It’s one of the least-loved experiences on a cruise. Not long after you board your ship with excitement to explore and start your vacation, you are required to put down your cocktail, and report to your ‘muster station’ for a mandatory safety drill. 

Sometimes, you even have to go back to your stateroom, collect your life vest, and take it – or wear it! - to your designated lifeboat on deck, trying not to trip over the trailing ties of someone else’s PFD as you are herded up and down stairs (in a real emergency, the elevators would not be operating, so that’s how some ships ask guests to ‘rehearse’ mustering to the lifeboats) along with the entire population – crew and guests – of the ship. 

Safety drills prior to sailing are essential – but no fun. And in an odd upside of the pandemic, Royal Caribbean Group, in its ongoing work to eliminate instances of large groups of people crowded together on its ships as they prepare to begin sailing again post-COVID, has come up with a digital solution.

Muster 2.0 is the elegant answer to traditional, in-person mustering for safety drills. As the company says, it’s a much ‘faster, more personal approach that encourages higher levels of safety.’

Using the technology, guests can ‘eMuster’ via personal mobile devices or the interactive TV’s in their staterooms.  On embarkation day before setting sail, you review safety information digitally at your own pace and timing. Then you complete the ‘drill’ by going in-person to your assigned assembly station to familiarize yourself with its location. A crew member stationed there confirms you’ve completed your safety review and answers any questions you have. 

That process meets the requirements of international maritime law and provides you with emergency drill information, but it’s also a convenient, time-saving, no-hassle start to your cruise. 

Royal Caribbean’s new, technology-enhanced safety drill process makes the first day of your cruise more relaxed and enjoyable, even as it meets the post-COVID need to reduce large group gatherings and facilitate distancing. We call that a win-win-win!

As it happens, Muster 2.0 was already in the works as part of the company’s ongoing technology initiatives to update and smooth guest procedures. It was successfully tested on Symphony of the Seas in January 2020 before COVID halted cruising, and was very popular among guests who actually reported better understanding of the safety procedures using the interactive digital tool.

So when cruising starts again, guests on Royal Caribbean Group’s lines, which include Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, Azamara, and Silversea, will enjoy a more relaxed – and COVID-protocol friendly – embarkation day. 

In addition, Royal Caribbean Group brought the new technology to the ‘Healthy Sail Panel’ it convened with one of its biggest cruise competitors, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, to work together as an industry on safe and healthy cruising in a post-pandemic world.

In the spirit of cooperation in re-starting cruising post-COVID, Royal is waiving patent license fees to other cruise operators.  Norwegian, the parent company of Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania and Regent Seven Seas Cruises, has already received license to implement Muster 2.0 on its ships.