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.