If you've ever taken a cruise, you know that before you can enjoy endless meals, lounging by the pool, and stopping at several destinations, safety comes first. Every cruise requires their passengers participate in a mandatory safety drill. One elderly couple's cruise was cut short when they were booted off a luxury ship after refusing to participate in this muster drill recently.
A member of Cruise Critic, Seabourntraveller, who was on board the Seabourn Sojourn, which set sail from Lisbon, Portugal, offered an account of the event. He reported that the captain and crew made several announcements and phone calls, requesting that the passengers of cabin 627 leave their room and attend the drill. After several attempts to contact the passengers, their belongings were repacked and they were escorted off of the ship, ending their journey before it even began.
After contacting the agent who booked the couple's cruise, Mike Driscoll, publisher of the weekly industry newsletter Cruise Week, reported that the husband, 90, did actually attend the drill, but his wife, 84, refused because she wasn't feeling well and she said she had done it before. The couple was on the second leg of a three-leg cruise, so the elderly woman may have been referring to attending the drill on the previous cruise.
During a muster drill, cruise-goers are assigned a meeting place, usually a lifeboat station, and they learn what to do in case of an emergency, much like how flight attendants explain safety procedures before a flight.
While it is rare for cruise emergencies occur, anything can happen at any time. The crash of the Costa Concordia in January, which resulted in over 30 deaths, serves as a reminder. Around 700 passengers who boarded in Civitavecchia on Jan. 13 had not yet participated in the drill when the Costa Concordia hit a reef. Their safety drill had been scheduled for the next morning.
Cruise ships are required to hold a muster drill within 24 hours of embarkation, according to the Safety of Life at Sea conventions (SOLAS), performed by The International Maritime Organization (IMO), a U.N. agency tasked with improving maritime safety. The Costa Concordia's drill would have fallen within the 24-hour window requirement.
Since the Costa Concordia crash, cruise lines are receiving criticism for not performing the drill before a boat leaves the port. Putting this event into perspective, several cruise lines are cracking down and enforcing these safety rules and they're taking no excuses from passengers. This is the second reported incident where passengers were booted after refusing to participate in the drill, since the crash of the Costa Concordia.
In February, the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) announced that its 26 members, including every major cruise line, would hold drills before a ship leaves port. Most cruise lines had already put this into practice, but there were some exceptions, like the Costa Concordia.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
