Trish Berry, December 2024
Our safety onboard is crucial. Royal Caribbean sees to it that we are as safe as possible, but it’s our own responsibility to be as safe as possible.
When you sit at the terminal, waiting to board your ship, you do the first two steps of safety on your phone app. Once you get on the ship, you should go immediately to your muster station. The muster station is the place that you are to go in the event of an emergency on the ship where passengers might possibly have to board the lifeboats. Always remember your muster station number and location. This station number and location will be on the same app as your safety check-in.
Once onboard the ship, when it’s close to time for the ship to leave port, the captain will occasionally come on the loudspeaker and remind all passengers that they must check in at their muster station before the ship can leave port. We have never had a delay in departure due to someone not checking in at their muster station, but it has been down to the wire in some instances. I would hate for them to call my name over the loudspeaker at departure time because we always know that it’s the person who has not checked in at their muster station.
All cruise lines have to follow the rules and regulations put in place by the Safety of Life at Sea. These regulations require the ships to have life-saving devices onboard the ship, enough fire equipment to extinguish a fire, and rules for keeping the ship stable.
Many years ago, rock ballast and water ballast were used to keep a ship balanced. All those years ago when ships came into Tampa Bay, they threw the rocks overboard to lighten their load. Even now you can find some of these rocks that have been recovered, split into two pieces (or more) and discovered to be geodes. Some are smoothed to make bookends or other home decorating objects. I could write forever about my love of geodes. Cruise ships do not now use rocks for ballast. They use water. The ships are structurally made to stay stable. This stability prevents large movements by the ship, making for a more comfortable ride for the passengers. These are some photos of my geodes.
There are requirements of the U.S. Coast Guard that have to be met. We were on a RC cruise ship when we stopped at Key West, Florida. The Coast Guard had set up desk stations on the ship. All passengers had to show their passports and photo IDs. We never were told why this was done, but I’m sure it was for our safety. We were delayed by two hours in getting to shore. Some excursions were cancelled, funds refunded. But we all knew that there was a reason for the Coast Guard to be on our ship. No one complained.
Occasionally, boarding the ship has been delayed for a Coast Guard inspection. Everyone is okay with that. No one has complaints. We all know it’s for our safety.
The app on your phone shows you how to correctly put on your life vest. When you get to your room, locate your life vests so you can snatch it if you ever need to use it.
All the cruise ships must have life jackets, life rafts and lifeboats. Regulations require that there are more of these life-saving devices onboard than passengers. That’s to ensure that there are plenty of safety devices to save people.
Fire on a cruise ship. A horrible thought. But all ships must have sprinklers, fire extinguishers and smoke detectors. You follow orders, go to your muster station.
Hope this relieves any concerns you had about safety. The cruise lines do everything they can to protect their passengers.
Get to that muster station first!!!!
Thanks for reading.
Trish
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