My wife and I have taken 6 cruises on Holland America. Everyone of them had the life-boat drill within 2 hours of departure and in front of your assigned life-boat. I felt they were a pain in the butt, until now. It appears that the biggest cause of this accident was a Captain who thought he was above the rules. How much will it cost the cruise lines to evaluate all of their command personell? Or do we have to go through another TSA nightmare to check passengers. I don't think any passenger ran that ship into a rock!

I agree with you Laurie. I was very surprised to hear that they left port without having a muster drill with passengers and assigning them their lifeboats and places on deck to meet in an emergency. I have been on 8 cruises with Royal Caribbean and they NEVER leave port without having the drill first. Obviously, they have their act together. I have tried Holland America and Princess, but always end up back on Royal Caribbean!!

Laurie,
while RCCL does it right with having the muster drill in front of your lifeboat..I think in the Costa situation..with the ship leaning..how would those lifeboats get from the ship?? I agree though..If there was a disaster..instinct would be to get to a lifeboat rather than being swamped below deck somewhere..it's a sad situation hopefully never to happen again

I would like to add Crystal Cruise line that also muster at the lifeboat and check that everyone shows up for the drill with life jacket on correctly. I am also a veteran of many cruise lines and was confused at the muster stations being in a theater. I have counted the lifeboats and the occupancy limits and they haven't added up to the number of passangers on board. I also found metall drums on deck that appeared to hold life rafts that were probably used in addition to the lifeboats. In none of the ships I was on was life rafts ever referred to. I am planning a cruise on Royal Caribbean next month so am happy to hear about their custom of mustering at the life boat.

I, too, have been on multiple cruises. We are coming up on our 17th in March. I have never been on a cruise (Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Nowegian) where we have NOT had a safety drill in front of a lifeboat. Also, I think the extra security is a great idea. I was on a cruise a few years ago where the guy in the next cabin was beating the crap out of his girlfriend/wife (not sure which). We could hear her hitting the cabin walls and pleading with him to stop. When all the cabins around them called the information desk, they said they would send someone up but they never did. I was told they didn't want to get involved. Instead, we were up half the night listening to him beat her up. We didn't see her for TWO days. When we did see her, she had a bruised up face and bruises on the rest of her body. She could not look anyone in the face. I felt so sorry for her. If they had had some security, maybe they could have stopped some of the damage!