In response to review, CrusinTim says ...

Well it was nice of Apples4rent to respond here and explain things more clearly. It seems most aren't near as congenial and could care less with the impressions or misimpressions they leave behind.

My only concern with his review was his use of the term "ridiculous" when describing life boat drills. I'm still not clear if he meant that "ridiculous" was applicable to requiring seasoned voyagers to have to attend musters or if he believes emergency drills in general are "ridiculous". Either way, I have a problem with that, but particularly if it's the latter.

I have spent a professional lifetime in the airplane game. A goodly percentage dealing with safety concerns. I'm in strong agreement with the "British Board of Trade's" pertinent assessments on the Titanic disaster (See my first post). I do not believe that crew or passengers should ever be excused from a drill. For instance, we are all familiar with the safety spiel airline passengers must endure just before departure. But passengers don't listen because they "have heard it all before". Yes they have, they have heard, ad nauseam, the instructions pertinent to a loss of cabin pressurization. In all cases, airlines tell you that you must pull down on the oxygen mask in order to activate the flow of oxygen, it doesn't happen automatically. This is why they tell you to put on your own mask before assisting others. Unfortunately, those that have heard it all before, time after time, in their panic fail to pull the mask down and instead stretch their necks out in attempts to breath nothing.

Unless crew and passengers on ships as well as large air transports continue to pay attention and practice safety, the old cliche will kick in for sure when the unfortunate occurs: "When in trouble, when in doubt, run in circles scream and shout."

Here is the reason I am so concerned the over callous attitudes of many cruisers toward safety drills:

"I am not at all satisfied with the emergency procedures, facilities for such and the drills etc, or the lack thereof, needed to cope with a disaster at sea involving vessels of the size we use today. The complexities of such give me the chills when I contemplate the potential of a catastrophic accident at sea involving fire, collision or other seagoing eventualities, particularly if the vessel experiences a rapid list to one side or the other. It doesn't appear to me that Carnival Corp learned much from their Costa Concordia sinking."

ok, last posting for me on this but figured I would at least answer once since folks took the time to write. My original review is meant to let others know what my experiences were on this particular cruise in case they were interested. It is not intended to be an essay on cruising in general :)

CrusinTim : although the internet makes it difficult to ascertain the feelings behind some sentences, words in caps almost always come across as aggressive. As for the mandatory drill, it is possible that you are right, however, we have not been required to attend them on the last two cruises that we were on. One of them was an RC cruise and one of them was a Norwegian cruise. In both cases, we were excused from the drill due to previous cruise experience. Not sure what else to say about all of that, but that's what happened.

StratfordGirl : thanks! We have always enjoyed cruising and in particular, cruising on RC. This particular trip was a disappointment however, and we have now booked our next cruise in June on Celebrity. Hopefully we have a better experience.

JohnGold : I agree. RC has typically been very good for us. This cruise let us down however. I hope that your next one is fantastic!

Kennicot : I enjoyed the post tremendously, but I still stand by my choice of words :)

alright, off to finish seeing the world and likely not returning to this post. For those who can make good use of my review, you are welcome. For those who cannot, sorry, but that's all of the time I have for a cruise review. Enjoy your cruises and enjoy your lives. I am off to do just that :)

"As RC gold members, we are not supposed to be required to attend the ridiculous safety drill, but had to for this one."

"RIDICULOUS" safety drills, Hey?

"Each member of the crew had a boat assigned to him in printed lists which were posted up in convenient places for the men to see; but it appeared that in some cases the men had not looked at these lists and, did not know their respective boats."

"There had been no proper boat drill nor a boat muster. There seem to be no statutory requirements as to boat drills or musters, although there is a provision that when a boat drill does take place the master of the vessel is, under penalty, to record the fact in his log. It is desirable that the Board of Trade should make rules requiring boat drills and boat musters to be held of such a kind and at such times as may be suitable to the ship and to the voyage on which she is engaged. Boat drill, regulated according to the opportunities of the service, should always be held."

"The men who are to man the boats should have more frequent drills than hitherto. That in all ships a boat drill, a fire-drill and a watertight door drill should be held as soon as possible after leaving the original port of departure and at convenient intervals of not less than once a week during he voyage."

"In cases where the deck hands are not sufficient to man the boats enough other members of the crew should be men trained in the boat work to make up the deficiency. These men should be required to pass a test in boat work."

From: Parts of the report before the "Right Honourable Lord Mersy, Wreck Commissioner---British Board of Trade. Into the loss of the steamship "Titanic" of Liverpool, and the loss of 1490 lives in the North Atlantic Ocean, in lat. 41 degrees 46 minutes N, Long, 50 degrees 14 minutes W on the 15th April last.

Depending on the Mini-Bar. Some are set up to charge you for the item even if you just move it. I know, found that out in Vegas.... Muster station drill... A MUST by law all the time every time. I know what you mean about trying to impress those who have not cruised before. Thing for us worked out very well, however the only fly on the ointment was when my sister booked the cruise she did not inform the line that she will be just coming off of knee surgery, NCL did its best but if they had known the situation, more could have been done.

We are cruising again next year and will be trying to get newbies on board. We will let everyone know how that goes.