Will the muster drill process ever change?

[randumb0]

Disney has the worst muster drill process. Some Cruise lines allow you to complete your muster drill as soon as you board and others allow you to complete your process before even boarding the ship. Why does Disney have to corral everyone like cattle when it is not necessary?

 

[Cheburashka]

Probably for staffing reasons it's easier to do it all at once.

 

[Kwami]

Mmm, mustard.

 

[randumb0]

Mmm, mustard.

Speech to text gets me every time. Now what's your opinion on the drill?

 

[randumb0]

Probably for staffing reasons it's easier to do it all at once.

I would think that all Cruise lines would do do it the way Disney does it there was a staffing issue

 

[71 Truck]

I posted this back in March and still believe it to be true.


It was unofficially reported the the main reason Disney went back to the old style drills was because of lack of sufficient participation on the part of the guest. So I guess some may have ruined it for others.

Remember this also gives the crew, especially new crew a chance to also train. These are the people who are going to help save your life in an emergency while people are running around panicking because they do not know where their muster station is.

In an emergency even if people are only half paying attention at the in person muster drill they got some of the information and at least know where to go. If the guest can't remember where to go than thats their fault not the cruise lines. they did their part.

If only one person had to check in at the staging area and no one from the party bothered to watched the in room video because it took up to much time from their cruise this is a problem.
In an emergency especially, if the rest of the party is separate from the person who went to their muster area they might not know where to go.

On our last cruise on the Fantasy in November 2022 from the time the horn blew to start the drill till the time we were released from our muster station it was exactly 20 minutes. And our muster station was on the Starboard side of the ship in the sun.
If there are people who cant stand in the sun for 20 minutes they should find out from the cruise line if there is an alternative place they can meet.

I do not think 20 minutes is a lot to ask from people to help protect their safety in an emergency. this was on a cruise that was 142 hours long so 20 minutes is not a lot to ask..

I posted this in June
One of the things I read was that if a room had four people in it one person would gather all the Key to The World cards and go to the muster station to check in. That meant that potentially three people did not know where the muster station was. Potentially, during an emergency if every one from the room was not together some people did no know where to go.
It may have been apparent to Disney, guest either not knowing what to do or intentionally, possibly not doing what Disney wanted them to due may caused Disney to go back to the old muster drill. This is all of course just speculation as that Disney has never as far as I know put out an official statement.


Second update, our last cruise was December 2, 2023 on the Fantasy and the muster drill was still only 20 minutes.

 

[tvguy]

I posted this back in March and still believe it to be true.


It was unofficially reported the the main reason Disney went back to the old style drills was because of lack of sufficient participation on the part of the guest. So I guess some may have ruined it for others.

Remember this also gives the crew, especially new crew a chance to also train. These are the people who are going to help save your life in an emergency while people are running around panicking because they do not know where their muster station is.

In an emergency even if people are only half paying attention at the in person muster drill they got some of the information and at least know where to go. If the guest can't remember where to go than thats their fault not the cruise lines. they did their part.

If only one person had to check in at the staging area and no one from the party bothered to watched the in room video because it took up to much time from their cruise this is a problem.
In an emergency especially, if the rest of the party is separate from the person who went to their muster area they might not know where to go.

On our last cruise on the Fantasy in November 2022 from the time the horn blew to start the drill till the time we were released from our muster station it was exactly 20 minutes. And our muster station was on the Starboard side of the ship in the sun.
If there are people who cant stand in the sun for 20 minutes they should find out from the cruise line if there is an alternative place they can meet.

I do not think 20 minutes is a lot to ask from people to help protect their safety in an emergency. this was on a cruise that was 142 hours long so 20 minutes is not a lot to ask..

I posted this in June
One of the things I read was that if a room had four people in it one person would gather all the Key to The World cards and go to the muster station to check in. That meant that potentially three people did not know where the muster station was. Potentially, during an emergency if every one from the room was not together some people did no know where to go.
It may have been apparent to Disney, guest either not knowing what to do or intentionally, possibly not doing what Disney wanted them to due may caused Disney to go back to the old muster drill. This is all of course just speculation as that Disney has never as far as I know put out an official statement.


Second update, our last cruise was December 2, 2023 on the Fantasy and the muster drill was still only 20 minutes.

I agree. And I am constantly amazed what a fuss it causes. After 43 years of cruising, it's no big deal and my kids always looked forward to it.

 

[Cfabar1]

I wish there was a way to do it online or to appear at your convenience. The first day of a cruise is stressful enough - and especially for us 3 night folks, it really does take a lot, or some way to say when was your last cruise, and have you exempt.

 

[Disneyland_emily]

They tried alternative methods during the reopening and people ruined it- they never completed it or sent one person to take the photo and check in- when randomly asked very few had any idea what to do in an emergency or where to go.

So everyone gets to do it the “old fashioned way” well slightly better as no life jackets

 

[randumb0]

They tried alternative methods during the reopening and people ruined it- they never completed it or sent one person to take the photo and check in- when randomly asked very few had any idea what to do in an emergency or where to go.

So everyone gets to do it the “old fashioned way” well slightly better as no life jackets

Why is that any different than any other cruise line?

 

[Sykes]

It’s staffing, although it may be coupled with an implementation of virtual muster that was inferior to how most other cruise lines did it (such that it could potentially be bypassed by some guests). Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean have explicitly stated at various times that virtual muster has higher compliance rates and improved guest retention of important information.

This article digs into it a bit deeper, and there Carnival notes that virtual muster has meaningfully higher staffing requirements (note that NCL has returned to virtual muster since this article was published): https://thepointsguy.com/news/cruise-ship-muster-drill-changes-reasons/

Personally I think part of the reasoning is a bit of safety theater too—a big showy demonstration is more effective at conveying that Disney feels that safety is important even if it is actually less effective than the alternative.

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

They tried alternative methods during the reopening and people ruined it- they never completed it or sent one person to take the photo and check in- when randomly asked very few had any idea what to do in an emergency or where to go.

So everyone gets to do it the “old fashioned way” well slightly better as no life jackets

They should have implemented it better. When we did it on Royal Caribbean we all had to go check in with the person who then gave a short lecture.

 

[Mommb]

Why is that any different than any other cruise line?

My guess is that Disney cruises have a higher proportion of young children than many other cruise lines do. Navigating to the muster station with children is more complicated than one parent walking to the location while the other stays in the room or elsewhere onboard with the kids. In a true emergency, it is vital that everyone, including kids, knows what to do and how to remain relatively calm when surrounded by many other people going to the same place.

 

[cvjw]

We sailed several times during the pandemic with the virtual muster drill. I showed up by myself every single time and took the pic. DCL never enforced your whole party being present for the drill. Maybe if they had checked to see that the whole party was present for the pic, they would have had better participation.

 

[dwg]

Here is a perfect example of why I have no problem with in person muster drills: We sailed on the Wish last year and the inside of the cabin door has the muster station posted showing where we were to report which in our case was in the main theater but deck 2 which is one deck below the main theater entrance. We arrived at the location where we found a closed door along with some other guests. Finally a crew member came down the stairs and told us that we had to go up to the normal theater entrance. I told her that this is where the cabin door instructed us to go and she said they were aware of the problem. This is an obvious safety issue as in a real emergency people will be hurrying around and panicking and this would just cause delays and confusion. I reported the issue to customer service who assured me they would forward the issue to the appropriate people to ensure the problem would be addressed. The fact that the crew person was aware of the issue and did not at the very least have a sign or person directing passengers to the correct place as a temporary fix just made me even more annoyed that we were directed to go to the wrong location. This is obviously an issue created by the cruise line but if the muster was virtual I do not know if it would have been discovered by the passengers who were directed to report to the wrong location.

In our case do to the location of the cabin we did not come down the stairs outside the theater where we would have seen the theater doors open. We came to the deck 2 door down the corridor using a staircase more in the middle of the ship.

 

[ddonner]

Royal Caribbean/Celebrity has the best way to do it! On Embarkation morning, you watch a couple of videos on their app, and it marks on the system that you watched it. Once onboard, you go to your station. There is ONE crew member scanning everyone's cards/QR codes from each stateroom, and that's it!
That way, you make sure everyone knows where to go AND free up the crew. There is NO reason for Disney to make us go through this. It is those telling details that show that Disney's business is NOT cruising...

 

[Chirple]

@dwg based on your prior posts I believe we were on the same Wish sailing, which was the first ever in-person muster drill on that ship. I hope they have resolved the misdirect instructions since last year.

Regarding other cruise methods, I am curious: do they have all access pathways open so you know which "backstage" route to take, or is everyone funneled through normal hallways/staircases?

 

[71 Truck]

I think it comes down to this, this is the way Disney wants the muster drill done. If you want to sail on Disney then for now we will have to do it their way.

I still think the in person muster drill is the best way to make sure everyone has been shown what is expected of them in an emergency.

Of all the times I have sailed Disney (14 times) I have not thought the in person muster drill was an inconvenience.
For my wife and I 20 minutes is not a lot to ask of us to ensure we have been told what to do and where to be in an emergency.

I have also said in the past, maybe Disney has not heard from a significant number of it's guest that they would like to go to a different kind of muster drill other than the in person drill.

 

[kiford]

The first day of a cruise is stressful enough

Can you imagine how stressful it would be in a real emergency when the only time you've been to your muster station was when you went at your leisure and you had no real example of how the procedure was done and the crew has not had any experience of how hard it is to corral a large crowd of people much less those who are scared, panicking and don't know what's going on. It's 20 minutes out of your life that might just save that life.

 

[Dug720]

Can you imagine how stressful it would be in a real emergency when the only time you've been to your muster station was when you went at your leisure and you had no real example of how the procedure was done and the crew has not had any experience of how hard it is to corral a large crowd of people much less those who are scared, panicking and don't know what's going on. It's 20 minutes out of your life that might just save that life.

This. If I'm remembering correctly, the Costa Concordia disaster - which took place before mandatory prior to sailing muster drills - happened after some passers had boarded (it was a multi-leg sailing with people joining at different ports) and they had not yet conducted their drill when the disaster struck. So you had a bunch of people who had no clue where they were supposed to go which only added to the chaos.