First, for some of you more active forum members, I apologize for ressurecting an old thread. However this was posted while I was actually out to sea, so maybe I'll get some slack.

First I just want to say that with the rustbuckets we have these days and some of the problems with our newest assets, you were right in saying that it might take a little while for the nearest Coast Guard ship to arrive, but I can assure you we'd do our damnedest.

So, I can't get enough salt, and I am taking a vaction from the sea on the sea and my cruise ship catches fire...
(I would like to make the caveat that much of my experience pertains to military vessels)
1. Heed the shipboard alarms. Folks on the Titanic went back into their staterooms after they assumed everything was ok.
2. Calmly and rationally gather the family, explain the situation. Assist them as they put on insulating clothing.
3. Gather PFDs and my personal ship survival kit (explained later)
4. Lead the family topside. In the Coast Guard the first day you report to a ship you do a drill where you must exit the berthing area blindfolded on your hands and knees. Don't know if they do that on cruises, but I would know at least two exits from my room.
5. While egressing we would observe the precautions, avoiding compartments that felt hot and staying below any smoke with bandanna's around our mouths. (Again, in the Guard we have Emergency Escape Breathing Devices - good for 10 min of air, I don't know of a cruise ship equivelent, but we would use those, checking of course prior to the beginning of the vacation that the indicator was in the green).
6. Once topside, I'd follow the directions of the crew (to avoid mass panic and conflicting orders), but I wouldn't certainly be at the total mercy of the crowds because as pointed out before, unlike many others I would have minded the previous safety briefings/drills and get my family to a lifeboat (first choice) or a liferaft (second choice).
7. Totally complete liferaft procedures too lengthy to be fully discussed here (the Coast Guard does an hour long session on sea survival for those fresh aboard), but the important things to remember are to stay as dry as possible, balance the raft, avoid puncturing the rubber, and as it is important throughout the emergency, to remain calm, collected, and positive.
8. Sea anchors - I just want to touch on that for a sec... it's important to deploy this promptly. The main purpose of the anchor is to keep the raft from capsizing. As the wind pushes the raft (and thus lifts the windward edge) the sea anchor opposes this force and keeps the wind from getting between the water and the raft on the windward side and turning the raft into a kite.
9. As I can fully assure you that a cruise ship disaster would alert all SAR personnell in the area, rescue in this modern day and age could be very quick. Someone is going to know that they are missing a cruise ship, so there WILL be people looking for you. And cruise ships posses the latest in Electronic Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) technology, which gives the search teams an accurate datum for the search pattern. Thus, IMHO, I think the two most important things to remember are the first two "Rules of Three" - 3 min w/o air and 3 hr w/o heat. Don't drown and stay warm. Keep that PFD on, and bundle up/huddle together. I seriously doubt that if you do indeed get off the ship into the liferafts that you will have to endure anything like Steven Callahan (Adrift). Again, people will be looking for you from the get go.

Someone asked what might be in a shipboard ditch kit. I constructed one for myself this past deployment, again keep in mind that I am on Coast Guard ships, I don't know the regs for cruise ships. I put together the kit because I wasn't too impressed with the quality of the gear that we used on our own lifevests and liferafts.

On my person 24/7:
RSK Mk1 (was awsome the whole deployment)
Leatherman Wave (very useful, showed some rust at the end)
Photon II Microlight (I had both red and white, red was for the chartroom/berthing area at night)
Space pen
Rite in the Rain notebook
Large red cotton bandanna
Sunglasses
Fox 40 micro whistle
Rescue Flash signal mirror

On the top shelf of my locker, ready to grab in a waterproof sack:
Firefly 2 strobe light
STORM whistle
Rescue Reflectors 3x5 signal mirror
1 oz sunscreen
roll up sunglasses
50 ft paracord
WSI fishing kit
SEE RESCUE 25 ft orange streamer
Land/Shark mylar and nylon thermal insulating bag
wool watch cap (when I wasnt wearing it)
1 qt Nalgene, filled
amk heatsheet
clear poncho
my self assembled small FAK and personal survival kit

*the only thing I wish I personally had was some sort of desalinator (and maybe a set of penflares), but that's for a later paygrade...

again - don't drown, stay warm, and protect yourself from exposure. Those are the biggest risks if there ever was a major nautical disaster in US Coastal waters - there WILL be SAR looking for you, and they will have a really good idea where to start looking for you due to advances in shipboard distress signalling/locating.

sorry that was so long, I just thought I might be able to help.

Matt