The covid pandemic forced the entire cruise industry to examine every practice through a health and safety lens. That was always a focus for the industry, of course, but the added impact of covid made it necessary to rethink everything.
Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL) – Get a free reportthe Royal Caribbean Group (RCL) – Get a free reportand Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH) – Get a free report stepped up and invested heavily in making changes. In consultation with doctors and other experts, the three cruise lines improved air filtration, added better housekeeping to the ships and, at least initially, looked at ways to reduce crowding times for passengers.
And while social distancing has largely disappeared, many of the changes made because of covid have stuck. One of these, the virtual meeting drill, has been adopted (under a variety of names) by Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian. The change has proven very popular and Carnival Loyalty Ambassador John Heald recently answered a question about rumors that the way of doing things would return.
Muster Drill vs. Muster 2.0
Before the pandemic, all cruise lines were holding an in-person gathering drill. At a certain point before sailing, all passengers had to go to their assembly station (the place where they are supposed to report in the unlikely event of an emergency) where a demonstration of how life jackets work was given along with some other ads.
The Coast Guard literally requires this, but the old system was a nightmare requiring people to show up at a set time. And since many assembly stations were outside, people were often standing in the hot sun waiting for the cruise line to track down wandering passengers.
Since Carnival. Royal Caribbean and Norwegian are back sailing and have been using a virtual meeting drill that is much simpler. Riders can watch a couple of short videos and then check in at their muster station. If they choose not to view the videos, they will receive a live demo when they sign up.
The whole system makes passengers not dependent on anyone else’s actions and is much easier. That makes it understandable that Carnival customers have been up in arms over rumors on a variety of well-known cruise ship message boards that the cruise line might revert to the old system.
Carnival responds to Muster rumors
Carnival Loyalty Ambassador John Heald shared a question he was asked about the mock rally on his Facebook page.
Our friends on the cruise boards say that Carnival will be doing the old-fashioned safety drill again from 1/2. Of course I hope not, the old way was so inconvenient, people are always late/missing, people talk and it sucks to be stuck pack style like we mean nothing to anyone. The new way is much better, it’s reunion dinner time, no one wants to stand in the halls waiting for dinner, and no one wants to be piled in crowds for the reunion. It’s a terrible idea, John, so why is this happening?
Heald, who answers questions on his Facebook page but hides the identity of the person asking the question, was vehement in his response.
Well this and other posts have really made people nervous. The point is that Mrs. Glitterknickers who posted that we were going back to the pre-covid way of doing the drill is wrong and she is talking nonsense. Security is always at the top of our list. Your safety, the safety of the crew and ultimately the safety of the ship will always come first. The current way is working. It’s working for you, for us, and for the US Coast Guard, who comes on every ship and checks everything we do safety-wise.”
Heald had a small caveat, though unlikely given the popularity of the new system.
“Now I’ll give myself a ‘Cruise Critic Free Get Out of Jail Card’ and say that I don’t know if it will ever change or not, but what I can say is that we won’t go back to the old way of doing this next time.” month or, in fact, not at all,” she shared.
The loyalty ambassador also shared an interesting trick Carnival uses to make sure people check in at their rally station.
“Just a reminder that if you have two drinks and you haven’t checked in to your rally station and you try to purchase a third, you’ll be locked out of the system and unable to purchase a drink until you’ve been to your rally station,” he added.
