Cruise Safety

Safety is always important but it becomes more top-of-mind when an accident occurs. It is reassuring when a top executive explains what their company does to assure safety of their guests and it becomes extremely clear how seriously he and his company take this subject. The following interview was published in the Feb. 1, 2012 issue of Cruise Week and is reproduced here with permission of the editor Michael Driscoll. We've met Captain Bill Wright from RCCL whose interview follows and he is as impressive in person as he is in this interview. Thank you Captain Wright!

The following are highlights from a January 2012 Q & A with Senior VP Marine Operations Capt. William Wright of Royal Caribbean International (RCCL, Celebrity, Azamara and others).

Q: What reassurances can we give guests that the Costa Concordia accident won't be repeated elsewhere?

Wright: It's quite positive that the statistics in this most recent incident said that 23 of 26 lifeboats were successfully launched. Certainly, lifeboats have evolved over time in terms of their seaworthiness, in terms of emergency supplies that are stowed onboard, and the quickness with which they can be loaded and launched. So I think lifeboat safety is at a very, very high standard throughout the entire cruise industry.

Mustering Process

Q: Can you provide information on mustering/electronic mustering?

Wright: Even though the regulations allow for a guest drill to take place within 24 hours of departure, I believe most companies, if not all cruise companies, are ready to make it mandatory that the safety drill does take place prior to departure.

Electronic mustering, that's something that's coming. When guests come to their assembly station or muster station, they have their guest key card that immediately records the scan as they enter the assembly station and provides a very accurate accounting for where they are.

Q: How can you be sure that everyone will go to the correct muster station in a panic?

Wright: It will happen that people will end up in the wrong assembly station? We also have crew members who are instructed to take guests from the wrong assembly station to the correct assembly station.

For most brands, there is a process with children wearing colored wristbands. So that if a child should not be together with their family at the time when the emergency signal is sounded, crew members are specifically assigned to take the children to the appropriate assembly stations so that they can be united with their family.

Q: What if the family members aren't assigned to the same station?

Wright: We try to locate the assembly stations in proximity to the staterooms, so that would be a possibility, but you would typically never have mom and dad in one cabin and children on the other end of the ship in another cabin. But if you're a larger family, and you have adults in two separate areas, you just agree that in the case of an emergency that our assembly station is in the forward of the ship, and your assembly station is in the aft part of the ship.

Availability/Whereabouts of Life Jackets

Q: Can you discuss availability of life jackets?

Wright: Guests are instructed during the emergency drill that if you are in your stateroom that you should, of course, bring your life jacket, warm clothing, and any medications you may need to your assembly station. If you are not in
your stateroom--I can't speak for all brands in the industry, but for most brands you are instructed to go immediately to your assembly station and a life jacket will be provided for you.

....By virtue of the size of Oasis and Allure of the Seas, we were able to actually build adequate stowage space within the assembly station areas that are directly adjacent to [assembly stations] so that life jackets could be stowed there? For existing ships that do not have that stowage capacity at their assembly station, crew members are assigned to go and to bring from other storage areas additional life jackets to the assembly station.

If they're going in the staterooms as part of the emergency process, they're actually checking that staterooms are in fact evacuated. And if there are life jackets in those staterooms, they are collected and taken to the assembly station.

Crew member Training

Q: What is the emergency plan supposed to be?

Wright: Every Crew member has a number, and starting with 001 it goes down the entire crew list...Associated with every Crew member number is a very specific emergency responsibility, the place to go and the duty to do.

Q: Do all crew assisting with loading lifeboats speak English?

Wright: English is the language of the majority of cruise lines. Certainly for major cruise lines, a prerequisite for employment is that you speak English.

Q: What checks and balances are in place to make sure that officers are regularly held to standards by the company?

Wright: We go through training all the time. With the marine officers we send them to some of the world's most advanced marine simulators, very similar to the airline simulators that you see pilots going through. There we have an opportunity to put them into very stressful situations and to actually measure their responses and how they handle extremely difficult, challenging scenarios. We also put our senior officers through psychological and stress evaluation, so we really understand how they act under stressful situations and what their personality profile is.

Abandon Ship!

Q: How does the captain make the abandon ship decision?

Wright: It's clear and it's very much a mission of the International Maritime Organization that the ship probably is the best lifeboat?.Certainly at times, provided the opportunity, [the captains] are seeking advice from outside the ship. I think all cruise lines have their own emergency support groups, so the captain is not alone. There are other captains, other experts helping them making expert decisions.

Q: What procedures are in place when the ships list and the lifeboats cannot be accessed?

Wright: The requirements on ship design are that the lifeboats have to be able to be launched safely up to a 20 degree list. There is excess lifeboat capacity. We have a 125% requirement. It's not just the lifeboats, you have life rafts as well.

On more recent designs, you have something called marine evacuation systems, which are much larger life rafts, where you don't have to lower them by cable into the water, but there's a chute you go to, and it gently allows you to lower yourself down into a life raft. And these are much larger life rafts as well.

Crew Issues: Drinking, Language

Q: Are crew members allowed to drink when off duty? If so, how can they assist in an emergency?

Wright: I don't know the policies for the entire industry. Certainly, drinking in excess is something we have zero tolerance for. Drinking is not prohibited typically onboard for crew members, but it's carefully monitored. In terms of crew members seen being intoxicated, we certainly do blood level tests, just as would be the case in a driving situation of a car or pilot of an aircraft.

Emergency Electricity

Q: Is there emergency lighting on a cruise ship?

Wright: Yes. Cruise ships have emergency generators. They're typically located well away from the engine spaces. In many cases, they're on one of the upper decks in the vicinity of the funnel. They have their own complete separate
power supplies, they have their own complete separate fuel system.

The emergency generators power certain critical systems on the ship-- communication, for example, the PA system, which is vital in an emergency. They also provide the power that would be needed, depending on what the situation is, to restart the main engines, so that the ship could go back to normal operation.

Q: Is there any danger of being caught in an elevator during an emergency?

Wright: The elevators can be operated through the emergency generator power. But one of the main instructions in the event of an emergency is to not use the elevators; use the stairwells.

The Long And Winding Road

Q: What are the requirements to become a captain? Is there recurrent training like physicians and lawyers have to go through?

Wright: Absolutely. It's a long process. It typically involves a four-, sometimes five-year university level education, typically done at a maritime academy. You kind of pick your path, whether you want to go deck or engine, deck being the navigation officer.

During that four- to five-year college university level education, you will typically, on a regular basis, go out and actually sail on ships in a cadet kind of position.

Once you've completed your education and you've acquired the documented sea time (very much the way pilots have to fly their hours), then you are able to stand for your first license exam.

Then you just keep working your way up the ladder?.So it's a long and winding road. And, typically, education to become a captain takes at least 15 years.

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If you are interested in more information, we highly recommend the following video from Royal Caribbean International’s “Safety is our Business” video includes thoughts from Richard D. Fain, Adam Goldstein and Captain William Wright. The video provides insights into how the cruise line has made safety & security their highest priority.you can click on the following link to Safety is our Business

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