Muster Drill

When you first get on the boat, I would recommend starting to have fun immediately! The buffet is full and open. Bands are playing and people are everywhere. Be sure to check and see what the show is for the evening and what time it starts. Our first time, we did not know that there was a show the first evening, and ended up missing it.

Although the fun starts right away, the ship doesn’t depart until 5:00. before it can start however, everyone on the boat must participate in a muster drill. This is a drill for what to do if you need to abandon ship. You will have a life jacket in your room and it will have a large number on it. This is the number of your muster station. So here is how it works: some time before the ship departs, they will announce that they will have a muster drill (probably about 4:00 or so). When it is time for your drill, you need to put on your life jacket and proceed to your muster station. All of the muster stations are on deck 5 and are basically under the life boats. There are huge numbers painted below the boats so, you will not be wondering if you are in the right place. Besides the numbers, there is also a map to your muster station on the back of the door to your room.

When you get to your muster station, there are a ton of people standing around packed into a small area. Each life boat holds at least 100 people (it may be closer to 200) and they are all standing next to you waiting for this to be over. These are the people you are going to die with. Just kidding. At this point everyone stands there until a member of the crew introduces themselves and tells you abut your life jacket. It is orange, has a water activated flashing light and a whistle. Everyone yells the number of the muster station out several times then are released to continue the fun.

Ok, so what is the point in this post? There are two things to learn here. First start having fun as soon as you get on the ship, but don’t get too excited because you have to do the muster drill. Second, you DO NOT want to be the first one there. People are SERIOUSLY packed in and standing out in the heat. If you are the first one there, you will be trapped in the back of the group and not be able to leave until everyone else does. That is seriously BO-ring.

As soon as it is over, go put your life jacket away (or continue to wear it if you REALLY want to) and start having fun. The ship is about to leave at this time, so I would recommend heading to one of the top decks to watch. There is stuff to see as you leave and a whole lot of nothing once you are at sea.