Two U.S.-based cruise lines are poised to test the waters of interporting, a practice historically offered by European lines that enables passengers to choose from multiple embarkation ports.

Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean International will soon offer this option on certain ships, and Italy-based MSC Cruises will expand the practice to the Caribbean.

Their plans would be less noteworthy had it not been for the Costa Concordia accident, which occurred after more than 600 passengers boarded the 3,200-passenger ship in Civitavecchia, Italy, the port for Rome. Others had boarded earlier in Barcelona.

That double embarkation cast a spotlight on interporting because none of the 600 had participated in a muster drill prior to the Concordia’s grounding on Jan. 13, which happened within a few hours of departing Civitavecchia.

Under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (Solas), cruise ships must hold their safety briefings within 24 hours of setting sail.

The Concordia officers were operating within the framework of the rule, but some have pointed out that the evacuation of the ship, which struck rocks off Italy’s coast and became half-submerged, would have been less chaotic, and perhaps less deadly, if everyone onboard had been primed for an emergency.

Sixteen Concordia passengers were confirmed dead after the grounding, and 16 remain missing.

Generally, interport options are seen as a convenience to cruise passengers and sometimes are offered as an incentive to attract certain source markets.

In light of the Concordia accident, cruise lines that plan to begin interporting are citing their safety procedures that require muster drills or evacuation briefings on any day that new passengers board their ships.

Royal Caribbean International’s 2,100-passenger Brilliance of the Seas will embark passengers in San Juan and Guadeloupe on a series of seven-night Southern Caribbean cruises during the 2012-13 winter season.

According to Royal Caribbean spokesman Harry Liu, the choice is meant to appeal to South American customers, who might prefer joining the ship in Guadeloupe rather than San Juan. Most Americans and Canadians will board in San Juan, he added.

...full article here

My retirement dream in 15-20 years is a winter 88 day world cruise and meet new people on the different segments.

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Originally posted by desirod7:
Carnival Fantasy had a fire at the stern laundry room [...]

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I have seen many a drill for just the embarking passengers interporting and afair most were before sailing. As I have said before, with vessels so large I doubt any passengers who had just boarded would have even had a chance to get to grips with the layout and be able to find their way directly. As long as they have their key card with muster station and lifeboat listed they will be directed to the right spot.

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Originally posted by NAL:
Excellent points, Pam. I'm with you on this one!

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I also agree on that. Most drill scenarios are not realistic at all and most passengers do not get much out of it. The only good reason for such drills is that the crew gets an opportunity to handle crowds - however, I am not sure whether these drills are an efficient way of achieving that.

Passengers certainly can be informed about emergency procedures in a more efficient manner.
e.g. I saw an interview with a couple who were aboard sinking Costa Concordia complaining during that interview that there was a well organized drill but that allegedly nobody told them that this (the muster station) would indeed be the place to go to in an emergency.... (personally, I do not believe that this hasn't been said). Now, I don't want to blame this couple for anything or insinuate that they were not the smartest but this just shows than an evacuation procedure must not rely on passengers having been briefed during a drill. It simply does not work this way.

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Originally posted by PamM:
You do have multi drills on long voyages. This would not be possible on a 7 night cruise and pointless [imho].

Pam

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Originally posted by desirod7:
Carnival Fantasy had a fire at the stern laundry room just outside of government cut. Passengers were mustered at the stations. Ship U turned back into the harbor. Fire was put out. No casualties. Long since forgotten since everything was done correctly.

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The Carnival ship that caught fire while leaving the port of Miami was the Carnival Ecstasy.

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Originally posted by dmwnc1:
Didn't Carnival Cruise Lines do interporting on one of their ships out of San Juan back in the late-90's?

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Carnival has been doing interporting since at least 2008 first with the Carnival Destiny and then the Carnival Victory which took over the San Juan sailings. Most of the passengers board the ship on Sunday in San Juan. Most of the British passengers board on Wednesday in Barbados.

In April of 2008 when I was in the Carnival Destiny we also had a group of around 20 passengers board the ship on Monday in St. Thomas. This group had made prior arrangments to start the cruise in St. Thomas. The only time it appeared that the ship closed down for a muster drill was on Sunday night before we sailed from San Juan.

[ 02-09-2012: Message edited by: Chip ]

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Originally posted by PamM:
Why do people need to attend a drill, most take no notice anyway.

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In addition, on most cruises the drill gives the crew an opportunity to give a briefing to at least part of which a goodly proportion of the passengers will listen. If one were to rely on asking passengers to watch the video at their own leisure, I would bet that a much lower proportion of passengers would do so.

It is probably only US based Lines used to the restrictions of the PSA which don't interport. The logistics of filling cabins with all the comings and goings must get quite complicated at times - some people don't take a full 7 days in a row either in the Med, you can disembark in one port and rejoin for the rest of the cruise the following week. You don't have to do 7 days either [or whatever the round trip is], you can just do a few days. Getting newly boarded passenger to muster does work and has done for years. It is no big deal. It depends on how many board as to the manner in which it is done.

Unless at the dock when they check in they must see a movie as per on the TV,it will be up to them to find their muster station which as we all know is posted on the back of your cabin door.

That's fine.. I see no reason why one needs to be shown one's muster station, but others do However this is indeed done when there are sufficient numbers interporting, I have seen it a few times. There can be announcements saying when the 7 whistles blow it is for a muster for newly boarded passengers only and the rest can ignore it [as per when then there is a crew drill etc], or if few people I have just seen them in a group being walked about.

To some extent moving baggage around to cabins every day could get annoying as it blocks the passageways .

It is not a problem as those passengers from the various ports in the main are in areas together. Of course there are others here and there, but not many and you won't find yourself crawling over suitcases anywhere - mostly you don't even notice. The first time I came across this was many years ago, but I wondered why the cabin opposite were departing one day into the cruise - then I realised what happens. You really only see piles of cases on the quay.