Princess pirate drill

I was on the last voyage of Princess Cruises’ Tahitian Princess from Cape Town to Singapore, Oct. 18-Nov. 19, 2009. The ship went into dry dock when it reached Singapore, and it will come out as the Ocean Princess.

A sign of the times — when the ship left Madagascar, we were to sail to Seychelles and then Muscat; however, Captain Stefano Ravera informed us that because of the most recent pirate activities north of Seychelles, we would not call at Port Victoria there. For the safety of passengers and crew, we would sail farther east, then north to Muscat, avoiding the area.

The ship held a “piracy attack” drill. We were informed that if we heard over the loudspeaker system or in our cabin, “Code Blue, Papa Sierra,” we were to stop what we were doing, go right away to our cabins, draw the curtains, leave the cabin door open and stretch out on the floor.

The reason for leaving the cabin door open was so stewards could quickly check the cabins to make sure the passengers were on the floor. This was in case the captain had to maneuver the ship for quick changes. Passengers would be less likely to be injured if they were lying down.

The next day we had the drill. The captain thanked everyone for their cooperation and said if they ever heard “Code Blue, Papa Sierra”again it would be the real thing. They also doubled the watches.

I might add that this captain was one of the mostly friendly I’ve ever met, and I’ve been on 90 cruises. Day and night he’d walk around the deck, stopping to talk with passengers.

PHILIP SHART

Tamarac, FL