Cruise ship drills before departure

When cruise ships start tilting or losing power at sea, carefree passengers suddenly start focusing on their safety. And now, those passengers must learn how to evacuate ships before their hotel-size vessels sail off to a sunbathed port.

Before the Costa Concordia partially sank Jan. 13, only a few hours after its voyage began, ships had to run safety drills within 24 hours of departure. Now, under a rule announced about a month ago by three cruise industry associations, muster drills must take place before departure.

After my family boarded the Celebrity Solstice for a Western Caribbean trip out of Fort Lauderdale last month, the captain's voice boomed the first of several notices about the mandatory drill. About an hour before the 4:30 p.m. departure, passengers were told to go to their stations, emblazoned in bold on room-key cards. Crew acted as stairway traffic controllers.

"Everyone's paying a lot more attention this year," said my assembly section's crew leader. "Sometimes people used to wander off before it was over." And after the Concordia disaster, which claimed at least 25 lives? "Everybody was a little bit scared," she said.

Before that tragedy, she said, passengers would casually converse during the safety video. "I used to be asked where they can go to get coffee or a cocktail," she said.

Now, passengers drink up precautionary measures, such as learning where their life jackets are in their cabins. "The captain makes himself even more visible now the first few days," the crew member said.

When the prerecorded safety video began, passengers became silent, turning toward the monitors. The captain noted the Concordia tragedy, calling it "extremely rare" but underlining the need to focus on the safety information, also available on cabin televisions.

He wrapped up, followed by eight translations. Finally, smiles started emerging. It was time to get back in vacation mode.