Originally Posted by
Letitride3c
Cruiselines sailing to/from US waters are pretty strict & we've been on at least 2 with Coast Guard personnel onboard running special inspections, as the ship's officers & crews take them seriously. But let's face it, like frequent airline pax familiar with the pre-flight safety demo/videos, many of us ignore or mentally skipped it. Even US cruises had been allowed to skip a few steps, we've done cruises in the last year & we did not have to grab our life vests & report to muster stations (some of them being in the dining room, theater & not necessary near where the lifeboats are) and the crew did it quickly as EVERYONE wanted a quick dismissal to get back to their cabin, unpack & get ready for the casino, bar, dinner or what not.
What seemed problematic too is that the ship did not issue a distress or Mayday call early on as it began to take in water - additional help from nearby maritime interest could've been dispatched quicker than what we now know. (hindsight being mostly 20:20 with us as backseat driver/navigator of the sea) If the general alarm was sounded but the pax (at least some of them) aren't familiar with what to do in the confusion on what to do - return to the statement or go directly to their assigned muster stations - not knowing where & how to best evacuate - with the ship began to go sideway & power going out, etc.
Some of the reports said the passengers're told to go to one ship of the ship and subsequently shifted again to the opposite end as more sea water came in, it could've adversely affected the overall stabliity of the ship even in those shallow depth near the shorelines.
Modern cruise ships are designed with more than enough lifeboats & crafts unlike the Titanic days. The pictures shown on TV/news showed that only motorized lifeboats from one side of the liner made it to the waterline but 2 inflated rubber boats did not on the same side (everything on the opposite side remained high up & apparently never launched.)
Our thoughts & prayers are with the pax & crews as the search, rescue & recovery continue in the search for the missing or unaccounted ones.
This pic shows that most of the starboard lifeboats were launched before the ship capsized on that side.
As to muster drills, Princess generally does theirs in lounges and theaters along deck 7. The reason they do this instead of crowding people out on deck, is they can more orderly load the lifeboats by having people in the lounges and taking them out to the boats as needed. The boats are all on deck 7 (hanging in front of the cabins on deck 8 actually) and get lowered to the deck 7 rail for boarding. The lounges all have emergency exits (that we don't normally see) going directly out on to the promenade deck where the boats will be ready for boarding.