Carnival brings back full muster drills on 5 ships this week

What is changing

Five Carnival ships are swapping the quick self-muster check-in for the full, gather-everyone-at-once safety drill this week. Cruise Hive reports the affected ships are Horizon, Panorama, Sunshine, Vista and Firenze, with departures from September 26 through 28, 2026. Carnival has emailed booked guests on all five sailings so nobody is surprised at the terminal.

The scale is real. More than 18,700 Carnival Cruise Line guests will be participating in full, in-person safety briefings in just three days as five different ships from four different homeports are scheduled for full drills before setting sail from September 26-28, 2026.

Who is affected and when

According to Cruise Hive’s reporting, the sailings are:

Four of the ships (Horizon, Panorama, Vista, and Firenze) are scheduled to depart their respective homeports at 3:30 p.m., while Carnival Sunshine will be leaving Norfolk, Virginia at 4 p.m. On all five, the full safety briefing has to wrap before the ship can leave the dock.

Why you don’t get to skip it

This is not Carnival walking back the e-muster system it has used since the pandemic. Carnival is not planning to return to full musters on every cruise, focusing instead on its e-muster platform. But international rules still require the old-style gathering periodically. Carnival brand ambassador John Heald has explained the requirement before: this is a mandatory requirement enforced by the U.S. Coast Guard, Australian Coast Guard, and other international maritime authorities, as dictated by the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS). Every ship in the fleet has to do it twice a year, no exceptions for demand or itinerary length.

Cruise Hive notes this isn’t isolated. Cruise Hive reported earlier this month that two other Carnival cruise ships, Carnival Magic and Carnival Paradise, were also scheduled for full safety briefings on their September 13 and September 14 departures, respectively. So this week’s five-ship batch is Carnival working through its compliance calendar fleet-wide, not a response to any one incident.

What it means for you

If you’re booked on one of these five sailings, plan to be at your muster station on time and expect to stay there for the full announcement, not just a check-in. A full drill typically runs longer than the self-muster process cruisers have gotten used to since 2021. It won’t derail your vacation, but it will eat into your first afternoon onboard.

If you’re sailing later this fall on a different Carnival ship, don’t assume you’re exempt. Every vessel owes SOLAS two full drills a year, and Carnival has been notifying guests only shortly before each one. Check your pre-cruise email closely in the days before departure.