2. Fail to Attend the Safety Muster
One of the things you’re required to do once you set foot on your cruise ship is attend the muster drill. Basically, the ship’s crew conducts some sort of exercise that’s meant to prepare passengers in the event of an emergency, such as the ship sinking or catching fire.
You’ll have to go to your assigned muster station, where you’ll see live or via video a series of safety procedures that cover how to board a lifeboat or put on a life vest.
If you’ve been on a cruise before, you may think that you won’t need to attend the safety muster—having been there, done that. However, participating in this safety exercise is in fact mandatory under International Maritime Organization rules, and cruise lines can remove you from the ship if you don’t show up.
Just ask the elderly couple dismissed from Seabourn Cruise Line’s sumptuous Seabourn Sojourn in Lisbon, Portugal, or the fellow kicked off Holland America Line’s Westerdam at the wharf in Fort Lauderdale for refusing to attend the safety drill. Both incidents happened after the deadly Costa Cruises’ Costa Concordia disaster in 2012.
