Thematic module · fourth module developed

# Passenger Ship Operations Live

Passenger-ship-specific safety: Safe Return to Port, passenger musters before departure, Evacuation Analysis, damage stability for Ro-Ro passenger ships (SOLAS 2020), managing an onboard gastrointestinal outbreak, SAR Cooperation Plan, Persons with Reduced Mobility and accessibility, Passenger Ship Safety Certificate and Annual Survey, Gangway Operations, Tender Operations, Passenger Accounting and roll-call, Crowd Management, Cabin Safety (CVSSA), onboard Medical Centre, Turnaround Operations and SIMOPS management.

Each topic below brings together, in a single place: an operational explanation, the regulatory reference, scope of application, procedure, practical example, real cases, common mistakes, PSC observations, operational tips, a checklist and FAQ — regulations verified as of July 2026.

### Safe Return to Port: The Design Principle for Passenger Ships

After a fire or flooding contained within the design threshold, a passenger ship subject to Safe Return to Port must not merely be safe to abandon: it must be able to return to port under its own power.

### Passenger Musters at Embarkation: Before Departure, No Longer Within 24 Hours

A still-common mistake: assuming the muster for newly embarked passengers must take place within 24 hours of departure. Since 2015 the SOLAS rule has required it before departure, or immediately upon departure.

### Evacuation Analysis on Passenger Ships: Simplified and Advanced Method

This is not a drill carried out on board: it is an analysis that must be conducted at the design stage, even before the ship is built, to demonstrate that evacuation is possible within the required time.

### Damage Stability of Ro-Ro Passenger Ships (SOLAS 2020)

Born from the Estonia disaster in 1994, the discipline governing the stability of Ro-Ro passenger ships is far stricter today than it was thirty years ago: since 2020 the SOLAS standard has absorbed and surpassed the earlier Stockholm Agreement.

### Managing a Gastrointestinal Outbreak on Board

Not every case of gastroenteritis triggers the threshold: only when 3% or more of passengers or crew show symptoms must the ship formally declare an outbreak. In the first half of 2026 the number of recorded outbreaks fell 70% compared with the same period in 2025.

### SAR Cooperation Plan on Passenger Ships

Knowing who to call in an emergency is not enough: the cooperation plan with search and rescue services must be built together with those services, kept up to date, and exercised at least once every twelve months.

### Persons with Reduced Mobility: Accessibility on Board

Since 28 June 2025, accessibility on passenger ships is no longer just a matter of good design practice: in the European Union it is a binding legal obligation, extended to electronic ticketing and travel information as well.

### Passenger Ship Safety Certificate: The Annual Survey Regime

While most cargo ship statutory certificates last up to 5 years, the Passenger Ship Safety Certificate must be renewed every year: a verification pace designed for the volume of people carried, not for the ship type itself.

### Gangway Operations: Safety of the Accommodation Ladder

Every accommodation ladder must show, on both sides, the maximum and minimum angle of use, the design load and the safe working load (SWL): three figures that the watchkeeping crew must know how to read, not just install. From 1 July 2026, whoever rigs it must also wear a lifejacket and a safety harness.

### Tender Operations: Service Boats for Passenger Transfer

When a SOLAS lifeboat is used as a tender to land passengers at a port without a quay, the lifejackets are often not worn but remain stowed on board: a choice that requires a documented risk assessment, not just established practice.

### Passenger Accounting: The Accuracy of the Roll-Call after Costa Concordia

During the Costa Concordia sinking, no one carried out a roll-call or counted the people who had boarded lifeboats and liferafts: a single procedural failure that made it impossible, for days, to know with certainty who was missing.

### Crowd Management: Managing the Flow to Assembly Stations

Evacuation analysis calculates on paper whether evacuation times fall within the required limits; crowd management is what the crew does in real time when frightened passengers freeze, misunderstand instructions, or head toward familiar spaces instead of the safe assembly points.

### Cabin Safety: Stateroom Security Requirements under the CVSSA

A peephole with an external diameter no greater than 25mm, metal-framed: a technical specification precise enough to seem excessive, until one remembers that the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act was born from assault incidents on board, not regulatory whim.

### The Onboard Medical Centre: Between MLC and Voluntary Standards

A licensed doctor and at least two nurses: not a commercial choice by cruise companies, but the minimum medical staffing required on board, available around the clock even just to stabilise an emergency until disembarkation.

### Turnaround Operations: Managing Simultaneous Operations in Port

In a single turnaround day, disembarkation, cleaning, resupply, bunkering and new embarkation all converge: a delay in just one of these activities compresses the time available for the others, up to the point of threatening the departure itself.

Coming in future updates to this module: review of the Explanatory Notes on Safe Return to Port after their application to the first newbuilding contracts from 2028, evolution of the IMO guidelines on accessibility for persons with reduced mobility following full application of the European Accessibility Act, first operational experience with the requirement for crew to wear a vest/harness when rigging gangways and accommodation ladders, in force since 1 July 2026.

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