properly managed. That's why the crew constantly practices and why office buildings have at least one fire drill per year. It's a few measly minutes out of a vacation that could save your life and the life of others so I think it's a fair trade.

 

[soniam]

I hope that they don't. We had to go down a set of crew stairs to get to our station which was a back entrance to World of Marvel. I don't want the first time I have to find my way there to be when there's a real emergency. I had absolutely no idea where I was going. Afterwards, I was able to imagine not only getting there using that staircase, but how I would be able to get to that staircase if I was not in my room, how I could get to the meeting place if I wasn't able to get to the staircase and how long it should take me. Practicing for emergency procedures are one of the most important factors in ensuring that real emergencies are properly managed. That's why the crew constantly practices and why office buildings have at least one fire drill per year. It's a few measly minutes out of a vacation that could save your life and the life of others so I think it's a fair trade.

I thought you were still required to show up at your muster station, just at your own leisure. It can be more than a few minutes. I remember 30 minutes to an hour before. However, the video wasn't working for us, which I considered bad. I don't know if it was bandwidth or what. I can't remember if it finally worked in our cabin or if we found the video on the TV. We have done it before and did go to our muster station in person though.

 

[RedHead0186]

Royal Caribbean and Carnival have already come out and said they have no intention of going back to in person drills and will continue with virtual so if the coast guard is the reason for switching that makes no sense. It's more likely that there was not 100% guest participation for the virtual drills on Disney, thus they went back to in person.

Oh interesting. Then I was mistaken!

I'm pretty sure guest participation wasn't 100%, based on comments here. Since only one person from the stateroom had to swipe their KTTW card that would make it 'easy' for not everyone to participate (not sure why they didn't just make every guest swipe their KTTW card instead, that's how it was on Princess).

 

[Kwami]

I thought you were still required to show up at your muster station, just at your own leisure.

Well, kind of. But 1) only one person from the stateroom had to show up and take a photo of the sign, so the others could skip it, and 2) they didn't always keep the back stairs open during the virtual drills, and 3) they encouraged you to head right to the muster station once you boarded, which takes you on a much different path than if you came from your room.

The crew members manning the muster stations did have a list of names that they were supposed to check so that everyone had to show up, but in my experience, they didn't really bother. So, #1 is fixed by reverting to the old system. For #2, I'm not sure that they can leave the back stairs open all afternoon. People will wander in. And for #3, well, the old system doesn't really solve the problem because you can still come from anywhere, but at least you have a better chance of coming from your room and following the expected emergency path.

 

[soniam]

Well, kind of. But 1) only one person from the stateroom had to show up and take a photo of the sign, so the others could skip it, and 2) they didn't always keep the back stairs open during the virtual drills, and 3) they encouraged you to head right to the muster station once you boarded, which takes you on a much different path than if you came from your room.

The crew members manning the muster stations did have a list of names that they were supposed to check so that everyone had to show up, but in my experience, they didn't really bother. So, #1 is fixed by reverting to the old system. For #2, I'm not sure that they can leave the back stairs open all afternoon. People will wander in. And for #3, well, the old system doesn't really solve the problem because you can still come from anywhere, but at least you have a better chance of coming from your room and following the expected emergency path.

We all left from our cabin, because that made logical sense. Plus, we knew where it was, since we had stayed in that exact cabin before. We knew our teen son may not be with us, so we wanted him to know where it was. The backstage access is definitely problematic. I just wish others would be considerate, show up on time, and not talk. Things would go much smoother and faster.

 

[Kwami]

I just wish others would be considerate, show up on time, and not talk. Things would go much smoother and faster.

I also wish this! But, well, people...

 

[ScooterScott44]

I believe that would require the Coast Guard to go along with it. And, from what I've seen on this board, that is unlikely (not impossible though). The fact that they made everyone go back to in-person from the virtual option seems to imply they feel strongly it has to be in person. But again, mostly my opinion based on what's been posted on these boards.

Royal Caribbean and Carnival have already come out and said they have no intention of going back to in person drills and will continue with virtual so if the coast guard is the reason for switching that makes no sense. It's more likely that there was not 100% guest participation for the virtual drills on Disney, thus they went back to in person.

Couple of quick notes. It is a requirement that every guest does the drill. My guess is that person checking in folks may swipe the single card for a cabin but confirm that all in the room are there visually. Not sure what DCL is using currently to check people in since our last cruise with them was pre-pandemic, but Royal has a device that will bring up a pic of the guest and they can see the images of the other guests to verify the party.

Royal was working on a Virtual Muster option as the Pandemic hit. They even filed for a patent - https://uspto.report/TM/88881222 . Their actual drill portion was similar, so not much of a difference to DCL pre-pandemic. The issue was the crowd/congestion before and especially after the drill really seemed... ...lets say 'cumbersome". It makes sense to stay virtual, especially for those mega ships, since it seems they have figured out how to do that and maintain compliance with the regulations.

 

[RedHead0186]

Couple of quick notes. It is a requirement that every guest does the drill. My guess is that person checking in folks may swipe the single card for a cabin but confirm that all in the room are there visually. Not sure what DCL is using currently to check people in since our last cruise with them was pre-pandemic, but Royal has a device that will bring up a pic of the guest and they can see the images of the other guests to verify the party.

Royal was working on a Virtual Muster option as the Pandemic hit. They even filed for a patent - https://uspto.report/TM/88881222 . Their actual drill portion was similar, so not much of a difference to DCL pre-pandemic. The issue was the crowd/congestion before and especially after the drill really seemed... ...lets say 'cumbersome". It makes sense to stay virtual, especially for those mega ships, since it seems they have figured out how to do that and maintain compliance with the regulations.

When we did the virtual muster drill on DCL last September, the CM swiped my dad's card as the 'representative' from the stateroom. No idea if the CM had any visuals of my mom and I (the other 2 stateroom members) to confirm/check off that we were there (though we were). After swiping my dad's card, the CM had a couple quick notes for us about where/how to meet and then let us go on our merry way.

I have heard anecdotally that not everyone on DCL was checking in for the virtual muster-that one person from the stateroom would just go swipe in and that was that. I can't confirm that firsthand, though. That is widely speculated to be the reason DCL went back to in-person muster, because people were gaming the system and DCL wasn't getting 100% compliance with the check-ins. Seems they could change that by requiring every guest to swipe in, but it doesn't appear they decided to go that route.

 

[tvguy]

When we did the virtual muster drill on DCL last September, the CM swiped my dad's card as the 'representative' from the stateroom. No idea if the CM had any visuals of my mom and I (the other 2 stateroom members) to confirm/check off that we were there (though we were). After swiping my dad's card, the CM had a couple quick notes for us about where/how to meet and then let us go on our merry way.

I have heard anecdotally that not everyone on DCL was checking in for the virtual muster-that one person from the stateroom would just go swipe in and that was that. I can't confirm that firsthand, though. That is widely speculated to be the reason DCL went back to in-person muster, because people were gaming the system and DCL wasn't getting 100% compliance with the check-ins. Seems they could change that by requiring every guest to swipe in, but it doesn't appear they decided to go that route.

People gaming the system is why I think every cruise line that went back to the normal muster drill did so.

 

[Jsoenning]

Hmm I read an interesting article linked somewhere on disboards I believe, that said Royal Caribbean found the compliance and retention to be better for virtual drill. Perhaps it's because each person has to check-in versus the representative? I don't recall on the one virtual drill we did on Disney as we all went to the muster station as a family and spoke with the cast member there.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Just back from a Wonder cruise. At the muster drill, they only swiped my husband's card and asked "Is your whole party here?" I couldn't see it very well, but the tablet-thingy she was using appeared to show both our photos on the reservation. When my husband pointed to me and I started to offer my KTTW card, she said she didn't need it.