just dunked my SureFire G2 incandescent in a pan of water..will give it a couple hour soak...polymer body... "O" rings... switch is a simple twist or momentary on button, with not a bunch of modes....since the start of this thread I ordered a small one cell 123 powered LED pocket lite to augment my Fenix on the key ring...thinking about getting one of the G2XB lights, SureFire supports my shooting habit


Edit...it's at least water resistant after 2 hours...

Keep your EDC to a minimum and distributed. Think about pocket carry and the gear that you'd want to assist in getting back to your cabin/stateroom which is where you'll have a Go-Bag right next to your life-jacket/PFD. The Go-Bag can carry a lot of good gear to aid in rescue but needs to be small enough to not impede moving through crowded passageways and into a lifeboat/raft.

I'm thinking that EDC is a very capable but small flashlight and wallet. It's very rare that a cruise ship sinks, but they have power outages more often than they'd like to admit. It's dark inside a ship when the lights go out. I'd consider a 1xAAA or one of the 4Sevens' mini 1xAA or 1x123A lights with a wrist lanyard. That's the entire EDC for me. Learn the ship's layout so you don't need a map, otherwise carry a map.

All the other good ideas (including passports, cash, important tickets et al) in this thread would be put into the Go-Bag. Part of the Go-Bag might be a set of clothes chosen specifically for abandoning ship; you don't want to make these decisions on the fly, things will be forgotten/lost in the rush. Pre-plan the details . . . and be prepared to flex when Plan A doesn't work. The most important item in EDC is your head which is where you'll find Plan B.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/01/18/cruise-ship-wednesday.html

Rescue operations have been suspended. 22 people still missing.

I've never been on a cruise, and I was wondering, how do people communicate with other people onboard? Especially if some shipboard situation is starting to develop and you're separated from, say, your spouse, do you just have to rush back to your cabin and hope to run into him/her?

I have been thinking this as well since seeing the story of the Italian ship. Detailed plans of each deck would likely be a) hard to acquire or b) hard to carry around in a format that is compact, readable, and waterproof. However even so, if I was to spend a week on such a boat I would take some time familiarizing myself with the deck plans if I could find them.

I was taught that "time spent in recon is time well spent".

My cruise EDC (only been on one cruise - to AK) evolved from my EDC kit carried on board a working vessel (too many times).

I wear clothing appropriate to the climate (wool pants and shirt, wool socks, sturdy boating shoes that can be kicked off).

Based on a Mustang Flotation coat with beavertail (sounds better than diaper, which it is) this allows me to stay warm on deck and significantly increases my survival time in cold water.

Mine is an older version of this: http://www.mustangsurvival.com/recreational/thermosystem-plus-coat-0?division=professional

In the pockets I carry:
PLB (recent addition)
Several flares and smoke (formerly a Pengun, now Orion)
Strobe (an old military ACR)
A red Laser Flare
A glass signal mirror
Neoprene gloves
Wool watch cap
Surfire Aviator

On my body I carry:
Spyderco Mariner (always serrated in this case)
SAK with file, metal saw, wood saw
A fixed blade knife (now a McGowan rescue tool)
A DR Pico and a MagLight 2AA LED (with low power and
flash modes)
Seiko Divers Watch
My wallets w/ ID, Amex, Cash, etc.

In my cabin is my BOB in a floating case with extra clothing, food, etc.

For the cruise ship, where limits are placed on sharp and flamable items are severly limited, I replaced the Mariner with a Spyderco Cricket (looks like a cigar cutter), left home the fixed blade and the flares and smoke. Now that I have the Laser Flare, I feel less concerned by the missing flares and smoke.

The security on the cruise ship looked very carefully at the cricket and the SAK but let them both on board. They also looked very carefully at my walking staff (a Crawford Survival Staff) which is 6 feet of aluminum tube with a sharp point, but let it on board anyway - this is an AK cruise after all and hiking at the stops is common.

The thing I miss the most is the pry bar / fixed knife.

When I arrived I spent some time finding the lifeboats, learning how to launch them and learning the layout of the decks I would spend time on. I did go to the lifeboat drill and found it somewhat informative (alternative life jacket location, alternative lifeboats, etc.)

Respectfully,

Jerry

On the NCL ship I was on there were reasonable plans of the ship given to you as you boarded. Maritime law also requires a plan of each deck to be posted at several important locations on that deck.

Respectfully,

Jerry

First, you have to have a plan. My wife and I had arrangements made if we were separated where we would meet under most circumstances. NONE of them were at the cabin.

We also carried FRS/GMRS radio's and found them to work well on the ship. The silent call saves a lot of noise.

Respectfully,

Jerry

Having been on a few cruises through the Caribbean, I can tell you that I, and most other people, would spend most of the day in a bathing suit, likely at the poolside. That being the case, I never really had much of an EDC on me. The roomcard and a small penknife/flashlight combo (Wenger MicroLight) was about it. Maybe I would have a cheap FRS radio to keep in contact with the younguns', though on a big metal ship reception is spotty and plenty of other people have the same idea so frequencies/channels fill up with chatter quickly.

Now if there was some kind of disaster, according to the drills we ran when we first got on the ship, we were supposed to go to our rooms, put on our life vests (which have little lights on them), and then meet at our designated lifeboat station. From there, a member of the ships crew was supposed to count us up and distribute us to various life boats. We were told not to bring any bags with us to the life boat stations.

I couldn't help but think....that plan works great if the ship is perfectly stable and everyone can move around to where they need to go quickly and safely. If that's not the case, and people are panicking, they're just going to try to get to the closest lifeboat station and hope they can get on a boat.

Basically, unless you've got plenty of advance notice that something isn't right, you can very easily find yourself screwed. Not much you can really do about it either, unless you're going to wear your PFD 24 hours a day and bring your own personal well stocked life-raft.

The one thing I did do though, was keep a windbreaker jacket, some cash, a laminated copy of my passport, and a pair of sturdy shoes with my PFD; hoping I would have time to put them all on together.

I figured, if we did have to abandon-ship, it would likely mean spending a few hours on the open ocean in a raft until help arrived. That being the case, I wanted something to wear more substantial than a t-shirt and sandals. Then I figured, if we did get rescued and end up in some foreign country, I would also at least want some cash and some form of identification.

Now you're speaking my language! It's one of the reasons DH and I will likely never cruise, at least not together. He doesn't want to go on a cruise at all because he doesn't feel it's safe. I'd like to go on an Alaskan cruise someday but only if I could bring my own emergency gear and keep it with me at all times. Same reason I don't like flying. I'm not worried about something going wrong, just being unprepared if it did.